Bank Fees!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Recently my bank notifed me (via a little sheet of paper enclosed in my statement and written in a 6 point font) that they were increasing their monthly service fees from $7 to $8 a month for going under the $750 minimum balance. Previously the minimum was $500.

I am furious! When are American consumers going to get their act together and protest banks assessing these ridiculous fees. It wasn’t long ago that banks paid YOU interest on checking accounts. Now they are robbing their customers blind for everything from monthly service charges to ridiculous ATM fees.

So, fellow Dopers, enough of this lethargy. What should we do to protest? Keep switching banks? Start keeping our money under our pillows? Egging the bank at night? A e-mail campaign? Putting referendums on the ballot, like San Francisco consumers are doing?

Help end this consumer nightmare! Join the Great American Protest against Bank Fees!

2

I don’t have much good to say about banks and the way they trwat customers.

My biggest gripe is the move toward charging transaction fees to customers who have the audacity to come inside and use a teller.

More and more, a bank will charge you $1 or $2 if you speak to a live human rather than use the ATM for what they consider ‘regular’ transactions. I mean how much more obvious can the attitude be that banks don’t like you, they don’t like waiting on you, helping you, or otherwise deigning to give you personal service. What a crock!

3

Or how about the way most of them process checks: by check amount in DESCENDING order!

So, if your record keeping has any errors, and several checks hit the bank on the same day–you might have more bouncing/overdrafting than had to just because of the way they were sorted.

It’s legal, but criminal.

4

Wasn’t there a Bitchin’ 'Bout the Banks thread here a while ago? anybody know how to use that fancy search thing to insert threads?

5

There are plenty of banks around here that offer no-fee service – free checking and everything. I bank at a credit union, which is even better.

Don’t bother protesting, vote with your feet. Go to another bank!

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham

6

Amen, Pluto. I belong to a credit union, and we pay no fees for using the ATM, free checks (when using Direct Deposit), and I get interest on my checking. Leave the banks and hit the credit union. While mine makes it easy to never use a teller,(including check cashing at the ATM, buying money orders or travelers checks right at the ATM), we aren’t punished for using an inside teller if we want.

I’m very lucky. The only time I was ever up shit creek, I just happened to have a paddle with me.
–George Carlin

7

I always protest increased fees by taking my business elsewhere. In all fairness, I should mention that I live in New York City, where banks are plentiful.

I remember opening my “totally free checking” account at First Nationwide Bank. Bliss for several years.

Then they told me they’d do me the “favor” of turning my ATM card into a Mastercad debit card, and in small print, mentioning that it would cost me $15 a month. I told them I don’t want the debit card, using some choice words that will probably not appear on network television (for the next two or three years, at least…).

Then they told me that they were merging with North Fork Bank, which was going to convert all the accounts to very not free checking accounts. Last day before the merger, I withdrew every cent, thanked the teller for her years of service to me and told her to let her new bosses know why I left.

Currently, I’ve seen an explosion in foreign-ATM-card fees. I used to be able to use some foreign ATMs for nothing, but in the past month, those seem to have dried up.

The next step is that they start charging for ATM transactions with their own bank’s card in their own ATMs. And when they do, it’s bye-bye banks, hello mattresses for me.

Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@schicktech.com

“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective

8

I’m going to ask a really dumb question. . .

I would like to change banks, since Bank One continues to piss me off. I have a very large savings account (well, not really–I just get my student loan check all at once at the beginning of the year and whittle it down over 12 months).

Will the bank write me a check to take to the new bank, or otherwise transfer it for me? Surely to God I don’t have to get it in cash and take it across town.

I know, dumb question, but I’ve never changed banks and never had enough money to worry about.

Dr. J

9

The bank will issue you a cashier’s check for large amounts. It’s a guaranteed check so the other bank doesn’t have to wait for it to clear, etc. Some banks charge a small fee (how ironic!) for this service!

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham

10

Here’s another vote for credit unions. The one we use has no monthly fee, free checking, free ATM (4 uses per month), free checks, and free overdraft protection. They are also open on Saturdays. Their car and personal loan rates are the lowest around. The best part is that when I go inside and talk to a very real, friendly human for FREE…she already has my account pulled up on the computer, because they know my name!

11

My old credit union was great; good rates, good loan service… but they never really seemed to be as professional as a bank. It was really wierd that I had to have them print out a deposit slip on a dot-matrix printer before I could deposit some cash.

My bank charges some annoying fees, but I’ve carried their ATM card all over the USA, Canada, and the UK and only once found an ATM that wouldn’t take it (in Hope, AR).

Annoyance Prime: Mergers. None of the familiar banks I used when I was growing up (Ranier Bank, University Federal) are around anymore; they’ve been swallowed up by Wells Fargo or morphed into something I wouldn’t trust with my chewing gum (PacificWest Bank?).

(rant coming…) And what on Earth was SeaFirst thinking! Their name and logo are the most recognizable and consistent trademark in Seattle, and they change all the signage and advertising to “Bank of America”. They’ve been owned by B of A for years, but people kept banking with them because all of the other “local” banks changed their names and stationery and rules as soon as they got swallowed up by a larger bank. Hey BofA! SEATTLEITES HATE OUTSIDERS !

