Will you even USE a bank anymore?

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Adam

Adam

I develop retail banking products for a living and all I can say "It's going to get much, much worse." Even I'm having a hard time keeping the bosses from jacking up fees like crazy.
 
M

makare

My bank kicks my ass on pretty much a monthly basis. I've become numb to that particular pain.
 
Tress

Tress

I echo what Chaz says. Go to a local bank. These large ones can try to nickel-and-dime customers all they want, but if people start going to local banks they'll get the message loud and clear.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

BoA always charged a little each month for checking and now they're raising the price while offering it to be actually free online.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

escushion said:
BoA always charged a little each month for checking and now they're raising the price while offering it to be actually free online.
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Yeah, but you need to eat a ten dollar recurring charge if you want the option of just going to a bank and talking to people now... kinda makes me wonder if BoA is attempting to phase out tellers by making them a "service".
 
J

Joe Johnson

Yeah, small banks, or go to a credit union. The one I use is free checking, and they're trying hard to get rid of most fees.
 
R

rabbitgod

Small banks.

I've banked with one for years and I get pretty much everything for free. Even when I'm overdrawn they usually give me a couple days to fix it before accessing the fee.

And one of the nice things these days is that even if you move you can still maintain those accounts with direct deposit and online banking.
 
M

Matt²

AshburnerX;445812][QUOTE=escushion said:
BoA always charged a little each month for checking and now they're raising the price while offering it to be actually free online.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but you need to eat a ten dollar recurring charge if you want the option of just going to a bank and talking to people now... kinda makes me wonder if BoA is attempting to phase out tellers by making them a "service".[/QUOTE]

Yeah that was kind of my point, and I think is really shitty of BofA. And I think it's going to bite them in the ass by costing people their jobs.
 
Shakey

Shakey

It's not all that new. I know my sister used a bank that charged people to use a teller, and that was almost 10 years ago. For some people it doesn't matter, I know she didn't care cause she had no reason to go see one. Before I worked at a bank I could probably have counted how many times I went in to the teller on one hand. Believe it or not, banks are a business and they do operate on the idea that making money is a good thing. With interest rates on loans being incredibly low and the amount of loans going out also being low, they need to make money some how.

Like others have said, go to a local bank if you don't like it. They base their business on that face to face contact to keep their customers loyal. Big banks don't need that. Even for small banks, don't be surprised to see changes though. No more paper statements is getting to be pretty common for free checking. With postage and paper costs, it's a big expense. Plus I doubt all that many people actually look at them any more with all the information being online.
 
M

Matt²

Shakey said:
It's not all that new. I know my sister used a bank that charged people to use a teller, and that was almost 10 years ago. For some people it doesn't matter, I know she didn't care cause she had no reason to go see one. Before I worked at a bank I could probably have counted how many times I went in to the teller on one hand. Believe it or not, banks are a business and they do operate on the idea that making money is a good thing. With interest rates on loans being incredibly low and the amount of loans going out also being low, they need to make money some how.

Like others have said, go to a local bank if you don't like it. They base their business on that face to face contact to keep their customers loyal. Big banks don't need that. Even for small banks, don't be surprised to see changes though. No more paper statements is getting to be pretty common for free checking. With postage and paper costs, it's a big expense. Plus I doubt all that many people actually look at them any more with all the information being online.
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I know computers are prolific everywhere, but older folks aren't so keen on getting online anymore. Getting online in rural areas can and is a pain on dialup. Highspeed internet access is not available everywhere. In those cases, you CAN'T force everyone to do their banking online.
 
Shakey

Shakey

I never said you could force people to do anything, it's an option. Like I said, local banks won't charge you for coming in to talk to a teller or do deposits/withdrawals/etc.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

Answering the question in the title of the thread...

Yes, if you are involved in the economy of the 21st century, you will continue to use banks.

Because, they have you by the short and curlies.
 
strawman

strawman

I have NEVER seen a "free checking" advertisement without a little asterisk delineating the terms.

Please, show me a checking (savings is different) account that is truly free - you don't have to have a minimum, you don't pay any sort of fees for normal deposits, withdrawals, or use of checks, you don't have any recurring fees, you don't have to use direct deposit, you don't have to use any of their other services or hold any other accounts with them (savings, mortgage, etc), and you can write a reasonable number of checks on it without extra fees (30+ a month).

In other words it should be okay to deposit $3.65 in there to open the account (with no additional fees) and they will happily pay for checks you write of $0.01 each day until there's only 1 cent left, at which point you deposit another $3.65, with no other fees.
 
