Interest Rate Comparison

By Vladimir on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Yep, ***** BoA for the way they have treated me. I am now a member of my local Credit Union.

By Zephaniah on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I’ll be switching too. Wachovia keeps hitting me with $35 overdraft fees every time I get a fraudulent charge when the account only goes under by $1, now suddenly you’re $36 under. oh yeah an overdraft fee for every week. ***** you wachovia.

By Priscilla on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I too am outraged by the practices of the banks, especially Bank of America.My most recent payment on a credit card was due January 3rd. Look at a calendar. That’s a Sunday. But you know what? Bank of American doesn’t process payments – won’t even ACCEPT payments on a Sunday. So why do they make that the due date? It gets worse.That was the Sunday following the New Year’s Day holiday, which was a Friday. So to meet that January 3rd due date, I would have had to pay on December 31st. Well, that’s what I did, but apparently I didn’t make their cutoff time, so the payment wasn’t processed until the 4th. The result? A $39 late payment! Outrageous.On top of that, they just boosted by interest rate from 3.99% to 17.64%. No explanation, no reason – just making sure they screw as many people as possible before the law prevents them from doing so.I am going to pay off this card and let the account sit idle forever in the hope it at least costs them something to keep the number active. And as far as EVER doing any sort of business with Bank of America again? No way.

By Ione on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

And paying off credit cards. It took me 25 years to figure it out – late bloomer, love to spend money I don’t have but never again… Never. ***** them and their 25% interest. I’ve finally gotten to the point where I would rather save instead of satisfying that impulsive spend now feeling. Just wish I could have seen the light years ago…

By Helga on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Credit unions–mine pays me back when banks charge for using their atms!:D

By Nuhad on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Couldn’t agree more. I used Wells Fargo for years putting up with B.S. penalty’s, randomly moving due dates on my credit card, etc. I moved all of my money into a local credit union just over a year ago and have gotten higher return rates on savings and not a single problem. I can’t remember when I have had such a hassle free relationship with a bank for this long of a stretch.

By Padma on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I struggle with the ubiquity of ATM’s that the big banks have–that is convenience to me, however the predatory behavior of the last 6 months is making me rethink this.

By Astrella on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Well he did say "fraudulent charge" so he’s not exactly the one doing it. I had nearly 2500 taken out of my account due to Identity theft. Once I was at $0 Wachovia dinged me with a $35 overdraft fee for each purchase/withdrawl. To make matters worse they began upping the fee and even double charged me for each fee past the first one. In total that $2500 cost me nearly $1000 in overdraft / insufficient funds / transfer / using your debit card too much fees This was all over the course of three days. After contacting Wachovia about he theft they promptly returned the $2500 after I signed an affidavit then hung up I called the rep back and told him "you didn’t reimburse me for the fees" his response "Oh, I didn’t realize we charged you. "

By Ulani on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I recently did a home major home renovation, and while I did have an equity loan, I put most of the purchases for the renovation on a credit card first, and then used the mortgage to pay it off. So at one point I had about 50K on a credit card. Though, I did make sure to always send a payment to the CC before the interest charges hit. I did it this way to earn points on my credit card. I wound up getting a free week in Aruba out of it, and it cost me nothing extra.Though, I agree, most people with 30K in CC debt just suck with money

By Dusan on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Don’t forget how they rearrange your transactions to maximize the number of overdrafts.EX: You have $1000 in your account.You buy a $3 item. Six hours later, you buy a $1000 item. One overdraft charge? Nope. Two. "That’s just the order in which they were processed, sir. I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do [except extort our customers]."

By Chipo on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

cash under the mattress

By Shoshana on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

After I relocate in a couple months, I"m switching back to a credit union.

By Fidelio on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

They cease to be "service industry" when we’re threatened with economic collapse if we don’t give them billions of dollars outright. How the ***** is that a service industry?

