I wanb to switch banks. Where should I put my money?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have to switch banks. HSBC has monkeyed around with my account for the last time and I have just had enough.

Here’s the situation - I wrote out my rent check and checks for the utilities I have. I had money to cover all of them in my account at the time. The rent check came to them first. But there was something that they deemed “suspicious” about the way the check was written. What was so suspicious? Was the amount of the check scratched out and upped by a thousand dollars? No. Was my name signed in an obviously different handwriting than any of the other check? No. It was the date. The DATE!! Something about the way I scrawled “July 30th” set off alarm bells and so the bank FROZE MY ACCOUNT!!!

Better safe than sorry, I 'm sure you’re thinking. Ok, fine. But does HSBC try CALLING me to report that my account has been frozen? No. Emailing or texing me? No. Sending me a snail mail letter? No. I find out my account has been frozen when I attempt to use my debit card to make a purchase at Rite Aid. “You can’t use this card!” the teller snaps. “The account has been frozen.”

Anyway, I call the 800 number, and they tell me that my rent check was flagged. They give me an extremely vague answer as to why, evading any direct responses. Apparently it’s all the fault of the branch that I opened the account at. (This is, mind you, the “world’s bank” where you can service any where you go.) I ask why nobody got in touch with me. They don’t know. “Somebody from the branch where you opened the account should have gotten in touch with you.”

Anyway, after trekking all the way across town to get answers (branch is on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, I live in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn now), they claim they could not get in touch with me. I think that’s dubious since they have been sending me monthly account statements to my correct address for the past two and a half years. Any way, the account gets unfrozen. I send the rent check (which the landlord is screaming at me about by now.) Finally it’s over I think.

Then this morning I get three THREE overdrawn slips in the mail. It’s not that I didn’t have money to cover them in my account, it’s that the checks were presented to the bank when my account was frozen!! So, not only did they freeze my accounts and never bother to tell me, but they with-held payment of my rent check, and they returned three checks and charged me $35 a piece for each check that got returned!

I just got off the phone where I was trying to complain about the charges. After being read lines of BS from their customer service people, I finally demanded to speak to a supervisor. I was actually told “It’s your responsibility to make sure there are enough funds in your account to cover your bills.” And I was told this AFTER I went through a lenghy explanation as to why the bills were rejected. The supervisor was clearly not listening to a word I said.

Finally, he told me he could transfer me to specialist who could assist me. Like a sucker, I said yes. Instead, I get transferred to an operator in India who simply stonewalls me and finally hangs up on me.

This isn’t the first bit of malarkey I’ve had to deal with from HSBC and I’m sick of it. I want another bank. So, enough flaming. I posted this here in IMHO rather than the Pit because I really want to ask people - what bank do you use and would you recommend it?

2

I use Chase for personal use and my wife and I use her Credit Union for the majority of our accounts. Never had a problem with either but my sense is that what happened to you could and would likely happen at any major bank (includes Chase–just because I haven’t had a problem doesn’t mean I won’t!). Sucks though that they weren’t able to fix it after the explanation. Frankly I have found that talking to a real live person, ‘in-person’ often fixes stuff like that. It is much more difficult to spew the company line when you are face to face with the complainer! You might want to go to the branch again (I know a pain) but I do think you will get those charges reversed. Good luck!

ohh and to help you – FUCK HSBC!

3

See if you are eligible to open accounts with any local credit unions. Unlike large national banks, credit unions need your business to survive and will typically bend over backwards to accommodate you. They also generally offer better interest rates, better customer service, and much less of the fee-crazy bullshit that the big banks do.

Of course I’m generalizing here and there are certainly crappy credit unions so I would do a rudimentary investigation for horror stories before putting your money with any banking institution, but I and lots of people I know have had good experiences with credit unions.

4

Go with the Credit Union.
The bank’s tune night change if you were politely inquireing who their agent of service was.

Might change faster if the inquiry was louder and at a point the bank had long lines.

Just saying…

5

Whatever you do, don’t go with Bank of America. They nickel and dime you and constantly change their rules.

IIRC, a recent rating of banks had Regions as number one.

6

First of all, don’t give up on those overdraft fees yet. Here is a good place to look next. Fight those bastards.

Secondly, it’s best to start looking at smaller banks or credit unions. At my small bank, I get great services and a great interest rate, and people are nice. They remember me, even though I only come into the bank once every quarter or so. They don’t hassle me and upsell me, and they never transfer my calls to India.

