Closed mine out a loooong time ago when they wanted to a charge me a per-visit fee for using a teller instead of an ATM machine. :|

Here in Canada we go nuts over $2 fees for using third party ATMs.. I had NO idea how bad it was for our American counterparts.

This is why Canada will recover from the recession LONG before we will.

Luckily I found myself a local bank that's amazing and perfect and I love them. xD

Over here in Europe it's only €0.50 for using a rival bank's ATM- "nuetral" machines don't charge extra at all.

That $2 fee for 'white label' ATMs is over and above the Interac fee.

My bank here in New Zealand charges $1 for using another bank's ATMs; other banks have agreements (such as National and ANZ, because they have the same parent company) where they don't charge for using each other's machines. I don't really mind too much. It is annoying that I have to travel further to get to one of my own ATMs, though. Mine at least gives out $10 notes, instead of just $20s.

I use the Royal Bank.. of all the banks I have used (and I have had most of them at this point) they have screwed me the least.

=^.,.^=

Average here is $2.50 for your local bank and $5 for alternate banks. This is in addition to the typical $2.50 ATM fee itself. BOA also charges an additional $20 fee for transactions over $5,000 with any bank, including their own.

I have a card but I haven't used it in ages. The paypal card is WAY more useful. :I

*raises forepaw* Me...

I'm thinking of getting another bank, though. I'm just really picky about what a prospective bank would have.

LOTS of local banks these days... and LOTS of credit unions to choose from.


...Good luck!

Sounds like almost any random bank would be better :D

If they're in your area, look into Huntington. Good, solid bank with great customer service who care about their clients.

Credit unions all the way. You'd be surprised at the difference.

I haven't banked with a commercial bank since 2007, and that was a one-off thing because I was in Vegas and couldn't get a FCU account.

Long live the Credit Unions!

HEAR-HERE!

I have that bank, 5 star rating and ive known the tellers there since i was a little kid. We may have to pay atm fees but at least they treat their customers with respect.

You mean first national?

To quote an overused phrase, you are the 1%. I'm both surprised at your experience, and happy that you've been lucky enough to avoid all the stuff BofA has done over the years. Statistically, I mean. I ran into some trouble in 2006 with credit cards, and while the rest worked with me, BofA sent me straight to lawyers. I had to threaten those lawyers with the FDCPA because they were trying to collect more money than was owed. I paid it fair and square in the end, because that's what debtors do.

I'm with Wells Fargo, and though I've had my share of ups and downs, I have a decent relationship and no hiccups to speak of. I'm glad you've been the same way.

I'm not sure if I'm misreading something along the line, but I believe Aquin is referring to First National, not BoA. Not Being American, though, I wouldn't know if it's relevant or not >>

Ah, thank you for pointing that out. If this is indeed the case, my bad for misinterpreting the post and anyone else can disregard. Hiding the post would just confuse people more.

*poofs*

my banks pretty awesome, they handle everything quite nicely

I don't have a bank account.

I still do. Need to find a new one soon.

If I recall, Nov 5 is supposed to be "move Your Money" day - people encouraged to close accounts with commercial banks and open, instead, local bank / credit union accounts.

Personally, sounds like a good idea to me.

I'm moving all of my money to a local bank on the fifth. All of my not there money.

Hehe Most of us have 0 money these days :D

Ironically, the date AND my change in banking services was actually more directly influenced by convenience. I'm a starving college kid and my mom wanted me to have the same bank as her so she could send me money XD

I do, sadly. Need to move soon, but i just haven't gotten to it.

Yeah. I'm in the process of switching to a small credit union. All BOA does is add on fees after fees.

Sadly, they have me by the short and curly ones, as I have a line of credit/mortgage with them. BUT, they did say as long as I either A) Owe them $15,000 or MORE, or B) Keep a $5,000 balance in a savings account, I will not have to pay the $5 monthly debit card fee. Mighty nice of you - ASSHOLES! On the plus side, the mortgage will be paid off in about 2 years, and once it drops enough, I will check and see what kind of a non-secured loan my credit union will give me so I can pay them off and I can tell BOA to kiss my big fat ass goodbye!!!

My Mortgage will be paid off in 37 years, Sooo you have an advantage over me :D

And I am probably over twice your age...soo.....

Well Ill be around 70 when its paid off... I sure hope I get some kind of windfall to help things along before then!

I guess the joke is on my bank since I'll be dead before I finish paying off mine :)

See I got VERY lucky, in that I sold my first home after owning it for 16 years, and tripled what I originally paid for it. Then I put the bulk of that on the second house, and it will have only taken about 13 years to pay this one off. Of course, with the houseing market what it is now, that is NOT easy to do anymore......

Very lucky. Mine isn't even a house, its a tiny one room apartment and it costs a quarter million :D

My 2.5 acre estate in the country did not cost that much!!!!

Housing prices are obscene here, an average 4 bedroom family house could easily for for 4 to 5 million, :D

You must be in either NY or CA......

Vancouver BC :)

sorry 4 bedrooms go for 3 million guess the prices have dropped :D

So the houseing bust has hit the Great White North as well, eh?!?!

Well not as bad! I mean.. last year I saw extremely nice houses in detroit for under $20k

I live about 125 miles due north of Detroit actually.....and you can get house in Detroit for about $500!! But then, that is Detroit.....

a house for $500?! That is tempting.. THOUGh you are right its Detroit, I dont hear anything good about it, and I doubt theres an animation industry there

You can get nice ones around here for $55,00 - 75,000, especially in the city areas - still a premium for suburbia and the rural areas.....

You could potentially refinance your mortgage with your credit union. More and more credit unions are doing loans secured by homes these days, and would more than likely be interested in at least looking at refinancing your mortgage.

Just a thought!

I want to get an UNSECURED loan due to the fact that I am in a flood plain (not on the water, and the house has never flooded), and have to have flood insurance for ANY mortgage, and it is thousands of dollars a year for it! So the idea is to not use the house to secure any financing to avoid the huge cost of flood insurance.....

I have Chase Bank and they treat us right too

Must be nice. They sure treated their employees like crap when I worked for them.

I don't sound too bitter, do I???

i didnt have an account, but the petsmart i worked for gave paychecks through them. i had one outside my school that i went to to cash my paychecks (because everyone on payroll at petsmart is fucking retarded so they weren't being direct deposited into my credit union account) and i was charged a percentage of my paycheck every time. just to cash a check.

I dropped the Bank of Evil like a hot rock the day I paid off the damn credit card I had with them. (it had originally been with another bank, but it got swallowed by the bank of Evil. ) I was paying the thing off. I setup an automatic monthly payment from my checking account to pay a certain amount that I could afford. It happened on the nth day of each month, which was a few days before the due date.

Those evil bastards, after the auto-pay was setup, changed my due date so that I was now paying a couple days after the due date. Thus, they fucked me with a late payment charge each month for the better part of a year, before I looked at a statement to see how much I had left to pay off, and saw that late fee. This happened more than once with the automatic payment setups I did for them.

If any of the high officials of the Bank of Evil ever are in a position that I can do them an injury, they are gonna get that injury. And I take every opportunity to let people know just how evil and greedy the Bank of Evil is. I hope that they all die slow painful deaths from something lingering, like untreated bowel infections. After I castrate them with a dull rusty knife.

Chase Bank may be just as if not more evil than BoA. They're just smart enough to not be blatent enough to get caught!

Being a former Chase employee, I can stand by this comment.

It's me i'm the guy who still has a BoA account irl

I do! I'm closing it within the week though. Haven't gotten around to it yet

He gives you freedom

to fuck yourself in the ass

refrigerator

best haiku ever

All you crazy kids with your Banks

what happened to matresses? Holes in the ground don't charge overdraft fees >:U

My mom was a Bank One/Chase customer for over 40 years. Her old house was completely paid off, yet when she went to move to another state, and needed a loan against her equity to buy a new house, and already had a committed buyer, at full asking price, for the old one (childhood friend of mine who loved the house, which was perfect for his 3 daughters) they wouldn't give her a loan. Cause she's 70, retired and living on Social Security income.

Needless to say, when Huntington Bank bent over backward to help her out, knowing full well the mortgage would be paid off within 6 months and they'd see barely a dime in interest, she switched in a hot second. When a bank can't be loyal to a customer who's been with them for FORTY FUCKING YEARS, they don't deserve to be in business.


On a side note, I love banks that claim to have "Christian Values." Umm, hello? The Bible says that usury (the lending of money with an interest charge for its use) is a sin, lol.

So huntington is good? Id love wells fargo but none around

Huntington's great. It's a fairly small bank, compared to the really huge ones like Chase and BoA, and they still value their customers.

Huntington is a good bank if you live in their serving area. The father is currently grooming the son to run a good and successful organization, and they will not let Chase buy them out.

BOA claims to have Christian values? Corporations are just non-living emotionless money raking mechanisms, how can they have values of any kind?

No ... they're people ... so says the SCOTUS. So they can contribute to political campaigns.

I'm switching to chase. Gonna do it soon, maybe this week if I can get a ride.

Oh joy, bank trips :v

Nooooo!!!!!! See my post above if you want to know how Chase treats their customers!

but but but but they have cool blue cards and an app that you can use to deposit checks without having to leave your hooooouse :c

That's what ATMs are for! Deposit before you GET home! Gimmicks like that are what they're resorting to rather than caring about customers. Any bank that has to lure me in with cool apps doesn't DESERVE my business... even if I love cool apps!

Don't go to Chase. I can say this now. I used to be a customer with Chase until their newest line of bullshit came along. Now I'm with US Bank.

I actually have an account with Chase right now. Had it when it was still Washington Mutual, where they were gracious enough to waive their monthly fee if I agreed to an automatic $5 monthly transfer to the savings account. Long story short, Chase bought them out, and gradually got rid of everything that I loved about WaMu. They only reason I haven't gotten hammered on those fees is because I managed to save enough money in my account to beat requirement #2. The only reason I don't leave them for another bank is because all the banks in my area are either Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, BofA, WF, Chase, etc, etc, etc.

Funnily enough, the only part of deal I had with WaMu that Chase will still honor is the $5 monthly transfer. That, and free checks for life. Go figure.

I love how with these buyouts they always promise "We will provide the same great service you have come to rely on" and then promptly break the promise

BofA and WF are?

Bank of America and Wells Fargo, two banks I'll never hold an account at, ever. Bank of America for their fees, and Wells Fargo, because of an incident involving them refusing to open a relative's account simply because they went through bankruptcy in 1995. To which I call bullshit on them for that.

Sounds like me when I refused to go back to TD Canada Trust ever since they fucked me over back in 2005. I had over $500 in that account, and they took it all without telling me why. I've been after them, and the battle has been going for 6 years, still ending at a stalemate.

Chase is crooked as hell, treating their customers like garbage and treating their employees even worse. Stay away from them if you can.

oh gawd o.,o

but what bank isn't crooked, really? every bank i wanna switch to i end up getting comments like these XD

That's exactly right. I now work for Citi and am treated great, but, at the same time, they have had their own issues. Banks, industry, big business, they all have their crooked moments. I think it just comes with the territory.

Exactly. When I look at a group of companies and realize they're all crooked, i end up ignoring their faults and just picking the ones that are convenient. And I ain't about to use my mattress to put my money under :o

Just buy a safe, its better than any bank

Try a credit union. They're usually a lot better.

The odd thing is, paypal wants me to pay to bank of America to resupply my account. Which is why I don't use paypal. Are they one and the same?

Paypal lets me use any bank I want, Maybe they have some kind of horrible deal in the US

What I mean is, if I want to pay money from my bank account to my paypal account, I have to pay to bank of America.

that sounds like a needless complication, probably a shady deal of some kind.

no, PP is not a bank, and is not federally insured. This is why they encourage and require a bank account for various activities- so they can hit your account if you overdraft, get a chargeback, or they choose to close your account.

Im closing mine tomorrow actually.LOL me thanking a billionaire for his bank wanting to charge me for a piece of plastic um yeah fuck him.Now I gotta go take my money out my account and hope I dont get jacked when I leave.

Theres been a few stories of people being charged $480 for leaving.. Still it might be worth it jsut to be rid of them

oh yeah I know they will charge me some kind of crazy amount but I can afford it.

This is true. In cities affected by the anti-walstreet protests, they have prohibited closing accounts at all, literally forcing and extorting people to use them against their will. And somehow, this is not illegal, but the peaceful protests are!?

This country is in a dire strait.

I have one....but I didn't open it. The California Unemployment Agency opened it for me and all my checks from Unemployment benefit go into it. I didn't have any say in the matter. As soon as I'm employed again, or my extensions run out, I'll be closing it and moving the money to my credit union.

that seems a little spooky, that kind of inappropriate government endorsement of a specific private company?

Yep. I'd have turned it down if there had been any other option. I was happy getting my checks in the mail and taking them to my credit union for deposit.

This activity should be illegal, as established by the founding fathers (who prohibited the existance of central banks), once more during the great depression (as people were getting gov't benefits taken by folded banks), and again by Ronald Reagan (to prevent an economic collapse if a bank failed).

Americans and their government are clinically retarded when it comes to learning from their blaring mistakes.

I stopped using bank of america when they charged me a $10,000.00 dollar "service fee." When I bitched and complained (like any normal person would), they game me back $5000 and said they couldn't give me the rest back because they were considering it a fee for giving me half my money back in the first place. After I talked to JAG (military lawyers) they contacted them and it was just a "misunderstanding" and I got all my money back.

Needless to say I pulled all my money out of there in cash, went to a nice local bank; and never looked back yet.

makes me wonder how many people they do that to, threaten 1000 the same way, in the hopes that a few cant get lawyers. BOA is basically a shakedown operation.

Just be careful, since there are only four real banks in America, all of them are just satellites. I posted much further below the list of bankcorps and who owns them.
May want to verify who owns your bank. Nearly all banks not owned by the Big Four are owned overseas. Which ironically makes them safer.

I've heard numerous horror stories about Bank of Thievery, and that Chase is definitely not any better, if worse, than BoA.

Even though I live in Canada, my VanCity debit card is considered NFG in the States, because it doesn't have Visa or MasterCard on it, so I have an account with US Bank instead. They've been pretty good to me thus far, but I can't agree with their monthly fee ($6.95 per month unless three things happen, see below) at all. It's a pretty crappy blow, but it's pretty much the only bank I'll use when I travel to Blaine. The way to avoid it would have to be one of three things:
1. Purchase 5 items per month,
2. Achieve a total balance of $1500 in the Chequing Account, or
3. Transfer $25 monthly to Savings (this can only be done by a teller).

Still, at least US Bank is better than BoA; incidentally, there's a BoA right next to US Bank in Blaine.

I expect all the big us banks are crooks, because the system has been set up to allow it.

Pretty much. Unfortunately, so is TD Canada Trust. :/

nah we have regulations in Canada, thats why we arent as badly fucked.

I had faced a huge issue with TD when I left high school. They took over $500 out of my account outright without sending me any notices regarding it. It's been about 6 years since I've closed the account, and I still haven't given up on fighting them to get my money back, but it's still at a stalemate.

Chase is absolute garbage. They have been in trouble recently for foreclosing upon the homes of active service men and women.

Also, as a former Chase employee, I can say they are terrible towards their employees as well. I worked for those clowns for 2 years and never saw a bonus or got a raise. Every time you come close making standards, they just jack the standards up so they don't have to pay you more. It's disgusting considering that Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, makes 7500 dollars an hour and gave himself a 200 million dollar bonus last year. I even recruited a big-shot programmer friend and was supposed to get 2500 dollars for recruiting, but they had all this hidden shit you had to fill out before they got hired in. I got screwed, but I expected it since they were screwy right from the start, threatening to fire myself and the 4 others I was hired in with our second week on the job for not meeting their quality standards after going through their abysmal training.