Shakey

Shakey

We have that kind of account. You have to buy your own checks, and the statement doesn't have images of the checks you do write included though. You can go online and look at images of the checks and print them out if you want to. You can write as many checks as you want, deposit as much or as little as you want, keep a balance of $0.00 for as long as you want, and stop in every day for a cup of coffee and chat with the tellers.
 
strawman

strawman

Shakey said:
We have that kind of account. You have to buy your own checks, and the statement doesn't have images of the checks you do write included though. You can go online and look at images of the checks and print them out if you want to. You can write as many checks as you want, deposit as much or as little as you want, keep a balance of $0.00 for as long as you want, and stop in every day for a cup of coffee and chat with the tellers.
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Which bank is it? Are you sure you don't have to have direct deposit set up on that account, and/or a savings account with them as well?
 
Shakey

Shakey

Positive, I work there and set them up on the system. Charges and new account types that is. I don't open new accounts.
 
Covar

Covar

to the OP, wow alarmist much?

Banking regulations limit traditional fees drastically cutting BoA's revenue causing them to implement new fees to make up the losses. This is not the collapse in modern banking you seem to think it is.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I bank at a local credit union. They offer free checking, with no minimal balance, no direct deposit required (though I do use direct deposit), no fees for making withdrawals or deposits or any of that. The only requirement is that you have a savings account with a minimum of $5.00 in it. To me, this is not an unreasonable requirement.
 
Adam

Adam

First Lady Puffinstuff said:
I have NEVER seen a "free checking" advertisement without a little asterisk delineating the terms.

Please, show me a checking (savings is different) account that is truly free - you don't have to have a minimum, you don't pay any sort of fees for normal deposits, withdrawals, or use of checks, you don't have any recurring fees, you don't have to use direct deposit, you don't have to use any of their other services or hold any other accounts with them (savings, mortgage, etc), and you can write a reasonable number of checks on it without extra fees (30+ a month).

In other words it should be okay to deposit $3.65 in there to open the account (with no additional fees) and they will happily pay for checks you write of $0.01 each day until there's only 1 cent left, at which point you deposit another $3.65, with no other fees.
Click to expand...
https://www.coastcapitalsavings.com...ign=CMP=PersonalDropPopProd&id=1_FreeChequing
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Yep. I have a checking acct with Charter One (RBS Citizens) which has been just a basic free acct for a very long time now. The only thing I don't know is whether or not this is because I've had it so long that I've been grandfathered (I used to have a savings acct with them, but that was closed many many years ago), or whether an acct like this is still available. The only way I incur fees is if I go inactive for too long (and we're talking months and months, something I've never done) or if I overdraft (which is understandable, if dickish).

--Patrick
 
M

Matt²

Ravenpoe said:
I bank at a local credit union. They offer free checking, with no minimal balance, no direct deposit required (though I do use direct deposit), no fees for making withdrawals or deposits or any of that. The only requirement is that you have a savings account with a minimum of $5.00 in it. To me, this is not an unreasonable requirement.
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Ditto. I haven't written a check in 8 years either, though I use my "checking" account almost daily (debit card). I only used the starter checks.
I have a checking account at Wamu (now Chase) too but also have never ordered checks from this one. Never have a charge but then again I rarely use it. I had it go for many months one time with only ten cents in it. No charge.
 
Gared

Gared

Not only is this not new, it's not new for BoA. Years ago they had an account type called a versateller account. Basically, you had a free checking account so long as you conducted all of your business (withdrawals, deposits, balance inquiries) through their ATMs. If you attempted to do anything with a teller that could be done with an ATM, you were charged a $3 fee. Sadly, they also liked to charge those fees for conducting business with a teller that you couldn't conduct with an ATM, like closing an account. I remember this quite vividly, as I was left the task after my divorce of closing our joint checking account. I went to the bank, filled out the forms, took them to the teller, she handed me my $16.00 and closed the account. A month later, I got an overdraft notice advising me that my supposedly closed account was still open and showing a balance of -$28, $3 for talking to a teller, and a $25 overdraft charge for not having $3 in the account when it was closed.

The thing that bothers me about BoA is their online transaction history's abhorrent lag time. I've had checking accounts with WaMu, US Bank, and my credit union, WSECU. All of them, within minutes (or less) of posting a transaction at a POS device - be it debit transaction or credit card transaction - I've been able to see current balance, available balance, and pending transaction amount, date/time, location, and when the transaction request expires (i.e. when it will cease to be pending and be a real live transaction). BoA, I have to wait days to see what charges make up the difference between my current balance and my available balance, even if the difference is a government issued direct deposit or a check that I physically carried to the bank and deposited.

If you really want to avoid bank fees, join a credit union. They have fees too, and most of them require that you have a "share" amount tucked away in a savings account that you can't touch unless you close your account - mine has a $5 required share - but the incidental fees are usually much lower. If you want to get away from all fees, say hello to Mr. Mayo Jar and Mr. Mattress Slit.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

I still remember when ATMs went into wide service, your own bank charged you fees to use the ATM because it was more expensive than seeing a teller.
 
Null

Null

I use a local credit union. As long as I have a minimal balance of $5.00 in the account, checking is free.
 
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