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Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

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Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#111

Post by theandrewbailey »

jobu wrote: post #99
aphextron wrote: post #4

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 we…

The _only_ benefit of a large bank like Wells Fargo is that they're nearly everywhere, and I can deposit or withdraw money from any branch without paying a fee. They do not offer any other service or product that comes close to competing with my local credit union (or even most small banks).

If your credit union has shared branching, they're everywhere too.

https://co-opcreditunions.org/locator/

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#112

Post by istorical »

ellisv wrote: post #26
istorical wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. Careful, if it's not actually closed they'll hit you with fees.

Just logged in to check.

Balance: $0.31

"This account is dormant. Call us at 1-800-869-3557 to reactivate or close your account."

How convenient that there's absolutely no information about the consequences of a dormant account.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#113

Post by criddell »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #86
aphextron wrote: post #4

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 we…

I got an email recently from WF about the issue with them opening accounts in customer's names without them knowing. The email said something to the effect of contact them if I think an account was opened that I didn't authorize. Why the heck is the burden on ME to go look?

How can they determine if the form they have with your signature on it is fraudulent or not?

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#114

Post by toomanybeersies »

heurist wrote: post #38
aphextron wrote: post #4

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 we…

It's definitely an industry ripe for rebirth. For instance, I should be able to partition my money into several lightweight accounts - one for groceries, one for home expenses, investment, etc - and automatically have fractions of my deposits sent to those accounts so my budgeting and money management are handled without any effort on my part. I should have lightweight cards available for each of those accounts with…

If you move to New Zealand, several banks the ability to split paychecks into different accounts, with the option of having a bunch of cards if you wanted.

What I would personally like is an extension to the EFTPOS standard so that I can get receipts with my transaction history. It would be great if instead of just saying I spend $50 at the supermarket, it gave me itemised receipts which I could then export.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#115

Post by [deleted] »

heurist wrote: post #38
aphextron wrote: post #4

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 we…

It's definitely an industry ripe for rebirth. For instance, I should be able to partition my money into several lightweight accounts - one for groceries, one for home expenses, investment, etc - and automatically have fractions of my deposits sent to those accounts so my budgeting and money management are handled without any effort on my part. I should have lightweight cards available for each of those accounts with…

[deleted]

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#116

Post by ianamartin »

ericcholis wrote: post #76
heurist wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely an industry ripe for rebirth. For instance, I should be able to partition my money into several lightweight accounts - one for groceries, one for home expenses, investment, etc - and automatically have fractions of my deposits sent to those accounts so my budgeting and money management are handled without any effort on my part. I should have lightweight cards available for each of those accounts with…

Simple[1] is pretty close. Create "Goals" for any amount and time period, Save $X by Y Date . Simple automatically allocates money to your Goals from your Available Balance daily, every friday, or any other schedule. They show you a "Safe to Spend" balance which is your Available Balance minus your total Goals. You can associate a Goal with a spending category, say Groceries, and have all transactions marked Grocerie…

I was a Simple customer from when they were still in beta, and I really loved them and talked a fair number of people into opening accounts with them over the years. Things went really downhill after a while.

Moving physical addresses was a total shitshow. It involved them snail-mailing two verification codes. One to the current address and one to the new address. And you had to be able to collect them both and get them entered within a certain time frame. (Really inconvenient when moving from Texas to NYC).

And then got a new banking partner and had to basically re-enroll everyone again with a time component. There was a web form that crashed immediately when I entered my information because they couldn't verify my address. I filed a ticket immediately, which they didn't follow up on. When I followed up on it, they said it was a known issue and they were working on it. No worries, I'll get an extension.

Eventually after me calling several times to ask about it, they just said that there were issues with some of their oldest accounts that just couldn't be resolved. So I could Re-enroll from scratch on their website. Which I did. And immediately got flagged as fraud because I already existed as a customer.

Eventually, they told me I would just have to find a different bank, and they were closing my account in 7 days, and they were going to keep any money left in the account at that point.

I was pretty livid.

And the goal system was theoretically really cool. I liked it a lot. But it never really worked correctly because the goal tag wouldn't stick from the Auth to the Settlement. So anything you had flagged when you made a purchase you had to re-flag when the purchase was no longer pending. It was a great idea but somehow they never figured out quite how to relate the Auths to the Settlements in their user database. Which is pretty scary.

Anyway, long story short, up until a couple years ago, I would've completely agreed about Simple being a good option. But I can't warn people away fast enough after all of the garbage I've had with them.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#117

Post by criddell »

dharmab wrote: post #17
vinhboy wrote: post #2

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.

I felt sorry for the branch manager at by local branch when I closed my account. She's a great person who really cares about her customers, unlike her employer.

Part of my frustration with WF is that after I establish a relationship with the manager, they inevitably move him or her to a different store.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#118

Post by codingbeer »

heurist wrote: post #38
aphextron wrote: post #4

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 we…

It's definitely an industry ripe for rebirth. For instance, I should be able to partition my money into several lightweight accounts - one for groceries, one for home expenses, investment, etc - and automatically have fractions of my deposits sent to those accounts so my budgeting and money management are handled without any effort on my part. I should have lightweight cards available for each of those accounts with…

What you describe are common features available to all customers of Danish banks. Free of charge in any decent bank. You get the “Dankort” (den card) for free. It’s a debit card that’s universally supported in all shops with zero surcharge. It’s trivial and a common service to share accounts with multiple cards in your family.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#119

Post by ajcodez »

aphextron wrote: post #4

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 we…

Similar experience trying to send international wire. Totally clueless.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#120

Post by jahabrewer »

Someone1234 wrote: post #77
cspags wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly recommend checking out https://www.youneedabudget.com for the ability to do this and more. (No affiliation, just a very satisfied customer)

Does that require giving them your banking online login details?

Buy YNAB 4 (aka YNAB Classic). You'll have to import transactions manually, but I much prefer it to their subscription SaaS offering. I've used it for five years and love it.

I use a python script to download most transactions from banks/credit cards. https://sites.google.com/site/pocketsense/home/msmoneyfixp1/...

There are enough people who do this that you can figure out how to access the OFX endpoint for most financial institutions.

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