I went into a Brooklyn Chase today to see if, in the wake of the concerns about them going bust, Washington Mutual customers were switching over. I went up to the manager and said, “I’m a WaMu customer —” “—God bless your soul,” he interjected.
banks
Steve Jackson Disses Lameo Free Credit Report Monitoring Service
By 9.16.08
Steve Jackson, a well-known game designer, got an offer for free credit report monitoring from his bank. When he called up the monitoring company, Intersections Inc, the customer service rep rattled off a boilerplate agreement and asked for his assent. When he asked if they would send him a copy, she said they don’t send out copies. When he asked then how he would have a record of what they agreed to, she got huffy and said, “This is free. You don’t need to worry about it.”
Don't Start Yanking Your WaMu Accounts
By 9.16.08
The scary headlines about WaMu’s stock slide have a few readers worrying if now is the time to pull their deposits. I’m a WaMu customer myself and I say no. For now, though I could be wrong, this just looks like more hot panic sweeping the market. First off, you’re FDIC-insured up to the first $100,000. You will get your money. Secondly…
"Years Of Silliness" Unwound Over Single Weekend
By 9.15.08
“I’ve been on Wall Street for many years, and I’ve never seen a weekend like this one,” said Michael Holland, 64, chairman and founder of New York-based Holland & Co. “We are unwinding what has been years of silliness in the financial markets, and the silliness is being vaporized as we speak, unfortunately with the stock price of a number of companies involved in it.”
Lehman Files For Chapter 11, BoA Buys Merrill Lynch
By 9.15.08
Bankers worked hard over the weekend to prevent the American financial system from imploding.
- Lehman filed for Chapter 11
- Bank of America bought Merrlil Lynch
- A special trading session was opened Sunday from 2-6pm to allow traders to try to unwind their positions
- The Fed is expected to temporarily make it easier for banks to borrow from the government
- European Central Banks stand ready to pump billions into the global market
- Washington Mutual’s new CEO’s disclosure of further writedowns and setting aside of capital calmed investors and stemmed the massive selloff of its stock
Ex-Countrywide Employee Sells Your Data, They Offer Credit Monitoring Service, Hang Up When You Ask For It
By 9.11.08
Re: Countrywide Sends Fraud Alert Letters: ‘Your Info May Have Been Sold,” Reader Esqdork writes, “Yesterday, I phoned Countrywide to get them to extend the credit monitoring service [that they offered in their apology letter] to my co-borrower and was promptly hung up on.” The only surprise here is that they even picked up in the first place.
BoA's "Keep The Change" Program: Worth It?
By 9.10.08
What do you think of Bank of America’s “Keep The Change” program? How it works is every purchase you make with your BoA debit card you make gets rounded up to the next dollar. The difference between that and the actual price gets moved from your checking to your savings account. The idea is to help people save. Good idea, but there’s some potential downsides I can see:
Countrywide Sends Fraud Alert Letters: 'Your Info May Have Been Sold'
By 9.9.08
I received a letter from Countrywide today that says:
3 Days Late? BoA Jacks Rate To 29.99%
By 9.9.08
Many of you know that if you’re late on your credit card bill payments they can raise your rates as high as 29.99%, but that’s just for scalawags, right? Nope. JLP at All Financial Matter’s brother was late twice on his Bank of America bill, once by three days, and once by one day. That was enough to make Bank of America say, OMG, this guy is way too risky and we need to penalize him and send his rates as high as they can legally go!
Quicken Beam Checks Your Balances On Your Cellphone
By 9.9.08
Sick of overdrafts? Don’t feel like juggling your bank balance in your head? Quickenbeam from Intuit is a new free service, in beta, that lets you check your account balances, no matter what bank you have, from your cellphone.
Facing Foreclosure? Buy A Second Home! Wait, What?
By 9.8.08
ABCNews says that more and more people who are facing foreclosure are just buying cheaper homes and then just walking away from their original mortgage. It only works for people who can afford the down payment on a new home and carry both mortgages until they’re in the new home, but for some people whose payments are about to balloon, it’s the most attractive option out there right now.
Updated: Reach HSBC Executive Customer Service
By 9.5.08
If regular HSBC customer service are being bitches (as they are wont to do) and you’re not making any headway, try calling 877-472-2005 which is the number to reach HSBC executive customer service. Also, a number for card services is 831-755-6699.
BoA Reopens Credit Card Closed 10 Years Ago
By 9.4.08
At Bank of America, your accounts are Buddhist. As in, undergoing “eternal return,” where accounts that have been closed and passed on will reemerge, rejuvenated, reopened, even if you closed them long, long, ago. Reader Chip writes:
Amex Tops JD Power Credit Card 2008 Customer Satisfaction Survey
By 9.3.08
JD Power and Associates ranked American Express at the top of their 2008 Credit Card Satisfaction Study. Customers gave the company high marks in interaction, billing and payment processes, reward programs, fees and rates, and benefits and services, with the first three factors standing out in particular. Capital One and HSBC, which target revolvers with lower credit scores, received the worst marks. Oddly, Discover got second place. People must really like their two-cycle billing (see “Two-Cycle Billing And Why It’s Evil“). Full rankings inside…
Credit Card Junk Mail Decreases By 260 Million
By 9.2.08
The number of credit card offers clogging mailboxes took a nosedive in this year’s second quarter, 1.54 billion vs 1.8 billion for the same period last year. An aftershock of the credit crunch and sub-prime meltdown, the decrease reflects a shift in the banking industries thinking, trending towards higher standards from its borrowers than merely the fact that they are carbon-based lifeforms. A good way to take that number even lower is to register with OptOutPrescreen.com and stop the tide of credit card offers almost entirely.
Fed Says We Gotta Let Individual Banks Fail
By 9.2.08
A healthy economy “must be able to allow individual institutions to fail,” said Thomas Hoenig, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City president. He’s absolutely right. [NYT]
WaMu's Inability To Mail Letters Costs Man $3,400
By 8.27.08
Wamu’s fraud department has a problem sending letters. Just like another reader, Kristin, we posted about, Rob is having trouble disputing fraudulent charges on his account. He followed their every instruction, except to respond to the second letter WaMu sent out. How could Rob do such a foolish thing? Because it never showed up in his mailbox, a point, WaMu seems to think, is owing to, not their incompetence, but Rob’s general lassitude and weakness of character. Or something like that. Here’s Rob’s story…
