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Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

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Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#201

Post by rok3 »

sdrothrock wrote: post #185
illumin8 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, the California AG basically said "Wells Fargo is a criminal enterprise masquerading as a corporation" and I'm inclined to believe him.

I can't find a quote like this -- is there any chance you have the source?

“Wells Fargo customers entrusted their bank with their livelihood, their dreams, and their savings for the future,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Instead of safeguarding its customers, Wells Fargo exploited them, signing them up for products - from bank accounts to insurance - that they never wanted. This is an incredible breach of trust that threatens not only the customers who depended on Wells Fargo, but confidence in our banking system. As our investigation found, Wells Fargo’s conduct was unlawful and disgraceful.”

Source: https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bece...

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#203

Post by illumin8 »

sdrothrock wrote: post #185
illumin8 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, the California AG basically said "Wells Fargo is a criminal enterprise masquerading as a corporation" and I'm inclined to believe him.

I can't find a quote like this -- is there any chance you have the source?

I heard it on an NPR interview with him mentioning this, but I can't find the transcript.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#204

Post by somberi »

milesvp wrote: post #198
computerex wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at Netflix with chaos monkey and simian army. Netflix routinely does catastrophic destructive testing on their production systems, sometimes evacuating an AWS region entirely. To them, a server going down is a non-event, because they designed their systems with the premise that servers go down.

Netflix is a great example of how to create robust systems. Keep in mind though, they have a very different risk profile than a large bank. no one is going to lose their life’s savings if netflix entire infrastructure crumbles. This might happen in a bank with a single server outtage. Don’t get me wrong, if I start a bank today, I use chaos monkey stategy. But if I take over a bank infrastructure, with cobol still re…

Not to mention adhering to the Fed's directives on tech-readiness, on which the Bank's license hinges on.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#205

Post by meko »

benoror wrote: post #197
jedberg wrote: post #175

For everyone complaining about "how could they not have failover" let me ask you this: Would you take a job with Wells Fargo to fix their infrastructure? And if you did take such a job, how long do you think it would take you to get the budget and approvals from all the auditors necessary to fix everything? How much would they have to pay you to take that job, knowing how frustrating it would be to get anything done?…

Nice mentor you got there

It would be a shame if something were to... happen to them.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#206

Post by eljimmy »

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #200
mabbo wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I like the Canadian system of mortgages. I have a 30 year mortgage, but every 5 years I have to "renew" it. At that time, I have to renegotiate the rate for the next 5 years. As part of this negotiation, I can just switch banks if I want. Or to a private lender. Or to anyone really. It seems weird to me that you are beholden to an entity you've never signed any contract with.

Is there something to prevent the rate from skyrocketing when you renew the mortgage? Doesn't this have all the issues people occasionally have with ARMs?

Nope. Rates are based off a prime lending rate which is equal amongst all the big banks. But like they said, you are free to shop around.

Credit unions usually have good offers.

Ideally you’re not buying a home that you can’t afford if rates go up too much.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#207

Post by baby »

clairity wrote: post #132
baby wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a bank in the US similar to Monzo or Revolut? I really miss these having moved from the UK to the US and I haven't been able to find a good replacement.

i don't know enough about those banks to compare, but https://empower.me is the best of the new breed online banks i've found - 2% apy for checking (with some reasonable conditions)!

Killer features of Monzo for me:

* all works in an app

* totally free

* no fee when using the card abroad, exchange rate is the bank rate

* notification of the purchase right away

* it tells you where each purchases were made, on a map

* it rounds up every purchase to save them in a saving account

* you can create as many saving accounts as you want, in one click

* every purchase is automatically categorized between bills, eating out, entertainment, etc.

* you can see how much you spent in a month, and in what

* you can send money to people near by, or by using nicknames

* searching your transactions is super easy

* you can freeze/unfreeze your card in one click

* easy transfer of money

I think overall, the app has so many features and it's pretty slick.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#208

Post by welder »

clairity wrote: post #75

for those who haven't taken the plunge, now is a good time to move to a credit union, regional bank, or online bank: - for instance, in cali: https://www.golden1.com/ - high interest accounts: https://www.bankrate.com/banking/checking/best-checking-acco... - good rate online bank: https://empower.me/ get better service, lower/no fees, and good convenience without all the economy-damaging selfishness and hubris.

Or even better, a High-Yield Savings Account:

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/best-high-yield-onli...

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#209

Post by plttn »

baby wrote: post #207
clairity wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don't know enough about those banks to compare, but https://empower.me is the best of the new breed online banks i've found - 2% apy for checking (with some reasonable conditions)!

Killer features of Monzo for me: * all works in an app * totally free * no fee when using the card abroad, exchange rate is the bank rate * notification of the purchase right away * it tells you where each purchases were made, on a map * it rounds up every purchase to save them in a saving account * you can create as many saving accounts as you want, in one click * every purchase is automatically categorized between…

Simple (https://www.simple.com/) might be the closest to this in the US.

It doesn't have no fee foreign exchanges, no rounding up, but does basically everything else there.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#210

Post by zaphirplane »

surge wrote: post #115
mabbo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredible. They had all their mission-critical infrastructure in a single data center. How many billions of dollars do they make per year? And they can't afford even a tiny bit of redundancy? If I were a customer, I'd use this as a sign that this company is not technically competent enough to manage my money.

They had redundancy, the redundancy failed. I mean truthfully when do you get to test your redundancy against a true disaster. It was a mess. WF is 20 companies rolled into one so the fact the disparate systems from 10 different banks works at all is kind of a miracle.

There is this company that had a grid power issue, batteries kicked in batteries running low, diesel generator show time, diesel generator doesn’t kick in. people scramble to shutdown before the batteries run out. So ITIL stuff happens and time to test it, guess what? diesel again doesn’t kick in (don’t recall the consequences thou)
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