Do you bank with National City? Well, it's time you were introduced to PNC. Based in Pittsburgh, PNC is buying Cleveland-based National City for $5.2 billion. PNC is also taking $7.7 billion from the Treasury's capital-infusion program. [NYT]
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Well, that is really good to know. National City started off nice and friendly, but over time they became a major thorn in my side. They always try to upsell us on products and services, even if we already proved we don't qualify.
That's hilarious. I just opened a National City Bank account this morning (they have a $200 new customer promotion going on - [www.nationalcity.com]). I hate PNC after being a customer for 10 years due to some horrible customer service I recently experienced. I was just in the middle of changing over all my online bill payment entries.
Damn it.
@tmlfan81: I've banked with PNC for over a decade now and have not had problems whatsoever. A couple times I got hit with NSF charges and all were revoked after speaking with Customer Support. Their web banking is great as well. You should not have any problems.
@blackmage439: No, you're fine. These mergers take months to complete, so your account will be created. When the two banks become one, your account will automatically turn into a PNC account. But if you want, you can always cancel and go somewhere else.
I have National City currently. They placed a hold on a paycheck depositted on a thursday so that all the bill payments comming out friday would result in NSF fee's That would result in me being $200 short on my mortgage. I contacted payroll who placed a stop payment on the check, reissued a new one which I signed over directly to chase for my mortgage. I now bank with Chase.
National City has a trend of charging Overdraft fee's to accounts that are positive balance. My ledger balance even shows it had a $1000 positive balance when they charged those fee's. I have been fighting with them for nearly a month to refund those fee's as they keep charging more and more fees. I'm glad about this except the stock I have in them is now useless!
@tmlfan81: I've been with them for 6 years (in 2 cities) and haven't had any problems with them. The ATMs have been a bit sparse, but that's been the worst of it (and that's not so bad).
You get some stuff in the mail from 3rd party life insurance, etc, but I've never gotten an upsell in person or on the phone. Generally, it's been a pretty straightforward and bland relationship. Luckily, my financial situation is uncomplicated, and they don't do anything to mess it up.
The debit cards are bright orange, though, which takes some getting used to. I'm not a fan.
@Deezul_AwT: Well, if you're like me, you're hoping there's a chance your equity line will be unfrozen after the acquisition (not to get into detail, but the damned thing shouldn't have been frozen in the first place).
My parents were talking about switching over to National City. I hope they didn't, just because I don't want to have them asking lots of dumb, paranoid questions.
By the way, Charter One Bank (owned by Citizens, I believe) sent me an e-mail last week telling me not to worry, they're a highly-rated bank. (And there was copy posted in the lobby of my local bank branch.) Anybody else get anything like that from their bank? I personally, find unsolicited prebuttals less than reassuring.
I have a checking account in PNC and a savings account in National City (don't ask, seriously...) and I have always preferred the service and accessibility of PNC over that of National City, so honestly I hope this switch will be only for the better.
I'm just more worried about my grandma than anything - she has been with National City for YEARS, and we all know how well senior citizens deal with any sort of change! :)
@Michael Bauser: My father is an executive for Citizens in their bad loans group. You're totally safe with them; they're in excellent standing compared to other big banks.
If anyone is still on the fence about banking with pnc, remember this: They bought the name to the Garden State Arts Center and it's now named after the bank. For those who don't know, the GSAC is on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. Of course, you no longer see the GSAC name, you see pnc ac. So, if you're against naming rights, stay away from them. Yeah, it's getting tougher and tougher to do this, but I keep fighting the good fight. Some might say I'm tilting at windmills. So be it.
@DjDynasty: For the year plus that I have been with National City, they have always re-ordered my transactions [to their favor] based upon the higher amounts getting deducted first. I usually plan for this, but there are times where even National City defies this logic and goes in an entirely route.
I tried the EECB route and I got no where - well, that is to say I received a formal response but they pretty much told me to "fuck off" in between the lines.
I work for National City and there is no need to worry about your accounts. It will be many months before anything happens (possibly 2-3 years before full integration). Anyway, there is no need to worry, your accounts are safe and the transition will be smooth. As far as banks sending you messages saying they are stable this does not mean they are safe. We had the highest tier one ratio (among major banks), which measures the amount of money in excess of deposits and here we are being acquired. I hope points stays around too, we shall see. I've also noticed looking around PNCs benefits for employees may not be as good.......
@nybiker: The "new" baseball park in Pittsburgh is PNC Stadium. Even before it was built locals were making cracks about glass-walled bathrooms :-).
















Crap... I just opened two accounts with them, and turned in paperwork for direct deposit. Should I be worried?