Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

It's hard for me think of wellsfargo as an "evil" company, because every time I had to go into the branch, they have some of the nicest tellers and it's always a pleasant experience.

Something has happened to big banks along the way, where they no longer actually provide banking services to their customers. When I walk into a Wells Fargo branch now and sit down with a "banker" to take care of my accounts, it consists of sitting next to them while they call 1-800-WELLSFARGO for me and talk to a call center. There simply is no service anymore. I walked into my local branch to open up an IRA last week before the tax deadline, and they literally couldn't even do it for me in time because the person on the phone said "we'll do our best effort, no guarantee." I walked up to the teller, asked for a cashier check for the full amount in my accounts, and opened up an account next door at a small local bank (First Republic). They were able to sit down with me and immediately pull up all the paperwork to create and fund an IRA account with no hassle at all right there, no phone call involved. It was like night and day.

These huge banks have simply become way too big, and it serves no one's interest but their own. They have zero incentive to provide actual customer service anymore. There needs to be a massive restructuring of our system to allow smaller banks to thrive and provide actual competition.

Was the fine expected to be much worse? They're trading up at the moment

Unfortunately, the massive restructuring you're referring to would likely need to be in the form of deregulation. It's unfortunate because deregulating something is typically a non-discussion. Our banking regulations make almost no distinction between massive, "too big to fail" banks and small community banks. Like most regulation, it's the massive companies that can foot the bill for complying with regulation, creating barriers to entry into the market.

I had a similar breaking point with Wells Fargo.

I was about 20. Needed to get something notarized, someone mentioned that banks could do it. I googled and confirmed WF could do it for their customers so I went over to my nearest branch.

Asked the front desk if I could get something notarized. They said sure and referred me to a banker at a desk. I walked over and sat down and told him I was looking to get something notarized.

He said sure, but first can I ask if you've considered upgrading your bank account? I said I didn't think I was interested, but he decided it was worth a few minutes of my time to pull out a pamphlet and talk me through the benefits. I thought I was through it. But then he started asking me if I had considered opening an investment account. I told him that with my current earnings and burn rate it didn't make much sense. But he decided to walk me through the benefits. Then I thought surely, he must be ready to help me notarize my document. Nope. He wants to talk about - I don't remember - small business loans, life insurance? Something that made no sense to offer a 20 year old. Sat through that presentation. I'll make an aside - I was much less experienced with deflecting sales pitches at that age, today I'd have stopped it all much sooner.

But I digress. After 10-20 minutes of pitches for products I never expressed interest in, he finally gave up and asked me what I needed notarized. I honestly don't remember what it was, but he turned around and instantly told me that they weren't able to do that type of notarization. Despite wasting so much of my time, they didn't even have the courtesy to make sure they'd be able to help me out afterwards before launching into their pitch.

A few months later walked by a branch and on a whim decided it was a good time to close my account. Walked in, ask to close it, they said I had to wait, I said oh OK that's alright I'll just withdraw all of it. Good riddance.