Unless you’ve been hiding under a bed for the last six years, you probably know that the banking industry isn’t exactly beloved by many American consumers. As a reaction to public sentiment (and threats of regulation), a number of banks have begun phasing in some more consumer-friendly practices, but a new study shows these changes are not industry-wide and that several banks are still years behind. [More]
wells fargo
Wells Fargo Closes My Account After $32,000 Fraud, Allows Bogus Payment To Go Through On New Account
By 5.29.13
Imagine waking up one day to find your bank account has not only been compromised, but that more than $30,000 in fraudulent checks have been written on it. Then to make matters worse, once things seem to be resolved, another bogus charge is placed on an entirely new account. [More]
Wells Fargo Employee Accused Of Stealing $10K From 90-Year-Old Customer
By 5.22.13
A personal banker at a Wells Fargo branch in Atlanta has been arrested and charged with felony theft for allegedly tricking an elderly customer into giving him more than $10,000. And she may not be the only victim. [More]
Wells Fargo Forecloses On Homeowner Who Made Payments Too Early
By 5.16.13 — Updated: 5.17.13
A homeowner in Orlando is confused, and with good reason. He says he not only made his mortgage payments on time to Wells Fargo, but that he sometimes paid early and sometimes paid more than he was supposed to. And yet, the bank decided to foreclose on his home. [More]
Judge Tries, Again, To Slap Wells Fargo With $203 Million For Overdraft Policy
By 5.15.13
It’s been nearly three years since a U.S. District Court first ordered Wells Fargo to pay out $203 milllion in refunds to settle a class-action suit involving the bank’s overdraft policies. Since then, the bank got a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to set aside that mountain of cash, saying California law can not override federal banking laws. Now the original District Court judge is once again ordering the bank to fork over the $203 million. [More]
New York AG To Sue Bank Of America, Wells Fargo Over Alleged Violations Of National Mortgage Settlement
By 5.6.13
If the big mortgage servicers thought they’d put a pile of legal troubles behind them when they reached the $25 billion dollar National Mortgage Settlement with almost every state in 2012, they were wrong. Today, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his intention to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo for what he alleges is a ” persistent pattern of non-compliance” by the two banks. [More]
Worst Company In America Round 1: Chase Vs. Wells Fargo
March 21, 2013
The tournament’s first banking battle gets Day Three of WCIA competition off with a bang! [More]
One Complaint To CFPB Fixes Mortgage Snafu That 9 Months Of Dealing With The Bank Couldn’t
By 3.12.13
As Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray pointed out in his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee this morning, more than 130,000 American consumers have used the agency’s numerous complaint portals to help resolve their problems with financial institutions. Consumerist reader Charles is just one of those people who still has a house because the CFPB was able to accomplish in a few days what no one else could in almost a year. [More]
Banks Uncover Additional Wrongful Foreclosures On Military Members
By 3.4.13
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) is intended, in part, to help protect active-duty members of the armed forces from having their homes taken away by foreclosure, but as we’ve seen, this hasn’t stopped banks from ignoring the law and taking those houses anyway. Now comes a report that banks have recently uncovered hundreds of additional wrongful foreclosures on the homes of servicemembers. [More]
Man Smashes Wells Fargo Window, Arrested When He Tries To Pay For Damage
By 2.20.13
It’s a fact: Some people do stupid things when they are drunk. Some of those same people also have the decency to try to atone for their mistakes when they realize they screwed up (and will probably get caught). [More]
Bank Of America, Comcast Among Familiar Names In List Of Least Reputable Companies
By 2.14.13
Once again, the folks at Harris Interactive have released their Reputation Quotient Report, which rates public perception of 60 highly visible companies. Regular readers of Consumerist will not be shocked to see which companies brought up the rear this year. [More]
Apparently All Gingers Look The Same To Wells Fargo Because I Am Not A Cat
By 2.12.13
I get it — redheads are rare and so some people might not realize that hey, that ginger in a picture is actually somebody else. We all look the same to some people, so whatever. But for one Wells Fargo debit card holder, that hair color blindness has apparently led someone at Wells Fargo very far astray, as the bank allowed a ginger cat to be featured on his card instead of an actual human being. [More]
Deadline For Foreclosed-Upon Homeowners To File Claim In National Mortgage Settlement Is This Friday
By 1.14.13
It took years to reach the $25 billion settlement between the nation’s largest lenders and 49 states, but affected homeowners were only given months to claim their piece of the pie. [More]
Senators Call For An End To Payday Lending By Banks
By 1.10.13
Four of the nation’s largest banks — Wells Fargo, Fifth Third Bank, U.S. Bank and Regions Bank — are involved in high-interest, short-term loans that may not always be called “payday” loans but might as well be. Thus, a group of five U.S. senators have asked regulators to put a stop to the practice altogether. [More]
Court: Wells Fargo Misled Customers About Debit Card Transactions But Doesn’t Have To Pay Back $203 Million (Yet)
By 12.27.12
It was a good news/bad news day at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, as the court set aside a $203 million judgement against Wells Fargo for the way it processed debit card transactions, but kept the door open to hope that consumers might see some of that money. [More]
Wells Fargo Being Sued (Again) Over Pick-A-Pay Loans
By 12.11.12
Wells Fargo continues to get kicked in the shins for the sins of Wachovia. Two years after agreeing to massive settlements with borrowers over that former bank’s Pick-A-Pay loans and hundreds of millions more in settlements to investors, new legal filings allege Wells Fargo hasn’t make good on promised mortgage reductions. [More]
Bank Of America Dead Last In Customer Satisfaction Study
By 12.11.12
The folks at the American Customer Satisfaction Index have released their latest report on the banking industry and for the sixth year in a row, credit unions and small banks have outscored all the large financial institutions. And for the second consecutive year, Bank of America is bringing up the rear. [More]
Wells Fargo Called Out For Continuing To Offer Payday Loans
By 12.7.12
The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 requires that FDIC-insured banks be examined and rated on whether or not they are meeting the banking needs in each of the communities in which they are chartered. But a pair of advocacy groups claim Wells Fargo deserves a lowered CRA rating because of loans that smell a lot like payday loans. [More]
