So long WaMu. I’m done with you. (For those of you ready to join me, and not interested in the story, jump to my escape plan.)
The last straw was two month’s statements closing with a missing $18. I still use paper statements and checks for my banking, and balance my checkbook every month—like my grandfather taught me. For similarly cautious reasons, when WaMu collapsed and was seized by the FDIC, I printed out a current statement from online and suggested you do the same. I’m still getting ridicule for this. Bankers seem to think anyone foolish enough to mistrust their honesty or competence are fools. Digging after my missing $18, Chase finally fessed up to a ‘service charge’ on my formerly free checking. My account predated the current WaMu free checking program. Upon the transfer over to Chase, it became a $1500 minimum account. Chase quietly started pocketing money from my account. I caught them. I’m done.
Chase’s business strategy for years—to the extent the financial industry has any strategy at all beyond ultra-short-term greed—has been to fee the shit out of their retail banking customers. Failing at the idiotically simple task of lending at slightly higher interest rate then they pay to their depositors, all of the remaining superbanks are resorting to ever higher and pettier fees to return to profitability, while still reliant upon public funds to operate. It’s sociopathic; as for-profit businesses, they must be sociopathic. What’s going on here are the banks are switching from being incompetent sociopaths to competent sociopaths. Their stocks have been rising on the good news.
Back when I was still living in Baltimore, I left (what was First National when I joined, then Allfirst, and then finally became) Bank of America after a similar pocketing of cash. Bank of America cashed a check I had deposited in their ATM, but failed to credit my account. Faced with the canceled check, with my account number and name clearly on the front and back and the Allfirst stamp indicating they had cashed the check, they refused to credit my account. I demanded all my money and walked right across the hall to the Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union. Bank of America’s latest innovation in screwing over customers is something called balance chasing. It’s a brilliant way to take advantage of the newly draconian consumer bankruptcy bill and make a qick profit from the total downfall of people who otherwise would be likely to make it. Nice work, boys! Short term private profit at the cost of long term public debt.
In my opinion—and as many note time and time again, I’m a biologist not an economist or financial adviser. Take my thoughts seriously or as advice at your own peril—anyone still doing retail banking at one of the huge, bailout dependent banks, is a sucker. The banks think you’re a sucker, and are rapidly proliferating the ways they can separate you from whatever meager savings and financial security you can muster. Leave them.
Yes, all of these banks are FDIC insured. And the FDIC is amazingly competent at what it does. Staying with one of these failed banks is like getting into a car of a totally drunk friend because he has insurance “and dude, it’ll cover whatever medical costs of anyone I hurt would have to pay.”
Why do we need banks? The multiplier effect. For every dollar you deposit in your bank, the bank is legally allowed to lend out several dollars. Those lent dollars allow people to buy cars, homes or other stuff now. These spent dollars can, in turn, be saved or spent again. With a bank, your dollar allows the economy to grow and expand. A bank’s biggest societal benefit is to lend money wisely; it’s the task these huge banks have proven totally incapable of.
So, if you’re ready to leave the big banks, there’s an obvious place to go: Credit Unions. Like banks, you can deposit, write checks and even earn a bit of interest for lending your money. And like banks, credit unions give out loans—typically carefully vetted mortgages and auto loans. Credit unions have their own Federally-backed insurance system, very much like the FDIC, called the NCUA. The biggest difference between credit unions and banks? Credit unions are non-profit. A credit union has all the societal benefits of a bank with none of the sociopathy. A winner.
A Chase exec will tell you “all this hippy non-profit shit sounds great now, but what are you going to do when you need an ATM and your little crappy credit union, with only one branch, is across town?” Credit unions have banded together, allowing members of one to use the ATMs and even the branches of others.
1. I opened an account at the Boeing Employee Credit Union. The ATM card works for free at the Group Health Co-op credit union, WSECU and BECU ATMs right next to my house and workplaces.
2. For when I just need an ATM, I opened a Schwab high-yield saving account. Schwab, for now, will pay any ATM fee for withdrawals at any ATM. WaMu ATMs. Chase ATMs. Shitty high fee ATM at the corner store. Any.
It took a month for my last WaMu checks to clear and now I’m done and about to get the cashier’s check for the rest of my remaining balance. It’s working. I couldn’t be happier going back to not worrying about my bank. You might want to join me.
Updated:
Just be clear, as I’ve gotten a few concerned emails, these mystery fees showed up on the detailed, end of month, printed balance sheet and online a few days after they were assessed. But only as a “service fee” with no details of why I was charged. I caught the discrepancy when I noticed an ATM balance of my account was off. The discovery of this $1500 minimum took a few calls and messages.
I also love using QuickenOnline or Mint.com to keep track of all of my spending, and discover fees before the end of the month.
For credit card holders, particularly with Chase or Bank of America, watch out for a sudden decrease in your grace period (the time they give you to pay off your balance in full if you don’t want a finance charge.) The banks are looking for a way to gouge people who rigorously avoid finance fees. Discover has never fucked with me in this way.
Or take your BECU card and go to any debit terminal such as a grocery store and get cash back there. Who uses cash these days anyway? I left WAMU a year ago at the urging of my wife and joined her account at BECU. I thought I would miss the free atms but I haven’t yet.
I thought you could use BECU cards at 7-eleven ATM’s for free too.
Bizarrely, the ATMs in 7-11s are on the Co-op Network (which I believe BECU is a member of).
Amen. I left WAMU for BECU two years ago and couldn’t be much happier with the results.
As a former employee of a US Senator, I’m a member of the US Senate Federal Credit Union. You can only imagine how safe my money is. It’s only got one branch (in the Hart Senate Office Building) that I know of, but it’s not hard to find ATMs on their network that don’t charge.
I’ve also heard great things (I’m a member and use them for insurance, but not banking) about USAA Bank. It’s also non-profit, and not everyone qualifies to be a member (my dad was a naval officer). I don’t think it’s a credit union, but still a great institution where you can get insurance for everything and at the end of the year they send any left over money to members in the form of a check. Awesome. I’ve also had occurrence to put their car insurance to work. I called, told them what happened, what I needed, and they made it happen. I was shocked.
All this and I’m pretty sure they haven’t received any bailout money.
Amen, Brother Jonathan! I left the big BA for SECU of WA two years ago after 13 years of banking with them (hey, I’m slow) and have never been happier. It used to take calculus to figure out what my fucking balance was, because even though I was meticulous at writing shit down, they’d hold debit card charges for days, not cash checks for a while, and then mysterious run everything at once. Sure enough, I’d inevitably forgotten to write down the $5.43 I’d spent at the coffee cart last Tuesday, and then I’d get a series of overdrafts. I had no idea banks operated any other way until I was with the credit union, and now – as if by magic! – my balance is transparent and easy to know.
But never fear if you overdraw you BA checking account and have a credit card linked to it, because they’ll just take a cash advance from your credit card at nearly 30% interest, even though your interest for purchases is 11.5%. And your payments? They’ll get applied to everything that’s at 11.5% first, and the balance at 30% will compound. I started out with maybe 100 bucks at the 30% rate on my card and $1100 in purchases; I’d been making payments between $100 to $200 a month and the occasional purchase on top of that. After about a year and a half, that $100 had ballooned to $350 and my balance remained about the same as it had been two years before.
That’s when I went to the credit union, who gave me a credit card at 7.5% and accepted a balance transfer. Miraculously, I paid it off in a few months.
Oh! And the clincher? I lived overseas for two years, and the fucking BA would assess a fee of maybe 5 bucks every time I used an ATM, and then at the end of the month would assess another fucking fee for some percentage of money no one could explain to me! Once again, I’d end up overdrawn.
And don’t even get me started on how they process checks and debit card transactions so you rack up the maximum amount of overdraft fees. Fuckers! There is no reason to use a bank ever. Go credit union, baby.
I just realized that despite the fact that credit union ATMs are practically nonexistent in Columbus, I never use the damn things. I just get cash back at the grocery store.
Luckily Fifth Third Bank lets me do as I wish completely free. That Schwab savings account looks enticing, though.
I’ve been planning on bailing from Chase when Chrysler goes under. To maximize the statement (even if it’s still ultimately pretty insignificant). But yeah, I feel weird banking with such a place. Time for me to leave as well.
This is good to know. I don’t bank with WaMu, but I had a Visa card through them that is now a Chase card. I’ll be sure to make sure they’re not screwing me with weird fees.
And that’s not even getting into their “Guaranteed Great Rate” Money Market accounts, which have recently plunged to a spectacular 0.01% interest. BECU meanwhile? 0.75%.
Chase might as well be charging crazy fees if they’re going to claim that’s a free interest-bearing savings account.
I suppose when your customer acquisition strategy is to buy banks and then jerk the accountholders around, the idea of earning trust and goodwill through competitive rates seems absurd.
