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wamu
Posts Tagged “
Wamu
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wamu
IndyMac
Banks Put 8-Week Hold On IndyMac Checks
People who got their money from IndyMac are facing new challenges as other banks put extended holds on releasing the funds when the checks are deposited. WaMu is putting 8-week holds on the checks. Wells Fargo is putting holds on amounts over $5,000. If you deposit more than that, Wells Fargo will only let you have access to the first $5,000. The Office of Thrift Supervision is looking into whether this is ok or not. Good, we needed something like this, that panic wasn't looking frothy enough.
Waits improve at IndyMac bank branches [LAT] (Thanks to Kathy!)
(Photo: zoliblog)
wamu
WaMu: "It Is Not My Problem If You Did Not Plan To Pay Your Bills On Time"
WaMu goes out of its way to convince you that it is staffed by friendly, outgoing people who want to help you if something goes wrong. Their "About" page on the WaMu website says: "We’re informal, friendly and fun. We take our customers’ money seriously, but not ourselves." We suspect that reader Drew would disagree with the whole "friendly" part of that sentence. He arrived home a day late from a business trip to Europe and was in a rush to pay his rent before it was due. He made it to the WaMu branch 5 minutes before it closed, but it was already locked. More »
call kerry killinger
Reach Washington Mutual Executive Customer Service
Rosalva Alvarez
rosalva.alvarez@wamu.net
1-800-225-5497, option 1, option1, extension 467
Fax: (206) 965-3082
Use this after normal customer service fails. Be nice, ready to state your case in 1-2 sentences, and read this post on dealing with executive customer service first.
(Photo: Whatsername)
confessions
Another Washington Mutual insider has stepped forward with a slew of tips to help save your ass from overdraft fees, check deposit holds, and talking to Filipino bankers. Details, inside...
More »
WaMu Banker Confessions, Part Two
Another Washington Mutual insider has stepped forward with a slew of tips to help save your ass from overdraft fees, check deposit holds, and talking to Filipino bankers. Details, inside...
More »
debit cards
WaMu Doesn't Understand The Concept Of Fraud
Reader Todd says that WaMu issued him a provisional credit after he was ripped off by a fake online merchant, but reversed the credit because he didn't supply the bank with "a product description, cancellation policy, and cancellation number." He can't get a cancellation number because the transaction was fraudulent (he never received the item he ordered.) No matter who he talks to, he can't get WaMu to understand that he's been ripped off. More »
credit crunch
Credit Crunch CEO Bloodletting Claimes Latest Victim: Wachovia's Ken Thompson
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson has been gobbled up in a subprime shark attack after 32 years with the company. More »
follow-ups
WaMu Backs Down, Returns The $1500 To Bill's Bank Account
Bill, whose small business checking account had been inappropriately drafted $1500, sent us the following email late last night:
More »After another battle with a branch manager today—who insisted that money couldn't be returned and that I needed to fill out a fraud report—I went over her head. After a heated, uh, discussion, the main downtown Seattle branch put the $1,500 back in my business checking account. The $7 fee was refunded a few hours later.
Some bad PR in Consumerist no doubt helped. Thank you!
banking
WaMu Presents Random $1500 Check On Someone Else's Account, Then Calls It Fraud
[Update: WaMu has returned the money.] Bill's small business account was hit with a $1500 check written by an unrelated third party to another third party—both completely unconnected with his account. He was also penalized with an insufficient funds fee, although the money was debited from his account. Now WaMu's saying they have to investigate for fraud before they can return Bill's fees. More »
weird fees
Customer Gets Slapped With "Excessive Activity" Fee For Messing With Savings Account Too Much
John found himself the proud father of a $10 fine from WaMu this morning because he exceeded 6 transfers from his savings account during a single billing period. When he called in to find out why this happened, he was told it was a federal regulation: "The representative from Wamu said there was nothing she could do and I need to better monitor my account. Honestly I just want to know if anyone else has had this problem?" It's a real regulation, John, but banks don't have to charge a fine—they can also simply warn you or not allow the seventh transaction—but then they wouldn't get to make another $10 off of you. More »
complaints
It Takes Two Subpoenas And A Contempt Threat To Get A Response From WaMu
Washington Mutual will give you a copy of the check that you've been requesting for a year, but first you will need to subpoena them twice and attempt to have them held in contempt of court. That's what one reader experienced when her employer, a law firm, needed a document from the megabank. As she puts it: "If a law firm with the power of a subpoena behind them can't get WaMu to cough up a document in a timely manner without a massive amount of headache, I'd hate to see what the average consumer has to deal with." More »
From a Digg comment on our post about a WaMu branch telling a man saying they didn't have enough money on hand to let him withdraw $4200: "funny because i had the same experience at a Wamu. My wife had trouble cashing a $5000 check and we had to drive around to three branches until finally, after insisting continuously, that they finally cashed it!"
