# Bank was acquired by another bank **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 6, 2023, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703 "2023-09-06T20:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/61 "2023-09-08T11:18:50Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Sounds like the OPs bank’s system was working, but their credential/login system was FUBAR. Yup. They did get it sorted out though. It was kinda scary. When 125k goes missing, ya think about it a bit. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Famous\_Burrito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_famous_burrito/32/3954_2.png) [@El\_Famous\_Burrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Famous_Burrito)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/62 "2023-09-08T12:08:33Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > TD Ameritrade was bought out by Schwab recently. The changeover from Ameritrade to an account at Schwab happened over Labor day weekend. The Ameritrade website went dark on Friday evening, and my Schwab account was live on Tuesday morning. I think there is a lesson here in the timeline: Schwab announced their acquisition of TD Ameritrade in Nov. 2019 (with the transaction actually closing in Oct. 2020). That’s nearly four years of planning! It’s fine not to rush things like this. It’s fine to let parallel systems persist – even for years – while carefully planning the cutover. (And if was in charge, I’d throw into the gulag any executives or shareholders who whine about the marginally higher operating expenses it might take to do these things the right way.) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/63 "2023-09-08T14:04:38Z")
Credit unions pay more in interest, and rarely charge fees. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/64 "2023-09-08T14:57:57Z")
The credit union I was part of **did** charge fees on my checking account. I don’t think they charged ATM fees but most don’t, because they can’t afford to. I can find a Bank of America ATM anywhere, but I’d be unlikely to find an ATM for a credit union that wasn’t at the bank itself. If they charged fees, nobody would ever want to bank there because they’d be dealing with them all the time. The credit union would charge me if my savings or checking account was below a certain level (which it always was, because I was extremely poor in those days). It wasn’t a huge amount, I think it was like $10 a month, but that was still a lot to me back then; I made less than $5 an hour (it was the mid-late 90s after all). My current bank would charge me but these days I keep a minimum balance high enough to avoid it. My wife belongs to a credit union, and if the ATM she’s at charges her a fee, her credit union picks up the tab (well, up to $3 a month), which is pretty nice. _They_ don’t charge her a fee at all for ATMs. All that being said, it’s something of a moot point because we’re in a near-cashless society at this point. I carry a $20 bill around just in case, but otherwise very rarely deal with cash. Heck, most of the time I don’t even pull out my wallet to get my card out, I can pay with my cell phone most places. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/65 "2023-09-08T15:13:26Z")
There is (was) a Bank of the West in my town. The OP should be happy to know that the rebranding of the building and signs went quickly and flawlessly. Obviously where BMO spent their money on the changeover. But until I read this thread, I didn’t know what BMO stood for. I guess they are not too proud of the fact they are Canadian that they spell it out on the sign. My Bank of America account was originally an S&L that failed way back in the S&L debacle. So it’s old. It went through many banks along the way, but this was well before online banking so any delays or glitches of just a few days were not apparent, though I suspect they happened regularly. Dumb and happy, I was. Now the Thrift Saving Plan website fuck up is over a year old and still, well, fucked up. But that’s probably for another thread. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/66 "2023-09-08T23:50:57Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > You can drive, hike, or take a dogsled down there and withdraw it all, can’t you? By getting a bank check. (Cashier’s check) Cash is unnecessary. Have the check be payable to yourself. Wouldn’t have to be totally withdrawn. You could take a few thousand and put it in a second bank. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/67 "2023-09-09T19:50:44Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > But I’ve had Bank of America for almost 25 years and never had an issue. They’ve always been great to me. It’s so weird that my experience is so much the opposite of what I keep hearing from people. When I was in my teens and twenties (and maybe early thirties?), there were two banks that the majority of people had accounts with in SoCal – Bank of America and Security Pacific. I knew two groups of those people: those who had BofA and had switched from SP, and those who had SP and switched to BofA. I figured it was like flipping a coin. Each was probably as bad or as good as the other. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/68 "2023-09-09T23:45:40Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > All that being said, it’s something of a moot point because we’re in a near-cashless society at this point. Come visit the Germanic part of Europe. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/69 "2023-09-09T23:50:32Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Come visit the Germanic part of Europe. 😉 Oh I’m sure there are places where it’s necessary, “we” referred solely to where I live or otherwise spend my time (and the US in general). Plus, I assumed this thread was mostly about US banking systems. I have no idea what it’s like elsewhere in the world. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/70 "2024-03-09T22:55:50Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I remember seeing an article a few years ago about how some banks lost people’s stuff in the process of merging bank branches. Just happened in Kansas City. The bank initially tried to blame her for “forgetting” she took it. I’ve never had a safe deposit box, but I’m pretty sure you don’t go in, grab the whole box and take it home for a couple days before returning it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BaBFSzDn3A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BaBFSzDn3A) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/71 "2024-03-10T08:48:44Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > All that being said, it’s something of a moot point because we’re in a near-cashless society at this point. I carry a $20 bill around just in case, but otherwise very rarely deal with cash. Heck, most of the time I don’t even pull out my wallet to get my card out, I can pay with my cell phone most places. YOU are living a near-cashless existence. Currently, 2/3 of my current job is dealing with the cash my stores uses/aquires for those still living in the Cashverse. Oddly (or not) the very poor are near-cashless - things like WIC, EBT, and TANF are all on plastic cards these days. They still need some cash for the stuff not covered by various aid programs. Then you have the working poor up through blue collar then upper middle class that often carry little to no cash such as yourself. Then we have some (presumed) wealthy folks who insist on all dealings in cash to the extent they can get away with it these days. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/72 "2024-03-10T09:29:29Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > YOU are living a near-cashless existence. Me and most other people under 50. > **[As more consumers go cashless, here's why you may still want to have some...](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/06/as-more-people-go-cashless-heres-how-much-money-to-keep-in-your-wallet.html)** > > Fewer Americans are paying for routine weekly purchases like food or gas in cash. But that doesn't mean you should give up going to the ATM altogether. And that’s increasing over time. > **[More Americans are joining the ‘cashless’ economy](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/10/05/more-americans-are-joining-the-cashless-economy/)** > > In less than a decade, the share of Americans who go “cashless” in a typical week has increased by double digits. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/73 "2024-03-10T13:10:53Z")
I’m almost entirely cashless, but I feel weird If I don’t have any. I like at least about $80. I get some twenties and lots of $5 bills. I like to tip in cash. Just feels right. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/74 "2024-03-10T16:29:33Z")
Same here. Mostly cashless, but I always try to have a hundred or so in $20 bills in the wallet. I won’t use my card for breakfast every workday because I go to a small business and the fees are a pain for both of us. Pay cash, leave a tip with the change and screw MasterCard. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703/75 "2024-03-11T02:17:49Z")
I was mostly using debit for everything except small payments, then pretty much stopped using cash altogether when Covid hit. I still have the exact same stash of emergency bills in my wallet as I had in 2020. Big purchases go on my credit card for the rewards, but anything under a couple of hundred is debit. I’ve noticed that some businesses are credit/debit only now, and won’t accept cash. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bank-was-acquired-by-another-bank/989703.md?page=3)