TD Bank customers, particularily former Commerce Bank ones, are still complaining about their paychecks and other transactions not posting. Other customers said they were being limited to $250 withdrawals. The problems arose Monday after they tried to combine their bank system with Commerce Bank’s, which TD recently bought.
banks
BoA CEO Resigns
By 10.1.09
Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis resigned yesterday after becoming a lightning rod for criticism after his controversial takeover of Merril Lynch. Even though BoA has appeared in our Worst Company in America contests each year, it’s kind of sad because his office had a good record of solving our reader’s problems they sent in to the executive office. Too bad that ethos couldn’t have flowed downhill more.
USAA Online Checking & Savings Open For Non-Military
By 9.28.09
If you’ve heard us rave about USAA’s stellar financial services but grown sad when you learned that it’s only available for military-members and their family, have heart: you can get still get access to some of their services like banking and checking.
How To Buy A Foreclosed House (That You Might Actually Want To Live In)
By 9.28.09
Buying a foreclosed home may seem like a great deal, since the bank that’s selling it would rather unload it at a loss than stay on as owner. But foreclosures come with a lot of risks — including vandalism by former owners or theives who strip vacant homes of just about anything that isn’t bolted down — and even things that are (you know, like toilets).
Gmail Account Shut Down For Receiving Errant Bank Spreadsheet
By 9.26.09
The judicial system has spoken in the case of the spreadsheet full of personal data accidentally e-mailed to a random Gmail user by an employee of Rocky Mountain Bank. Google must reveal the account holder’s identity, and the account has been deactivated.
Citibank Markets To Only Rich People, Large Cities
By 9.26.09
True to its name, we suppose, Citibank will be focusing its marketing efforts on six major U.S. metropolitan areas and wealthy customers, and not the rest of us deadbeats.
Bank Sends Sensitive Customer Info To Some Random Gmail User
By 9.24.09
Here’s the problem with Gmail: so many people use it that a mistyped e-mail address probably will not result in a bounced message. It will result in your message going to the wrong person, since nearly every derivation of a name is probably a working address.
Wells Fargo Also Pledges To Reduce Overdraft Fees
By 9.24.09
Chase and Bank of America aren’t the only ones suddenly growing pseudo-human faces and reducing their money-sucking overdraft policies. Today Wells Fargo squirted out a press release that says they “will eliminate overdraft fees for customers when they overdraw their accounts by $5 or less and will charge no more than four overdraft fees per day.”
FDIC May Ask Banks For Bailout
By 9.22.09
Due to the record number of bank failures this year, the FDIC is low on funds. Instead of borrowing from the Treasury as they did in the early ’90s savings and loan crisis, regulators have a new idea: asking banks for a bailout.
Reverse Sneaky Fees With These Free Complaint Letters
By 9.21.09
Want to claim a missing rebate, or reverse sneaky cable, bank, cellphone or hotel fee? These free complaint letter templates posted by Gotcha Capitalism and Red Tape Chronicles author Bob Sullivan are a godsend. It’s like Madlibs for money.
Discover Vastly Improves T&C But Reduces Open Road Rebates
By 9.21.09
Discover Card customers received a notice in the mail recently that the card was reducing the “Open Road” rebate on auto maintenance and gas dropped from 5% to 2%. Around the same time, customers have also received notice that the terms and conditions for the card are basically coming in line with the CARD act ahead of schedule. Hmmm, coinkydink?
How To Reverse A Debit Card Overcharge Quickly
By 9.15.09
If someday you have the bad luck to have one of your debit transactions entered incorrectly by a merchant, here’s how to get things back to normal quickly. The important part is not to let the merchant “get back to you” at some later day. Instead, try to get your bank and the merchant on the line at the same time in order to get it rectified immediately.
Welcome To The New Gilded Age, Fueled By Your Money
By 9.11.09
Remember all of those banks that were “too big to fail” and had to be bailed out? Newsweek’s Niall Ferguson is out with a report today pointing out that a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers signaled the start of the bailout boom, they’re still big, and thanks to the safety net you tossed them, they’re “back to making serious money and paying million-dollar bonuses. Meanwhile, every month, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans face foreclosure or unemployment because of a crisis caused by … a few Wall Street giants.”
Bank Piles On Overdraft Fees Due To Merchant Error, Doesn't Seem Too Keen On Refunding Them
By 9.10.09
Here’s a story from a reader about a bad bank practice that we hear about too frequently—a bank cascades hundreds of dollars worth of overdraft fees on an error that’s beyond the customer’s control, but then is unresponsive or uncooperative on refunding those fees.
Banks Cling To Overdraft Fees Because They Need Them To Survive
By 9.10.09
Banks now make more on debit card overdraft fees than credit card penalties—they’ll rake in about $27 billion in 2009 alone, according to the New York Times. They obviously have zero incentive to curb the practice. In fact, one economist told the paper that “45 percent of the nation’s banks and credit unions collect more from overdraft services than they make in profits.”
Banks Are 'Quietly' Negotiating Credit Card Debt, WashPo Says
By 9.10.09
The Washington Post says banks have grown more sympathetic to stressed-out consumers and are now more lenient when it comes down to renegotiating interest rates and minimum payments. Banks aren’t out there advertising their willingness to bend, but they’re more willing to listen, the story says.
Credit Union Celebrates Labor Day By Limiting ATM Transactions To $40
By 9.5.09
How are you spending the long weekend? If you’re one of 2,000 Arizona Federal Credit Union customers affected in a Visa security breach, we hope you weren’t planning a trip out of state.
Wachovia Teller Refuses To Deposit Check Written In Two Ink Colors
By 9.2.09
“The best advice I can offer to those who wish to commit check fraud against Wachovia Bank,” writes Jim, “is to purchase a typewriter.” Although he’s been a customer of the bank for years and had a hefty balance that more than covered the deposit amount of his handwritten check, because the dollar amount was in black ink and the signature was in blue ink the teller said it might be fraudulent and refused to take it.
