Final

Jack Frost no longer holiday season's greatest enemy

Some students may feel like they are drowning in a sea of plastic, and these cards, debit cards especially, keep pulling them under.

By Karlie Tipton

“Paper or plastic?” has become the question at retailers all over the country, but the answer is much more loaded than one might think.

With the holiday season fast approaching, shoppers are using debit cards over cash more and more, often resulting in overdraft or insufficient fund charges. Even with recently proposed legislation, which attempts to safeguard debit card users, there are still many reasons to think twice before reaching for one’s plastic.

Bank teller Alex Martinez deals with such charges on a daily basis.

“When a customer overdraws their account… you will get charged an overdraft fee,” said Martinez, who works at Citizens’ Bank of Edmond.

Recently proposed legislation will do nothing to eliminate these fees, but it is trying to address whether bank customers have a say in the ability of financial institutions to allow continuous overdraft fees to accumulate or to simply decline their card.

According to the government tracking site Govtrack.us, H.R. 3904, also known as the Overdraft Protection Act of 2009, is meant to protect consumers by limiting abusive and misleading overdraft coverage fees, and by providing meaningful disclosures and consumer choice in connection with overdraft coverage fees.

Currently, banks can allow customers to purchase far beyond the contents of their bank account, which leads to balances deep in the negative.

“[Overdraft fees are ridiculous! I overdrafted my account by $0.51 one time and they charged me $22… [then] a check from the government bounced, and so all the checks I wrote on that bounced and I was charged like $200 for overdraft plus all the returned check fees I had to pay,” OU senior Sarah Trine said.

However, one of the biggest complaints is not the fees themselves, but that banks are not transparent in their overdraft practices.

“There are times when customers are angry about a bank-related fee, but it is usually only because they were unaware that the fee existed,” Martinez said.

This proposal attempts to address just that issue, as it will give consumers the option to decline overdraft protection, which in the past, banks have just automatically added to accounts.

According to the Govtrack site, such abusive and misleading practices in connection with overdraft coverage fees have deprived consumers of meaningful choices about their accounts and placed significant financial burdens on low- and moderate-income consumers.

Many customers would take advantage of such an option.

“I would definitely opt out if I could, anything to save me money,” said public relations junior Ben Paston

However, this legislation will only give consumers a choice upon opening their account whether they want overdraft protection. It will not eliminate fees of any kind, including those both merchants and banks charge for returned checks, nor will it alleviate the problems that create overdraft fees in the first place.

“The problem with debit cards is that you go out and purchase a $50 item and you have $150 in your account, so the operating system freezes your account for that $50 purchase, but that purchase doesn’t necessarily come in and post to your account for two or three days,” said Vice President and CFO of OU Federal Credit Union, Gaylynn Smith.

This is often when customers incur costly fees.

“Therefore, you’re out, you check your account and see that you have $150, so you use that money,” Smith said. “Now when the $50 debit card transaction comes in, it can’t be returned as insufficient, it has to be paid, so that’s where the fee comes in.”

Some students believe this is a bit of dishonesty on the part of financial institutions in order to make a profit.

“It seems like they find a sneaky way to get their overdraft fees, like I will transfer money to cover something and they will say it didn’t transfer and charge me,” Paston said.

This claim may not be entirely false, as transactions do not actually post to a bank account in the order that one would expect.

“When I overdrafted the last time, I called the bank to ask why I ended up paying $35 for a coffee, gas, a movie ticket and a sandwich I had enough money for. They told me that a bigger charge had come through, and even though it was after all the little charges, they pushed the big check through,” professional writing senior Phillip Ybarra said.

Almost all banks post transactions in order of largest to smallest, rather than by date as many customers believe.

“They told me that ‘they had to post the big charges first, and that it was advantageous anyway because I wouldn’t want my rent check to bounce,’ but I ended up paying way more overdraft fees than I would have if they posted it by date.”

Although upset customers may sometimes feel that charges are the fault of their financial institution, Smith explains that in the end, it is the responsibility of the account holder to be aware of their own finances, and not rely on the often inaccurate, temporary balance that an ATM or computer screen may show.

“Overdraft fees are a result of someone not tracking the amount of money that they have, therefore, I feel that overdraft fees can always be accounted for,” Smith said. “You have to know how much money you have.”

