Educational Media Reviews Online

In 2006, American banks saw $53 billion in revenue from insufficient fund overdraft fees charged to customers, a 58% increase over 2001. Inspired by his own shocking experience with excessive overdraft fees, Karney Hatch set out to expose the predatory nature of "balance protection" services, which seem to be disproportionately used by low and moderate income people, who do not have access to fair credit. When considered as loans, these fees often have triple or quadruple digit interest rates (1,467%, for example), leading some check cashing services to market their services as more cost effective than bank fees. The beginning of the film offers interesting insider information about how the banking industry has changed its policies to nickel and dime the consumer. It is also fascinating to see Hatch purposely overspend on an empty bank account and successfully settle with the bank on overdraft and filing fees after filing in small claims court. If these two portions of the film were to stand on their own, I would highly recommend viewing Rip Off! to anyone who has a bank account.

Much of the film, however, serves as an outdated call to action. The Federal Reserve has already required (as of July 1, 2010) that new and existing customers must opt-in to be covered by overdraft protection services on ATM and debit card transactions. Currently, a customer who has not opted-in for overdraft protection should be declined when they do not have sufficient funds for a debit card purchase or ATM withdrawal. Much of the other recommendations from the consumer advocates interviewed in the film (including, Ralph Nader and Joel Bakan, director of The Corporation) seem unrealistic, especially Nader's idyllic local, cash-and-occasionally-check-based society. Ultimately, Bakan (and his distractingly long fingernails) tries to motivate the public to action by arguing, citing case law, that banks as corporations are legally beholden to their shareholders to do "evil things" to their customers in order to maximize profit. Hatch seems to gloss over the fact that it is precisely this obligation that dictates that a bank settle with a customer who takes them to small claims court, because settling is much cheaper than sending attorneys to argue over fees with an individual customer.

Currently this film is available for purchase in an 84 minute version called Overdrawn for less than the typical overdraft fee. The redacted (but not updated), 55 minute version released in 2009 by Filmakers Library, entitled "Rip Off!" therefore seems to be quite aptly named.