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Bad bank experiences?

princealfie

princealfie

macrumors 68030
Original poster
I just had a rather horrible experience with Wells Fargo after they froze my checking account due to the face that an art client wrote me a check on a closed account! 🙁

Apparently they didn't check the other bank (Bank of America) to see whether the other party had any funds? WTF?

Any other horrible bank experiences? I just switched my business account to Far West Bank now. Hope it's better now... 😱
 
I hate Wells Fargo, and I have had nothing but bad expereinces with Bank One/Chase.

I prefer using Credit Unions, as they are more interested in keeping you happy rather than making money.

TEG
 
After too many bad experiences with Bank Of America I switched to ING Direct and couldn't be happier. I earn interest on my checking, there isn't overdraft fees and when you call them a real live human being answers the phone who isn't reading a script!

A couple weeks ago I was at a truckstop and tried to yank some money out of my account from an ATM, my checking didn't have as much as I wanted though. I whipped out my iPhone transfered the money then went back to the ATM and got my money. When you do an ING to ING trandfer it is completed instantly, unlike BofA where it takes days to be completed.

Their web interface is also very easy to use.
 
I had some experiences with Compass Bank not paying my bills on time, so I accrued something like 200 dollars in late fees on my rent over 3 months. The bank said they were only liable for $50 per incident even though I had spoken to someone prior that said they'd fix it right.

It never ended up getting fixed right. I don't know if any of you have had compass bank but they'll refund ATM fees other banks charge if you send in your withdrawal receipt.

Since I never got back all my money I decided to make them lose money. So I used an ATM at a concert venue that was 4 dollars per transaction. I'd pull out 20 dollars, and do it over and over again until I couldn't.

I'd send a letter stating that I am hitting an ATM that has a 20% Withdrawal fee for every 20 dollars I took out because of their negligence.

It took me a while to get the 50 back (I didn't make it back, I just 'took' it from Compass). I'd go right back to the bank the next day and put my ATM money back in and mail my receipts off and await the fee refunds and do it all over again.

I never ONCE received a call or letter regarding the note I put in each time I mailed receipts in.

I switched to WAMU with 5% APY on their Savings, but recently they stopped taking my post dated paychecks, which was never a problem in the past so I am in the process of starting to use my credit union more frequently.
 
LumbermanSVO said:
After too many bad experiences with Bank Of America I switched to ING Direct and couldn't be happier. I earn interest on my checking, there isn't overdraft fees and when you call them a real live human being answers the phone who isn't reading a script!

A couple weeks ago I was at a truckstop and tried to yank some money out of my account from an ATM, my checking didn't have as much as I wanted though. I whipped out my iPhone transfered the money then went back to the ATM and got my money. When you do an ING to ING trandfer it is completed instantly, unlike BofA where it takes days to be completed.

Their web interface is also very easy to use.
Click to expand...

That's odd. I've had nothing but good experiences with Bank of America. When I do transfers between checking and savings the money is moved instantly. I like their web interface as well. I may have a look at ING anyway, though...
 
Yeh, I've had a bad experience with NatWest here in the UK. My husband got a cheque for £660 ($1,320 USD) and we were in a rush so went to those self pay-in machines where you put the money/cheques in an envelope and put your card in and input the amount on the keyboard. Got a receipt for it and left.

A few days later, only £60 ($120 USD) cleared. Went back to the bank asking what happened and they blamed me saying I'd input the wrong amount on the keyboard. I said I didn't, shown them the receipt proof that I hadn't and they continued to blame me and even said I need to go obtain another cheque off the person that issued the first one. Absolutely rediculous!

If we had of sold a car, the person would have been laughing at only paying £60! Good job it was an employer and were able to obtain the remaining, but needless to say, we left that bank a long time ago!
 
VERY timely.

I spent the better part of this morning with the manager of my Wells Fargo branch manager.

I purchased some smokes from a local store and they accidently put in $885 instead of $85..This naturally put a hold of $800 bucks on my account.

