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Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

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Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#241

Post by pellucide »

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…

Genuine question.. why doesnt everyone just go and create a credit union account.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#242

Post by crististm »

ddingus wrote: post #174
ghostly_s wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not my job.

Yes, but there are two issues here. One is getting your trouble resolved. Sadly that means doing some work you shouldn't have to at present. The other is sharing all those experiences so that we can garner momentum to change things.

There is a theory that you should fix your own problems before you fix other's.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#243

Post by skizm »

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 mean I don’t think they care about consumer banking. They care about banking with businesses and institutions. The personal checking accounts are basically marketing toward that end.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#244

Post by coliveira »

narag wrote: post #225
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…

It's definitely an industry ripe for rebirth. Or simply for death. Not my idea, I first thought it was a joke when they told me, but it makes perfect sense. I get exactly zero interest for my savings, not even to compensate inflation. It's stock options or bs funds. Only useful service I get is cards and avoiding keeping cash in a physical safe. Credit comes from cards or specialized loan companies. There are two ser…

Banks don't do anything useful that cannot be provided by other means. They are completely useless. The only thing that banks do is to provide credit against things you already currently own, like mortgages and commercial loans. But these things could very easily be provided by an official agency. For example, if you don't pay your monthly mortgage you just lose the house and an official agency will deal with the sale of the property (maybe through third-party services). Same thing for commercial loans. There is no need to create a private, for-profit bureaucracy to handle this.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#245

Post by otakucode »

When a large fine is levied, there is only one question which actually matters: Did the company profit more than the fine from the illegal actions? If they did, then the fine will be written off as a 'cost of doing business' and nothing will change. It wouldn't make sense to do otherwise. When dealing with entities as large as Wells Fargo, they can often get away with anything as long as it is profitable enough. Since their personhood doesn't extend to the government actually being able to curtail their free movement or actions, and fines are the only way they can be censured, the fact that the public itself will balk at fines which are simply seen as "too large" can enable them to get away with anything.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#246

Post by adventurer »

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 have a feeling First Republic tends to care about consumer banking at this point because it's just not a big bank yet. But how much customer service do you need, anyway? I step foot in an actual bank maybe once a year, if that.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#247

Post by rmk »

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…

You just compared Apples and Oranges. First Republic is typically for the higher-earning, higher net-worth individual, whereas Wells Fargo caters to a much broader set.

Not to say that Wells Fargo should not provide better service, but I just want to point out that these are two different types of banks.

I had a similar experience with Bank of America. The person who was supposed to help me was rude, untrained, and actually caused a lot of problems without addressing my original request (close my account); I later got help from a higher-up (actually trained) who did provide a modicum of service. I had a much better experience at a Credit Union.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#248

Post by Karunamon »

SnowingXIV wrote: post #162
ericcholis wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 liked the idea of simple, but didn't like the fact they couldn't send me checks to use. They'll mail them on my behalf but not send me an actual checkbook to hold onto for one off situations. I rarely use them, but sometimes contractors or landlords prefer this method or charge exorbitant fees to use a credit card. Also if I come into a decent size amount of a cash payment, I can't walk into a bank to deposit it. M…

Workaround for both of these things are postal money orders. PMO's are basically checks in every way that matter, to the point where I've yet to find anyone who won't let me use one if they accept checks.

$1.95 per $1000 is pretty reasonable as far as fees go. If you want to deposit cash, you just get a money order for the amount, make it out to yourself, and use their photo check deposit. Funds available next business day.

If you need to pay someone, you buy a PMO with your debit card.

It's kind of an annoying requirement, but it beats the hell out of dealing with the banks in my area.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#249

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

aeorgnoieang wrote: post #150
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It is [nearly?] impossible to predict all the consequences of your regulation ahead of time. Yes but why is the burden asymmetric? It is similarly impossible to predict the consequences of deregulation ahead of time yet proponents of deregulation are never held to the total unpredictability of the outcomes of their position.

> It is similarly impossible to predict the consequences of deregulation ahead of time yet proponents of deregulation are never held to the total unpredictability of the outcomes of their position. What's an example of this? The deregulation of airlines? The repeal of Glass-Steagall? I've read a lot of bad takes about the latter's supposed outcomes, but none of them claimed that the outcome was unpredictable.

>The repeal of Glass-Steagall? I've read a lot of bad takes about the latter's supposed outcomes, but none of them claimed that the outcome was unpredictable.

It depends on what you mean by 'outcome.' If by outcome you mean that with GLBA/Glass-Steagall repeal banks began investing in the products they had previously been barred from then sure that was predictable. If we mean second order effects like it's possible contribution to the financial crisis then I'd say that was definitely unpredictable considering economists still can't agree on whether GLBA played a role or not.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#250

Post by [deleted] »

wmeredith wrote: post #121
guelo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That deregulation already happened a month or two ago. But it's bullshit because the banks were awful before Dodd Frank too. What Obama should have done during the crisis is nationalize the failing big banks instead of bailing them out and then broken them down into a hundred little banks and sold them off.

> What Obama should have done during the crisis George W. Bush presided over the crisis, despite what conservative media pundits would have you believe. It's amazing how this has been largely ret-conned for half the US population. We live in, uh, interesting times.

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