By Cailyn on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Same old ***** PR ploy: "You need to use Skank of America or you won’t have ATMs! OH NOES!!!11!!"Bank of America has 18,700 ATMs nationwide.Credit Unions have a surcharge-free network of 27,000 ATMs. That’s 35% more ATMs if you use a credit union. There is also branch-sharing, so you can make withdrawls and deposits at another credit union as if it were your own. co-opfs.org/public/locators/atmlocator/Typical corporate *****: saying that a competitor with 35% better coverage/service is "worse" than you…Seriously folks, stop paying the Stupidity Tax to big banks. Go to moveyourmoney.info and join a credit union.

By Tuvya on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

***** yeah, im years ahead of you on that one. waiting for everyone else to join in. …guys?

By Dwight on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I took two lollipops when I was only supposed to take one. Take that corporate bank!

By Fico on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

About a month ago I had a bit of a problem with my account at PNC BANK. A charge went through a few days before it was supposed to, and I didn’t notice until the next day. Naturally, I called both the vendor then the bank to have the transaction blocked. They both refused. The bank applied a total of six overdraft charges. Three for transactions made before I found out the acct was empty, plus a triple overdraft for the bounce itself. That’s right, I was CHARGED THREE OVERDRAFT FEES FOR A SINGLE OVERDRAFT.As soon as I could (3 days) I tried to balance the account, only to come up short because of a volley of OD charges (delayed by their ‘pending transactions’ scam), plus a $7 Continuous Overdraft Charge which gets applied every day you’re negative (after only 3 days). Next day after I found out about it, I tried balancing it again, coming up short again, because of the fees. I finally stopped the ‘bleeding’ a few days later, after a total of three tries. Net amount stolen by the bank? $244.But that just the beginning. Having had a few ODs waived (never just one, is there?) in October, I tried calling the bank to get things fixed. [In that incident the ATM damaged/crumpled a check that was being deposited, silently delaying it's reception by 5 days]. Unfortunately, they’ve adopted a non-negotiable policy for handling errors: PNC BANK WILL ONLY FIX ONE ERROR PER YEAR. That’s right. If they make a mistake and fix it, they can draw a million dollars from your account, and there’s NOTHING you can do about it.To add further insult, when I requested that overdraft "protection" (mobspeak, anyone?) be removed, I was told that ‘opting out’ only applied to charges over $25. Given that the average overdraft is $17, that effectively means that NOT ONLY IS OVERDRAFT PROTECTION APPLIED AUTOMATICALLY, YOU CANNOT OPT OUT. That’s right kids, op is mandatory, and banks refuse to block transfers that break the balance.Bankers are nothing but Usurous thieves, and deserve nothing less than imprisonment or death, your pick. They are the only entity, besides government, with the ability to take your money without permission, charge 6,000+% interest, and create money out of thin air. As far as evidence, I present my annoted (and censored) bank record of the incident: i.imgur.com/nXgTR.gif

By Lily on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

As soon as I can, and from here on out, I am going to be exclusively using credit unions and local banks for any lending needs. Credit cards will never be used again, especially from the big banks that randomly raise interest rates to F with their customers. Free market will have a bigger impact on these banks, as the pissed off populous reacts to them, than restricting executive pay.Arent we glad we bailed out these mother *****? Just let them bankrupt themselves.

By Annabelle on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

That is absolutely not the case! Why do you think places like circuit city went out of business? They treated their customers so ***** that people stopped shopping there. When the recession hit it was the final nail in their coffin. It is true that your individual business is worthless to huge places like this but collectively it hits them hard. They count on people thinking just like you do so they do not have to change. The problem is that people think if they pull their money out today the bank should fail tomorrow. It wont happen; in fact it probably wont fail for several years but it will eventually happen if they dont change.

By Nadda on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I’ll say it again, find the small bank near you that won’t treat you like a cow to be milked. moveyourmoney.info/You can think of it as a patriotic thing to do by helping the banks that are ‘too big to fail’ be a little smaller. If enough people get on board, they won’t be to big to fail anymore- I know that’s not likely, but hope springs eternal.

