Flees... fleas....

Again. The dangers and perils of homonyms.

...and free is the flea on the body of the fee.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine…

Could you guys do a survey on credit union fees for overdraft, usage, etc?

I know SECUWA charges $4 for overdraft (and 10 pct APR until paid) but what do the other credit unions charge.

I'm sick and tired of Chase lining up things to get the largest amount of fees they can.

5/3rd? Cincinnati wins the douche competition again.

@3

BECU can set up a line of credit (don't know the rates) or withdraw overdrafts on checking accounts from your savings (how I'm set up).

Account disclosure:
https://www.becu.org/livefiles/13/166/Cu…

Just ditched Chase and BofA.

My credit union has always done this...

Who the hell has no activity in their bank account for a year?

#8: I haven't used one credit card in four years. The company introduced mandatory arbitration, gave a humongous sum to Bush's re-election campaign, then it was taken over by Bank of America who shortened my grace period. My credit score was okay when I first got the card, then excellent by the time the credit card issuer started jerking my terms and conditions around. Why should I give them any money through transaction fees until they restore my credit card contract to 2000-era conditions?

Closing old accounts can hurt your credit score. They've got their former borrowers by the balls.

I don't think fees are fleas, Charles. I think they're more like parasites. Tapeworm, to be specific.

How much will they charge me for not having that card at all?

During 2008 and early 2009 BOFA and Amex allowed a total of 5 shady companies to make unauthorized monthly deductions from my checking and credit card accounts, respectively, raised fees and decreased my credit account limits. One of these companies was identified only by its 1-866 toll free number on my Amex statements. When I called that number, I got a recording urging me to call another 1-866 number, where "exciting people were waiting to talk to me." How the HELL did a phone porn operation get hold of my Amex account #, and why did Amex let it ding my account (fortunately it dinged me only once before I caught on)????

US Bank, in accordance with its 5 Star DIS-Service Guarantee, dragged me through hell for NINE MONTHS forcing me to engage in an effort that was like the 13th Labor of Hercules to pry loose an account I inherited last fall from a deceased relative. This relative had held the account not in his own name, but in the name of a family trust of which I am the sole trustee. Over these 9 months I made 14 trips in person to 3 different branches of US Bank in 2 states trying to discover exactly why the bank would not permit me to close this account. I wrote certified letters to the bank and to the Washington AG's Consumer Protection Division to try to get help with this problem. I placed 6 phone calls and made 2 trips in person to the Seattle branch of the IRS to try to obtain a tax ID number that the bank insisted had to EXACTLY MATCH the name of the trust. The IRS would NOT (REPEAT NOT, NOT, NOT, as in NEVER) issue me a tax ID number in that trust's name because it just so happens that there are hundreds of identically named trusts all across the United States. This totally did not matter to the clueless and lackadaisical US Bank staff--including the branch manager of my home branch, which is why I stopped wasting my time there and tried to get help at 2 other branches. During these 9 months, 2 of the 3 branch managers I dealt with quit their jobs and I had to start over with new clueless US Bank staff members. FINALLY, a US Bank VP in downtown Seattle (who, BTW, never would return my phone calls--probably because in his mind VP = VIP) got a brainstorm that US Bank COULD after all accept a tax ID number issued in the name of the trust IF the name were followed by the date the trust was created. If this simple, easy to understand, easy to implement requirement had been conveyed to me on DAY ONE, I could have saved literally DAYS of my time trying to resolve this problem, not to mention incalculable amounts of emotional distress.

The problem is that commercial banks these days are desperately cutting corners in every way they possibly can in order to restore profitability. One of the ways they do so is by hiring very young, very underpaid, very poorly trained, and very poorly supervised staff to work in very stressful jobs in their retail branches. By screwing retail customers in ever more ingenious ways, commercial banks have utterly lost track of the idea that long term profitability might somehow be connected with long term positive relationships with their customers.

Each of these corporate bloodsuckers recently hoovered 10s of $$ billions in US taxpayer bailouts, and now they are hoovering even more out of customers by sticking us with jacked up fees and interest rates--the new "credit account inactivity fee" is merely the "fee de jour" as far as they're concerned.

Another outrage is the games they're playing with upside down mortgage customers who desperately need loan restructuring so they keep their homes. Banking regulators should set deadlines, e.g., 5 working days, for banks to either tell these folks "Yes, we can and will help you get your mortgage restructured," or "No, your situation is beyond our ability to help, you should move out of your home and into a rental." Instead, commercial banks are keeping many of these people twisting in the wind for months, which is just not right. It isn't even in the best long term interest of banks that repo these homes because damaged and empty houses degrade property values and ultimately become toxic assets that these banks will ultimately have to dispose of in ways that are expensive and cumbersome.

In the wake of this fiasco, it behooves all of us to pay off ALL our debts ASAP--especially those owed to commercial banks. We can also do ourselves a huge favor by starting accounts with non-profit credit unions, which are owned and operated by and for their members. After getting everything switched over, we should cut up our old bank cards and send them to the thugs and gangsters who are the CEOs of the loathesome, conniving financial institutions that trashed the banking system, and tell them why we will never let ourselves be parasitized ever again.

I recently moved my accounts to BECU, where fees are massively lower and the staff seems to actually know what they are doing. I got a 6.9% FIXED APR on my new VISA card, and a substantially higher credit limit than I requested--higher than the one on my old BOFA VISA account before BOFA lowered it and raised fees without ever explaining why. It wasn't because my credit rating declined--I checked out and confirmed that it was still quite good. BECU also said the only way my APR will ever go up is if I fail to make a payment for 60 consecutive days. A 6.9% VISA FOR LIFE???!!! Who would have thought this to be possible??? Certainly not me.

These days credit unions offer the same exact same services--checking, savings, loans, a nationwide network of free ATMs--as commercial banks without the funky come ons and bells and whistles. Chase, for example, offers customers a $100 reward to get their friends to start new accounts. After what I've been through in the past 18 months, there is NO FUCKING WAY I would EVER give even my worst enemy a cup of that Kool-Aide.

Fuck them all--I hope all commercial banks crater and burn in the lowest rung of Chapter 11 hell and emerge as tiny, shriveled husks of their former monstrous corporate selves.