Blog Post 9- Final Idea

Cell Phone Charges
Despite the recent lawsuit regarding early termination fees, Americans are still being grossly overcharged for using their cell phones. I would like to get an idea of how much we pay, how much it really costs cell companies, what student consumers, who are often on a very limited budget, are doing about this, and what phone companies are doing to keep customers.


Overdrafts
There is a bill either that has just passed or is in the works to make it illegal to charge overdraft fees without allowing customers to opt out of them. I would like to expand on this and other fees banks charge. (On a personal note, I have overdraft protection so that money comes out of my savings account to cover an overdraft yet I STILL get charged a fee each time that happens.)

Blog Post 9- Shack-a-thon

OU Fraternities and Sororities Shack up for a Cause

The South Oval may have looked like a refugee camp on Wednesday, Nov. 11, but that was not due to an outbreak of war between the peoples of Moore and Oklahoma City.
On the contrary, these "refugees" were there by choice: the OU Sorority and Fraternity members were "shacking up," building their own shabby shelters, to raise money and awareness for Habitat for Humanity.
There are two reasons for Shack-a-thon: fundraising and advocacy for the homeless in our area, said President of OU's chapter of Habitat for Humanity Jordan Eppler.
Students began at 10 in the morning building their shacks out of cardboard, wrapping paper, nails, duct tape and anything else that was allowed.
"What we did is we went and found wood... and we've been placing it kind of like a jigsaw puzzle for the past week...," said communications senior James Gable.
As for actually raising the money, participants opted to do everything from smiling for money to offering kisses for sale to downright begging.
"We're using sad faces that you can make happy, dancing and music to attract people," said health and exercise science senior Brittany Washington.
Though they may get caught up in the competitiveness of the event, the students don't forget why they are there.
"Its good to raise awareness for the homeless because it's kind of an unknown fact that even in our county here i think like 10 or 15 percent live under the poverty rate," Gable said.

Blog Post 8- Sequence with Multiple Shots

This is Phillip Ybarra making the bed.

Blog Post 7- Crises PR Clip

Midterm Project- "Meter Maid" Nowhere to be Found

This picture may make PCA Gail Andrews-Hewey look mean, but she is really just a fun-loving person who enjoys the occasional squirrel race and a good joke, even at her own expense.

Photo by Karlie Tipton

Few things infuriate more students and professors on the OU campus than the sight of one of those little yellow envelopes placed snuggly underneath their windshield wipers.

It may de difficult to separate these annoying citations from the person who issued them, but these Parking Control Assistants (PCA) deserve a closer look.

One in particular is Gail Hewey-Andrews, who is happy to be called a PCA.

She begins her day by getting dressed, much like everyone else, but there are some major differences between her uniform and jeans and a t-shirt.

“We have special pants with huge pockets and heavy-duty belts to help distribute your weight evenly,” Hewey-Andrews said.

The belts are, in fact, quite necessary as Andrews carries stacks of yellow envelopes, a water bottle and anything else she might need during the day in her huge side pockets.

“These things can get pretty heavy,” she said.

After Hewey-Andrews is suited up, she must grab arguably the most important part of her outfit.

“These are just little computers and they download new information to them every day,” Hewey-Andrews said.

These computers have access to information from license plates, on the cars themselves and anything else Andrews needs to know about a vehicle.

“They are quite handy,” she said.

As Hewey-Andrews leaves the parking office on the third floor of Robertson Hall, she is happy to begin her day, not because she enjoys giving tickets, but because she likes her job.

“I have lots of friends around campus. There are just a lot of awesome, really well educated people that you would never expect,” she said.

As much as she loves the people she works with, Hewey- Andrews does have the unfortunate task of handing out tickets for about eight hours a day.

“We don’t do it because we don’t like you, we’re just trying to eat,” she said.

Whether she wants to or not, Hewey-Andrews distributes many of these citations.

“My number of tickets can be anywhere from 50 to 80 on an average day,” she said. “Between all of us, we average about 400 a day.”

The reasons Hewey-Andrews must give these tickets vary from place to place, but many lots or garages attract repeat offenders.

“People are always getting tickets on meters, especially when it’s cold or raining,” she said.

Many individuals believe this may be partly due to broken meters.

“The meter ate my 50 cents [and] it’s taken quarters from me before,” senior Jessica Mills said.

Whether for faulty equipment or for faulty parking abilities, citations Hewey-Andrews give also range from small amounts less than $20 all the way past $100 depending on the offense.

