These continual “my bank SUX!!!” threads never cease to amaze me. Here’s a helpful hint, people. If your bank is charging you stupid shit fees like this, it’s because they do NOT want you as a customer. You people keep threatening to go away. Well, that’s exactly what they are trying to get you to do. It’s because you are not the type of customer they wish to specialize in. So quit your bitchin’ and leave for a bank that wants you, already, for Christ’s sake!
I have a credit union and I had a similar experience to the OP with my savings account.
I use my checking for everything. So, I never paid any attention to my savings. I hadn’t looked at it in years. One day I notice that the balance is higher than I thought it should be. I check. Sure enough. The balance is over a hundred dollars higher.
While I wasn’t paying attention, those bastards at the credit union were putting all the ATM fees other banks were charging me back into my account, up to $5 a month. That $5 a month after a while ended up being over $100. The whole time I didn’t even know.
Seriously. It amazes me that anyone would willingly be a customer of the big banks like Bank of America. Why do business with people who screw you at every turn?
Actually people are very reluctant to change banks. Banks know this. So banks regularly push the edge, knowing than can collect these fees. The abused customers continue to remain with them and pay the fees, month after month after month.
Same with Doctors and other professionals. “My plumber keeps ripping me off!” Then find a new plumber, dumbass.
They ‘push the edge’, and charge you ridiculous fees because those fees give them profit from you, even though they don’t want you, because you cost them money. Those fees are set to a) more than make up for the loss on dealing with this asshole we don’t want, b) hopefully encourage the bastard to go elsewhere, and finally c) if they insist on staying with us, let’s rape them for every dollar we can, maybe that will get them to go away, but if it doesn’t, well, let’s take the idiot’s money. Money is money.
Those banks don’t want you. They will be more than happy to see you go away. As long as you insist on staying with them, anyway, they are going to rob you blind. They are going to take your money, as long as you are willing to give it. They set their fees to take your money. Those fees are intended to make you go away. If you won’t, they will profit on your stupidity. Keep paying them. The fees are set at a level such that they don’t really mind if you stick around.
Did you know that Wells Fargo won’t even give change for a dollar without an account?
That’s only because they’re staffed by zombies.
Did you try these guys?
Seems we’re not the only ones who WF tried to pull this insurance cancel & switch on. Got a form for a class action suit against WF in the mail today. We won’t be joining the suit because we refinanced before they could automatically sign us with the other company and they returned all the money that was supposed to go to the previous insurer.
I am a bit of a Luddite. I like writing checks when I can (it’s not often). The physical act of writing one keeps me from spending money too often–it’s a good balance against whimsical purchases (guns, hookers, blow, etc.). Besides, I do most of my purchasing through credit cards for the cash points back. I rarely if ever use a debit card for purchases. Something about handing over those digits scares me.
Why hell, I had my own experiences in 2004 and in 2003. The only reason I deal with them anymore is because I have a mortgage through WF on a house I have in Georgia. As soon as that thing’s sold/paid off/det-corded down, I’m closing the account, and anything after that they send me is going to be used for kindling. Who wants a char-broiled burger!?!
When I eventually did go to close that checking account and pay off that credit card, they did do that “withrdawal first” to pay the bill, then add the deposit to cover the negative balance. It was bullshit that got a letter sent to Wells Fargo and the local District Attorney’s office.
What’s “chartering” do where you’re from?
Tripler
WF will f*ck you in the ass, and then charge you for the lube.
Lube? You wish.
Wow…a quadruple zombie! Is that some kind of record?
Original thread: 4/2012 - 5/2012
1st Resurrection: 11/2012
2nd Resurrection: 7/2013
3rd Resurrection: 3/2014
4th Resurrection: 6/2014
Wells is the shithole that keeps on giving.
That said, I’ve deliberately not participated in this thread before now, in any of its lives…mostly because I used to work for them. Oh yes, I have stories.
But not one of the other big banks is any less horrible.
Unless you signed some sort of non-disclosure agreement, I demand that you entertain us with some! You can’t make a comment like that and get away without an anecdote.
Tripler
Spill it! Whatddya know?!?
Alas, it’s probably nothing too exciting, really. And probably nothing that’s not already public knowledge.
Everyone, from the tellers on up, is in sales. Tellers receive quarterly bonuses based on their sales numbers–the number of referrals they make to bankers that result in the bankers’ successfully selling the customer something. But the bonuses, while nice, are just gravy; you don’t make your minimum sales requirement, you get written up. Two consecutive quarters and you’re just about guaranteed to be shitcanned.
So as a teller you either sell your ass off (and the ones who are best at that are quickly promoted) or you game the system, in small ways or large:
You refer everything, every single customer who even says hi to a banker. Doesn’t matter if they get a checking account from an entirely different banker next week. You got the referral in, dammit!
