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Recently I sold an item on eBay and the customer paid with a money order (yes, she was one of the 13 people left on eBay who don’t use PayPal). Anyway, to make a long story short, she didn’t tell me until after I had deposited the money order in my checking account that she had put a stop payment on it because she thought the money order had been lost in the mail. So, needless to say I knew the deposit of the money into my account would be reversed sooner or later. What I failed to account for was the addition of those pesky little things called Bank Fees. So, when I opened my mint.com account yesterday to check on my transactions, I was pretty taken aback when a $10 transaction fee was there staring me in the face.

I’ve had a long history with my bank and have always been a good customer. I’ve incurred no other fees and have no blemishes on my accounts (besides them being far too small, but that’s neither here nor there). So I decided to call customer service and see if there was anything that could be done. After briefly explaining the situation to the customer service rep, low and behold - the fee was waived!

photo credit: Johnny Vulkan

How’d I do it? The key when trying to get a fee waived is to remain calm and level-headed for the duration of the conversation. Do not yell, get angry or accusatory. If you remain pleasant and nice to the person you’re talking with, they’ll be a lot easier to deal with and you’ll have a much better chance at getting what you want. Remember: the power to waive the fee is entirely in their hands. So be appreciative and say “thank you”!I pointed out that the situation was not my fault and that I was a long-time, loyal customer without any past fees on my record. She gladly waived the fee as a “one-time gesture”.

Of course the easiest way to avoid bank fees is to not do anything to warrant getting them in the first place. Know your balance and don’t go over. But if one accidentally occurs — as it did in my situation — do not panic or get angry; but also remember not to just settle for the fee because it came for an institution like a bank. A bank’s customers is its lifeblood and keeping them happy is important (unhappy customers means loss of revenue). In a situation like this, all you have to do is ask. The problem is that so few people actually do!

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