This should be a simple thing - I live in Montana, I’m going to Canada, I need $300 Canadian.
I went to my local bank: “We can"t do that, you need to go online.”
I went online and set up an account. I went to order Canadian money and got this screen:
“Message from the NSAPI plugin:
No backend server available for connection: timed out after 10 seconds or idempotent set to OFF.
Build date/time: Jun 3 2005 16:42:20
Change Number: 578059”
There was a number to call to order Canadian money. Called it, but they are only open M-F from 9-5 and Saturdays from 9-12. I’d accept that from a local bank but Wells Fargo is huge. I want 24 hour phone access.
So I called the help number about the web page problem. At this time, I’ve been passed through five different people and have been on the phone for 25 minutes. And I’m still listening to shitty hold music.
I’ve been unhappy with Wells Fargo for awhile, but this shit tears it. The only reason I’ve stuck with them is that they have the most ATMs in Montana. But I’d rather get more cash before leaving town or pay ATM fees than be with a company that quite clearly doesn’t give a shit about me as customer.
Why don’t you just withdraw Canadian money once you get across the border?
If your ATM card has the Plus or Interac symbol on it, you can probably use just about any ATM in Canada. Sure, you might incur a small fee for using the machine, but it sounds like a few bucks would be worth the convenience; it’s certinaly easier than spending ages on hold waiting for help that never comes.
When i went to Australia a few years ago, i even found that Bank of America had an agreement with one of the Australian banks (i think it was St. George) whereby i could withdraw cash using my BoA ATM card and not pay any fees. Wells Fargo might have a similar relationship with a Canadian bank.
I can’t remember the last time i actually used traveller’s checks or exchanged foreign currency in a bank. Now, i just use credit card and ATM cards.
I’ve had them since college (and I really don’t know why considering they accused me of faking my name & SSN when I first tried to open an account there). I just got charged $5.00 for ‘returned statement fee’ when I moved and it apparently failed to forward (this isn’t the ‘pit the Pacifica postmaster’ thread though).
I’ll be dumping them within a year, maybe sooner (depends on where I move to next).
Actually, they’ll probably reverse the fee as soon as you contact them with a new address. Financial firms, who are required to send out statements, often add this nuisance fee to prompt the phone call from the person who has moved.
My ATM and Credit card both charge a fee of 1-3% for a foreign currency. It’s cheaper to get the money through the bank.
Today I called the 1-800 to order foreign currency. I was told that I needed an account password. I don’t have an account password. To get an account password, I need to go back to the bank that said I didn’t need an account password to get an account password.
Kafka laughs. And as Lenin said, “Bureaucracy is shit.”
Goodbye Wells Fargo, I’m closing my account on Tuesday.
It would appear that you have never done business with Wells Fargo …
Me To Branch Manager: I don’t understand this $3.00 charge on my statement.
Manager: You talked to one of the tellers.
Me: Uhhhhhhh?
Manager: We would prefer that you use the ATM, The Personal Service Fee encourages that.
Me: I was cashing a check. At the drive through.
Manager: You should deposit the check and withdraw the funds from the ATM.
Me: Please close this account. Now. I’ll take cash.
Manager: It’s going to cost you …
This (very much simplified) conversation happened 2 weeks after the Weekend of Disassociation when Wells Fargo took over the bank where I’d been doing business for 15 years. I did not know at that time what the manager was talking about.
You see, I had made a deposit the day after the date of the Statement. My deposit was made after 3 PM on Friday. The deposit was not credited till Monday, and did not “post” until Tuesday - despite the fact that the deposit was made in cash.
This resulted in $275.00 in RC Charges for checks that were presented for payment on Saturday. Deposits are credited after charges. And since they kept running the same checks against the account every 24 hours until the deposit posted on Tuesday, this resulted in a negative balance when the deposit actually posted. By the following payday, they had assessed some additional fees.
They never called, never sent an overdraft notice, nevermade any attempt to give me a chance to deposit funds that would have stopped the resulting snowball. (Think $275 x 7 Days … then add in an additional 2 weeks of ignorant check writing!)
Even the attorney I tried to hire said it wasn’t worth the time or money - fees would exceed the fees kinda thing.
To this day, many years later, I still will not walk into one of Wells Fargo’s banks, use an ATM owned by them, or accept a check drawn on that bank as payment for any personal debts. Wells FARTo is all about abusing and charging customers, not serving them. Reversing a charge requires an act of OG. (Even the christian god has no power over them …)
They also will not cash a check written from an account at their own bank, at the exact branch the accountholder’s check was written from unless you have a Wells Fargo account.
