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The Bailey Savings and Loan theory of bank accounts
By adamg on Sat, 03/06/2010 - 12:45pm
Mike the Mad Biologist explains why he recently used this bank finder to set up an account at Wainwright Bank:
... While the revenge factor is nice (why give those big bankster assholes your money), there are legitimate benefits to do this. First, the banks listed at Move Your Money are not zombie banks (otherwise, they wouldn't be listed): they'll actually be lending your money, which helps everyone. Second, these banks tend to lend money locally, so your deposits are helping local businesses and homeowners--which also helps you directly. Given leverage requirements, in many places, particularly after the collapse of Big Shitpile, moving $20,000 into a local bank in many places means you just financed someone's home or a small business. ...
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Comments
Perfect timing!
I just this morning found out that Bank of America decided, for no reason that I can discern, to chop off 90% of my credit line. They didn't send a letter, e-mail, or phone call, nor does the web site even note the change in available credit; I found out by writing a Really Important Check that BoA declined.
I'll go down to the branch on Monday, but I already know there's no point - they can unilaterally do anything they want, and even Washington can't stop them. BoA is the McDonald's of retail banking. I've tried to run away from them four times, and four times they bought my new bank. Maybe the fifth time's the charm.
(N.B. The first bank was called Perpetual Savings Bank. It wasn't.)
BOA
Complaining about BOA is like complaining about death or taxes. They are a "too big to fail" criminal outfit now- totally protected by the powers that be - they own them actually- and they are more predatory than mafia loan sharks in my opinion. I switched to a small local bank as well a few months back. The only thing you have to do is make sure you withdraw enough cash for the week- otherwise you get hit with ATM fees. But other than that- I am as happy as a clam with my new bank and I don't feel like I am getting ripped off by fees generated by computer programs- that were themselves designed to produce fees on your account.
The annoying thing is
Despite my disgust with BoA, they're surprisingly convenient to bank with. The new envelope-free, cash-counting ATMs are great - and so's the ability to set my receipt and language preferences permanently. There's usually a branch open till at least 5. Their web site is useful enough - full text search, check front/back images - that I rarely need to launch Quicken to check something.
I didn't realize just how advanced BoA was until I opened an account at Sovereign/Santander; their web functionality is stuck in 1997. And don't even talk to me about Citibank - if they installed competing ATMs in their lobby, I'd pay a fee to use those.
Same here...
After hearing some of the horror stories about what has happened with some BofA accounts, I was really nervous the first few days before they sent me my new debit card, as mine was due to expire this month. My worries were unfounded: the card came on Friday and it works very well.
I've never a problem depositing, withdrawing, getting savings bonds, and the like. The Harvard Square branch, in case I need to go there, is open until 7 all week. And to get around their logic of ordering by dollar amount rather than by day, I have a spreadsheet that will do it for me by clicking the "Sort Descending" button.
BoA
I received a letter from Bank Of America telling me that the control panel that I use for my business accounts had been "given " to me in the past but in April they will start charging me $15.00 a month for it's use. This control panel allows me to move money between accounts and download files for quicken. I'm not sure it's worth the additional money.
Wainwright's e-banking -- not very security conscious
I've been happy with Wainwright, including their online banking. BUT, they should NOT e-mail your password to you in plain text when you click the 'Forgot your password!' link!
(I never knew they did this until someone pointed it out to me on Davis Square LiveJournal.)
Am surprised that no one
Am surprised that no one brought up Citizens. My free account from US Trust I think it was (years ago) was bought up by them and immediately slapped with a $15/mo fee. Detested them, but was too lazy to do anything about it. (Been there, done that. Had the unfortunate case of my bank being dissolved while I was overseas a number of years back and was really, *really* tired of dealing both with banks and the MA AG's office.) Roughly half a year or so ago, noted that there were a number of fee increases, not to mention penalties for stuff that normally wouldn't be let through by the Old Guard (I'd get a call, for example. One thing about Citizens I actually didn't mind - anything untoward happening, they'd call me no matter where.). Learned through reading on the news that this all coincided with its being bought out by the Bank of Scotland. Yet again, have a complaint with the AG as well as a jit on my credit record. Think that, this time around, am going to go with the CPCU. (Surely no one will buy *them* out!) Or, maybe to just put the $ under the mattress. I seem to have a better return with that.
Bad Citizens
We lasted about 2 months with their BS after they took over US Trust. We also had to fight them to stop charging huge ass fees on our kids' accounts - they are not chargeable by law (UGMA). Couldn't get all our business into the credit union fast enough!
You're a much, much
You're a much, much smarter/more proactive person than I. Just was a bit battle weary after the Bank of New England thing, then the Baybank to BankBoston thing...as well as the family in Buffalo's dealings with everything turning ultimately into HSBC.
Community banks, credit unions
Great idea, this moveyourmoney.info thing. (Not .com, which is just a placeholder.)
I moved to Wainwright after my retail bank, my mortgage company and most of my credit cards were acquired by B of A. Wainwright's online banking/bill pay system is somewhat clunky and their ATM network is small, but those are minor impediments to the goal of not subsidizing The Monoliths.
Good Service, Low Fees, Old Tech
I've used Wainwright for years. They have nice employees and good service. The ATM situation is usually fine as long as there are other indie banks on the SUM network. Unfortunately it seems the SUM network is in decline and the members are bailing out.
My only complaint is the tech Wainwright uses is kind of old. The website and internal systems seem behind the times. Also their security measure in person seem a bit lax. I've taken large amounts of money out and was surprised how easy it was to do.
SUM network
Citizens Bank bailed as of the first of the year. That was a huge loss of locations. Now it's mostly scattered credit unions and S&Ls, so I just make it a point to take some cash out when I use my debit card at various merchants.