GrandMasterTerwynn wrote:Hilarity of hilarities, Wells Fargo's notion of overdraft protection simply means "Well, we'll just take the money out of one of your other Wells Fargo accounts, and charge you $10 for the privilege."
Oh, so they'll get along well with Wachovia. Wachovia's version of "overdraft protection" is (at least, it was about a decade ago; I doubt it's changed) that the overdraft amount is pulled your linked savings account and then you get charged the overdraft fee. But, hey, at least it didn't bounce!
In cases like that, there's no excuse for it: the fee is there simply because the bank can charge it.
GrandMasterTerwynn wrote:Hilarity of hilarities, Wells Fargo's notion of overdraft protection simply means "Well, we'll just take the money out of one of your other Wells Fargo accounts, and charge you $10 for the privilege."
Oh, so they'll get along well with Wachovia. Wachovia's version of "overdraft protection" is (at least, it was about a decade ago; I doubt it's changed) that the overdraft amount is pulled your linked savings account and then you get charged the overdraft fee. But, hey, at least it didn't bounce!
Recalls BoA billing me daily for a period of 2 weeks for Afflac through BoA, and charging me enough in OD fees that I was unable to purchase Insulin and other meds for two months.
On the bright side, my monthly co-pays for Afflac are paid up until March, (because BoA billed me 15 times for a monthly co-pay in January)
The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
SunTrust in Florida does a pretty good job. They have the "out of network" charge for using competing banks' ATMs, but they also give cashback if you process your debit card like a Visa (I'm guessing there's a 60/40 bank/me split on the CC transaction charge), overdraft protection is automatic if your savings and checking are linked, and...hmmm...that's about it. No frills, no fees. Of course, if you're a student you may not have a savings and checking account both, so YMMV.
When I bought my house, I shopped them for the loan. I liked that they held their loans, unlike most of the national banks, but they were too high on the fixed term interest rate so I went somewhere else. Overall, I'd give them a C+ as a bank. They'd be higher if they hadn't sucked at the Fed bailout tit. The commercial RE loans are really biting them in the ass.
EDIT: I can, in a way, understand the overdraft charges. It's a simple, understandable, PAINFUL way to teach cash management to the majority of account holders who do overdraft. Hell, (personal anecdote warning!) when I had less than $50 in my checking account in college or between unemployment checks, I paid reeaallll cloosse attention to what I was buying and what my balance was. In a way, I think the paper check/register system is better for younger people, until they learn a little more about cash management.
EDIT 2: In 10 years plus of monthly reconciliations, I have yet to find ANY mistakes that SunTrust has made with my account. I match paper to electrons every month, and every month it matches. That's pretty damn good, and better than I had with Wells Fargo when I lived in California. Bear: so far, five years running, BofA hasn't screwed up my mortgage schedule. Sorry to hear about your troubles on their banking side.
The only people who were safe were the legion; after one of their AT-ATs got painted dayglo pink with scarlet go faster stripes, they identified the perpetrators and exacted revenge. - Eleventh Century Remnant
I just keep a balanced checkbook. Well, not an actual checkbook, but you get the idea. In the last ten years I haven't paid a cent to a bank or a credit card company over any sort of fee or interest.
The most basic assumption about the world is that it does not contradict itself.
Darth Wong wrote:Don't you guys have overdraft protection on your bank accounts? It's been years since I screwed up and went negative, but I have $5000 of overdraft protection, so if I go negative (as long as it's not more than $5000) the bank just treats the negative balance as if it's a line of credit balance and charges me interest on the de facto loan until I'm in the black again.
PS. I'm a TD Bank customer. I was surprised to see numerous TD Bank branches in New York City when I visited last month. RedImperator asked what the "TD" stands for, and I told him it stands for "Toronto Dominion". It's Toronto's own megabank, dating back to the 19th century. Apparently, they don't publicize their full name much in the US. But yes, it is The Dominion.
Actually, no it doesn't. TD Bank, N.A. is the American subsidiary of Toronto Dominion Bank (it bought Commerce Bank in 2008, which is why you saw those branches in NYC). It's legal name in the US is simply "TD Bank," which officially does not stand for anything. I'm less than impressed with their service, but business banking is vastly different than personal banking- you probably don't have to send numerous hundreds of thousands of dollar wires a day.