You (and everyone else in this thread) said it. I’ve lived in four states in the last six years, so I’ve opened and closed a lot of accounts at a fair number of banks. I’ve never had a Wells Fargo account, but know plenty of people who have, and all the stories here are par for the course. If they can think of some way to squeeze $3 out of you they will do it. This is the kind of business that would mail you a Christmas card that says “go fuck yourself,” and then charge you 50 cents for the “courtesy.” I will never deal with this bank, for any reason. If they are the only bank in town than I will do my banking online and use the ATM at the 7-Eleven first.
That’s not true. I hate Wells Fargo with the best of 'em, but I have to disagree with this one. I’ve cashed checks there written by people with Wells Fargo accounts and I’d die before having an account there.
Of course, there’s no charge to cash personal checks but business checks will cost you 5 dollars each to cash.
Can I add my vote to “Run, do not walk” from Wells Fargo? My parents banked there since before I was born and I had my first savings account there when I got a paper route.
Fast forward to years later, when I had a couple of accounts with WF. I moved and notified them of my change of address. But, see, they only changed the addy for one account. So the paperwork for the other account went AWOL and I didn’t know until I was checking my credit report and saw that it was in collections! I paid it off immediately and closed all accounts there, but it still left the ONLY ding on my otherwise spotless credit record.
My father passed away recently and I am looking forward to transferring his assets from Wells Fargo to a more trustworthy operation, like a local credit union. Or a coffee can buried in the backyard.
The other stuff is most definitely shitty, but I have a question about this. Was the deposit made at an ATM or through the drive up with a real person doing it? If it was the drive up, I agree you have every reason to be pissed. But if it was an ATM, that’s perfectly understandable.
Do you realize that actual people have to go through ATM/night drop deposits and process them? Cash or not, how do they know that until they open the envelopes and verify? Trust me, there are many transactions where people try to scam the ATM by putting an empty envelope in as a cash deposit. And yes, there have also been cases where someone puts $300 in the envelope and only inputs it in as $30. Those get corrected as well.
Again, if it was through a person, ignore that info. But if it was an ATM/night drop deposit, you should know there’s generally a 2 business day hold on the funds because of verification. A machine can’t open envelopes and see what’s really inside.
I’m talking about the impossibility of a machine to verify what you’ve input into it. I worked at a credit union for almost a year* where we didn’t charge for teller transactions (which I agree is completely ridiculous).
But that still doesn’t change the fact that people HAVE to verify funds/checks deposited in an ATM. There is absolutely no way to avoid this. People lie all the time, or just plain make mistakes (or pay on loans with a check and the loan is actually delinquent and they’re being taken to collections so the payment cannot be taken without calling the bank’s collection department or you WILL be in deep shit).
I agree that most big banks have totally shitty policies and ridiculous fees. I’m just saying that the two business day hold on ATM deposits DOES have a valid reason behind it. The other ones are pretty damn shitty, though.
BUT NO MORE, I FINALLY HAVE A GOOD JOB AND I JUST STARTED THIS PAST WEEK! Sorry, I’m still excited.
One positive thing about Wells Fargo is that they might be doing something to make ATMs easier to deal with instead of tellers. The newer ATMs actually scan checks and cash directly, which theoretically means that the machine does know what you put into it and could process deposits immediately. Not that they have to, though. I assume other banks will use these ATMs as well.
I don’t know if that was true in LucyInDisguise’s case, as I’ve only seen the new machines in a few locations.
Also, I have updated my address with Wells Fargo, but I’m not holding my breath on the ‘returned statement’ fee. (Probably they would reverse the fee if I went and talked to them, but then they’d charge me a fee for talking to them …)
meh. you get crappy service and stupid fees at all the major banks. We’re still with Wells Fargo because they are the only big bank left that I know of that will process my deposit before they process a charge made on the same day. It may be because we are in a state where WF bought out First Security, though. Other than that, Wells Fargo annoys me incredibly.
If I wasn’t so addicted to online banking in an area with tiny little credit unions that don’t have online banking, I would have switched years ago.
That’s the whole thing that really got me pissed: the deposit was made at the teller window inside at my branch with a teller that I was personally aquainted with. She was on ‘Next Day’s Business’, but being a cash deposit it should have been credited immediately - the cash was, after-all-is-said-and-done, in their drawer at 3:20 in the afternoon. :mad:
