WTF is going on with the Bank Industry

hmurchisonhmurchison
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
My God this is insane! First we get bludgeoned with ATM fees and now some banks are charging $2 for an Inquiry??????? I bank with Key Bank. How many of you have banks that charge for Inquiries? I find this totally assinine. BTW I did my inquiry at a Keybank ATM and was never notified of any charges. Ahhhhhhh I see...if I'm not rolling in dough then I don't deserve to actually benefit from utilizing a Bank...silly of me to be so naive <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />



Why doe Banks suck and has anyone found a Bank that's better than this mediocrity that is Key Bank?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    I recently called my bank's toll free number to get the balance on our business account (long story as to why I would need this...), and they wanted $5 to tell me over the phone, how much of MY ****ing money THEY had!



    After years of personal and business banking, I have come to a conclusion. All banks are evil and should not be trusted. Give them half a chance, and they will bend you over on the spot.



    If I'm even in a bank and someone tries to rob it, I'm holding the door open for the guy.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,423member
    Murbot...OMG if you hadn't written that I wouldn't believe it! $5!!! An inquiry is so that you know how much is in your account. This is totally crazy. American Banks better hope there's not a cheaper way for us to Bank outside of the Border. I'm becoming quickly fed up with their "convenience" charges. Who's it a convenience for ..the Bank or the Customer? Sad.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    pfflampfflam Posts: 5,053member
    I used to live in Iowa City and the bank there was not so bad...well it wasn't really a bank it was the University of Iowa Credit Union.



    I just started an account at Mellon Bank then that same week I find that they "lost" millions of dollars worth of tax refunds..... turns out the workers were swamped with work and didn't have time to proccess them so they deliberately destroyed them.... millions of dollars! Next time I turned around my bank was changing its name to Citizen's Bank . . . yeah, like who's gonna believe that . . .they're 'for' the common citizen.....
  • Reply 4 of 12
    gustavgustav Posts: 827member
    There's a couple of things you can do:



    1. Move all your savings to ING Direct - no fees - ever, and really good interest rates. Unfortunately, you still need a chequing account to move money to and fro.



    2. Ask about a "minimum balance" account. My bank charges no fees if I keep a minimum balance of $2000.



    3. Negotiate. Find the bank with the lowest fees, don't switch to them. Go to your current bank and say "If you don't beat bank x's fees, I'm withrawing all of my money and taking my business to bank x." Most of them will play ball, especially if they want your business. If the teller or banking officer won't play ball, go to the bank manager.



    I agree the fees are ridiculous. My favourite is the fees to use ATMs and Internet banking. They're saving money by being able to fire a few tellers, and they have the gaul to charge you for it!
  • Reply 5 of 12
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Ahh... another reason I'm glad I keep my huge wads of bash stuffed in my mattress...
  • Reply 6 of 12
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Fortunately there's still quite a bit of competition among banks, even in small cities.



    [quote]Originally posted by pfflam:

    <strong>I used to live in Iowa City and the bank there was not so bad...well it wasn't really a bank it was the University of Iowa Credit Union.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    Did you go to grad school there? My wife did an internship there a few years ago, and I spent quite a bit of time there.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    pfflampfflam Posts: 5,053member
    [quote]

    quote:

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Originally posted by pfflam:

    I used to live in Iowa City and the bank there was not so bad...well it wasn't really a bank it was the University of Iowa Credit Union.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Did you go to grad school there? My wife did an internship there a few years ago, and I spent quite a bit of time there.

    <hr></blockquote>



    Yes I did. I studied Art in the Intermedia Department. Its a nice place, very urbane for a small town in the middle of corn fields and hog farms.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    trick falltrick fall Posts: 1,271member
    Banks are evil and getting worse. I only use a credit union and dread having to get a commercial bank account. I like to blame a couple of things for this, mergers, deregulation & the simple fact that it is almost ipossible to be a member of today's society without a bank account.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Credit Unions! Join one if you can. I belong to Navy Federal. Great service.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    delosicdelosic Posts: 5member
    Here is something that is interesting. I work at a bank and our policy and that of every other bank in the area that I know of is this -



    Let's say you have a 100.00 balance. Today, you make a 1000.00 deposit and have 900.00 worth of checks come in. You should still be 200.00 to the good right? Wrong. Most banks have a stipulation that says they reserve the right to process checks and deposits in the order that THEY want. Which of course means, you have 900.00 dollars in checks bounce and the bank gets to reap its $20 a piece overdraft charge BEFORE it processes your 1000.00 deposit.



    Nice huh?



    Delosic



    PS - I WORK at a bank, I BANK at a Credit Union
  • Reply 11 of 12
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    [quote]Originally posted by pfflam:

    <strong>I used to live in Iowa City and the bank there was not so bad...well it wasn't really a bank it was the University of Iowa Credit Union.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    The UI Credit Union is great.



    There are two other good banks in IC - not coincidentally, they're both local. At my bank (Iowa State Bank & Trust, one of the locals) there are no ATM fees, no charges for inquiries(!), and there's no minimum balance. Their (free) online banking requires only a browser capable of 128-bit encryption.



    It seems the bigger banks get, the worse they become. One local bank got bought out - and then the parent got bought out, and then that parent got bought out - and it instantly and dramatically went downhill. It sucks now, and it's losing clients left and right.



    I'm sorry to here that other cities aren't so fortunate.



    [ 02-01-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
  • Reply 12 of 12
    anarchangelanarchangel Posts: 33member
    [quote]Originally posted by pfflam:

    <strong> I just started an account at Mellon Bank then that same week I find that they "lost" millions of dollars worth of tax refunds..... turns out the workers were swamped with work and didn't have time to proccess them so they deliberately destroyed them.... millions of dollars! Next time I turned around my bank was changing its name to Citizen's Bank . . . yeah, like who's gonna believe that . . .they're 'for' the common citizen..... </strong><hr></blockquote>



    I've been with mellon bank since I was 16 years old (I'm now 24) and I got sick of mellon. Thank all that is decent that they became citizen's bank. They already eliminated a lot of fees, and reduced others. I actually got charged $12 in wire fee for moving monies from an external account to my checking account. MY MONEY!
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