By Badu on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

A friend of mine was threatening BofA that he’d close his account if they didn’t stop their crappy service. The bank told him "We don’t care if we lose your business."

By Nell on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

We bought new windows on our credit card (paid off promptly, of course.) Got a couple of $50 Borders gift cards out of the deal.My father-in-law ran the best credit card scheme ever. Got an American Express card with a $10,000 cash advance credit line with 1 year of no interest. Bought a $10,000 1-year CD with his cash advance. Waited a year for it to mature, cashed out the CD, paid off the Amex card, then closed it. Made a few hundred dollars profit for an hour of work. Having good credit is, well, good

By Binh on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I don’t understand the need for ATMs. Why can’t you just get cash when you purchase groceries or any other time you use your debit card? Poor planning?

By Miach on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I don’t know how widespread it is, but my credit union shares a fee-free network of ATMs with other credit unions and specific ATMs at 7-11s. While it may not be as convenient as some of the high-profile placement of big banks’ ATMs (public events, etc.) it’s still not terrible.

By Rahima on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Why would anyone have a $30,000 balance on a credit card? That’s what loans are for.

By Dustin on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Dunno if this will help her not, but how about you try not over drafting your account so much.

By Heller on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

That’s exactly why some of us wanted to let them fail.

By Laibah on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Pro tip: Stop banking with BoA they dont care about YOU!

By Africa on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I think you get more interest in that method than you would with a major bank

By Yalitza on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

USAA Rocks!

By October on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Like the article said, switch to small, local banks, preferably credit unions.I spent the first few years of my adult life with big banks (US Bank, Wells Fargo, Chase, etc). Kept getting dicked over on overdrafts, ***** customer service, etc.Then on a friends suggested I join a local credit union and I absolutely love it. I only had one problem and the fact they solved it so quickly blew my mind. Here’s how it wentThey deposited by paycheck into my savings account instead of my checking account, resulting in me overdrafting my account. I just knew it was gonna be a headache and they were gonna tell me it was my responsibility and that stuff but I decided to call and try.Me: Yeah, you guys deposited my check into the wrong account and now I’m overdrafted.Them: Oh wow, you’re absolutely right we did. I’m gonna fix that for you right now and remove those overdraft fees.Me: ….that’s it?Them: Well for the inconvenience I can offer you two free movie tickets if you’d like themMe: No, that’s not what I meant. I’m just really surprised that you guys are so quick to solve the problem and take responsibility. With a typical bank I’d be on the phone for an hour arguing and yelling at people to get my money back. Thank you very much.Plus they tellers know me by name and they’re not stingy with loans.

By Linette on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I am going through this right now with BoA…I lost my job last March and I stopped paying my house payment in hopes of a deed in lieu or short sale. The value of my home went from 80k in 2003 to 20k this year. I originally had Countrywide before BoA bought them. In the over the last six months I tried with a lawyer to get them to work with me but they are too big. yada yada yada…they changed the locks on my house during my redemption period, locking my property in it too. Now I have a lawsuit claim in process.

By Kylia on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

You know how else you can ‘stick it to big banks’?Be responsible and pay off everything on time monthly. Also have an emergency fund.

By Usra on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I like to urinate into the deposit slot at the ATM. I either wear my Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton halloween mask.

By Odalys on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I had no idea how bad OD fees were and what they were exactly. That was until I saw a Frontline episode called something like "The Card Game" a few weeks back where they spoke with the man who inveted them. It’s basically loan sharking. Anyone interested in this should watch it. It’ll piss you off seeing how it came about and bank’s attitude about it.

By Wilona on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Bank of America is the worst. They closed down one of my credit cards that had a zero balance, that’s their choice but it completely screwed my credit score by damaging my credit to debt ratio. As soon as Chase saw that they bumped up the interest rate on my card with them to 25%! I have never been late on my Chase account, but as soon as they smelled blood they went in for the kill.Chase and BOA are predatory and should be punished for stabbing the American people in the back during this recession.In fact if I played the market I would sell short on BOA stock, the writing is on the wall now, so many people hate them now that they should be expecting sever losses in the near future.

