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Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

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Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#251

Post by Karunamon »

sandeeps_ wrote: post #50
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…

You can try capital one 360 account. It allows you to create virtual accounts for different categories. It doesn’t have all the features you desire, but is better than most other banks in this respect.

It's still Capital One at the end of the day... I really don't relish the idea of giving them money.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#252

Post by acdha »

rmk wrote: post #247
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 a…

> 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.

Okay, so pick any other bank which serves the entire community — whether it's a small credit union, a smaller regional bank, or a larger one which isn't BofA (I use TD Bank). The service will still be worlds better and they won't periodically require massive fraud prosecutions. It has nothing to do with the customers and everything to do with the corporate culture.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#253

Post by henrikschroder »

djsumdog wrote: post #126
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…

I deleted all my Mint stuff years ago just because of the security concerns. If you mention the security concerns on Hackernews, a Mint employee typically replies with a link to the wikipedia page on their patented security model. Still, I'd rather not type all my bank passwords into an Intuit website. I like your concept of the multiple credit/card style budgeting. That makes a lot of sense. There are even some of t…

> Discover card has a section in your UI that tries to automatically break down your spending by store type

All merchants that accept credit cards are placed in a category by the card companies, and every credit or debit card purchase therefore gets this category attached to it. Some places surfaces this information to you, in various ways. I have Chase, and they have a pretty shitty UI for this, but there's something there at least.

So it's not unique to Discover, and it's not them "guessing" or trying, it's based on fixed merchant categories.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#254

Post by Karunamon »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #101
paulie_a wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I would simply ignore those fees. At the end of the day they have zero leverage to collect.

If only. All banks, even the local ones, use something called Chex Systems, which works somewhat like Equifax for bank accounts. If you leave an account open with a $0 balance, and something hits it, and causes an overdraft, and accumulates fees, and then they close it later on for you with a negative balance for hundreds of dollars, then this gets reported to Chex and the next time you try to open an account with an…

Can confirm. I had a negative ChexSystems report cause me all manner of grief after a credit union account I forgot about got closed out 23 cents in the negative.

Two dimes and three pennies. It cost them more than that in angry phone calls and reporting it in the first place.

Broken system.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#255

Post by openasocket »

kaizendad wrote: post #19

OK, but Wells Fargo made $5 billion last year, and the activity they were fined for took place over many years, which leaves me to ask: after the fines, was this activity profitable or not? If it was profitable, do the fines actually dissuade future dishonesty? Also, apparently Wells Fargo thinks that 27,000 people lost their cars over this. I bet none of those people will be made whole. Cars are really essential thi…

> I bet none of those people will be made whole

I don't think this is about making them whole, it's just about fining them. I could be wrong, but I believe those victimized are still welcome to conduct a civil action against Wells Fargo.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#256

Post by doodpants »

Klathmon wrote: post #238
narag wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You don't even get to choose your mortgage company. A few years ago a friend of mine bought a house and actually turned down a house who's sellers had a bank of America mortgage as he had bad experiences in the past. He went out of his way to choose not to deal with them, but to his suprise 30 days after he closed he got a letter in the mail telling him that his mortgage was sold to Bank of America! And not suprising…

It's been almost exactly 2 years since I bought my condo, and I'm currently on my fourth mortgage company. Which is now Wells Fargo! I don't know why they keep selling my mortgage.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#257

Post by IncRnd »

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 anyone has any recommendations in the meantime, please let me know!

I do this today with my regular bank account that's with a big bank. I can open subaccounts, get cards for them (or student cards for young family members), have automatic transfers setup for the day after my check deposits, etc. All accounts are listed on my account summary page.

This works fine for me. As a bonus, there aren't any extra fees for the privilege of giving my bank credentials to a third party.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#258

Post by HenryBemis »

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…

Having worked in "big banks", I can say that there is a complete disconnect on the top. These people (on the top) sit on an ivory tower, think that they will bark orders and the slaves will obey. They become so big and slow-moving, that only by insane cost-cutting (at the expense of real customer service) keeps them viable, and keeps the shareholders happy.

The disconnect from the ground (and being surrounded by cronies and yes-men/women who keep them blind and stupid) causes the poor service.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#259

Post by ohples »

Karunamon wrote: post #248
SnowingXIV wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 busine…

Yeah except a lot of debit cards have a $500 daily transaction limit.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#260

Post by henrikschroder »

Klathmon wrote: post #238
narag wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You don't even get to choose your mortgage company. A few years ago a friend of mine bought a house and actually turned down a house who's sellers had a bank of America mortgage as he had bad experiences in the past. He went out of his way to choose not to deal with them, but to his suprise 30 days after he closed he got a letter in the mail telling him that his mortgage was sold to Bank of America! And not suprising…

I have never purchased property in the US, but I keep reading horrible anecdote after horrible anecdote, so I have to ask:

As a buyer, why would I even care who the seller has their mortgage with? Why would that matter?

Where I'm from, the real estate agent deals with that shit. When you close the deal, the agent calls up the new bank or faxes them or whatever so that they open a mortgage for X amount for the piece of property for the buyer, and directs them to send Y to the old bank so that they close out the previous mortgage, and Z to the agent's account, who then takes their cut, and forwards the remainder to the seller.

Is this not how it works in the US?

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