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The 'banking bankers have banked up my money again' thread

14:04 / 24.07.06

Just what it says in the summary really...

This be a haven for all those tales and questions which concern the workings of those nasty priests of mammon - the Bankers. Here we shall bemoan our current monetary failings, and those of our banks. Here we shall give each other advice on which banks are better than others (and pretend to one-another that there actually are any differences between them). Here we shall bitch and moan about how bad C(r)apitalism is, before we wander over to other threads to talk about things we want to buy.

Basically: Money. Banks. Ain't they crap/great, eh? I totally hate/love this money situation - what do you think. I have no idea/know lots about your current money situatuion; what i think is...

So onward. Here is mine:

As I have mentioned across in the 'untamed anger' thread, I'm having a few problems with my current bank. I continually receive excessive charges and am met with unforgiving attitudes when I try to complain.

I'm getting a bit sick of it, and think it's probably time to switch to a different bank. But I have less than no clue when it comes to banks, so I need a little advice on what to look for and who to bank with.

I've just finished at uni, which means I have a lumpy big £2000 overdraft. Currently it is interest free, but the charges being piled on for other banking problems probably mean I end up paying what I would if the overdraft had interest on it.

So I want a new bank. One which will allow me to carry my overdraft accross and (preferably) not charge me too much for it. One which has a good online banking service. One with low banking charges. One with good customer service. (I know I'm dreaming here, but...) One which is likely to treat me respectfully as a customer, rather than a Bad Bad person who must be punished and leeched.

So any advice? I'm open to all advice - well-researched information on overall perfomance is just as welcome as personal tales of banking woes/happiness.

Oh - I'm in the UK, and my current bank is the Co-Op. So no answers that involve the BNP, the Royal Bank of Canada or The Co-Operative bank, please.

15:53 / 24.07.06

Don´t you have government owned banks in the UK (or in the USofA)?

My Bank (Sparkasse) is owned by the government (and the "real" banks hate that, because of "unfair competition", hah) and I am very content with their work.

They for example have to give anyone an account, even with people where the private banks will refuse.

A friend of mine works for a private bank, and sometimes tries to get all my money to his employer, but I will never change, because the Sparkasse has helped me, when the other banks wouldn´t have:

I once in my youthly ignorance did a very bad deal that made me broke for years and when I finally wised up, I had to get about 30.000 € (20k b pounds?) in three weeks to free myself from the contract. And the Sparkasse gave me the money (with no risk, what the other banks did not want to understand: profit ith no risk = good deal).

So I won´t leave them.

And what I did not dare to post in the happy thread yet:

Last week for the first time in my life, I sold stocks with a profit (ca. 60% in a little over a year). Since 1993 I had always lost money, but my friend and the consultant from my bank stopped me from doing bum deals and now it looks quite nice for a change.

Private banks are swine, of course. The german banks constantly rip off people left and right, and not just "small" people, but the rich, too! The worst is the Deutsche Bank, they are the most arrogant bastards ever.

There once was a big scandal, where many people and small family corporations lost money and went bankrupt (thanks to the db managers being fooled by a crook) and the chief at that time, Hilmar Kopper, called these money sums "Peanuts". That got a storm of protest towards the D. Bank and they never recovered from this PR desaster and still treat everyone (even their own millionaire clients) like shit.

So good luck trying to find a bank, that´s governed by people with a heart, a brain and a spine instead of the usual institutions.

Spyder Todd 2008

16:23 / 24.07.06

Umm... *looks down as I shuffle my feet* I work for a bank. But it's a local bank, so since everything is owned and run within the city I live in, I feel like less of a sell-out. That being said, I do have a rather interesting perspective (sometimes) into the inner workings of this (occasionally) soul-crushing industry. Meh.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

16:34 / 24.07.06

I have hatred for banks, too.

I actually don't have a bank at the moment, because I still owe my old one money that I don't think I should have to pay them. I overdrew my account by fifty cents right before I went on vacation for a month or so last year. When I returned and looked at my bank statement I owed them an astronomical sum, because you apparently accrue a fee of $25 every day you're overdrawn. I told them it was ridiculous, rdthey told me to pay, I told them to get fucked, and now I have no bank. I can't open an account with a new bank until I pay the old one what I "owe," so I'm sort of screwed.

My SO handles all the check-writing and debit-carding, cashes my paychecks and basically manages all of our finances. It's okay, but I'd kind of like a debit card to buy cool shit from eBay and Amazon. As it stands now, I have to run all my internet transactions by her, which means I don't always get to buy the things I need in my life. I can pretty much count on any baseball memorabilia being vetoed, for example. It's a terrible burden on me, and I blame the bank.