Chase and Bank of America aretapeworms. Americans need a financial parasite cleanse.
fuck — we switched over to Chase this past year after getting one too many phantom charges from Bank of America
Why have I not joined a credit union before? It makes so much sense. WaMu, you and me we’re done, professionally…
I’ve been a member of WSECU for at least 18 years and have been completely satisfied. There is a network with many free ATMs. All their policies seem rational, sensible and fair.
@5: I do use USAA for banking, and they live up to their reputation. They also do the “reimburse for outside ATM fees” routine – a nice feature, since their only ATMs are in San Antonio.
I think the membership requirements are looser on the banking side than for insurance.
Thanks, Jonathan.
Your post is so informative that I put it on my blog, glossypov.blogspot.com.
I hope to spread the information in your article to as many people as possible, even though I’m sure nobody reads my blog.
Still…
I too have been working on my plan for abandoning WAMU. They used to be nice. 15 years ago. But now I too will go elsewhere. Bye Bye WAMU.
Anyone can join GHCU (Group Health Credit Union), you don’t have to be a member or an employee. They are part of this credit union chain and it’s easy to find ATMs everywhere if you need one. I’ve been happy with them for 6 years: savings, checking, car loan and CD.
I’m a Chase customer now by way of my switch to WaMu, which occurred after BOA got intolerable some years after they had purchased Seafirst, where I opened my very first bank account.
I’m pretty sure that if they were charging you a fee it should have appeared as such on your bank statement – and I’ll be watching mine now to see if one appears and perhaps move elsewhere if need be (a $5.95 fee per month on my formerly free account was what drove me away from BOA, along with their really awful customer service and policies about how long it would take for some checks to clear and be credited to my account).
That said, though, I travel a fair amount, and loathe ATM fees, so I’m worried about access when I’m out and about. I know you can use debit and get cash (though 7/11 limits you to $10), and often do, but many places and/or times when I need cash finding a place to get it w/o paying exorbitant fees is inconvenient.
Ack.
@6 Hey TVDinner, I just cancelled my Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa today, because I got a notice in the mail that they would be henceforth charging an outright 3% fee on all transactions out of the US. That might be the BS fee BA was hitting you with overseas.
They also raised their fees on cash advances to 4%. I don’t mind paying interest if I carry a balance, but I don’t want to pay that kind of premium just for using the card. So I cancelled it. Meh.
I’ve had an account at WSECU for almost 20 years, and I wouldn’t leave it for a bank bank any day.
I just got the same notice from BofA in the mail myself.
And, since I own shares in BofA, I know they intentionally are overcharging for fees and credit cards – and still giving bonus amounts to CEO/execs.
Credit Union – the only way to fly!
The thing that puzzles me about banking in the States is that even with a credit union, they will not _stop_ giving you money. My account goes down, down… then I go to buy a $4 coffee (forgetting about the $10 in gas I bought earlier) and I only have $3. So it shouldn’t let me buy the coffee, right?
Wrong.
They let me buy the coffee, send my account negative and charge me $20 for the privilege. Meanwhile, I don’t know my account’s negative, because my card still works. So I get a sandwich for $5. And they charge me $20 for the privilege.
And when I went to them to say hey, quit doing this – just stop giving me money I don’t have, they said there was no way to do that and that I should be glad they only charged me $20 every time. They tried to argue that it was so if I was in, say, Kuala Lumpur and ran out of money, I could still get some! True… but which is more likely to happen? I lose track of my balance, or I get mugged in Kuala Lumpur?
Thankfully, I don’t work down there anymore. My money is now in a Canadian credit union with a minimal monthly fee, no minimum balance, no ridiculous overdraft requirements, unlimited transfers/bill payments…
I know credit unions are better than banks in either country, but can I humbly suggest that you hold them to a higher standard than not being completely brazen daylight robbers?
Oh – and did I mention that they have text-message banking as well? I love my credit union.
I did the exact same thing – signed up with BECU a little more than a month ago and have used the time to transfer all my automatic deposits and automatic payments to the new account. The last auto payment just transferred and I will be leaving WAMU next week. YEAH!
I have no problem accessing their ATMs (and BECU is putting in more all the time). I love their bill pay – it lays out the details so clearly I can get a good handle on where my $ is going. I love my credit union!
Re: 14 & 20 — I’m a member of WSECU also, and love it. I opened a high-yield HSBC online savings account several years ago, too…it’s a pretty great arrangement to get higher-than-average interest back, but still have the money accessible (unlike if it were in a CD).