Small banks are generally crappier than big banks, unless you're a multi-millionaire who makes up a large fraction of their deposits. If you want to do banking, do it in a big bank.
Mr Bean wrote:I have been VERY happy with my PNC account. They are more or less well know in Ohio, but mostly because PNC offers what it calls a Virtual wallet Account which odd as it sounds is three accounts in one. A Spending, a Reserve and a Saving's account all tied together so you can move money between them at will. Spending of course has next to no interest, Reserve has I just about 1% with Savings have 2% at the moment thanks to global very small interest rates.
Go to the web site, watch the 90 second video it explains it far better than I do. I love it because it's easy to use, and I can log on the account from an Iphone or Blackberry and transfer money around, or look up charges or check past charges at will. Plus the account offers exact listings of what charges have been made to your account and updates every ten minutes or so you run your card or withdraw money.
Unfortunately, the closest PNC branch is in Cincinnati which is over 245 miles from where I live (Painesville Twp, about half hour east of Cleveland).
One thing I noticed at least in 5/3 is that they still use deposit\withdrawal slips. All the banks I've dealt with in Canada stopped doing that years ago and all the transactions made at the teller is paperless and instead the debit card is used. That and good luck trying to convert a cheque in Canadian funds into USD. I had a cheque that as roughly $200CAD and I was told that it was basically useless to convert it into USD as the fees would eat it up. Had to send it to my father in Canada so he could convert it to USD without paying fees and sent me the amount in a money order. The only cost to him was the stamp.
ASVS('97)/SDN('03)
"Whilst human alchemists refer to the combustion triangle, some of their orcish counterparts see it as more of a hexagon: heat, fuel, air, laughter, screaming, fun." Dawn of the Dragons
aerius wrote:That's cause they know students are far more likely to overdraft their accounts since they're going to be out partying and getting drunk every week, plus they won't have a much money in their accounts which raises the probability of an overdraft even more. The banks will rape them for every last penny they can.
It's only going to get worse from here since the banks are flat broke these days and they'll do everything they can, legal or otherwise, to squeeze money out of their customers.
You'll excuse me when I tell the bastards to go cry a fucking river. If the banksters go broke, it's their own damn fault for asking for so much deregulation and massively overpaying their CEOs who got them in this mess. If America loses its lead in science and technology because of this (and I suspect that'll happen), then I know who to blame for the coming collapse of civilization. After all, the bastards would literally sacrifice our entire future for a hilariously small sum; why should we treat them any other way than with the deep and immense disrespect they deserve?
Wicked Pilot wrote:I just keep a balanced checkbook. Well, not an actual checkbook, but you get the idea. In the last ten years I haven't paid a cent to a bank or a credit card company over any sort of fee or interest.
I'm sure the bank's hitmen are en route to your house as we speak.
Mr Bean wrote:I have been VERY happy with my PNC account. They are more or less well know in Ohio, but mostly because PNC offers what it calls a Virtual wallet Account which odd as it sounds is three accounts in one. A Spending, a Reserve and a Saving's account all tied together so you can move money between them at will. Spending of course has next to no interest, Reserve has I just about 1% with Savings have 2% at the moment thanks to global very small interest rates.
I don't get what the benefit of this is account is, why not just have the Spending and Reserve accounts as one and get interest on all your spending money at 1%? Surely American banking systems aren't so broken that 1% interest current accounts aren't instant access? Plus you are locking your longer term savings into the same bank, so any problems with that institution or its computer network cut you off from all your money (apart from credit cards) for as long as they are unable to give you cash.
a lot of this is penalizing the working poor. Your direct deposit gets put into your bank account on Friday. So even by your pen and paper logs you think you have money for nessesities and bills? Nope, they don't "Clear" your pay check till the following Tuesday. You would be suprised how many times that trick has caught me.
The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
The Yosemite Bear wrote:Your direct deposit gets put into your bank account on Friday. So even by your pen and paper logs you think you have money for nessesities and bills? Nope, they don't "Clear" your pay check till the following Tuesday. You would be suprised how many times that trick has caught me.
And in the intervening three days, they've been investing your money, then skimming off the profit whilst passing on the original amount to your account.
