to hell with my bank

Doesn't matter ... had the same problem when i started work at my old job; worked in NYC, and live just across the river from Manhattan in NJ, and it still took the full 5 days. can't do much of anything about it, unfortunately.

Banks here take four days to credit your money if you pay in a cheque. The exception to this is worth remembering: if you have the same bank as someone who's paid you, go to THEIR branch and pay the cheque in. You will have access to your money at midnight.

If you had done this you would have robbed Hanle y of his "Ignatius J. Reilly of our times" mantle.

Let's have a whip-round!

"...having received your written authority to disclose information regarding your account to ..., I have sent details of your account and the balance outstanding to them..."

Not ok. I have not given you my written authority, and (I think) you're now in breach of data protection laws.

good luck with that :(

banks are cunts

I have not given you my written authority

Did you sign a document full of small print and legalese when you opened your account?

This is for a specific 3rd party.
I wrote to the bank to say we had been taking advice from a 3rd party.
The bank interpreted this as meaning the 3rd party was looking after our financial affairs.
The bank wrote and asked for written authority to disclose account details.
I wrote back, quite rightly and unequivocally said "No".
They seem to have gone ahead regardless.

banks are cunts

― cozen, Wednesday, March 17, 2010 8:43 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

the original word for 'bank' was actually 'cunt' but they changed it as they felt it would have been too offensive to real cunts

Whoa, that's not good. Hope it gets sorted out.

I filled in a form to tell my bank I'd moved. They wrote back saying my signature was wrong so they couldn't update my address. Then they sent me a statement to my new address anyway. Then they sent another one to my old address. ??? I think it's sorted out now but who knows where the next one will appear.

i am going to find a credit union to join this afternoon. in the past 7 years i have gone from

Fleet Bank (good) got bought up by
BoA (horrific) which I left and went to
Washington Mutual (great) but this was closed and got converted to
Chase (bad) to
CitiBank (surprisingly good, until last month, and great customer service)

So basically I can't deal w/ this any more. I briefly considered an online-only ING account, but at the low levels banking I'm doing, I think it's v. important to have a personal connex to the bank, and a face to put to the work. I don't trust any of the banks, so all I really care about is that they don't gouge me too obviously, and that the customer service is comprehensive, polite, and consistent. I think local is the only way to go, but I worry about a devastating embezzlement scheme more w/ the little guys than with the big crooks.

I've been with Chase for the past few years and they've actually been wonderful compared to the other ones I'd been with prior to them. But, tbh, it was a pretty low bar.

yeah I have had citibank cause it's also my only credit card and I like having it for emergencies but I'm in the same situation. not finding a decent credit union I'd qualify for yet. apparently Charles schwab is another option?

Commerce bank used to be really good for this but then they got bought out by TD. so far the service has been comparable but not sure what changes will bei n store.

go local! community banks are the best.

been waiting for these guys to get their act together for a while https://banksimple.com

why I liked commerce bank: open 7 days a week, penny arcade change converter (same as coin star but no fee), minimal fees, free basic checking

Chase nickel-and-dimed me to death. I had a minor acct. w/ like $250 in it, and every month they charged an $18 fee, informing me at a 3-year-old address. I ended up owing them money at the end of two years, and they wouldn't close the acct unless I settled to zero – they even stuck a collection company on my ass for a while.

Just opened a credit union account last week. Should have done it ages ago, the new check card fees were the last straw.

td is actually okay for me (so far) but you gotta watch your balances very closely (which admittedly you should be doing anyway) because there's basically no overdraft protection if you have one of the low-fee accounts and they looooove to let you make purchases even when you technically have no money, drop you into the negative, and then slap you with a $30 fee.

that wasn't such an important post it really needed to be up there twice.

but yeah, td's atm/debit card fees really are shitty, especially considering there are approximately two locations within ten miles, while there are 900,000 convenience stores with "no fee" atms i should be able to use with, you know, no fees.

The worst thing a bank ever did to me – and it was Bank of America – was to "lose" a transfer I had made, but reflect the amount of the transfer in my balance. In effect, I made the transfer, saw that it had gone through, used the amount transfered for a major purchase, then got a call from the bank a few weeks later that I had been overdrafting for almost a month because the transfer had been "...lost in the system..." and that I was responsible for about $400 in overdraft fees, as well as the balance of the payment I made in the major item. When I produced all of the paper evidence for my transactions, the bank locked my account for another two weeks to "investigate" before declaring it was their own error. they returned me the "lost" money and removed one $25 dollar overdraft fee, leaving me abt. $375 in the hole for their error.

that sounds technically illegal, remy

they looooove to let you make purchases even when you technically have no money, drop you into the negative, and then slap you with a $30 fee.

this is actually what "overdraft protection" means!! they "protect" your ability to buy shit even if it makes you overdrawn! but with "protection" like this...