12

Trust me, Pluto, I have! This is the third bank I’ve been to since I moved to this address three years ago. Trouble is finding a bank near my house to avoid the foreign ATM charges. I don’t have any credit unions locally, but would be willing to switch if they didn’t charge me foreign ATM charges.

I’m just getting so sick of banks treating us like we should be thanking them for using our money.

13

On the other hand they should be so grateful for the tiny amounts of money most people have in their chequing accounts that they should work for free for you? You don’t go into a lawyers office and ask for free advice, or into the car show room to get a free ride to work, so why is everybody expecting the banks to act like charities? The bulk of the money made in commercial banking comes from using peoples savings acounts, not their tiny current account surpluses, so if you have a ton of money in a savings account tell them to lower their fees, if you don’t then don’t expect something for nothing.

14

On the other hand they should be so grateful for the tiny amounts of money most people have in their chequing accounts that they should work for free for you? You don’t go into a lawyers office and ask for free advice, or into the car show room to get a free ride to work, so why is everybody expecting the banks to act like charities? The bulk of the money made in commercial banking comes from using peoples savings acounts, not their tiny current account surpluses, so if you have a ton of money in a savings account tell them to lower their fees, if you don’t then don’t expect something for nothing.

15

$500-$1000 minimum is not a “tiny little surplus” if you multiply that by all their customers. That’s free money to them, to invest with and receive a far better rate of return than what they turn around and offer their customers. And remember, ATMs were invented so that banks could reduce their teller staff, which they did. They should be paying US to use ATM’s versus tellers, because ATMs don’t need health insurance,etc.
Instead, they sock a huge fee onto them when we use them. Why? Because they can!

And I WOULD put large sums of money into their savings accounts if they would pay a decent rate of return. But 3%-5% is an insult.

16

Banks don’t use the money in your accounts, they use money you don’t have. As soon as anyone gets a loan, the bank instantly has that amount of non-existent money to invest with, and then when it gets paid back they have that amount again!

One loan of 10,000 means eventually 20,000 the bank can invest!

It’s all a huge scam, folks!

17

Sorry Guano,

I work with a bank, but this doesn’t even make sense to ME.
Sure, banks are a rip-off like any other business (what’s new ?), but investing an amount that you just loaned to a customer, therefore using it twice ? Is that coffee of yours ready yet ??
And let’s not get into the details of solvency requirements banks have to meet, although these are less strict in the US than they are here.

I’m sorry if the American banks disappoint you all. Why don’t you hop over to your local ABN AMRO / LaSalle / E.A.B. office and give them a try… They’re all Dutch, in case you wondered. At least, Dutch owned :slight_smile:

Point is, it’s not all a scam: although your reactions are understandable, they do not necessairily demonstrate the truth.

Now go on and call me an arrogant and patronizing European piece of shit :slight_smile:

Coldfire

“You know how complex women are”

  • Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
18

I am currently a memeber of a Credit Union…I know that I don’t pay any monthly fees, can use their ATM’s for free, and visit the Tellers any time I want. Great Service…But as far as banks go, the best one I’ve ever had was Star Bank (now First Star) in Ohio…I didn’t pay a monthly fee (although I think that’s because the company I worked for had out payroll account there) but the best thing was their hours. THey were open 7 days a week…M-F till 7pm, Sat. till 5pm and Sunday from 10am-3pm. It was great for me, I have a tough time remembering to deposite my check Friday night, but I could go on the weekend.

<i>I haven’t lost my mind, I have a tape backup around somewhere.</i>

19

Well, it is true. The banks admit it, it’s common practice, it’s how the economy sustains itself.

I, however, am not clued up enough on it to relate it accurately. Sorry. I got all this info from a friend who read a book about it. The book was all factual when it came to how the banks work (however the paranoia element was just the personal opinion of the author)

:slight_smile:

20

PunditLisa “$500-$1000 minimum is not a “tiny little surplus” if you multiply that by all their customers.” It still is compared to the savings accounts; and savings money tends not to be withdrawn at short notice.

“…ATMs were invented so that banks could reduce their teller staff…” Actually they were first invented to attract customers away from other banks by offering a better service, thus increasing business not decreasing it. They are now just so ubiquitous that a bank can’t get away with not having any.

“And I WOULD put large sums of money into their savings accounts if they would pay a decent rate of return. But 3%-5% is an insult.” Interest rates are what interest rates are, in the US you get your 6.03%, in Europe you get 3.34% and in Japan you get a lousy 0.22%, if you want to make more money, take more risk, its as simple as that.

The bank is making money by taking your pennies, putting them together with everybody elses pennies, a couple of billion dollars worth of computers and brainiac analysts and traders, and taking some risks. Your deposit on the other hand is guaranteed by the federal government and as such is totally risk free. You are free to take your money and bury your ass in pork bellies and hog futures if you think you can make money, but seeing as how many banks screw it up is that something you really want?

I can’t believe I’m defending banks! However, just like in any other business, you and they both look at the bottom line; if they are making plenty of money off you, you have some leverage and you can get your charges reduced; if they aren’t profiting from you, what do they care if you take your business elsewhere? And here endeth the sermon :slight_smile: