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Bank of America’s ridiculous maintenance fee

March 1st, 2010

One thing I hate is bank fees, which is why I’m particularly annoyed at Bank of America right now. My wife and I have a MyAccess checking account, which we opened online in 2004. We do most of our banking through an online bank, but keep this account for branch and ATM access (cash withdrawals, depositing miscellaneous checks and dollar coins, etc.). Because this isn’t our primary checking account, we choose not to have our direct deposit sent there and instead do an automated transfer for a nominal amount from another account to fake the direct deposit and avoid a $8.95 monthly maintenance fee.

Unfortunately for us, this isn’t foolproof. When we opened our monthly statement for February, we saw that we had been charged the $8.95 monthly maintenance fee. This was partially because we forgot to reset our automated transfer (our system makes us reset the transfer after so many months) and partially because the statement closed four days earlier than it did last month. We had another electronic transfer hit the account, but only after the statement for the month had closed.

Not ready to admit defeat, I call customer service to request a fee waiver. True to their usual level of no-service, the automated system said there was a long wait to speak to a rep and then uncerimoniously disconnected the call. So I then used the online chat to request the credit, and only after requesting a supervisor did I get the fee waived.

While I was waiting for the online customer service rep, I just happened to review what the fee structure was on my account if I were opening the account today. Guess what? If you open online, there is no monthly maintenance fee or direct deposit or minimum balance requirement. Armed with this I asked if I could have these terms applied to my current account I was told that was only for new accounts, and when I asked if I would have to close the old account and open a new account to avoid the monthly fee I was told that is what I would need to do. What a waste!

So here’s my dilemma: do I close this account (I am out of paper checks anyway, but I think 5+ years to use 50 checks is a decent run) and open a new Bank of America account to simply avoid the fee, or do I tell Bank of America to go screw and take my business elsewhere? I’ve been trying to simplify anyway, so I am thinking we should just use our credit union account for this type of stuff, but having so many BofA branches around is very convenient, especially when trying to spread around those dollar coin deposits. What to do?

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Posted in Banking

$150 PlainsCapital Bank Free Checking Offer – Austin Texas only

January 14th, 2010

Here’s some more free money for all of you out there in Austin who do the bank account deals. PlainsCapital Bank is offering a $150 bonus for opening a free checking account. Just open the account with a minimum of $50 using the offer code FCAU1109 by February 19 and you’ll get $50, and when you have your direct deposit made to the account you’ll get another $100 for a total of $150. You could previously apply online, but they have since restricted the offer to Austin residents and it must be opened in person in one of their Austin branches. The terms of the offer say that you have to keep the account open for 90 days to avoid a fee, although the disclosure documents in the application process say 180 days, so plan on having the account open at least 6 months.

$150 PlainsCapital Bank Free Checking Offer

Here’s the details:

To qualify for the $50 bonus, you must open a new PlainsCapital Bank Free Checking Account by Feb. 19, 2010, with a minimum deposit of $50 in new funds (e.g., money not currently held at PlainsCapital Bank). The $50 bonus will be automatically deposited into your new account within 10 business days. To qualify for the $100 bonus, you must set up direct deposit into the new account within 60 days of account opening. Once direct deposit is set up and a deposit is made, the $100 bonus will be automatically deposited into your new account within 10 business days.  Bonuses cannot be considered the minimum opening deposit. Limit one offer per customer. Checking account to remain open for 90 days or the account could be subject to an early closing fee. Account is subject to approval. Bonus is considered interest and must be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.

UPDATE 1/14/2010 3:05pm: It looks like they have completely taken down the offer from their website. You may want to call to see if they will still honor this offer in-branch before making the drive over to one of their locations.

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Posted in Banking, Deals, Free Money

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Why being a devil customer is better than boycotting…

January 13th, 2010

I have seen a lot in the blogosphere of late about the “Move Your Money” campaign, which aims to motivate people to boycott the big banks that were the primary recipients of government bailout money and move their business to smaller community banks and credit unions. This has led to a lot of discussion of boycotts in general, including this great post over at Bargaineering.

But if you disagree with a company’s business practices, is a boycott the most effective means of jabbing a stick in their eye? I would submit to you that it isn’t. You may do the most damage to the offending company by being what Best Buy termed several years ago as a “devil customer”. Best Buy determined that some of their customers who bought high-priced items or overpriced accessories without a sale were “angel customers”, but there was a certain percentage that were unprofitable customers that were considered “devil customers”. Included in the behaviors of the devil customer were taking advantage of price-match policies and only buying loss leader items (items sold below cost to get you into the store with the hope you’ll buy other items at regular price). Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson was quoted as saying, “They can wreak enormous economic havoc.”

So how can this be applied to protest companies you don’t like? Simply be a devil! For retail stores don’t boycott the store, but go there and only buy obvious loss leaders. If it is a store like Walmart with a price-match policy, go and price-match other stores’ loss leaders. Buy nothing that will actually make money for the store - save those items for their competitors and let those stores reap the profit.

Taking this concept back to banks, do everything you can to make sure the bank doesn’t make money on you. Move your money elsewhere unless they are paying an extremely high promotional rate that they are likely losing money on. Take advantage of promotional offers to open checking accounts and credit cards for bonus money or other perks, then only use the account enough to qualify for the bonus and avoid services fees and as soon as you are allowed cancel the account. If you do the dollar coin hustle, use an account over there to dump off your coins and make them eat the expense of handling them. Basically do anything that will cost them money but where you won’t incur any fees.

Think of it this way: if you boycott a company, they just don’t make any money off of you. But if you are a devil customer to a company, not only do they not make money off of you but they actually lose money by your having a relationship with them.

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Posted in Banking, Customer Service, News/Trends

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Identity theft victim? What your bank won’t tell you

January 6th, 2010

One of my colleagues at the office is fighting with an identity theft scam involving her primary checking account, and listening to the line of bull they are feeding her has inspired me to post about the things you bank doesn’t want you to know if you are an identity theft victim.

Here’s her story: she had her wallet with her drivers license and debit card stolen in early November. Before she even realized it had happened, the fraudsters used the license and debit card to cash forged checks against her account. Note they didn’t forge checks drawn on her account, but they forged someone else’s checks and used her account to cash them against. She found out when she got an overdraft alert from her bank (Wells Fargo) and promptly contacted the bank to alert them to the scam and filed a police report. Wells Fargo ultimately opened them a new checking account  and closed the old account that had been compromised.

So that’s the end of the tale, right? Nope! Because the fraudsters are still running around with her ID and know she banks with Wells Fargo, they simply ran the scam again last week and cashed forged checks against the new account. Now she’s fighting with Wells Fargo again to get the mess straightened out and the funds returned. They are now talking about opening a third account with a teller alert attached to supposedly prevent this from happening yet again.

So what does this story illustrate? Two things:

  1. When something like this happens, it is best just to move your primary account to another bank. In this instance changing the account number does no good because the fraudsters still have her picture ID and know she is a customer of the bank. Because it is typical for customers to not know their account number, it is common practice for bank tellers to use the picture ID to look up the account. That’s how this fraud was perpetrated a second time even though the old account was closed.
  2. Any safeguard depending on the teller is of minimal effectiveness. I say this as a former bank teller. A teller alert or note on an account does little good if the teller never reads it. When the bank is busy and customers are lined up as far as the eye can see, most tellers will just press whatever button they need to clear the alert and complete the transaction. This is especially true of tellers working the drive-thru lanes. The limited visibility of the customer created by the way most drive-thru lanes are configured (especially when you are dealing with the farthest lanes and/or the passenger as the accountholder) and the desire to get customers in and out fast also limits the effectiveness of an ID check. If a bank manager tells you a teller alert will prevent fraudulent activity on your account, they are either lying or stupid because they should know better.

Although one of my resolutions is to eliminate unnecessary accounts, there is a lot of wisdom in having a secondary checking account that you can use in this type of situation and/or keeping most of your funds in an account other than your primary checking account. In any case if this happens to you, it is probably best to retreat to a different bank and hope the scammers don’t follow you there.

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Posted in Banking, Tips

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Warning: Those unused credit cards could cost you!

December 30th, 2009

Many of us have them: unused credit cards that we opened for whatever reason that we don’t use anymore and just have stuffed in a sock drawer or a desk. We may keep them because we think it will hurt our credit scores to cancel them, or for emergencies, or just because we are too lazy to call and cancel them. Now it looks like the credit card companies’ never ending quest for profits could make keeping these cards rather expensive.

According to this article on Bloomberg, Fifth Third Bank has instituted a $19 charge for NOT using your card. Additionally, Citi is starting to charge some customers with low activity levels on their accounts higher interest rates. On top of that many issuers such as Bank of America are starting to experiment with charging annual fees on credit card accounts where there may not have been one before.

For those of us that have built up a pile of unused accounts over the years, this may be a good reminder to cancel many of those accounts we no longer use. It helps reduce the possibility of being blindsided by fees and reduces you risk of fraudulent activity as well. On top of that, it eliminates all those mailings from the credit card company and leaves you with fewer accounts to have to track.

Will there be a credit score hit? Perhaps, although it may be smaller than you would expect, especially if you have several other accounts that are open and active. Just remember that the length of your credit history and the percentage of your credit lines that are utilized are the main factors here, so it is better to keep older and larger accounts.  Two things to consider doing are to request changing your card to a different program instead of closing the account entirely and consolidating existing credit lines with the same issuer.

Since we have no plans to apply for credit in the near future, we made the decision that downsizing to only a handful of accounts is our best course of action. The extra peace and security that comes from having fewer accounts is worth the hit of a few credit score points in my opinion.

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Posted in Banking, Credit Cards, Customer Service

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Another $125 Chase Checking Bonus (exp. 1/15/2010)

December 22nd, 2009

Everyone is looking for a little extra cash around the holidays, and here is a great opportunity for some easy money. Chase is offering a $125 bonus for opening a free checking account with direct deposit. To get in on the offer you will need to logon to your existing Chase online account and click on this link. There you will get a coupon for a $125 bonus when you open a Chase checking account between now and January 15, 2010. It is best to print the coupon early since Chase often takes down these coupons before the expiration date.

Here are the main points to remember on this offer:
1. Minimum deposit of $100 in new funds not currently held by Chase.
2. The $125 bonus will be deposited into your account within 10 days of your initial direct deposit.
3. Within 60 calendar days of account opening, you must initiate a monthly direct deposit which includes payroll, pension, Social Security, or other government benefits.
4. There is a limit of 1 personal checking account-related reward per customer, per calendar year.
5. Your checking account must remain open for a minimum of 6 months, or the reward will be debited from the account at closing.
6. Chase Checking has no monthly service fee when you have a direct deposit or 5 or more debit card purchases post to your account each statement period.

I have done these bonuses multiple times without issue. You can read about previous Chase bonus offers here.

No direct deposit? No worries! Read about how to fake the direct deposit and get the bonus money on this post.

Want to make another easy $50? Open an ING Direct account! Details here.

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Posted in Banking, Deals

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$200 bonus for a free Capital One checking account (YMMV)

May 13th, 2009

My MIL sent me an email this morning asking about bank account bonuses, and in doing a little research I found this gem. You can get a $200 bonus for opening a no-fee Capital One Rewards Checking account with a minimum $50 opening deposit and a direct deposit. This offer has been sent to select credit card customers via US mail, however someone on SlickDeals also found the offer online. Just print off the offer with the promo code and bring it into a branch:

http://www.capitalone.com/bank/checking/200.php

This is a YMMV since the terms on the offer page online refer to the mailer, however some have reported receiving the offer via email only direct from Capital One, so they should take it. Here are the full terms of the offer:

▲ $50 minimum opening deposit required. Bank rules and regulations apply. Ask us for details.

† The Capital One, N.A., payroll/direct deposit reward promotion is effective for sixty (60) days following the day of a consumer’s receipt via U.S. Mail of the required invitation addressed to his/her attention. To qualify for the $200 cash reward, you must present this mailer you received when you open a Capital One Bank branch personal checking account during the promotional period and enroll in payroll/direct deposit within 90 days of account opening. Qualifying individuals will receive a $200 credit to their checking account approximately 6-8 weeks after the first payroll/direct deposit transaction is posted to the account. Limit one reward per customer.

If you don’t have a direct deposit, check out my prior post on faking a direct deposit to qualify for bonuses and avoid service fees.

I did this deal last year after receiving the mailer and got my bonus without issue. One interesting observation is that Capital One doesn’t send 1099-INT forms for bonuses paid on non-interest bearing accounts, so this amount likely will not be reported to the IRS.

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Posted in Banking

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Hating on check writers

March 11th, 2009

I got myself into a mini-debate over on SlickDeals a while back about people who write checks at retail stores. I’m not a terribly patient person anyway, so retail check writers annoy me to no end. It takes much longer to write out a check than it does to swipe a card or even count out cash, and then there is the whole ritual the cashier must go through of checking ID, writing down information, etc. I’ve even seen some stores now that require manager approval on checks, so that kills at least another three minutes there.

In my view the check is an outdated method of payment, only useful for paying the occasional bill, your taxes, and minor things that they don’t take credit cards for (lawn service, paying family members/friends, etc.). There is no advantage to using checks in a retail environment. How do I come to this conclusion? Glad you asked…

  • Value: You are paying the same amount at the register regardless of payment method, so there is certainly no advantage to writing checks.
  • Speed: Credit and debit cards are way quicker than checks, even if the cashier checks your ID to the cardholder name. Even cash transactions where change has to be made are quicker than the typical check transaction.
  • Record keeping: Now matter how you pay, you should be able to get a receipt, which provides evidence of the transaction if you need it for taxes, expense reimbursement, etc. Debit and credit cards are even better since you also get the listing of transactions on your account statement.
  • Privacy: Do you really want the kid down at the Wal-Mart having access to your personal information including account number? You do realize that is all the information they need to access the funds in your account, right?
  • Liability: Related to the point above, what happens if someone gets your account information? If you used a credit card, you are technically only responsible for the first $50, and in most cases the credit card issuer won’t even make you pay that. You also have the luxury of not being out the money while the issue is being resolved. Debit cards and checks are a different story, where the bank can hold the funds in question while it completes its investigation, meaning you don’t have access to your money. And it is a lot harder to prove a transfer was unauthorized if they used you account number to access the funds directly.

For the record, it annoys me even more when people wait until the cashier has completely finished ringing the transaction to search for the checkbook and beginning writing the check, as if it is a surprise that you actually have to pay for your purchases! But of course my ire in this instance isn’t limited to check writers, but any idiot who waits that long to begin fumbling through their purse/wallet/pockets for their method of payment. All of them should be taken into the parking lot and beaten with their purchases.  

So am I missing something here about the virtues of checks? Do I just need to be more patient with the old people and the stupid when they whip out the checkbook?

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Posted in Banking, Credit Cards

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