Is Your Checking Account in the Red?

I checked my bank balance this morning and surprise, I'm overdrawn again. I just put a deposit in the bank 2 days ago for doing a computer repair job and instead of allowing me to use the money to pay bills, my friendly neighborhood bank has once again figured out how to make my money their money. One check bounced by $2.00 and their policy is "if one check for the day bounces, they have to bounce all checks processed that day". They charge $31.50 per check so I ended up bouncing 6 checks in one day all for going over by $2.00. Now I owe the bank $190 out of my paycheck on Thursday (my paycheck that is already being garnished). I've been through this before with my bank. They have "overdraft protection". What a scam. I wish I could make $190 that easy.

I've written my bank, called them, and even tried to explain errors in their logic all to no avail. Now I have to figure out how to recover $190 by Thursday so I can make my already late morgage payment to the same said bank. I think they do this on purpose just so I have to also pay them a late fee on my mortgage payment. If I could have all of my bank fees back from the last year, I could pay off 3 of my creditors in full.

I'm sure if you are have any experience with credit problems, you've realized that those of us with bad credit are the ones paying for luxury cars and million dollar homes for CEO's of banks, credit card companies, and mortgage companies. Our fees and high interest rates combined could finance a third world country for years. In the meantime, we are accused of not paying our bills on time, being freeloaders, thieves, credit risks, bums. If I had the same interest rate as those people with excellent credit scores, I'd be able to pay my bills on time. If I didn't have to come up with that $190 by Thursday, my mortage would be on time. The cycle just repeats itself.

How am I going to deal with this? Aside from hoping that a million people read this blog and click on my adsense ads, I am going to start looking for more items I can sell quickly. We are down to our mattress (no box springs - just the mattress), our camera, and our clothes. The camera is only worth about $20 but that is better than nothing. My stomach feels sick....