11 Aug 10

Wells Fargo Order To Pay Back Fee

A California federal judge ordered Wells Fargo to change what he called “unfair and deceptive business practices” that led customers into paying multiple overdraft fees, and to pay $203 million back to customers.

Wells Fargo adopted the policies beginning in 2001, and they became widespread across the banking industry. It is unclear how the ruling would apply to the rest of the industry.

The ruling detailed the experiences of two Wells Fargo customers who used their debit cards for multiple small purchases, and were then charged hundreds in overdraft fees because the order the purchases were cleared by the bank depended on the amounts. The judge found the customers, who were part of a class action, were not properly informed of the bank’s policies on processing payments and were unaware the bank would allow debit purchases to go through when their accounts were overdrawn.

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31 Jul 10

Small Business Lending Bill

According to the AP, President Barack Obama is going after Senate Republicans who have stymied his proposal to create a $30 billion fund to help unfreeze lending for credit-starved small businesses.

Obama made clear that it’s not only a policy disagreement, but a reason for voters to steer away from Republicans in November’s pivotal Congressional elections, which will determine whether Democrats keep their majorities in the House and Senate.

“When America is just starting to move forward again, we can’t afford the do-nothing policies and partisan maneuvering that will only take us backward,” he said.

The Republicans naturally seen it differently.

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10 Feb 10

Small Bank Appeal

While big banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and others continue to attract more deposit in the fourth quarter, many American are suddenly moving their money to smaller banks out of principal.

General public anger over taxpayer bailouts and big bonuses is one reason. The other is that according to recent survey, the big banks are also becoming the least trust worthy banks. There’s also growing resentment about how many big banks are nickel-and-diming customers in tough economic times. Others were lured away by more attractive rates offered at local banks or credit union that the big boys could not match.

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9 Feb 10

Untrustyworthy Banks

According to a New York Times article, the least trustworthy banks are, in the order of first to last:

Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, TD/Commerce, Fifth Third, Citibank, and in last place, HSBC.

The survey ranked 50 financial institutions in the United States by the percentage of each firm’s customers who agree with the statement: “My financial provider does what’s best for me, not just its own bottom line.” The results are based on a survey of about 4,500 consumers.

Among Bank of America customers, 33 percent agreed with the statement above, while 31 percent of Chase customers agreed, 29 percent of Capital One customers agreed, 28 percent of TD/Commerce Bank customers agreed, 27 percent of Fifth Third Bank customers agreed and 26 percent of Citibank customers agreed.

Among HSBC customers, only 16 percent said they agreed with the statement, the lowest customer advocacy score ever reported in the United States, down 10 percentage points from HSBC’s score last year and in line with other recent similar poor rankings of other HSBC units.

Wells Fargo/Wachovia, by contrast, did better than the other big banks. About 40 percent of its customers said they believed the bank does what is best for them, with Wachovia’s customers probably pulling up Wells Fargo’s ratings, Mr. Doyle said. Wachovia has generally done substantially better in the rankings than the other big banks.

Credit unions ranked much higher than the big banks, as they have in previous years, with 70 percent of credit union customers saying their financial institution puts their interests first.

Insurance firms, meanwhile, remained the highest rated firms for customer advocacy, with more than half of all customers rating their insurers high on customer advocacy and insurers representing two-thirds of the firms in the top half of the rankings. The ranking of investment firms, meanwhile, fell below banks for the first time since the rankings began. Investment firm rankings tend to fall when the market isn’t doing well, Mr. Doyle said.

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1 Feb 10

Citibank Settlement

Citibank agreed to suspend its plan to charge fees on certain checking accounts with the New York Attorney General’s office. The fees would have affect over one million of its customers.

The settlement was reached after Citigroup failed to provide adequate disclosure of the fee increase and didn’t offer a free checking program long enough before implementing the charges.

The fees would have cost customer between $100 to $120 a year.

Account fees had become an increasing source of revenue for banks in recent years as loan losses piled up and customers cut down on their borrowing during the recession.

Citigroup was planning to charge customers fees ranging between $7.50 and $9.50 a month if combined balances in Citi accounts fell below $1,500. Customers were also facing per-check charges of between 50 cents and $1 after the first 10 checks written each month.

The fees were going to be applied to “EZ Checking” and “Access” checking accounts.

Customers who signed up for one of the free checking accounts between Jan. 1, 2009 and Nov. 5, 2009 will not have to pay fees through the end of the year. The per-check fees will be waived for customers until Jan. 31, 2011.

“EZ” checking customers who signed up for their accounts before Jan. 1, 2009 will also avoid the per-check fees.

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16 Jan 10

Unnecessary Bank Fees

Many people unknowingly pay a lot to their banks in the form of fees. If you don’t know what fees your accounts are subject to, spend a few minutes finding out. Some banks charge ATM fees for using another bank’s ATM, for example. These can be as high as $5! This amounts to a 25% one-time fee for a $20 withdrawal. The key with this type of fee is simply knowing about it. You would be better off using a credit card to make the purchase.

Go back and examine the rules governing your checking and savings accounts. Many people have accounts with a fixed number of withdrawals and deposits per month. You would be better off with an account maintenance fee of $10 a month than getting hit with two or three different fees a month.

Also consider consolidating bank accounts, as often one account with a larger minimum can eliminate numerous fees that might otherwise exist.

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4 Jan 10

Bank of America – New CEO

The new CEO of Bank of America, Brian Moynihan began his first day on the job today. In his speech to shareholders, he announced that Bank of America was continuing to recover from the financial crisis but will remain cautious even as it expects to grow in 2010.

Moynihan takes over at time when the bank faces continued loan losses in the billions of dollars. It lost more than $2.2 billion in the third quarter as bad debt kept rising with consumers still struggling to pay their bills. Investors will hear if there’s been any improvement when the bank reports its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 20.

While credit delinquencies remain at historic highs, Moynihan said that the losses “do appear to be stabilizing.”

Bank of America has about 53 million relationships with customers, including individual consumers and businesses. That breadth helps make BofA particularly vulnerable to high unemployment.

Moynihan told the bankers that the economy has bottomed and that the bank is forecasting global growth of more than 4 percent in 2010. Growth in U.S. gross domestic product will be above 3 percent, he said.

“It’s just great to be in the year 2010,” Moynihan said. “Actually, it is great to be anywhere other than where we were as a company a year ago.”

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2 Jan 10

Ten Bank Receive Help

The Treasury Department said Thursday that it pumped $29.3 million into 10 banks to shore up their financial system. The aid came from the $700 billion TARP design to help failing banks.

The banks receiving the latest outlay are: Atlantic Bancshares Inc. in South Carolina; Union Financial Corp. in New Mexico; Mainline Bancorp Inc. in Pennsylvania; FBHC Holding Co. in Colorado; Western Illinois Bancshares Inc. in Illinois; DeSoto County Bank in Mississippi; Lafayette Bancorp. Inc. in Mississippi; Private Bancorporation Inc. in Minnesota; CBB Bancorp in Georgia; and Illinois State Bancorp Inc. in Illinois.

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1 Jan 10

Big Bank Boycott

A popular blog cause an uproar when it urged its readers to move their deposits from large banking institutions like Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citibank to community banks and credit unions.

Many people have despised what the big US Banks how done in the last few years. Many blame a large portion of the finacial collapse on the banks but what can the average person really do about it.

The answer was suggested – move your deposits. Take your money away and give it to them where it hurts.

The broadside complains by the blog, stated, that the big banks, after being propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have returned to the high-risk activities that torpedoed the economy in the first place, while cutting back on lending to businesses and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to water down proposed restrictions on their operations.

It will be interesting to see if any or how many people actually move their deposits as a result of the blog post. At the same time, if you think your bank is over charging you or imposing excessive fees, you too can move your deposit and let them have it where it hurts.

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30 Dec 09

Welcome

Are you constantly seeing $35.00 fees for each check that you write when your deposit are not quickly credited to your account, for overdrafts. Do you see bank fees for reviewing your account. Who is actually reviewing your account and what do they actually do.

Banks are constantly finding new ways to overcharge us fees to increase their bottom lines. These fees are either hidden in their terms and conditions and in some cases not even mentioned in them. We routinely find or discover these charges when we actually monitor our statements.

Those who fail to monitor their statements innocently pay the fees and and allow the banks to reap the rewards of ripping us off. The goal of this site is to inform the un-inform and to assist those who want to put a stop to the bank fee overcharges.

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