Advice on dealing with banks
- Thread starter Guartho
- Start date
Check with the State Banking Commission of your State. You may also want to file a complaint with your State Attorney General's office and even your local Representative (Federal).
Banks tremble at the thought of an audit or a Congressman checking around.
Banks tremble at the thought of an audit or a Congressman checking around.
You're probably right Guartho, but you'll be in for a massive headache trying to get the issue resolved. These big banks don't work for their depositors, they work for their shareholders and anytime they can squeeze a dime out of you, they will. I switched to a credit union years ago and have never had a problem with them. I hear that most credit unions give great customer service.
Ditch the bank, they aren't doing you any favors.
Ditch the bank, they aren't doing you any favors.
No credit unions for miles and miles, but we do have a bank with exactly two branches in town. That's where our mortgage and my car loan are and I'm on a first-name basis with the two of VPs there so I'm definitely shifting the majority of our banking there.
I mainly want BankMW to stop this crap and to know that they're losing a customer as a direct result. I just wish I had a mountain of money in their bank so they would actually notice, let alone care, when I close my accounts.
I mainly want BankMW to stop this crap and to know that they're losing a customer as a direct result. I just wish I had a mountain of money in their bank so they would actually notice, let alone care, when I close my accounts.
What's the difference between a credit union and a bank?
Credit unions are co-ops essentially. Banks are for profit corporations. Any profits in a CU (which will be small) are given as dividends to depositors. Also, deposits (up to whatever amount that is now is it $100k?) are insured by the FCIU instead of the FDIC.
Banks can take nearly as long as they want to post checks and deposits to accounts but I believe they need to have a reason for doing so. If they are doing it to make money on service fees by manipulating your account, it is probably illegal. I had a class that was on banks about a year ago. As I said, they can hold on posting checks and deposits to your account. Typically they post checks first and deposits second. It is not entirely illegal for them to do this but if they're doing it to make money and if you can prove they are posting much slower than they use to (bank statements would prove this), you may have a case. Tell them that unless they post in a timely manner, which you said they use to do, you're going to switch to a different bank. Give them a chance, if they fail, make the switch.
No offense, but if that was supposed to be a business letter, it missed. What you've written is a rant, but there's nothing at all in it that would give the bank the information it would need to investigate your problem.
First of all, it's extremely unlikely that the Treasury is sending paper checks to another bank. These days it's done electronically. If so, and if there's a delay as you've said, chances are that something has gotten garbled so that the fund transfer requires human attention. Give the bank the exact dates of the transaction you checked on with the Treasury. Ditto the transfers you said take days.
As written, the letter you posted simply sounds like you've decided they're conspiring against you. I'm sure they want all the fees they can get but what you're describing would simply require more labor, which costs lots of money, than it would be worth.
My advice, now that you've written what you feel, tear it up and write a letter with facts and figures.
Jan
First of all, it's extremely unlikely that the Treasury is sending paper checks to another bank. These days it's done electronically. If so, and if there's a delay as you've said, chances are that something has gotten garbled so that the fund transfer requires human attention. Give the bank the exact dates of the transaction you checked on with the Treasury. Ditto the transfers you said take days.
As written, the letter you posted simply sounds like you've decided they're conspiring against you. I'm sure they want all the fees they can get but what you're describing would simply require more labor, which costs lots of money, than it would be worth.
My advice, now that you've written what you feel, tear it up and write a letter with facts and figures.
Jan
I'm not doing that much work unless I decide to file an official complaint with authorities, not when there's a bank right across town that's not trying to systemically fuck its customers.
But if you're right and they're not going to quit holding my checks until I can spend the day on the phone with the IRS so I can give the bank a laundry list of specifics then I guess I'll save this for when I'm finally in position to close my accounts at Bank Midwest. It'll be like a real-life flounce.
Of course, I've already started to pay the IRS from my brand new good-bank checking account. Hey Babaganoosh, my good bank provides their credit cards through your bank, so I kind of have an account with them too!
But if you're right and they're not going to quit holding my checks until I can spend the day on the phone with the IRS so I can give the bank a laundry list of specifics then I guess I'll save this for when I'm finally in position to close my accounts at Bank Midwest. It'll be like a real-life flounce.
Of course, I've already started to pay the IRS from my brand new good-bank checking account. Hey Babaganoosh, my good bank provides their credit cards through your bank, so I kind of have an account with them too!
Smaller, local banks are good; otherwise, go with a credit union. My credit union offers interest bonus payments at the end of each calendar year.
Go straight to the top in the complaints ladder. Well just below ombudsmen. Don't faff with the instore branchy people - all smiles, no action!
I greatly understand your complaints and feelings on the matter, don't get me wrong (I'd probably, and have felt the same way about banks before), but people posting above are correct, it would be a better idea to list dates and what the issues are. As it is, someone's going to get this letter, read it and go "Who the fuck's this asshole? Fuck him, and fuck his problems" but if you write it as others have mentioned, then likely, they'd go "Huh...seems like a serious issue, better check it out"
With that said, if you're doing business with another bank anyway, and are more comfortable there, it's probably less of a hassle to combine all of your business into that one bank, if not to save yourself a trip/stop, but likely time and gas as well. At least that's what I would do, because it's also one less thing to deal with in the big run (whether it's because of online maintenance, balancing the account, whatever).
With that said, if you're doing business with another bank anyway, and are more comfortable there, it's probably less of a hassle to combine all of your business into that one bank, if not to save yourself a trip/stop, but likely time and gas as well. At least that's what I would do, because it's also one less thing to deal with in the big run (whether it's because of online maintenance, balancing the account, whatever).