16:47 / 24.07.06

I am opening a new bank account so I can tell the old one to get stuffed. They can chase me for the money, good fucking luck you evil evil bastards. I am aiming at a cash lifestyle with as little interaction with financial institutions as possible.

17:31 / 24.07.06

My great grandad took all the money his family had out of the bank and kept it in a tin chest. Why? Because they were "usurers".
Anyway, the TSB have never dicked me around but that's because I think I have inherited GGdad's parsimony and distrust, so never give them a chance.
I would recommend the Nationwide which is still a mutual building society and offer some handy perks, such as not charging you insane amounts if you use money in the land called abroad.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

18:51 / 24.07.06

Lloyds have generally treated me fairly decently, at least far more decently than one might expect a bank to behave toward someone like me who is in all fairness a bit of a feckless get when it comes to money. I often do end up paying a fair bit in bank charges, but that's largely due to my bad habit of spending all of my money on books, comics, cds and partying by two thirds of the way through the month and before a couple of direct debits come out, so I can really blame anyone but myself for that revolting development.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

19:00 / 24.07.06

I am aiming at a cash lifestyle with as little interaction with financial institutions as possible.

A sound, sound plan and more difficult than it seems.

*

19:19 / 24.07.06

Credit unions. I've always banked at credit unions, and they've always treated me fairly well.

20:46 / 24.07.06

I overdrew my account by fifty cents right before I went on vacation for a month or so last year.

Something similar happened to me in 1995 (=no online banking yet).

I had something really important, that had to be paid soon by the person getting the money from my account and I was really skint, and so I phoned the bank to ask, how much money was still left. They told me and there was still just enough money left.

And yes, the important stuff didn´t work out, because now that my bank had charged me an unreasonable high amount for asking one question per telephone, there was about 2,00 DM less on the account than was necessary. A short time later I switched to the above mentioned bank, and for about 9 years now, no more banking problems (eh, more or less).

22:08 / 24.07.06

I should add that my great granddad was, apparently, a raving commie. 'Mon the shale miners!

Whisky Priestess

23:14 / 24.07.06

Do not get a business acccount at Lloyds TSB. They will charge you an "account maintenance fee" for doing precisely fuck-all, i.e. for the account existing, even if there are no transactions of any sort (except for bank fee debits of course, ha ha) for months.

04:11 / 25.07.06

*holds head up*

I work for RBC Financial Group and I'm happy. I was happy with the bank even before I worked for them.

I will admit that banks do screw people over. The problem is that the screwing over is always in the agreement that the client signs when opening the account. When you activate your debit card, you agree to any outrageous fee that the bank comes up with.

The true measure of a bank is how far the employees will go to correct the situation. Why, just today I reversed a lady's NSFs even though it was all her fault and admitted it.

You're always going to lose money when you put money into a bank account. The interest is never higher than the fees.

So you find ways around it. Get an account that gives you very little transactions free (less debits=less fees) then get a small credit card from the same bank that has no annual fee. Then never use the debit card and simply transfer through free online banking from the debit card to the credit card. Do this every week and you'll never carry a balance and therefore never accrue interest.

Try to avoid overdraft; get a credit line instead. For example, my student credit line is currently Prime plus 1, so that means about 7.something percent. Overdraft at RBC is 21% per annum or $3/month. The credit line always stays with you.

Don't get loans from car dealerships; get a credit line (not a car loan).

If you keep every document, every statement, you'll save money. If you keep everything, you won't have to beg the bank for a copy of that cheque from 1999, which will cost you quite a bit.

Also, if you keep every document, you have a better chance of arguing and winning your case in front of the ombusman, the third party resolver of conflicts between you and the bank.

Use online banking for everything. I mean, everything. Less fees, usually.

Research your bank.

Sometimes the bank will win. Actually most of the time. But there are times when the bank shines and helps people through their most difficult of times.

04:45 / 25.07.06

I agree with "use online banking".

I have an online bank account (by a different than the mentioned bank), that has zero cost. It is a 100% functional normal account and I have a visa card, free of charge, with which I can get money from any visa compatible cash box on the planet, again without any fees.

They can afford this by having only one store in the city, and they make their profit by selling stuff and doing the usual bank business.

And shamecalling another bank: The citibank screwed me over twice in a matter of hours and I "only" lost about 30 € because of it, instead of thousands like so often before.