I am a longtime member of Chevy Chase Bank, and I enjoyed their service for quite a while, until they hit me with $650 in NSF fees for a simple mistake (they refunded about $300 after an angry letter to their CEO). Chevy Chase Bank was recently bought up by Capital One, N.A., and something about that company always rubbed me the wrong way. I decided it’s time to move on, and opened up an account with a competing bank which has a bunch of services I wanted (text message balance notifications, yeah!) and switched over my direct deposit.
Today I called Capital One to close my account and all of a sudden hesitated. Their Customer Service was quick and friendly. Their online site is useful and easy to navigate. I need to close the account by zeroing out the balance for five days, so I still have time to make a decision.
I’m wondering now if I made a mistake and let my seemingly unfounded biases against Capital One cause me to make a rash decision. Does anyone have a Capital One retail bank account? Are you happy with it? What problems have you had?
Let Cap One compete for your business. Casually mention to the CS rep that $350 NSF fee you paid and how you’re still a bit raw about that, and the new bank can help you with that…
I’m curious how long it’ll take for CS to give you a sudden $350 customer retention credit.
ETA: I used to have a savings account at Chevy Chase FSB. But I closed that ages ago.
We use Chase bank and at first I thought you were just making a clever pun on that name, but now I see that there really is a Chevy Chase Bank (I knew there was a Chevy Chase, MD, but it wasn’t the first thing that popped into my head.)
So, from now on when I want to complain about Chase Bank, I’m going to just go ahead and call them “Chevy Chase Bank.” It’ll make me laugh a bit at least.
My first credit card was Capital One, and I never had any problems with them. I eventually closed that account only because the bank where I had my savings & checking account offered me credit cards with very attractive money-back rewards, and Capital One didn’t have anything like it at the time.
People advised me to keep the C1 account open to help my nascent credit rating, at the time. Long-standing accounts are good for your score.
At first I thought “Chevy Chase Bank” was a clever way of referring to the commercial for a credit card bank which features “comedian” Chevy Chase.
I have found recently that attempting to close a bank or credit card account now requires that you speak with an actual person ( ! ) who will ask about the reason and, if the reason is fixable within reason, will fix it ( !!! ). Now instead of calling customer service if I want my rate lowered or a charge removed, I just cancel the account and allow them to reel me back in.
I suggest you keep the Capital One account and just keep a small amount of money in it.
I’ve had a Chevy Chase account for a long time now, and a Capital One Credit account for nearly as long, and I’ve never had any trouble with either.
I agree with the poster above me, that if you still feel raw about the NSF fees, depending on how long ago it was, talk to someone about it and they may be willing to refund even more of it, depending on the circumstances.
I was a longtime customer of Chevy Chase and am unhappy about the switch from Chevy Chase to Capital One, admittedly over relatively minor things. For example, they switched my accounts to the Capital One website over two weeks ago, but my business balances are still listed there as “Unavailable,” despite several calls to customer service and several promises that the information would be updated.
Also, I used to be able to transfer cash from my business account to my personal account by filling out a single Transfer slip. Now I have to complete a withdrawal slip from my business account and a deposit slip for my personal account. That’s just stupid. (And I can’t do it online, because my personal account is a joint account, while my wife is not on my business account, but that’s how it was with Chevy Chase, too.)
I’m considering making a switch and will be monitoring this thread for additional information.
You might also see if there’s a credit union you qualify for.
My Citibank Rate used to be 14.6%…then it was 18.99%…then if I ‘opted in’ (by not doing anything), it would become 21% (24.99% for cash advances!) this with a Credit Score in the high 700’s, a constant revolving balance which the made some money on, and about $125,000 worth of business over 6 years.
My Credit union rates were 7%…for everything (credit, cash advance) and the late fee was a flat, one time $35…Then they lowered my rates to 6.75%.
Reasons to keep it: If you’ve got multiple accounts there, and/or existing automatic payments that would be a hassle. If they have a lot of branches / ATMs near where you tend to do most of your work / shopping / recreation so you can get cash without paying fees. If as you noted, you like the website.
I don’t recall your whereabouts but if you were a Chevy Chase customer, chances are you’re in the DC metro area. If so, you do have access to a lot of credit unions (and as credit union customers, you can usually get cash from other CUs’ ATMs without paying a fee - we got money from a credit union in Arizona for example). Many of the local credit unions are just that: targeted to people who live in a specific area, or are members of some large local class e.g. government employees, or admit members who are members of other employers / trade groups. It’s not difficult to find one that will let you in :).
One thing I like about Capital One credit cards is they (currently) do not charge an additional “foreign transaction” fee, but that’s only helpful if you travel a lot.
Not just if you travel. I occasionally buy Region 2 DVDs from Amazon.co.uk (there’s a lot of stuff not available in the US) and was charged a foreign transaction fee on the most recent purchase (this was J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, BTW). So if you ever want to buy stuff from overseas, it would be helpful not to be charged this fee.
Heh. I completed my only foreign travel in 13 years in late August. My Chevy Chase card charged me several “foreign transaction” fees. September 13th, the card became a Capital One card automatically, even though it still says Chevy Chase on the front.