By Yan on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Why should they be allowed to put the due date on a day they don’t process transactions anyway?

By Syler on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Agreed! I went with a local bank which has only 5 branches. Amazingly nice folks. They even stuck with the old giving you a casserole dish when opening an account.

By Philyra on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I’ll also add that Wachovia has no problems adding a Misc service charge to your account whether it overdrafts your account or not. I’ve had it happen to me where they applied two service charges that caused my account to overdraft then dinged me with an overdraft fee. To this day they couldn’t tell me what the service charges were for.

By Zeshawn on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

They can and will still find a way to screw with you. Example:I had a capital one credit card (first mistake). I always paid it off on time. It finally expired, and they didn’t send me a new card. I called them, tried to get them to send me a new one..and it never showed up. Finally I just gave up and figured I don’t need it anyway, so I canceled my account (in April).Fast forward to December of that year… I check my credit report since I was going to be refinancing soon. I find a mark on my credit report from capital one saying I’m 60 days late. I call capital one to see WTF is going on. Apparently in their fine print if a charge comes through to your card AFTER you cancel within 6 months of you canceling, they re-open your account and allow the charge through. Here’s the kicker…the charge that came through came through using the Expired CC# with the expired expiration date (it was an xbox live charge). I asked the Capital one person how that could be… she got Pissy at me like I was some felon trying to steal money from them and started speed reading the terms and conditions to me. So I paid it off so it didn’t further mark my credit history (it’s the only mark on my credit history).I called XBox live, and the person I spoke with there was incredibly helpful. She too had been screwed over by Capital one in a different way. She refunded the money to my card for the XBox live charge (unfortunately they couldn’t refund it just directly to me). Since it went back to the card, and I didn’t want to risk re-opening it again after canceling it again, my refund just sits there in capital one’s hands still So even if you do everything right…there may be something in some fine print somewhere (or something else that doesn’t make sense) that they can do that can screw you over.

By Madeleine on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

I feel sorry for Adam but I don’t know why you’re getting dugg down. I lost my job last year as well (~40,000) and moved from the house I was renting to a small condo with a roommate. Then I lived frugally off of my emergency funds for 5 months till I found more work. Right now my emergency account is drained so I’m moving to an even smaller apartment so I can rebuild my funds for the next six months or so. Honest question, whatever happened to living within your means and keeping funds for emergency situations and medical expenses? Take whatever you make, "pretend" you make about 5 thousand dollars less than that and live within that framework. In two years you’ll have 10,000 in savings for whatever you need. It’s odd that everyone seems to have "just enough" to get by no matter how much they make.

By Osmond on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Two girls, one cup.

By Nahla on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Well, in reality it’s those same banks that are all too willing to give thousands of dollars of credit to anyone, but then want to jack you because you needed $1 of credit. Seems like it might be worth it to get overdraft protection, or just use cash for everything.

By Chipo on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Let this be a lesson to everyone else. You should have an emergency fund setup for unforeseen problems or when you lose your job. This would have saved adam1378 a tremendous amount of headache and heartache.And for those of you that say you can’t afford an emergency fund, you shouldn’t have a mortgage debt of 80k to $250k if you don’t have an emergency fund or can’t/won’t set up and emergency fund.

By Zahur on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

what’s wrong with that?

By Nuha on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

So what, not everyone is you.

By Frisco on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

You’re also a supremely smug bastard.Right on some points, but some people have credit cards to help only in time of need and have to pay them off over a period of time. These people are not idiots for doing what they had to do.

By Sabina on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Why is DiggBigWig getting buried for suggesting that homeowners should have a savings account for emergency spending? I have a rainy day fund and pay my bills on time, so I just can’t feel sympathetic. If more homeowners had savings & equity, we never would have had this mortgage meltdown and Adam1378 would not have lost $60,000 in home value.

By Baden on Jul 6, 2010 | Reply

Withdraw all of your money so the banks have none and then they get another bailout with your tax dollars. Sorry, can’t win. >:-(