“Parking in handicapped spaces is $100 [and] students getting visitors passes is a $120 ticket,” she said.

With this much money at stake, students and professors have been known to project their anger onto Hewey-Andrews.

“Some guy threw his helmet and yelled at me while a poor, innocent girl was in the middle of us,” she said. “He could’ve gotten his motorcycle ticket waived but he wouldn’t stop yelling.”

This is not the only time Hewey-Andrews has been assaulted either verbally or physically.

“I could see this older gentleman coming toward me so I tried to weave between cars but he actually cut across the parking lot to yell at me,” she said. “He then got in his car and followed me to yell some more.”

Even some professionals seem to take their frustration out on Hewey-Andrews.

“There was a professor who parked alot in the North Oval even though he knew he couldn’t, he would still yell,” she said.

Others may not take such a drastic approach to express their discontent, but they still disagree with the current parking arrangement.

“I think there definitely needs to be more parking, especially for commuting students,” sociology sophomore Devin Luxner said. “…It’s kind of ridiculous that students have to pay nearby churches for parking.”

There is not much Hewey-Andrews or any PCA can do about this, however.

“The problem is not that there is not enough space, it’s just not where everything is,” she said.

Despite some of the more upsetting aspects of her job that she can’t change, Hewey-Andrews maintains her sense of humor and never misses the opportunity to joke around with her fellow PCAs.

“One of our favorites is ‘get a real job,’” she said. “We yell this at each other all the time.”

Overall, Hewey-Andrews is not someone who gives out tickets for fun: she is just a person who likes to laugh and enjoy the little things, who happens to be a PCA.

“I love watching the squirrels,” she said. “They’re just hilarious.”

Blog 6 Soundslides

It was a cold, dismal day in Norman. As the clouds hung pendulously in the darkened sky, it seemed like the perfect occasion to bundle up in a warm sweater, enjoy a piping hot cup of coffee, and purchase discount books? That may seem like a strange outdoor activity on such an autumn day, but that is precisely what the OU community did. Students and civilians alike weathered the elements by the dozens in order to get deals on books ranging from calculus study guides to Classical poetry.

Blog Post 5 Audio Clip

Blog Post 4

Legislators attempt to ease student loan burden

One hundred and twenty five thousand dollars is enough money to buy a small house, several nice cars, or a couple of boats. It is also the amount of money some students will soon have to pay back due to loans.

"I'm just hoping it doesn't take me the rest of my life to pay these [loans] back," engineering psychics senior Jody Bringhurst said.

Cases such as Bringhurst's, which is not uncommon, is exacerbated by the high subsidies private banks earn off of such student loans.

However, the Senate is currently voting on a bill that could help ensure that banks are not lining their pockets with the profit off of high-interest student loans.

The Student Aid and Financial Responsibility Act would save $87 billion over ten years by getting rid of excessive subsidies to banks, according to the LATimes.com article. This money would then be used to provide more pell-grants to low-income students.

Representatives in Oklahoma, however, are not convinced that this new bill will help students or the economy. One such representative is Tom Cole, who voted "no" on the bill in favor of making reforms in college programs themselves.

"I believe we as lawmakers have a unique opportunity to make college more affordable and accessible to students," Cole said.

The bill has already been passed through the House and is expected to pass through the Senate in the coming weeks.

A student waits outside of Financial Services to hear the verdict on the future of his loans, education, and debt.

Photo by Karlie Tipton

Blog 3

The current downturn in the economy may have put the budget for fun in critical care, but some OU students are keeping it alive without going into the red. Many of these Normanites are taking "staycations," a term for inexpensive excursions close to home, rather than vacationing far away.

"With school and work, I need some "me" time to relax. So, since I'm always broke, I like to do things that are cheap and easy, like going to the movies or playing video games," microbiology freshman Alex Slotnick said.

Slotnick is tickled by the new movie "The Informant," and the fact that he saved hundreds by staying home.

If one still needs to get out of the house, Oklahoma has a great variety of options that are fun and frugal.

"Oklahoma offers one of the finest, most naturally divers park systems in the nation, which means visitors from the state and region don't have to go as far to experience everything from sand dunes to award-winning fishing and boating," said Austin Tackett, Travel Communications Coordinator for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department.

For more information on planning a weekend getaway, TravelOK.com has all the maps, brochures, and deals for the perfect "staycation."

PWOP

PHOTO BY KARLIE TIPTON