The banks are bending us over!

It's worse than you can possibly imagine. Briefly: You pay them to hold your money. They take your money and for each of your dollars, borrow $20 at virtually nothing for interest from, uh, you, then loan that to, uh, you at 10% interest on that $20, or really 1800% ((10%-2% costs) *20) interest returned on your dollar. They were scamming us so bad, they ran out of people to give the money to (AKA "enslave"), so they started giving it to anyone breathing, regardless of job or imigration status or any ability or even willingness to give it back. Then, poof, it's all gone. Now we can pay them back the $20 they lost so they can give you that dollar back.

Anyway, start searching for a better bank. Bank of Oklahoma might even do you online, I don't know.

Dr. Hess wrote: It's worse than you can possibly imagine. Briefly: You pay them to hold your money. They take your money and for each of your dollars, borrow $20 at virtually nothing for interest from, uh, you, then loan that to, uh, you at 10% interest on that $20, or really 1800% ((10%-2% costs) *20) interest returned on your dollar. They were scamming us so bad, they ran out of people to give the money to (AKA "enslave"), so they started giving it to anyone breathing, regardless of job or imigration status or any ability or even willingness to give it back. Then, poof, it's all gone. Now we can pay them back the $20 they lost so they can give you that dollar back.

yeppers.

mad_machine wrote: if you are in the North East.. I recommend TD bank.. once known as Commerce. One of the first banks to go 7days a week, low fees.. very easy to deal with

+1. besides navy federal CU, they're the best i've dealt with.

So I open a business account at Bank of America.

As others have said: 1st mistake. If your name was Cholo and you had no valid U.S. identification, they would've given you a house. Instead, they bent you over. We use a local "Community" bank for all of our business stuff. Good people.

I really appreciate all the input here folks. I'm going to shop around a bit. I really thought this was the status quo. I'm glad it's not.

mad_machine wrote: if you are in the North East.. I recommend TD bank.. once known as Commerce. One of the first banks to go 7days a week, low fees.. very easy to deal with

TD is a Canadian bank (Toronto Dominion) that merged with Canada trust a few years back, and adopted their long hours of business. Not one of the better banks up here, IMO but very stable.

RBC (Royal bank of Canada) is another one that does business in the U.S., mostly in the southeast. They're the biggest, and I've had good luck with them.

avoid U.S. Bank like the Plaugue...they will charge you overdraft fees when you never overdrafted your account. When you call them on it, they will tell you theyre not sure why that fee was automatically charged. However, since their computerized banking overlord program is sentient, omniscient and infallible,there must have been some valid reason for the fee, and therefore theyre only willing to give you half of the fee back.

I DO NOT advocate violence when simple conversation and clear thinking are clearly a viable means to dispute resolution, but i sincerely would be afraid to leave my home if I were a banking excec...its only a matter of time before someone less level headed and rational than most of the rest of civil society feels theyve had enough and decide to hold one of these disciples of banking scum personally accountable for the actions of their respective hideous financial institutions and do something irreversible.

For people in the midwest, Arvest is a good bank. They are owned by the Walton family, and they had this kind of weird banking idea of not loaning money to people who can't or won't pay it back. They also don't rape you every time you turn around, have free checking, and provide good service. And, whadayaknow, they are not bankrupt and facing a takeover, unlike all the other ones. They are actually doing quite well.

4cylndrfury, you need to find another bank. Dave Ramsey has a internet bank that he endorses and advertises on his show. You might look into that one if you can't find something else local.

Thanks for the advice...but I have a slightly better plan.

Im currently involved in moving my assets to another institution. My father worked for General Electric in the 80s, and when I was 6 he opened an account jointly with me at the Genera Electric Federal Credit Union for employees, where I put approx $8.63 as a child. I forgot about this account for a long while. Apparently when I turned 18, my father signed the account solely into my name. I never used it until 18 mos ago when I purchased my first home, and I was looking for references and other info related to getting approved for a home loan, he reminded me about that account. Well, it had ballooned to a whopping $45 with interest and other rewards for a long standing open account.

Basically Im moving there because they actually offer interest on checking, and better interest if you have checking and savings.They charge no real overdraft fees, just interest on the amount they extend to cover you, and have AWESOME customer service. And even though my father no longer works for GE, Im still eligible for other financial services since Im grandfathered in with this silly little account that was started when I was a little tyke.

Thanks Dad

Me too prefer canoe!

Message to TD Bank: Your "grassroots marketing" campaign is a failure. Despite what your marketing consultants have told you, astroturfing online forums is Not the way to build awareness of or trust in your business.

Not sure that that was a shill for TD Bank. You'd think that they'd at least use proper grammar (maybe proper Canadian grammar, eh?) and that link doesn't mention TD bank anywhere.

This isn't quite in the same vein as other posts here but....

This month I received a notice in the mail from my credit union. About 2 years ago they changed their credit cards to a credit w/rewards card AND LOWERED their APR from 12% to 8%. I can't really kick about that, can I? Well, the notice says that thanks to changes in FEDERAL BANKING LAWS, they MUST now change to a variable APR. The notice says they can do this, with little notice, tho I suspect they won't, and that when the APR is changed, it will never be more than the prime plus 1.9%. They hinted that the interest rate charged will never drop below 6%, but that it could (easily?) go above 12%....the "old rate"....if the prime ever starts to rocket into oblivion.

We have business and personal with Wells Fargo. They have a plan for almost any situation. I like them and will stick with them until something drastically better comes along.

They also have some of the least expensive mortgages in town, as they don't resell them. This lets them charge lower intetest rates and lower fees, as they are the only one who have to make a profit on each mortgage.

jack