I almost never use ATMs, since I always get cash back when I go grocery shopping. And being able to go to any nearby credit union is handy. Seriously, when you live in a place like Seattle and there are so many credit unions to choose from, there is really no point to being at a commercial bank. DTMFA.
You know what’s even more priceless than a MasterCard commercial? Writing a check to the US Treasury from your Bank of America account, and then realizing that some of that money is going right back to the bank in the form of a bailout.
Oh the line forms on the right dear
Now that Macky’s back in town
Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union (SMCU) is also a great pick. It’s open to all residents. Got fed up with BofA about five years ago and have been very happy with their service and transparency.
The banks have been borrowing from the Fed at .25% and raising credit card rates to 14-18%. They’re trying to rebuild their balance sheets with the huge spread.
Many of the Credit Unions are still charging 8-9% on credit card debt.
I have been getting tons of notices from banks about my credit cards – I wasn’t really paying any attention until I realized the finance charge on my BoA account was larger than before, even though I’d been paying the balance down. Turns out they had doubled my interest rate from 11.9% to 24.9%, just because – I’ve never even been late on that card, and haven’t been late on any of my credit card payments for two years.
I’ve been trying really hard to improve my credit over the last 3 years, apparently for naught. At least I’ll be able to pay that motherfucker off at the end of this month. I think I’ll be switching over to BECU as well. Yay for credit unions!
This is just precious, Jonathan.
Is Boeing any more solvent given its current decline in orders than a NYC bank?
My preference is to move from Wamu to a local SLA such as Evergreen.
I mean how often to you actually get cash at a cash machine now that everybody has debit card payment?
@29 “…..Turns out they had doubled my interest rate from 11.9% to 24.9%, just because – I’ve never even been late on that card,…”
This is happening to many people and not just you, and many credit card issuers are raising their rates….even to thier best customers. We had the same experience with Chase Visa and Bank of America Visa. Upon notice from Chase Visa, I telephoned their service desk and demanded a lower rate. They wouldn’t budge. I paid off the account and put the credit card in a desk drawer. I telephoned Bank of America Visa and demanded a lower rate. They lowered it by 25% and gave me a 12 month promotional rate of 1.9% for balance transfers only.
I don’t want to cancel any cards as this will lower my avaiability of total credit, and this would potentially impact my credit score by lowering it. I think it is better to pay the cards off as quickly and reasonably as possible; put them in a safe place and use them enough so that the credit card companies won’t unilaterally close the account and screw up one’s credit score.
I just got my first $15 monthly fee for the privilege of having a Bank of America checking account. Fuck this, I’m out.
Verity Credit Union, yay. Pays 3.5% on the first $25k in your checking account, no fees, no minimum. I’ve searched around and I’m pretty sure it’s the best interest rate in the nation, or at least very close. And they are NICE. They uses all the same networks as BECU and Group Health, very convenient.
I’ve been a happy customer at Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union for years now. Finding ATMs isn’t really a problem with the co-op network (and the free machines in 7-11s). But the perception of fewer ATM options helped enable a change in my behavior — I keep more cash on hand now. I generally withdraw a set amount of cash for discretionary spending at the start of the month. Helps me stay on budget.
My bank only has one ATM in town, right at the branch. They also cover any ATM fees from anywhere else, but you know what? I never fucking use cash. If I were going out to a club and needed to pay a cover charge, I would need cash, but that happens with all the frequency of cicadas emerging nowadays.
I just dropped B of A like a hot bag of doo doo a couple of months ago and got an account at Verity CU. They have a branch right up the street from my place, and you can use any of the coop ATMs (Verity, BECU, Group Health, etc.) to withdraw or deposit without any charges. And yes, @34, the Velocity account rocks.
I researched credit unions a bit before I made the jump. Here are a couple of good links:
Why credit unions are awesome:
http://www.fool.com/money/banking/bankin…
Find a credit union:
http://www.findacreditunion.com/
Also agree with Golob about using Mint, although I discovered that they don’t support Verity yet, so I switched to Yodlee Moneycenter.
Btw, B of A fought hard to get me to keep my account. They said, “even if you take all your money out, you should leave it open, just in case you ever want to come back to it.” Bullshit. Don’t do it. They’d be just as happy to sign you up for a new account if hell froze over and you decided to go back. By closing it, you eliminate the risk of accidentally charging something to the account and incurring an overdraft fee (yep, I did that.)
Thanks for mentioning “balance chasing”. This JUST happened to me a couple of days ago, with my BofA credit card. I had never really heard of this, but when it happened, I was sure they were trying to screw my by making me go over my limit.