run on the bank
WaMu: Sorry We Don't Have Your $4200 In Cash, Want A Check?
Maybe we're crazy but $4200 doesn't seem like too much money to withdraw in cash at a branch bank, especially if you give them 24 hours notice. Apparently, that large of a withdrawal leaves WaMu all tapped out. Is WaMu really that short on capital reserves? More »
recession watch
WaMu announced today that they lost $1.14 billion in the first-quarter and CEO Kerry Killinger said that nothing of this scale had happened "since the Great Depression." Comforting!
(Photo:Maulleigh)
WaMu CEO Compares Mortgage Meltdown To The Great Depression
WaMu announced today that they lost $1.14 billion in the first-quarter and CEO Kerry Killinger said that nothing of this scale had happened "since the Great Depression." Comforting!"Nothing of this scale has happened since the Great Depression," Chief Executive Kerry Killinger said at WaMu's annual meeting. "This is the toughest credit cycle I have seen in my years in the industry."WaMu says it will cut 3,000 more jobs, including that of Mary Pugh, chair of their finance committee who "had been fiercely criticized for failing to protect Washington Mutual from overexposure to subprime and other risky mortgages," according to Reuters. A Loss and a Shake-up at Washington Mutual [NYT]
(Photo:Maulleigh)
personal finance
Switched To Fee-Free ATM Withdrawals
I'm sick of paying ATM fees so I just finished switching to my USAA debit card for my cash money needs. They refund up to $15 of ATM fees per month and don't charge you any fees for using other people's ATMs. I'm still keeping my WaMu account but I took my WaMu debit card out of my wallet and just funded my USAA account with some money. Not that I have a problem but I think this will also help reduce petty cash spending. Plus, by using cash more often that means I'm getting more change, and all my coin change goes into my piggy bank (60% full at the moment, looking forward to the day I take it to the Commerce Bank "Penny Arcade" coin-counting machine). With the specter of a recession giving us all wet willies, are you making any changes to your personal finance system?
(Photo: Ben Popken)
WaMu has bad credit, says the AP: Moody's Investors Service cut Washington Mutual Inc.'s credit rating Friday and said the country's largest savings and loan will need at least $4 billion more than it expected to cover bad mortgages in 2008.[AP]
bonuses
WaMu Rewrites Executive Bonus Plan To Avoid Subprime Meltdown Responsibility
The Seattle Times reports that Washington Mutual has revised its executive bonus plan so continuing fallout from the subprime meltdown won't affect their annual bonus checks. In a regulatory filing on Monday, the bank moved to exclude the cost of bad loans and expenses arising from foreclosures when calculating net operating profit. By way of explanation, "Spokeswoman Libby Hutchinson said the bonus plan covers almost 3,000 WaMu executives, many of whom are not directly involved in lending," writes the Seattle Times. When those subprime raping dollars were rolling in, did any of these same executives object that their bonuses was being unfairly pumped by profits not coming from their department? (Pictured: CEO Kerry Killinger, looking clever)
(Thanks to Doug!)
rude
This WaMu Confirmation Number Has A Potty Mouth
Consumerist,Brad,
I logged online to check my Wamu account tonight and I was surprised by the profanity in the "confirmation number" field.
Highly amusing, don't you think?
—Brad
There is a ghost in the machine. Kill it. Skynet. Help. It's learning at a geometric rate.