After talking to the vendor who said it was the banks fault I went to the bank and the manager said it was the vendors fault. Well after an hour of rankling with him he looked up who the merchant account company was and lo and behold it was Wells fargo. Needless to say had I not argued with the manager he would have never known HIS bank was the merchant vendor.

So. After 2 days of not having that money in my account he finely and sheepishly conceded it was his fault and gave me back my money.


Banks are evil..
 
Bank of America has screwed me over. I have a negative balance with it because they refuse to overturn overdraft fees that they charged me when my Paypal account accidently charged to that account instead of my mother's. Mistakes happen!

Then again, they did really bad these last few months, so it's no surprise that they are screwing people over. -_-

How do I go about closing that account while still not paying the fees?
 
Stampyhead said:
That's odd. I've had nothing but good experiences with Bank of America. When I do transfers between checking and savings the money is moved instantly. I like their web interface as well. I may have a look at ING anyway, though...
Click to expand...

If I remember right, when I transfered money between my BofA account it showed the "available balance" as changed but the transaction didn't appear for days. ING doesn't do that, everything is done the instant you tell it to.

The other thing I REALLY like is that they show you what transactions are pending, not just that the available balance has changed. For example, I can buy food in a truck stop and check my account when I get back to my truck, it will list the food purchase as pending, where it was and for how much. I've actually caught errors this way and was able to correct them before leaving, with my BofA accounts I would have been hundreds/thousands of miles away before I caught it.

I love my ING accounts as my as I love my MBP 🙂
 
faust said:
How do I go about closing that account while still not paying the fees?
Click to expand...

You can just stop using and after 60-90 days BofA will kindly close it for you. They will also give you a big fat negative mark on you Cheq Systems report, then you will find it VERY hard to open an account anywhere. But BofA will gladly take you back if you pay off the balance due on your old account, good luck getting then to take that negative off your Cheq Systems report though.

BofA also has a nasty habit of putting overdrafts on your report too, even if they were the cause.

I had to learn all this the hard way. Until the entire back/credit reporting system is overhauled you best bet is to just pay up or keep fighting until you find someone who will remove the fees. It is amazing how differently they treat you when you have large amounts of money on ypur account too.
 
I used to have an account with Wells Fargo. They tick me off because I opened the account when I worked for Randelle's food market and they would give you their highest rating account for free. Just they do not tell you that after I quite 2 years later my account dropped below the required amount and they hit me for 60 bucks in fees in 2 months.
I said to hell with them. Closed out the account the very next day after I learned about the fees.
Took it over to the credit union where my dad set up an account when I was little. Now 5 years later I am still part of that credit union. If it says anything I live 300 miles from it but I keep it as my main account because it has the best services I found for the best price. That and I can access the account though the credit union network. Any Credit union part of the network I can go in and have full access to my account for free. And to add I have a ton of free ATM's all over the place I can use.

Well fargo seems to always have the lowest intersted rate for savings, Highest intersted rates for loans.

I am a strong believer in credit unions. Better interested rates and little to no fees. I have a 0.75% on my savings .25% on checking right now. Bill pay and everything. No min. balance, No fees.

I always shock how many people do not used credit unions. I think they are great because their first interested is to the account holders and not the investors (mind you account holders and investors at a credit union are one and the same)
 
I've had an incredibly great experience with Citibank. I have an online savings and checking account with them - both of which allow inter-institutional transfers for free online (so I can transfer money from my TCF account to Citi without writing a check).

Also, AMEX has been great when it comes to credit cards. They give me 1% back on all purchases in cash (which is fine) but provide free credit reports, flexible due dates, free extended warranties, and no annual fees.
 
LumbermanSVO said:
It is amazing how differently they treat you when you have large amounts of money on ypur account too.
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Yes, and unless I start putting out students loans that won't help me at all. I hardly ever have money in my account. College rocks like that.
 
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