211–213 of 213 posts
[flagged]
There is no recession, enterprises are struggling to obtain profits from zero interest rate macro that is unattainable in the current macro. Unemployment will remain low due to structural demographics (10k Boomers retiring per day, 3.65M/year, 1.8M people over the age of 55 die every year, ~1/2 of which are in the labor participation rate). A healthy economy creates ~1-3M jobs/year. So there will be churn as long as…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The executives who committed the vulture-capital mergers and bridge-burning outsourcing of the late '90s and early '00s were much worse.
Outsourcing has always and continues to be a thing. Last year when Google laid of their big tranche they moved a ton of those projects to india. Just look at the recent HN articles about Bending Spoons laying off entire companies in mergers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a retail and business customer of both Citi and Chase, there is no comparison. It would be illogical to use Citi given how great Chase's service is. While there are probably many factors, you cant be that comparatively bad for a competitive and fungible service -- and expect no business consequences.
Chases service is fine but their savings interest rates are laughable. At least Citi's is 4.35% right now vs 0.01% for Chase.
Theoretically, lets say you keep 5k buffer in your checking account. The amount goes up and down as you get paychecks, pay out your rent, credit card bills, etc. That average 5k balance at 5% interest gets you $250 annually, or about $21/mo in interest. You'll give away 30% of that to taxes, so the "opportunity cost" of your checking account is ~$14/mo.
A serious question for any busy professional (as many of us are here) -- is chasing after this $14/mo worth the cost of a substandard checking account and bank service? My experience is that good banking service pays for itsself.
I'll give examples:
- One inexplicable fee from a bad bank will wipe out your monthly monthly interest
- If you have to wait on hold for 1hr to fix it, you've already lost way more
- If you have to pay fees left and right for things like certified checks, again you have lost the interest
- If you have fraud on your account and spend >2hrs dealing with it because the bank is unwilling to help or sends you to some offshore call center, again you lose.
- Suddenly need a statement from a year ago? Some banks will charge for that. HSBC (last I used) neither returns your checks nor shows images of your checks, so you have no record of checks unless you keep them.
A great bank has all sorts of fringe benefits. Mine will even do notary service for free. Mine will give near spot FX rates on overseas ATM withdrawls.
For US customers I would wholeheartedly recommend Chase, no need to be penny-wise pound foolish.