As banks look for new and exciting sources of revenue, free checking is slowly fading away at the nation’s large financial institutions. This week, we heard from several Wells Fargo customers who are annoyed that they’ll have to pay $15 per month to keep their current account type if they don’t have an average of $7,500 in the bank, across all of their accounts. Is this impossible? No, but it’s a drastic change from the old requirements. [More]
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Investigation: Banks Took $6 Billion In Home Insurance Kickbacks
By 9.7.11
According to a HUD investigation, big banks raked in over $6 billion in a decades-long insurance kickback scheme that violated RESPA. [More]
Wells Fargo And Chase Waive Fees For Irene-Affected Customers
By 8.30.11
Wells Fargo and Chase announced that they are waiving some fees for customers in NY, NJ and CT to help them out after Irene. [More]
Attempt Credit Card Balance Transfer, Wells Fargo Cancels Your Account
By 8.26.11
Howie had a Wachovia credit card, which is now a Wells Fargo card. After a barrage of balance transfer solicitations, he called them up to move some debt from another card over to Wells Fargo. The bank’s response? They promptly canceled his credit card. [More]
Wells Fargo And Visa Take A Month To Refund $400 Gift Card Error
By 8.25.11
It’s a pretty simple error; easy enough to make. When Todd asked for a $100 Visa gift card at Wells Fargo, the teller misheard “for a hundred” as “four hundred.” $400 was promptly taken out of his bank account and placed on the card, and Todd was never asked to authorize the amount in writing. It was only when he checked the receipt after leaving the bank that he found the error. He set off to get his money put back into his account, but it wasn’t so simple even just minutes after the transaction. Adding a credit card company into the mix adds a new and exciting level of bureaucracy when dealing with a large bank. [More]
Wells Fargo To Test $3 Monthly Debit Card Fee
By 8.17.11
Back in March, Wells Fargo announced it was killing off its debit rewards programs, but apparently that was not enough. Now the bank has said it will test a monthly $3 fee — in addition to any service fees — just for having a debit card. [More]
Chase, Bank Of America, Citi & Wells Fargo Allowed To Start Foreclosing Again In New Jersey
By 8.16.11
It’s been a quiet 2011 on the foreclosure front in New Jersey, as several banks froze seizure proceedings late last year following the revelation that foreclosure documents were being rubber-stamped by untrained “robo signers.” But a judge in the Garden State has given the go-ahead for Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo to resume uncontested foreclosures. [More]
Wells Fargo To Pay $590 Million Over Wachovia "Pick-a-Pay" Loans
By 8.5.11
Nearly three years later, Wells Fargo is still feeling the stomach ache from its decision to gobble up the expired scraps of Wachovia. It was revealed today that the Fargo folks have agreed to shell out $590 million to settle the class-action lawsuit over Wachovia’s “Pick-a-Pay” loans. [More]
Wells Fargo And Wachovia Merger Is Bad News For Divorced Couple
By 8.5.11
When Wells Fargo and Wachovia got married, it was bad news for this divorced couple. Merging the two bank’s databases resulted in the husband getting bills and statements for his ex-wife. After trying to fix it and deal with some Wells Fargo customer service reps who clearly needed counseling, the man is ready to break it off with his bank too. [More]
Colbert Interviews The Vampire Who Foreclosed On Wells Fargo
By 8.1.11
The story of the guy who foreclosed on Wells Fargo after they messed up his mortgage insurance just got the Colbert bump. [More]
Angry Homeowners Dump Trash From Abandoned Home In Lobby Of Wrong Bank
By 7.28.11
A group of homeowners in San Jose, CA, are so fed-up with the messy conditions at a bank-owned, abandoned home that they picked up the garbage themselves — and took it straight to Wells Fargo in protest. Unfortunately, it looks like they dumped their troubles in the wrong lobby. [More]
Wells Fargo Forecloses On, Auctions Off House With Dead Owner Inside
By 7.28.11
Last year, Wells Fargo foreclosed on and auctioned off a modest townhouse on Cape Canaveral in Florida. The owner hadn’t made any mortgage payments or used any electricity in over a year, and neighbors didn’t recall seeing her. Her possessions and car were still in the house. Did she walk away from her mortgage and leave town entirely? Not quite. The house’s new owner found something Wells Fargo’s inspectors and property managers had missed when they inventoried the contents of the house and garage: the homeowner’s mummified remains in the front passenger seat of her car. Her cause of death remains unknown. [More]
Wells Fargo Denies Mortgage 1 Day Before Closing To 800 Credit Score Buyer With 20% Down
By 7.26.11
After years of anything goes loans-writing, the pendulum has swung far, far, in the other direction. Patrick tells the story of how his loan with Wells Fargo was denied, 1 day before he was set to close on a new condo. Even though he has an 800 credit score and was putting 20% down, this hiccup was enough to make Wells Fargo back up. And because of it, he and his five-month pregnant wife now have one week to find a new place to live. [More]
U.S. Bank Tests EMV Chip Cards For International Travelers
By 6.21.11
Good news for Americans who like to go to other countries in the world. U.S. Bank is going to roll out EMV chip cards to 20,000 FlexPerks Visa cardholders this month, adding steam to a small but growing push to get traveling Americans credit cards that can work in the “chip and PIN” systems prevalent in Europe and beyond. [More]
Wells Fargo Is Next Bank To Dump Reverse-Mortgages
By 6.17.11
Wells Fargo is the next bank to announce that they are pulling out of the market of selling reverse-mortgages, a loan typically sold to to seniors that converts their home equity into a stream of monthly payments. The lender gets paid when the home is sold at the borrower’s death or when they move. Without reliably rising home values, it’s not a very profitable proposition for lenders. [More]
Chase Repos Wrong Car
By 6.13.11
At first, this woman thought her used car, financed through Wells Fargo, had been jacked from the front of her house. She reported the car as stolen and filed a claim. It was a bummer because she had been only two years away from paying off the five year loan. Then she got a call from Chase Auto Finance who said they had repo’d the car because the previous owner didn’t finish his payments. Whoops! Chase had taken the car without securing a lien on the title! [More]
Bank Of America, Chase, Wells Fargo Penalized By Treasury For Really Sucking At Loan Modifications
By 6.10.11
Yesterday, the Treasury Department released a scorecard of just how well (and poorly) the largest mortgage servicers are doing at meeting certain benchmarks of its Making Home Affordable program. Not surprisingly, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase — the three largest servicers — were called out for needing “substantial improvement,” meaning that the banks will not receive millions of dollars in federal incentives until they get their acts together. [More]
Chase QuickPay Decides Your Rent Payment Is Fraud, Locks Down Accounts
By 5.26.11
Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo customers will soon be able to send money to anyone with an e-mail address or mobile number using a new Voltron of a service called ClearXChange. Chase already has something similar to that called QuickPay, which Derek and his roommate (a Wells Fargo customer) used to transfer their rent money while Derek was out of town. Let’s see how that worked out for them. [More]
