Plan B Forum

For many days there has been a chorus of stories about Wells Fargo Bank and various activities that have resulted in lots of lower level employees being fired, the top guy spending hours before Senate committee apologizing and explaining, and a long list of fines the Bank has paid recently. The State of California has announced they are cutting off Wells Fargo from handling state bonds. The latest I heard was a federal fine for repoing cars from military personal and charging them more than 6% interest for some types of loans, both in violation of federal law about military personnel on active duty.

All of it adds up to me scratching my head and wondering if I really want to continue my three accounts with Wells Fargo. I never selected that bank. Rather I opened a checking, a savings, a credit card with a local neighborhood bank, that was then swallowed up by a larger regional bank, and then that one was bought by Wells Fargo.

My son-in-law worked for MBNA, a local outfit that specialized in 'affinity credit cards'. It was owned by a local family and had lots of wonderful perks for its workers. The founder got old, the rest of the family decided to take the money and run. Bank of America bought it. My SIL now works mostly from home, in the fraud control group. All those perks with MBNA are gone. He tells me alot about computer security. But the corporate culture at BoA is not much different from the attitude/policies that have produced all the bad news stories about Wells Fargo.

It all reminds me of the last two verses of a Woody Guthrie song about Pretty Boy Floyd:

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

snailgate.

You are always best served by a local credit union, IMHO.

All of it adds up to me scratching my head and wondering if I really want to continue my three accounts with Wells Fargo. I never selected that bank. Rather I opened a checking, a savings, a credit card with a local neighborhood bank, that was then swallowed up by a larger regional bank, and then that one was bought by Wells Fargo.

snailgate, Quite some years ago I got tired of all the crazy banking charge schemes, and buyouts, and name changes (Fidelity > Mellon > Citizens), so I switched to a regional Credit Union -- TruMark Financial. Accounts and loans all made simple with no hype. You might want to look into doing the same.

Copycat!

If you travel out of the country it is valuable to bank with a major bank who has partnerships with banks overseas so you can use their ATMs without a lot of additional fees.


Do credit unions have this kind of arrangement?

yrs,
rubato

rubato wrote:If you travel out of the country it is valuable to bank with a major bank who has partnerships with banks overseas so you can use their ATMs without a lot of additional fees.
Do credit unions have this kind of arrangement? yrs, rubato

My overseas travel has been quite limited as of late but I'm fairly sure my AmEx gold card would take care of those expenses should they arise.

I'll cross that bridge...

Credit unions don't charge their members for foreign ATMs and most belong to at least one such major network, just like banks.

There is really no downside to a credit union unless you are looking for worse customer service and greater likelihood that the institution is engaged in banking irregularities.

BoSoxGal wrote:Credit unions don't charge their members for foreign ATMs and most belong to at least one such major network, just like banks.

There is really no downside to a credit union unless you are looking for worse customer service and greater likelihood that the institution is engaged in banking irregularities.

Well. When you get married you are blending two lives together and there are a lot of details which have to be worked out. My wife was enamored of her long-term relationship with B of A, and it was a minor point to me since my local bank had been taken over by the Borg recently, so I tried to stop calling it the "Bank of Aparthied" and succombed.

But I'll look into it again.


yrs,
rubato

Credit unions don't charge their members for foreign ATMs

But from what I heard many foreign ATM's charge the non members for using their machines.
I had an ATM card. Went to use it one time but it was cancelled due to lack of use (aka none). Got another card and have never used it so I guess it has been cancelled also.
One account in Suffolk federal credit union (which also held my mortgage until we paid it off), another in Astoria bank.

Both of my sons have worked for banks, the older one staying at it long enough to get into management. He recently moved up the ladder another rung by changing banks again. He tells me it's kind of a funny thing about banks that people don't seem to realize. Unless you are a major depositor, they really don't care whether you stay with them or not. The small amount of money you probably keep in checking is totally unimportant to them.

Now if you keep a $64,000 balance in a non-interest bearing checking account like was shown on an ATM withdrawal receipt I found in a car once, then they might care. They need all the stupid rich customers they can get.

Right, that's why little people should join credit unions, so they can be treated with dignity as though they matter.

Because George Bailey runs the local building & loan.

Anybody know anything about the banking system in Oklahoma? They seem to have banned out-of-state banking. My son has an account with the military credit union, that's where his house in VA Beach is mortgaged. He was stationed at San Diego for a long time and opened an account with Wells Fargo.

He retired from the Navy and went to work in Texas, then found a job in OK. NO offices for W-F or the credit union (USAA) Seems Oklahoma will not permit national banking outfits to do business in their state. Seems a little fishy--like private-club protection. Keep the competition out of our little cash cow.

snailgate

Burning Petard wrote:Anybody know anything about the banking system in Oklahoma? They seem to have banned out-of-state banking. My son has an account with the military credit union, that's where his house in VA Beach is mortgaged. He was stationed at San Diego for a long time and opened an account with Wells Fargo.

He retired from the Navy and went to work in Texas, then found a job in OK. NO offices for W-F or the credit union (USAA) Seems Oklahoma will not permit national banking outfits to do business in their state. Seems a little fishy--like private-club protection. Keep the competition out of our little cash cow.

snailgate

Oklahoma, where 20 centuries are enough and 19 is just about right.


yrs,
rubato

Burning Petard wrote:Anybody know anything about the banking system in Oklahoma? They seem to have banned out-of-state banking. My son has an account with the military credit union, that's where his house in VA Beach is mortgaged. He was stationed at San Diego for a long time and opened an account with Wells Fargo.

He retired from the Navy and went to work in Texas, then found a job in OK. NO offices for W-F or the credit union (USAA) Seems Oklahoma will not permit national banking outfits to do business in their state. Seems a little fishy--like private-club protection. Keep the competition out of our little cash cow.

snailgate

Not actually the case...off the top of my head, Bank America has branches in Oklahoma, as does Chase.

Burning Petard wrote:Anybody know anything about the banking system in Oklahoma?

I don't, so I googled it. I turned up a long list of banks in OK here: https://www.ok.gov/banking/Bank_Listing.html

I don't see any banks that I'd call "national". Most seem to be smaller ones, many show "state" in their names, so they have state charters. They may ALL have state charters for all I can tell. Some are listed as All Nations, but that undoubtedly means the Indian nations of Oklahoma. There are many...

I sent a text to my sister, who lives in suburban Oklahoma City, after posting the answer above. She says there are branches of Bank of America, Chase, Bank of the West, and a couple for Wells Fargo in OKC. Don't worry that Wells Fargo only has a pair. They will surely propagate more.

Perhaps the list I linked above is only for state chartered banks.