I am not going to sit here in rant, but trust me, I could fill a page with the disgusting things I have seen from inside that organization. Avoid JP Morgan Chase and Co. like the plague.

Oh, you don't have to worry about me being with Chase anymore. As soon as I registered with my US Bank account, I went ahead and closed my Chase account right after. I went right to the person who had opened my account in the first place, and he was quite gracious and understood the reasons why I left Chase, and knew that Chase is as big a thief as Canada's NDP political party. Oddly enough, he told me I made the right decision to leave Chase and never look back.

Maybe it's just me, but I personally think someone ought to bring this up with the FBI about Chase's and BoA's shady activities and all those fees they love to slap on people. I'm sure the boys have had run-ins with these fees, as well.

Im sure you could copy and paste this for EVERY big bank, dont trust any of the damned crooked bastards.

I work for another BIG bank now and they sure have had their share of issues. But overall, they treat me well and I need a job. We all gotta work somewhere, so you learn to put aside those feelings and move on.

I know the feeling, I used to work for Hewlett Packard and they KNOWINGLY sell dangerous products and lie about it, thats at least as bad as the stuff banks do.

I never had one. I bank with a credit union.

The only sane choice, as they're legally prohibited to be nonprofit. They can keep only a federally dictated reserve (which is still something like 3 times their holdings), and must spend the rest on some form of reinvestment.

I have Bank of America still! :D

No... Never been with that bank.

http://youtu.be/Ll3uipTO-4A

Dude...THANK GOD I'm all Chase

I overdrafted 2 cents.

They charged me 96 dollars for overdraft.

I closed my account within 15 minutes of that notification.

Well I use their student account program, and so far i haven't had any fees period. For the future however, thanks for the warning!

They are jsut as bad no doubt

I've been thinking about it, but I'd be paying more when I travel; I'd have to pay to use the BoA ATMs more often than I'd have to pay to use non-BoA ATMs. Only fee I have to pay is when my savings account is both under $300 and I don't deposit at least $25, but that's been true of my other savings accounts, too. Debt card is still free to have and use at will. Just bought a new truck with it, not a problem.

And yeah, BoA is gambling with my money, but the government's insured it. They can't lose when the government provides such an economic incentive to gamble.

They can lose when the government collapses aswel, and it might

And at that point, the dollars aren't worth anything either way. Precious metals will retain their value, and probably then some in some a situation. That's where most of my wealth is at, currently.

hehe not sure if its good advice anymore, but 2 years ago I put EVERYTHING into gold and silver, not the damned certificates either the real metal that I put in my safe, I sold it this year and made more than double my initial investment. I guess betting AGAINST wallstreet and the banks paid off for me :)

Actually, to be correct, they have no insured it for long. See, the federal reserve lets you insure anything for any amount you choose- but only pay out 4:5 when it comes time to claim. So if you put in $10,000 and the bank fails, the reserve will not pay more than $8,000 of it back. But meanwhile the bank will claim a $45,000 insurance on it, and take the $35k surplus to issue new loans, bonds, etc. with, effectively gambling with money they do not in fact have. According to the Federal Reserve, right now only 18.2% of BoA's assets are equitable by the reserve, meaning that if they failed, only $0.18 1/5 cents are paid out for every $1 a customer loses.

Food for thought.

Fuck banks. Prepaid AMEX card.

I look important, bitches.

I do, but only for a little while longer. I'm grandfathered into one of their older accounts, meaning they can't charge me for anything, not even a placeholder fee, until the middle of 2012. So I'll be making the switch around then!

Still have a BoA account, but want to change that soon. I'm in the same boat as Trendane, above, with the UI - that makes me incredibly uncomfortable that these guys have my unemployment on their books, getting invested in whatever for the short amount of time that's available. I can't divest myself wholly of them, but I can reduce contact with 'em.