PNC bank seems like it might be good as well

but all banks can go to hell

remy isn't there like consumer protection stuff you can invoke?

I check my financial stuff religiously just to make sure they aren't screwing me over

One of the advantages of rural-state small-town living, I guess -- it's pretty easy to find a small to medium bank with the the right combo of size/assets and good customer service.

Probably. At the time (2003?) i just considered it a warning to get away from Bank of America. I was young and pretty naïve, and I def. got my $$$ worth as a wake-up call.

No no no no PNC is AWFUL. That is who I was with before jumping ship to Chase. They are notoriously awful with nickel and dime fees and often take FOREVER to process deposits. I've had to wait 8 business days before deposits were accessible. They are horrible people.

man, i don't really ever think about my bank. Have overdraft facility of about 200 quid that i *can't* go over, and never get charged any fees besides cos it was my student account. Transfers lodgements etc are usually instant, close-of-business at latest.

otoh they broke the country, so.....

I was pretty satisfied with Wachovia. Now that Wells Fargo (which holds my mortgage) bought it we'll see.

My "favorite" experience with PNC was when I had $88 in my checking account and tried to deposit a $92 check. Since the check I was depositing was larger than my balance, I had to wait 2 WEEKS for it to clear.

I think that for most young/broke people the only things that matter in personal banking are

• no monthly fees
• good customer service (preferably local, preferably American)
• conservative, accessible savings options (MMAs or CDs)
• eventual access to favorable terms on loans/mortgages

and I don't understand why the banks can't figure out that this is all they need to do to attract loyal long-term customers.

I 100% don't think any of these national banks give shit one about cultivating "long-term" customers.

yeah small deposit customers are just not worth giving good service and no fee accounts to to them

the traditional model where banks needed deposits in order to make loans just doesnt apply anymore

yeah where's the money in that?

Otoh, I remember the banks when I was in college absolutely LOVING the college kids. They'd set up booths on campus all the time to help them sign up for accounts, because they knew they could nail them on fees.

thanks to assorted fuckups from rbs i just went four weeks without a debit card, and now have to wait another week to get a pin number. \o/. it's not a huge disaster as i'm combining my don draper-style wad of cash in the drawer with topping up my credit card as necessary, but it's a pain and i believe qualifies as SHITTY CUSTOMER SERVICE.

^^ one of the reasons I still have a checkbook.

they charge you for the checkbook tho

I've left my debit cards in enough ATMs on weekends to always keep a couple of checks in my wallet that I can cash at my local grocery.

credit union locator:

http://www.culookup.com

^ nice

We've got a bank that gives us a tiny interest on the balance each month, free checking and debit cards and online access.

My only beef with the place at first was that they had only three ATMs in our area. But, they don't charge you if you use another bank's ATM (though the other bank will) and besides, I just get my cash at Target or Walgreens anyway.

Regions and BOA are the biggest banks around here, and I seriously have no clue why.

just 100 million peeps no biggie

https://www.businessinsider.com/capital-one-data-hacked-by-seattle-woman-affecting-millions-2019-7

True, taking on global capital is a little daunting. But it's the big banks that fund the carbon bomb. And if we join together we can do this! Please--please--sign up at https://t.co/uTwmQis35Rhttps://t.co/GbkqMO3Uaj

— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) January 11, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/opinion/climate-change-bank-investment.html

...We want people to understand that the money inside the vaults of banks like Chase is driving the climate crisis. Cutting off that flow of cash may be the single quickest step we can take to rein in the fossil fuel industry and slow the rapid warming of the earth.

JPMorgan Chase isn’t the only offender, but it is among the worst. In the last three years, according to data compiled in a recently released “fossil fuel finance report card” by a group of environmental organizations, JPMorgan Chase lent over $195 billion to gas and oil companies.

For comparison, Wells Fargo lent over $151 billion, Citibank lent over $129 billion and Bank of America lent over $106 billion. Since the Paris climate accord, which 195 countries agreed to in 2015, JPMorgan Chase has been the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels by a 29 percent margin.

i finally said fuck you to Bank of America today, something I've been meaning to do for several years. I've switching my checking account to Amalgamated Bank. they seem cool. if you're a lazy do-gooder like me and want to change your bank today, here are a few options from McKibben's op-ed:

There are few financial institutions untouched by these climate change-causing investments. Amalgamated Bank, Aspiration and Beneficial State Bank are notable exceptions. Local credit unions rarely have major investments in fossil fuels.