Off to the bank early this morning, and here's hoping they're interested in providing me the banking service I have selected instead of selling me on a complicated course of action that would provide a greater margin of profit for the bank.
Banks are like every other business these days, looking for their best deal plus any loose change forgotten under the sofa cushions. I don't blame them -- but I am also not the least interested in playing junior financier, since experience has taught me that I have no knack for it. Time before last, they took that admission as bit of a rebuke, which it isn't.
If the bank doesn't come up to snuff consider joining a local Credit Union. My experience is they are more in tune to meeting their member's needs at a reasonable cost instead of maximizing shareholder profit..
ReplyDeleteThe bank managed to fall far below my expectations.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a good experience with a commercial bank in MANY years..
ReplyDeleteBank of Hawaii drained my account with low balance fees while I was out at sea and not receiving mail for 3 months, no delivery on a submarine...
Countrywide/BoA tried to cram their homeowners insurance package down my throat when they realized my VA loan meant they could not require an escrow account and I was always on time with property tax payments.
They serve their stockholders...
That's why I bank with credit unions now.
I find it almost incredulous that a bank could fall below any expectations. Simply because expectations are universally low in regards to banks.
ReplyDeleteIn thinking about it, I am amazed that we actually have 3 seperate banking options. Our main bank is a local credit union, which is almost always on the ball. I did get a phone call about 2 months ago, telling me that they had a breach of security, and they cancelled my debit card, and a new one was on it's way in the mail. My wife's card was not bothered. I have never had any bank call me on the phone to tell me anything. So score one for the credit union, since I don't think that a security breach can be completely stopped by anyone.
I have a second account with Huntington bank, with a few grand in it, for an emergency fund. I would like to say I never touch it, but I did take 20$ out of it when my debit card was locked down, and I needed some cash, so I used that account. No big deal, it is just an account to hold money in.
Plus, we have an account with Fifth Third, which has direct deposit for my daughter, who gets a monthly stipend for SSI due to what I will call emotional disability. She is a brilliant girl, but socially inept to a huge degree. She is hard to classify, although they have a diagnosis, I don't like to stigmatize her with it. We bought a used laptop from a second hand store for 10$ when she was about 8, and she taught herself to program it, wrote a video game, and added music to it. She was in public school at the time, and taught the students and the teacher how she did it. But in the end, she was completely home schooled. She will never be able to hold down a job. We continually look for options for her, but our area is so limited for people in her boat. The options are either for those who are totally messed up, with no hope, or for those who just need to learn to write a good resume. Nothing in between.
Sorry for getting so far off topic. I am just kind of passionate when it comes to my kids, and their future. So anyway, we have never had any real problems with any of the 3 different banking functions we have. Our daughter's account has only one bill that is directly taken out of it, and other than that, the money simply builds up, for the day when her mother and I are not around, to help care for her. One of my other kids have already said they will let her live with them, but we don't want her to be a financial burden.
I did have an account with Chase bank, several years ago. I had direct deposit set up with them, and one bill coming out directly. The two amounts coincided. I paid off the bill, but then I lost my job, and stopped the direct deposit. I had perhaps 2,000$ left in the account, that I just left alone, but because I was no longer depositing each week, they started charging me 10$ a month or something. I pulled my money out, and never looked at them again.
I almost forgot, we have a small safe, at home that we keep around 1,000$ in, just in case. I am not much of a prepper, but I try to make smart decisions, and having at least some food, water, and cash on hand seems to be prudent.
And just because I have money in several different banks, I don't have money coming out my ears. It is just how things worked out. I chose to put the money in the one bank for emergencies, because if you opened a new account with at least 1,000$ they gave you 100$ gift card. With no waiting period, and no restrictions on how long you had to keep it in there. So that is why we went with that bank. Simply pure greed. The other bank for my daughter, was to keep her money separate from ours, at least on paper, in case we were ever questioned how we had spent her money. It has never come up, and should never, but we just wanted to keep everything above board.
It's not like we were afraid of hitting the FDIC limit for insurance on our accounts or something.