If that doesn't work, use social engineering. Tell them you set up overdraft protection with them 6 months ago (from the account that you transferred the $500 from) and ask why this did not cover the overdraft. They'll tell you there is none, tell them, politely, that they told you it was set up and ask them to set it up now and reverse your charges.
I called Bank of America on the phone about something similar. They processed a credit card payment (to themselves!) which sent me slightly into the red before my paycheck on the same day. This was the second time this occurred. The first time, a decent CSR returned the fee. The second time, I was denied.
Instead of calling again for another CSR, I decided to just go to a physical bank to talk with a manager. She said that the case was "already decided" and there was nothing she could do about it. She said she would have fixed it if only I hadn't talked to a rep on the phone first.
I immediately withdrew all of my money and closed the account, thinking that maybe she'd fix things before I got through with that. Apparently, she really couldn't do anything. Now I'm with Wachovia. I had been with BofA for 10+ years before closing the account. Things are fine with Wachovia so far but I expect that, eventually, they'll end in similar fashion.
I also learned during this whole process that they'll send you an alert AFTER you go into the red but not before an automatically scheduled payment is set to go through that would put you in the red. That would have been nice since I could have delayed paying the credit card account until I was sure that the paycheck would be processed. Of course, such an easy-to-implement system would reduce the late fees they rake in. My new bank has the same set-up.
I certainly have no love for BOA, but the one time I was in a similar situation the CSR credited half of my overdraft fees back to me as a "one time courtesy." (Pro-tip: if you're a good customer, they can give you a courtesy credit for just about anything under the sun if you're patient enough to work your way up the food chain.)
I too am sick of this crap:
NON-WF ATM BAL INQUIRY FEE - $1.50 NON-WELLS FARGO ATM TRANSACTION FEE - $2.50
...in other words, Wells Fargo is too lazy to put an ATM within 1 mile of our house in a densely populated neighborhood in San Fran, and they charge ME for using someone else's (on top of the $2 charge to the ATM owner)? I don't know how that makes any sense.
I'm not gonna fight this battle, but I'm glad someone is.
Your bank has all your money (mine does anyway (I'm 22)) so they can treat you right or they can go fuck themselves.
Anyway, overdraft fees aren't loans, they're fees, so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to think in terms of the APR.
I will agree with this -- that sort of transaction sorting is a terribly nasty business practice.
Will any banks simply deny the charge if you don't have the funds? That's what I'd prefer.
These fees are just to get some money from the people that are too lazy / ignorant to read the fine print.
The thing that forced me to leave was a terrible experience I had selling my car.
I sold my car online and received a check from the buyer's bank. The funds were certified, 3-5 business days I should have had access to my money, right? It took 23 days before I received access to any of my money.
After receiving access to the funds, I visited my local WF branch, emptied out and closed my checking account. End of story.
Been using ING direct as a pseudo primary checking account and have been loving it. Have Chase checking accounts that I use as a mediator if I need to put physical money away.
Edit: I just opened this account for the purpose of posting this message using the 'new account' link on the login page. Yet the account shows as being 451 days old with a comment from that date, and karma to boot. What gives? A bug, or a (weird) feature?
Which, by the way, might not be so bad: http://moveyourmoney.info/