OT Online banking rant

[Joe]

At one time Bank of America couldn't deal with Mac computers IIRC. Too expensive to hire competent IT pros, probably. Scary that they have control over our money.

Joe

[Metspitzer]

I use Wells Fargo. You know, the bank that doesn't have a coin counting machine.

My car insurance payment check was returned. I only do this every 6 months so it is not a regular thing. I have paid it online before so the address I had on file was, at one time, correct. When I read the mailing address to the guy on the 800 line at the insurance accompany, he said.....The current address may not be incorrect, but it is not the one he had. He gave me a new PO Box and it was even in a different state. He then gave me the option to pay with a credit card over the phone, which I did.

I went online with my bank, and was going to change the payment information for the next 6 month payment. There are 400 different options. The option I did not find was one to change the address. I called the 800 number so I had the bank on the phone. The girl on the phone agreed with me that she didn't see an option to change the address. There was an option to change the account information but no address option. With her on the phone, we both took a pen and paper and wrote down the information that was still correct and deleted the payee. We then made a new payee with the correct PO and City, State, zip.

That is modern convenience at it's finest. Two computers between us and we still had to get pen and paper involved. I guess it is hard to get away from the old covered wagon days.

------- O'Neil to General Hammond: For the record Sir, I wanted to blow it the hell up.

[George]

I am beginning to feel the wells fargo pain. We use wachovia for some banking. As you may know they gambled heavily and lost and eventually wells fargo bought them and is currently transitioning customers.

In general if you know anything about banks they have a hard time spending their own money. So their backends tend to be poorly done.

Two months ago wells fargo/wachovia send a letter stating "in order to have a good transition we need to verify your information". I went on line, filled out the form and tried to submit the form and it kept throwing errors so I had to waste almost an hour at the bank. Two weeks ago I logged onto the account and it told me "you can't proceed until you fill out your information" so I did figuring it would be better than spending an hour on the phone. Last week I logged on and it told me again "you need to update your information". So I called and after explaining the problem to three people and almost an hour later the guy tells me he "reached out" to someone in the backend who said the problem was I didn't complete the the country of principle residence entry.

I told the guy there wasn't such an entry and I just reviewed the screenshot I made to verify.

Interestingly wachovias site does allow you to change the information for a payee. Having to delete and recreate a payee is just plain ridiculous and it violates basic accounting principles because you loose the history.

[George]

And even more annoying when you think about the "too big to fail" marketing campaign that was operated by all of the politicians owned by the banks.

Banks would throw your grandmother out of her house in the blink of an eye but for some reason we needed to save them from their bad judgement and gambling debts.

[Kurt Ullman]

I use BillPay through Schwab and they change information when needed without any input from me. Followed one credit card through three different banks, four different addresses, and one financial crisis without any problems.

[mm]

They do this on purpose. It's a way for their girls to meet guys.

I thought Wells Fargo used a stage coach.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I had a very similar problem recently. I just wanted to change the EMAIL ADDRESS on an account. There were a lot of options on the website, for a lot of other things. Not for changing the email address. I had to call, and they set up a new online account. At least I got to talk to a real person (who could speak English, and didn't ignore 90% of what I said).

[snip sig with incorrect delimiter]

[Jon Danniken]

Wells Fargo is the bank that tried to charge me 10% off the face value when I went to cash a check written to me from a local business.

It took about 15 minutes of politely refusing to accept anything less than the full amount of the check before they relented and cashed the check for it's face value.

Wells Fargo is undoubtedly the worst bank I have ever conducted business with.

Jon

[aemeijers]

Glad I only have to deal with their home mortgage arm, which has given me pretty good service. They keep sending me pitches for equity credit lines, and long-distance checking accounts, but I am so not interested.

[HeyBub]

Heh!

Comcast called the other night with an upgrade offer which included "55 HD channels!"

"Which 55 channels?" I wanted to know.

The gal directed me to a web page of channel listings. There were, like, 700 channels. When I offered this was too complex to figure out, she said: "Use the drop-down box at the top to switch from 'All' to 'Economy.' "

SEVEN MINUTES LATER the page showing "Economy" still had not rendered on my screen.

"Sorry," I said. "I don't think I'll be buying additional internet offerings from a company that can't even deliver a web page correctly."

As I hung up, I could hear weeping...

[George]

In my experience the megabanks are crappy and the small banks understand customer service is more than a $5 million marketing campaign telling people how good you are.

The only problem is small banks are continually taken over by megabanks so it seems you just have to accept the idea of crappy bigbox megabank service.

[Mysterious Traveler]

I've seen coin counting machines in most Walmart stores.

[notbob]

At 10% of the take.

nb

[Metspitzer]

I am told that some counting machines will give you a gift certificate for 100% of the take, but I haven't found one in my town. Until I do, I will just hang on to my change. It is too hard to come by to give away 10%

I have a friend that stays broke all the time. He doesn't seem to mind using those machines.

[Tony Miklos]

My bank doesn't control my online banking, my creditors do... to some extent. Electric, health insurance, auto and homeowners insurance are all automatic withdraw. I have plenty of time to stop payments if for some reason I don't think the bill is correct. Best convenience was my homeowners and auto insurance. One house and three cars, I have them all added together and pay in monthly installments. Credit cards are paid online from the credit card companies web site, I fill in the amount and they deduct it from my checking, the others are all automatic. I write about 3 to 5 checks a year.... 2 for 2 vehicle registrations, 1 for real estate taxes and maybe 1 or 2 oddball payments. Online shopping is through PayPal or credit cards. Also have an automatic transfer for the same amount each month from my checking to a savings account.

[aemeijers]

When I got exiled to this town 30 years ago, I signed on with the credit union at work with my first paycheck (remember real paychecks?), because the 'real' bank near my apartment said there would be a 10-day hold. On a paycheck that said 'US Army' right across the top of it. (My agency piggybacked on their finance center at the time.) I sweetly told them f*ck you very much, and walked out.

Never regretted the decision- other than not offering real mortgages until they recently got eaten by the CU from the next county, they have given me great service, and the teller ladies treat me nice. I don't even have to talk- they hand me my weekly wallet refill, I sign a slip, and walk out. (I used to have a diner like that, but it went belly up...)

[willshak]

The latest thing is that the machine will give you a full amount voucher that can only be used in the store where the machine is located, sorta like a gift card. I haven't checked my local supermarket's coin machine yet.

[Jim T]

I couldn't get past this. If you're bouncing checks every 6 months you have a serious problem.

You might want to consider getting rid of the check book and buying money orders instead. 30 years ago, when I was bounced my last check, my bank told me they would cover the last one but only under the condition I closed my account and I had only bounced a couple.

You have a computer and online banking. Get a program like MS Money and start tracking your money. There really isn't any excuse unless you're committing bank fraud.

Jim

[aemeijers]

Unless you are simply trolling, try reading for comprehension. The Billing Cycle is every six months, not that he bounces a check every six months. 6-month payment cycle on car insurance is the norm around here.

[Jim T]

Unless you are simply trolling, try reading for comprehension. The Billing Cycle is every six months, not that he bounces a check every six months. 6-month payment cycle on car insurance is the norm around here.