(For the record, I get 4% interest on my checking as well as $20 in ATM fee refunds as long as I use my debit card and have direct deposit. There are quite a few small banks in my area who offer similar programs, but I don’t know what would be available where you are. Lots of small banks are paying at least a bounty on new accounts, or giving out iPods or stuff like that.)

Look around. There’s bound to be a good one in your area. Seriously, the small guys in banking consistently have the best interest rates on deposits, the lowest fees, the most perks AND the best service. I don’t know how they do it. I guess they don’t have to pay millions to a bunch of greedy execs.

7

Go Credit Union.

Anything else is merely foolish.

8

Not an option for everyone. I can’t join any credit unions by virtue of my employment, and the only regional CU that’s available to me is a really shitty one with an unprofessional web site, and it really doesn’t inspire confidence in me as a place to put my money. I opened an account with a smallish community bank (no, not Giannoulias’s) instead.

9

Yessir. I’ve had this problem with Chase. They just randomly froze my account, and I didn’t know there was a problem was until I tried to make a purchase, was declined, and had to call them from inside the store. Seems I’m not allowed to buy things online anymore, unless it’s from some apparent but invisible list of Chase Approved Websites. They took over WaMu which was the BEST BANK EVAR! Now that all the good banks have failed and/or been absorbed, you’re stuck with clowns like Chase and BofA. You can’t win. You can’t just go “Well I’m taking my money and going to Wachovia!” Sorry, Charlie.

Credit union.

10

Go with two separate unrelated banks, and maintain accounts in both of them. I learned this when my identity was stolen a few years ago. It is important to have an account you can use when one of them screws up on you. I have automatic deposit into both my banks and maintained them for years with Quicken, then with iBank (I use a Mac today). I use their websites and pay bills online. It is actually not much extra trouble to keep both as opposed to one.

11

I know everybody is recommending a CU, but since you live in the New York area, look into TDBank. I started out with Commerce Bank and TD bought them.

They’ve been really good with no or low fees and customer service is great. The few times I’ve incurred fees, they waived them and the two times a deposit got screwed up they checked into it and called me back with the answer.

They refund a certain amount on ATM fees from other banks (not sure how much), only now charge me $3.00 on a checking account, and if you bring in coins to their coin counter, they don’t take any of it, even if you’re not a customer (they will deposit directly from the receipt from the machine).

Their lines are starting to get a little long (teller and ATM) but so is everybody’s right now.

They only real problem has been, once when my ATM card and check book were stolen, along with my SS card, they cancelled and re-opened my account without any record of the first one.

12

If one of your relatives belongs to a credit union, you might be eligible to join that one. Hell, I’d put a small amount of money in this “unprofessional web site” credit union. It’s possible that they didn’t feel like spending a lot of money on a more professional site, but are otherwise just dandy to deal with.

I have had experience with ONE bad credit union, but otherwise, I’d advise everyone to have at least one account with a credit union.

13

Try a regional credit union, like me.

If a person lives in, works in, is educated in, or worships in, any of 3 Tennessee Counties, they are eligible.

14

If you qualify, USAA is a good non-CU option. I’ve used their credit card services & car insurance for years, recently moved from BoA to USAA (for the nickel-and-dime reasons mentioned) and have been very happy.

They don’t have branches outside of the San Antonio TX area, but they’ll waive fees from other banks’ ATM (up to a set amount each month, I think it’s $15.00).

They also have an iPhone and Android app that allow you to take a picture of checks and deposit them that way, or you can scan them and deposit via computer, or mail them in (postage free).

15

FWIW, I have had an account at BofA for several years now (ever since Wells Fargo tried to secretly rape me) and have had no problems. Well, once or twice there have been issues, but even when it was more my fault than theirs, they immediately reversed it at no cost to me.

16

I came across this recently:

https://www.banksimple.net/

17

I agree about this. I’d fight those stupid fees for a good long while.

As for recommendations, I use Citibank but I don’t know if that would work for you. They certainly have many branches in New York. Another option, particularly if you have other investments, is a bank at a brokerage house, like Schwab Bank. I think the idea is that you can easily move money between the banking and brokerage products.

18

Depending on whether you care about local branches… there are some credit unions that you can join even if not a member of their employee group.

For example around us, NASA Federal Credit Union extends membership benefits to members of a number of scientific interest groups - several of which don’t charge a fee to join.

Pentagon FCU allows you to join if you’re a member of some support organizations (which charge a small fee to join - on the order of 20 dollars a year).

Look around you at some CU’s web pages to see if any of them have such affiliate groups.

Are any relatives members of any CU? Most CUs will allow parents/siblings/children/roommates to join.