I also would like to close my Bank of America account. I have been looking at credit unions. I don’t give a shit about ATMs, I rarely use them. What I do care about is business banking (which most seem to have) and actual branch locations. I have Tuesdays off, so every week on Tuesday, I like to walk into an actual branch and deposit all my money into my various accounts, and do whatever else I need to do. I often have a big mix of lots of checks and sometimes a chunk of cash, way more stuff than I feel comfortable dealing with at the ATM. I also live in Ballard, and the problem seems to be that there is no real credit union branch in Ballard. Supposedly, there are “banking centers” in a bunch of 7-11, but I don’t really feel like hanging out with the crackheads in 7-11 while I’m trying to do banking. For Slurpees, yes. This, no. I hear a rumor that BECU is opening a real branch on Market (which isn’t ideal, as parking there can be totally shitty.
My question is, if BECU doesn’t pan out for me, what else would be a good idea? What about smaller, local banks? We were looking at Key Bank (which is super convenient, but I don’t know if I trust them, they are not small) and Homestreet. I know there are tons of banks around here that aren’t the big ones, but I don’t know anything about them. Help!
@31 BECU is a completely separate entity from Boeing.
Most credit unions like BECU are not beholden to shareholders whose interest is in making money off of you NOT for you. BECU’s Board of Directors is all volunteer and have BECU’s members’ best interests in mind when making decisions, not their annual bonus.
Bella: I do not know exactly where you live in Ballard, but most credit unions participate in shared branching. Join one, and you can use the branches and tellers of others to get your banking done.
@30: Keep abusing your customers. Please.
The second I heard Chase bought WaMu I knew I was going to close my accounts there. My previous experiences with them and B of A sucked. In November I moved my accounts over to FirstTech Credit Union where my partner banks. I was nervous about not having easy access to a branch, but their are a number of ATMs locally that I am able to use, so it hasn’t been an issue at all.
Bella, I believe BECU has a retail branch located inside the Safeway store located at about 87th and
Greenwood Ave.
@ 32 – My hunch is that this is the banks’ strategy – it’s a win-win for them: Jack the interest rates, cut credit lines – people freak and start paying off balances. More cash flow for them. The other ‘win’ is that for those who can’t pay off balances – more interest made off of them. Then, if/when the economy rebounds, sucker everybody back into debt and let it start all over again.
Thinking of my relationship with Chase fills me with nausea. Years ago they acquired one of my credit cards (that had been with another bank), TRIPLED my interest rate, and because I was in school and on a very fixed income, was financially strangled by them. Years later I am still paying that damned card off. After a complaint filed with the AG’s office, I got Chase to “make nice” with me, and now that card’s interest is only 19.99 percent.
So kind, aren’t they?
It didn’t end there – they acquired my student loan servicer, and then my bank of many years, WAMU.
2 months ago I ended up nudging beyond my checking into my seldom-used line of credit. For that I ended up getting charged an additional $58 in “interest charges” – which after 3 go-arounds of a so-called explanation from a customer service rep, I gave up trying to understand. I’ve just resolved to not ever use that line of credit again and pay off the balance however I can.
Jonathan, your post is a wake-up call, and very unnerving. I would love nothing more than to leave Chase/WAMU but fear their retribution on the balances I owe and can’t quickly pay off. Then again, these robber barons may choose to screw me anyway.
I do not understand how banks can get away with their tactics – changing loan terms to suit their demands while gauging their customers – all the while getting bailed out with our taxes.
How is the President and Congress allowing this to happen?! It HAS to stop.
I have never had an account at a bank. I have used credit unions since I opened my first checking account when I was 18. I have no complaints, and am currently go through a re-fi for my mortgage at SMCU and was able to get locked in at 4.5.%. Yay for credit unions!
I have a FICO score over 800, and had a Chase credit card that I had not used in over a year. Apparently one of my subscriptions auto-renewed (without notifying me, of course) and charged to the dormant Chase credit card. I didn’t open the envelope from Chase for a few weeks because I figured it was just another solicitation. I then received a letter in the mail from Chase notifying me that they had closed my credit card account for being 30 days late on a balance of $19.95, which would have been the first late payment I’ve ever had.
I called Chase Visa and said I was sorry, but since I had not actively used the card, I didn’t realize there was a balance owed until I got the letter, but that I’d gladly pay it right away. The asswipe rep said, “Too late, we’ve closed your account and charged off the balance, so you don’t need to pay it.”