I used to have one. But this was years before the recession hit, and even then, they'd hammered me with fees because I was still unemployed at the time, and they were looking to nail me the wrong way. So, I closed my account with them and went with Washington Mutual. And the rest, they say, is history.

I had my money in a local bank. Then it got bought by First Union, which got bought by Wachovia, which got bought by Wells Fargo. So, now I have my money in a Wells Fargo. I have a nagging feeling that if I try to take my fifteen bux elsewhere, they'll buy that place too.

There are only four banks in America.

Citigroup owns Traveler's group, citicorp, European American Bank, and Banamex.

JPMorgan Chase owns Washington Mutual, Great Western Financial, HF Ahmanson, Dime Bancorp, First Chicago, Banc One, First Commerce, JP Morgan, Chase Manhattan, Chemical Banking, Bear Stearns, and Bank One.

Bank of America owns US Trust, MBNA, Continental Bank, BankAmerica, Security Pacific Bancorp, Nationsbank, Fleet Financial Group, Bancboston Holdings, Baybanks, Summit Bancorp, UJB Financial, Merill Lynch, BankBoston, and Fleetboston Financial.

Wells Fargo owns First Interstate Bancorp, Norwest Holding Company, Southtrust, Wachovia, Central Fidelity National Bank, Corestates Financial, First Union, The Money Store, and First Union.

Combined, all four hold 47.3% of America's entire monetary cumulation, and counting non-US finances, 26.4% of the world cash reserves. Banking is the world's second largest economy, with Wal-Mart being number one. (Oil and petroleum industry is #7, and the US economy is #8)


Source: Federal Reserve and GAO

I still have one for 2 reasons:
1. its across the street from my job.
2. My other bank that I use was stupid and havent sent me checks to use, but BoA has, so My paypal is connected to the BoA account.
I very rarely use it, if only to send checks for bills.

I RAGE QUIT when I got an overdraft fee... on an overdraft

Fun fact: The US is the only country that allows this. They can stack fees indefinitely and infinitely, because they aren't considered part of the federal law which prevents more than 25% interest-per-year. Hence how my $5 overdraft resulted in $243 in fees before I had to lawyer up.

I closed my account with them the moment I herd of about it.

Holy shit. Reading this thread makes me glad the only issue I've ever had with my bank is that their visa electron doesn't work in all online purchases...

Go Finland, I suppose.

Americas experiment in deregulation seems to be a complete failure.

Which, had Americans any sense of history or faith in their founding fathers outside the public census, they would have known was a stupid idea.
"Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." - Thomas Jefferson

That might be why education was the first thing the capitalists attacked, what better way to keep people ignorant of history?

I closed my account with them 7 years ago when they cashed a fraudulent check and refused to refund it or open a fraud investigation. The check used a check # that was already used a year prior, had my name typed on instead of signed, spelled wrong, and on a check not issued from a BoA checkbook. It was to a company a google search can show is fraudulent, in Mumbai, India.

They then proceeded to charge me over $200 in overdrafts. Finally I had to call a lawyer in to settle the matter. They refunded me the overdraft charges, but refused to refund the fraudulent check amount they cashed.

BOA was ripping people off and helping people rip you off long before the economic crises. What moron honestly thought they would act any better when times got hard for everyone but them?

Bank of America is disgusting. They'll do anything to kiss their shareholders backsides. My mom still have an account with them, and I can't understand why at all.

We're in a bit of a fix: we have a checking, saving, and credit card through B of A, have been with them going on 12 years, and with one exception, we've never actually had a problem. But this whole $5 a month for using my debit card thing has us looking around, and in elko our alternatives aren't that much better, from what we've heard.

I'm stuck with them....My main accounts aren't with them, but sadly, my mortgage got sold to them

that shouldnt be legal, what a fucked system.

Well, I did sign an agreement that said my mortgage might be sold to any bank, but.....something other than B of A might have been nice...

I think it speaks volumes when you post about a contentious issue on the internet and there's not one dissenting comment. Shows you just how fucked up the banking industry is O_O

Well, to be fair the banks are an easy target. You wont find a lot of people defending them who arent bankers.