SPI360

The short version of why I left the bank and went to a credit union?  Because Wells Fargo Bank sucks!

It was a lot easier than I had expected, and if felt better than I imagined. Wells Fargo had been my bank for 10 years, but last summer they started to really piss me off. Even still, I procrastinated for almost six months before finally bringing the hammer down. Even though the final straw was caused by a small error on my part, it was the money thirsty reaction from the bank that broke my back.

It started last summer, during a routine payday trip to the drive through. The over friendly teller informed me that Wells Fargo was no longer going to offer me a free checking account, instead they would soon be deducting money on a monthly basis. I was now going to be charged for giving them money to play with.

He told me that I did have choices, and ways to avoid the fee. If I kept enough minimum balance, or put and keep money in the lowest APR savings account on the planet, I could avoid the $10/month fee.  My response was somewhere along the lines of, “yeah, I’ll find another bank”.

The biggest kicker, was how he told me about the new change.  He said, “we are going to grandfather out the free checking.”  Grandfather out?  Did he just say that?  I’ve heard of things being grandfathered in, but not grandfathered out.

That was during summer  of 2011.  Fall came and the monthly service charge started flowing out of my checking account.  It was only $5 per month, so that was better than the ten dollars I was expecting, and led to my procrastination.  I also had a few things dialed in to that account, so I reasoned that it was too much hassle to change everything.  Paypal was set up with money on hold and there were still auctions underway on Ebay.

Then something else happened that upset me.  I decided to use the free bill pay feature, twice.  It took the bank almost two weeks to pay my bills, after I had initiated the transaction!  The money was taken from my checking account instantly, but somehow it took a tremendous amount of time to be credited to the recipient.  It was beyond eternity, by today’s digital standards!  There is only one reason to take so long.  They again play with money as long as they can, before letting go.  Adding to the insult, the bank can’t emphasize enough that it’s a free service to pay bills!  The problem is, you could walk and deliver your payment faster.

The bank not only takes forever to pay bills, because they are hastily gambling with our funds, but they also take their time to credit incoming deposits.  My paycheck would take 1 1/2 days to be available for withdrawal and money coming in from Paypal took 4-5 days.  When I called and rattled cages, I found that each side blamed the other as to why the funds took so long to migrate from one computer to another.  When I pushed further, I found that the blame usually belonged to Wells Fargo Bank.

Finally, the day came that I made a mistake.  Although I knew I was dancing near the danger zone of low funds, I also knew that I had declined overdraft protection.  A few years ago, legislation finally sided with the consumer and told the banks they had to have our signature, before charging us $35 for going into the red.  If you don’t sign, and decline the overdraft protection, purchases that you attempt to complete will be denied.  How extraordinary!!  A computer that can say no when asked to produce a negative number.  It’s not so complicated…or is it?

As it turns out, I found one day that automatic payments are different than purchases.  And they can cause an NSF, in spite of refusing the overdraft protection service.  As bad luck would have it, I decided to transfer money to another account two days before my weekly paycheck.  I didn’t need the funds sitting in the checking account and I thought nothing was on the books.  But Paypal took money to pay an Ebay invoice automatically, and also to pay for a shipping label.  The first $92 invoice payment took the balance to the red, and the $4 shipping label was then tossed into the mix.  Both transactions were paid, instead of denied, and I was charged $70 in combined NSF fees.

When I called the next day, the bank wouldn’t budge.  I tried calling back and talking to someone different.  I even threatened to pull the plug on my account.  For my lunch hour, I went to the nearest full service branch location and again tried to reason with the bank.  He said his hands were tied.  He said the people on the telephone actually had the power. Even if he did agree that a $35 fine on a $4 transaction was a bit steep, he said there was nothing he could do about it.  No one could, or would, even consider lifting at least one of the two NSF fees.

My account was in the red for less than 10 hours.  I found the mistake and immediately had funds transferred back to cover the shortage.  It was already old news and fixed before I got my first email from Wells Fargo about the problem.  But none of this was good enough for a money hungry bank that had been patiently waiting for a chance to charge the notorious NSF.  It’s their bread and butter; it helps to put another Ferrari in someone’s garage.

So, let’s break it down.  We put money into our checking account and slowly take away from the balance.  Even if we live paycheck to paycheck, there’s usually funds in there for a good portion of the week and often for up to two weeks.  All the while, the bank is playing with our money on the stock market, lending it to other people and who knows what else they do to gamble and increase profit.  The point is they use our money until we ask for it back.

We constantly lend them money.  But the moment you dip into the red, they point out that they are lending you money to make the payment and it comes with a $35 fee.  So, how much can we charge them for all the time we lend them money?  How much are they willing to share of the profits they make by investing our money?

If I kept my money in cash, and paid everything accordingly, who would suffer the most?  Me, or the bank?

I paid the NSF fees to Wells Fargo Bank two days after they hit, and I closed the account.  I then started the process to change Paypal over to my new account at Velocity Credit Union.  I also opened a savings account at -ing bank.  Both of my new banks pay me to lend them money.  It’ s not a lot, but it sure beats me having to pay a bank to hold my money for awhile.

Another note about my bad experience with Wells Fargo Bank: I had transferred funds from Paypal to my checking account on several occasions. Each time it took about 5 business days for the transfer to complete. But when my account was in the red, it only took 24 hours for a Paypal transfer to show up on my checking account balance.

My guess is that this is another example of federal regulation that actually considers the customer. If the account is at normal status, the bank is allowed to delay transfer while they play with the money. But if the account is in the negative, then they must post the transferred funds to the account immediately. This is just a hunch, but that’s how it played out with my experience.