Eighteen-year-old Daniel Ganziano had a savings account at TCF Bank, but he spent his money. The account eventually only had $4.85 cents left, so Ganziano quit making withdrawals. But the bank didn't.

He had all but forgotten about the account until he received a letter from TCF on Oct. 12 saying six days earlier, it had charged him a $9.95 "monthly maintenance fee" because his account had too little money in it.

The $9.95 charge made his account overdrawn by $5.10, which triggered another fee. At TCF, any account overdrawn by more than $5 is charged a $28-a-day overdraft fee. The net result: Ganziano was $33.10 in the hole.

By then, his nascent savings account was in a downward spiral. At $28 a day, the charges were adding up quickly.

When he and his mother went to the nearest branch that weekend to close the account, they were told they would first have to pay the accumulated fees, which totaled $229.10.

Ganziano's mother tried to get the fees waived, with no luck. So she paid it and asked for a bank supervisor to contact her. A few weeks later, with no call from a supervisor, she told the story to a consumer columnist at the Chicago Tribune. That same day, the bank agreed to refund all the fees. Daniel Ganziano said he learned something from the experience: don't trust banks. Link -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Flickr user Alan Cleaver)