You make sure–and are expected–to poke through every little bit of the customer’s information on your screen for opportunities to suggest a product.
You’re trained in ways to subtly, and not-so-subtly, instill in the customer a sense of urgency and even fear to get them to sit down with a banker. The most effective technique I saw was from one of my managers. She’d start with “Now, there’s nothing wrong…but I think it’s important you sit down with one of our bankers immediately to discuss your accounts.” If you have a reliable banker, they’ll find something to sell the poor schmuck.
Sometimes the banker will get a walk-in, or an appointment they made on their own, without a teller referral. But as far as management knows, some teller sent that customer over or made the appointment…so the banker can give that customer information to a teller, the teller makes a post hoc referral, and gets credit for a sale they never made. A nice banker will help out the tellers who might be short on their quota. Most will just slide the moneymakers to the tellers they like the most. An honest banker…lolz, j/k, there ain’t any.
Oh, forgot; teller bonuses aren’t exclusively based on their sales numbers. Each store also gets a bonus based on customer satisfaction surveys. Yanno, you get a call about your visit to the bank and rate your experience in different categories? Anything less than a 5 in any category counts against the store; 5s across the board goes in the win column. The quarterly bonus for everyone in the store is based on having a certain percentage of “perfect 5s”, usually in the 85-90% range.
So, good thing, right? We want every customer to have a great experience! Except most customers, if they’re like me at least, don’t see a 4/5 as a bad score. Bank employees do. So they have two options again: ensure that every customer gets a perfect experience every time (which the company is nominally after), or game the system. In this case, it’s pretty simple. The “random” survey calls aren’t really random. They’re based on the customer’s communication preferences (the most savvy customers have opted out of all phone communications) and–more importantly–their phone numbers. The robosurvey (as of a few years ago, at least) didn’t call cell phones. So the teller, after a poor customer experience, could change the customer’s phone number to look like a cell instead of a landline. Or hell, just make it easier on everyone and change the number in the system completely. 867-5309, always a winner. Can’t call the customer, they can’t give you shitty–and accurate–survey numbers.
But really, the tellers JDGAF about anyone or anything. They’re front-line pawns, and their entire job, as far as the company is concerned, is to get people to sit down with a manager or a banker so they’ll get sold shit they don’t need and can’t afford.
Yeah. I was a banker. Sorry. I’m working on paying off my karmic debt, truly.
That explains why they were pushing something weird like an unsecured line of credit to me, back when I had a checking account (money market or something like that), a savings account, a car note and a recently re-financed mortgage with Wells Fargo.
I’m thinking it was the only thing I hadn’t already got. (and both the car note and mortgage weren’t originally through WF; they bought them after we had them set up).
I had a checking account with Wachovia. I became eligible for Navy Federal Credit Union and started direct depositing my paychecks there, but I still had some checks that had not yet cleared drawn on the Wachovia account. Anyways, I had just 19¢ in that account for like a year, then Wachovia became Wells Fargo and somewhere in that process, my 19¢ disappeared. It’s been several years now that account has been empty.
At least they’re not charging me monthly service fees; according to their site, my account should have a monthly fee, but since it never had the “minimum opening balance” it may not even be a valid account. I really should go close that account at some point…
My experience with WF in the mid-90s must not have been when andros worked there. Nobody tried to sell me a thing-- they just bent over backwards trying to avoid providing any kind of service.
Went in to open an account. They seemed a bit surprised that anyone would want to do such a thing; had us stand over at one end of the teller counter to fill out forms. Waited around for a bit until a teller came back over to take the forms and finish the process. Almost walked out on the spot- failing to do so was the big mistake.
Later, I was the treasurer for a local fundraising organization that banked at WF. Went inside to make a deposit; due to the type of account using the ATM wasn’t an option. There were 20+ people in line, a single teller on duty, and another employee going along the line encouraging people to use the ATM. Couldn’t do something useful like open another teller window.
Last straw was when I made a deposit at an ATM, and accidently put it in the wrong account. Went inside to ask someone to look at my accounts and figure out where the money went. Couldn’t be done - told me to call an 800 number. Called the number, they still couldn’t look at my accounts, but I could file a claim. Two weeks later, after I had long since figured out what I had done and fixed the problem, I heard back from them about the “claim.”
WF won’t get any more of my business, if they were the last bank in town…
Fuck all banks. I haven’t had an account with an actual bank in probably 40+ years. On the other hand, I’ve had accounts with four different credit unions and have never had a single problem with any of them. They pretty much understand that your money is YOUR money and that they have no right to fuck with it. They’re also fully insured, so why bother with a bank?
QFT!