Apparently they found it more profitable to get rid of me as a customer (since I wasn’t using the card and generating interest for them), than to have me pay the amount owed and keep it open. To top it off, they ALSO reported me as a late payor to the credit bureaus. (After a demand letter on that issue, their solution was to remove my credit card account from their reporting files altogether, so it now no longer shows up in my credit report for the 5 years of on-time payments or the 1 month of 30-day late).
I had a WaMu Visa card too that I used as my primary credit card. When Chase acquired them, I canceled it.
Fuck the bastards.
I believe the government has set new rules making it illegal for credit card companies to raise rates on existing balances. Unfortunately, that rule isn’t set to take effect for several months, but it’s a start.
“For credit card holders, particularly with Chase or Bank of America, watch out for a sudden decrease in your grace period”
Also watch out for this little trick, shifting the due date ahead several days without warning, hoping to catch you paying late. With so many folks using automatic payments, it’s very easy to get caught by this, you have to wait for a paycheck to deposit before you make your next payment. Then they’ll jack your interest rate up to 20%. This has happened to me with both the BofA Alaska Air card, and with the Chase Amazon card. I had a large balance with them on one of their super cheap interest rates, this allowed them to jack the rate way up.
Fortunately I was able to transfer those balance out to another card (finally got around signing up for my credit unions card!). But many people may not be able to.
I’ve been using credit unions for a long time now, but I had a basic free checking account at WaMu, mainly to make it easy to keep track of my minor free lancing income. But all this nonsense is prompting me to finally close it.
And yes, if your CU is on the COOP network, you can use the ATM at any 7-11. I’m surprised there aren’t more CU offices other than BECU/Safeway in Ballard though.
Thanks for the comments, I checked out the CU Service Centers this morning before I posted my comment, and unfortunately the closest full service branch of any credit union is nearly 3 miles from my zip code! I am aware of the BECU in Safeway, and I will probably end up going with them, even though the Safeway “branch” is not full service because they are opening the full service branch on Market in July. I am also aware that all of the 7-11 atms are CU “banking centers” but, again, ATMs are for the most part, not for me. I haven’t used an ATM for over two months, and I never use them for deposits.
I’m sure it sounds mighty picky that I have no interest in using ATMs, or that 3 miles is too far to go to the bank. Right now, I can walk to the bank, it seems silly to have to get in the car to go (or ride the bus). I was hoping to get some more info about small local banks, or that someone knew of a secret, hidden credit union in Ballard/Greenwood!
Maybe someone should do some research for those of us who want to get away from big banks and write an article!
😀
Seriously, it would be great to know what the best “banks” are, and how they stack up to credit unions, etc. I will be doing a lot of research on my own though, I’m certainly not going to make any hasty decisions.
Right now banks can pretty much fuck you over any way they can with fees and penalties and have the full support of the government, as long as they don’t have to ask for a bailout.
Here is my Fuck You WaMu story:
I instigated a direct deposit on Wednesday which typically takes two days every time I have done it.
My assumption was it would be done by Friday so I am using my debit card during the weekend and notice it had not been deposited on Friday. No big deal since none of my debits will clear till midnight Monday night. So Monday night comes and all my debits for the weekend are charged with one as small as $1.50 for parking but STILL no direct deposit.
For some strange reason the direct deposit hits early Tuesday morning. Everything always happens at midnight and usually deposits happen first. I called and they said they even had direct deposit request first thing on Monday but it did not show until Tuesday morning. So the maximum overdrafts they can charge in one day is SEVEN and at $34 each that’s $238! My weekend debits and the $238 basically clears out my account including what I was suppose to eat with for the week. The manager refuses to do shit and says the system has got his back since they need to make money anyway they can. The 1-800 supervisor removes ONE fee just as a courtesy since at that point I was pretty much in tears after $238 in fees took everything I was suppose to eat with. The system is rigged for them to milk as much out of you as they can. In the future if there is any question I will just make one big withdrawal of cash that way the risk is only one overdraft fee. Fuck them!
@48: Bella, HomeStreet may be a bank but it isn’t awful. For one, it’s privately owned, so there aren’t shareholders lobbying it to do risky things with its capital; plus, it’s been around since 1923, so it has survived a Depression and learned lessons from it, unlike Washington Mutual (1889-2008); HomeStreet also supports the Zoo and many other local programs and charitable organizations. The majority of my accounts are with credit unions, but we got our mortgage through HomeStreet a decade ago and it has never been sold, plus HomeStreet has an affinity lending program that can reduce processing and refinance fees.