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[MrAngryFace]

Im switching banks the instant I get back to Washington (since I have to go to my branch up there to close things up). Their whole 'for the customer' attitude is out the window. Its no longer a safe bank for students or people who live life on the financial edge, for any reason.

They recently raised overdraft rates to 25 dollars. Just recently they started doing after hour shit on yer account.

Example. You overdraft because at roughly 11:50 they withdraw money, 10 minutes later its replaced by a deposit made by say your employer. for that 10 minutes, you owe them 25 dollars. There's no way to get the money in before the day is up, and once a day 'ends' you owe the fee.

Now, the worst of it is the fee WHICH IS BANKSIDE isnt even tagged into your available balance (different from ledger balance) so unless you watch your online banking like a hawk you wont even notice since what occured, occured over a 10 minute period.

So they deduct your fee again, after hours. If you put enough in to bring things into the green previously, you better hope its more than 25 dollars or BAM overdraft fee creates overdraft which of course creates another fee.

You should get 24 hours from withdrawl to pay back the fee, this end of day shit sucks if they aren't going to give a chance to make it right.

 

[bishoptl]

Switch to ING Direct.

 

[Mashing]

Credit Unions (Pirates) pwn Banks (Ninjas)!

 

[element]

my bank rules!! 1st Tech Credit Union all the way!!

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

Credit Unions (Pirates) pwn Banks (Ninjas)!

So true. Ninjas suck. Pirates rule.

 

[Drinky Crow]

Everyone who uses First Tech Credit Union seems to have high praise for it -- I'm like the only person I know who hasn't switched. I'll probably do that in October here -- WaMu has been a huge pain in the ass.

 

[levious]

anyone who has immediate family in the military should switch to USAA... assuming you're comfortable with online banking, or live in San Antonio.

 

[White Man]

Everybody's been quick to sway me away from Washington Mutual, but without offering any alternatives.

 

[MrAngryFace]

WAMU rocked when the rodeo grandmas ran the show. Now its clear satan has murdered them and bathes in their blood as he fucks up policy.

 

[White Man]

A 25 dollar overdraft fee is cheaper than my Pennsylvania bank. And it was the cheapest PA bank as far as overdraft charges go. I forget whether it was 33 bucks or 35.

 

[MrAngryFace]

Well the fee raise I was cool with, its these weird ass 'after hours' 10 minute cover yer ass things that reek of fishy-ness. Of course if you cry foul they just bring up the whole you shouldnt overdraft anyway. Unfair!

Anyway, gonna switch banks.

 

[StoOgE]

a fee cannot create another fee... thats federal regulation.. so WAMU has either intentionally broken a federal law or you are wrong. I want to say its reg CC or reg EE but I cant be certain.

if that 10 minute window is true, that is shady as hell. the bank I worked at allways ran credits before debits and didnt asses fee's until 8:00 in the morning (meaning a cash deposit as soon as the bank opened would save you the fee since cash is imidiete credit).

In any case, thats nothing, the bank I worked for has 33 dollar overdraft fee's, and if you have overdraft protection with a credit card they hit you with a 10 dollar fee and a cash advance fee.

In any case, the bank has to have overdraft fee's, because

A) You are breaking a federal law. They could easily return the check, report you to cheque systems, and you would owe the bank the processing fee for bouncing a check as well as a fee to the person who the check is returned to.

b) You dont have any money at the bank, therefore they arent making money off of you. They spend alot of money staffing banks to take care of you, so they are going to hit you with fee's whenever possible so they can make profit with your account.

c) if they didnt have a fee or it was small, people would write bad checks all the time with reckless abandon, there has to be some sort of incentive not to.

For what its worth, all banks are evil corporations.. Im really not kidding, the tellers are forced to push crap down customers throats, if they dont sell enough products in a month they are fired. Its a very high pressure job. The bank that I worked at made over half of their anual income off of fee's.. meaning, overdraft fee's and returned check items, and ATM transaction fee's. Its how they all operate.

Your best bet is to go to a credit union. they are not for profit, really easy to join.. and their interest rates for both loans and payouts on your deposits are much better than a banks.

 

[explodet]

Switch to ING Direct.

I would, but the spokeperson creeps me out.
That and I'm lazy.

 

[levious]

yeah, you shouldn't really complain about overdraft fees, much better than allowing your check to bounce on the retailer's side.

 

[MrAngryFace]

Im willing to accept responsibility for being poor, but everything about the way WAMU handles things seems so damned fishy 'it happened after we were closed tough ha ha' I mean come on.

What made me mad was when I overdrafted and they took out the savings account I had set up to protect against it, and since it wasnt enough they kept the 25 and still charged me the overdraft fee. Fuckers. JUST LEMME KEEP MY 25 DOLLARS!

 

[xsarien]

I switched to Washington Mutual about two years ago, never had a problem with them. But then, I write about one check a month and made sure they realized that I wanted an ATM card, not a debit card.

Also, the zero fee ATMs are great, for both me and friends who have accounts at other banks. If there's one thing banks do that's officially shady, it's hitting people twice at the ATM.

 

[levious]

USAA reimburses you for up to 10 atm fees a month. Up to 1.50. Most around my area are 2.00, but I try to go only to the 1.50 ones, and 1.50 reimbursed is better than nothing anyway.

 

[StoOgE]

If there's one thing banks do that's officially shady, it's hitting people twice at the ATM.

Not the banks fault.

Say you go to bank one. Bank one charges you a fee then charges WAMU a fee because their customer is hassling them. WAMU then goes "well fuck xsarien, he's the little shit that used their ATM, he can pay it".

I guess it sucks that banks charge other banks when their customer uses an ATM, but ATM's are expensive as fuck and you dont want to just let non customers use them since you arent making money off of them anywhere.

 

[xsarien]

Not the banks fault.

Say you go to bank one. Bank one charges you a fee then charges WAMU a fee because their customer is hassling them. WAMU then goes "well fuck xsarien, he's the little shit that used their ATM, he can pay it".

I guess it sucks that banks charge other banks when their customer uses an ATM, but ATM's are expensive as fuck and you dont want to just let non customers use them since you arent making money off of them anywhere.

I know it's not the bank's fault, but it doesn't stop it from being shady.

 

[SFA_AOK]

Not the banks fault.

Say you go to bank one. Bank one charges you a fee then charges WAMU a fee because their customer is hassling them. WAMU then goes "well fuck xsarien, he's the little shit that used their ATM, he can pay it".

I guess it sucks that banks charge other banks when their customer uses an ATM, but ATM's are expensive as fuck and you dont want to just let non customers use them since you arent making money off of them anywhere.

Doesn't happen here in the UK. They *used* to do it but people cried foul and rightly so IMO. The banks are all part of a network called Link and if you use one of those machines, you shouldn't be charged. Of course, I'm sure they're trying to change this, the banks being the fucks that they are but it created enough of a stir a while back for them to not try it for a while.

BTW, it's not to say all ATM's are charge free. More and more there are non-Link network ATM's popping up in places that used to do cash back for no additional charge (like pubs). What doubly sucks is that benefits - like pensions - that used to be drawn out of post offices now get put directly into a bank account. Some pensioners then get stung at cash machines where they used to get their money from - particularly if there aren't any other ATMs locally that they can get to. Sucks, but not really surprising given the way that making a quick buck these days is the most important thing ever.

(A bit more ranty than I expected!)

P.S. Please don't use the "Well the UK is just a tiny island anyway" excuse

 

[MrAngryFace]

I wanna go to europe so I can go to a pub everynight and bitch

 

[Phoenix]

I'm still sitting pretty with Wachovia. They aren't exactly fee free and don't proclaim to be, but when funky stuff like that happened to me a while ago - I called them and they removed the fee. All the fee transactions are 100% automated. I would suggest speaking to a human and they will likely remove the fee.

 

[xsarien]

I'm still sitting pretty with Wachovia. They aren't exactly fee free and don't proclaim to be, but when funky stuff like that happened to me a while ago - I called them and they removed the fee. All the fee transactions are 100% automated. I would suggest speaking to a human and they will likely remove the fee.

Yeah, but Wachovia's been off of my list since I heard they use Windows on their ATMs.

 

[Pellham]

$25? they're charging me $30 in overdraft fees, pissed the fuck out of me that I can waste $30 on a $2 charge.

 

[NotMSRP]

I have WAMU.