My experience with Wells Fargo's takeover of Wachovia

[CreekDog]

I had a nice money market account with Western Financial Bank which got eated by Wachovia. Surprisingly, Wachovia basically maintained an interest rate higher than most competitors, they dropped it of course over time, but were still the best deal in town. They gave me the same kind of account and deal that I'd had with the previous bank. Despite the merger, Wachovia did okay by me.

Then Wachovia starts listing and the Feds get involved and Wells Fargo emerges with Wachovia and my account. Okay, at least I'll have branches nearby since I'm at Ground Zero for Wells Fargo. (you know I still can't get over seeing Philly's sports complex called Wells Fargo with the stagecoach and all. :wtf:...but I digress...

Wells Fargo turns my money market account into a standard savings account. All this time, I'm using Wachovia's website and think I still have a money market account. Little did I know Wells Fargo turned all Wachovia accounts into Savings accounts.

Wells has been paying 0.15% APY for a Premium High Interest Money Market Account
Wells pays 0.10% for a Regular Savings account

So in changing my account, they netted a puny 0.05% APY off me --it took me a while to realize this.

I realized this while on the phone with them when they tried to sell me a minimum balance account, that would ding me if I suddenly found a better deal.

I told them I thought it was pretty petty of them to switch me into a lower interest account without my knowledge to profit off giving me the worse of 0.15% and 0.10%...really worth nothing to me, but across all those Wachovia customers like me? It adds up. In fact, whichever genius at Wells Fargo thought of this probably got a bonus for doing this.

So I'm going to close my account at Wells. I never wanted them anyway but was willing to hang around for a while. 0.15% sucked almost as bad as 0.10% but the main reason I'm moving is because they played a game with me and despite their claimed ignorance (well, we didn't know what kind of accounts folks from the merger had so we just put them into Regular Savings accounts)...it seems like they put us all into the lowest possible interest rate.

So I figure staying with Wells means that they will try to make money off me in some other way that I'm not anticipating. The pennies difference is not important to me --it's playing along with their game that bothers my conscience.

Bye Wells Fargo. Except for the horsies, I hope that stupid stagecoach drives off Devil's Slide.

Sincerely a San Francisco native who watched your commercials all my life and now will have nothing whatsoever to do with you ever again. Congratulations. Hope you enjoyed your 0.00416666%/month interest off your financially savvy move from my account. Hope it was all worth it to you --it certainly was not to me!

[onehandle]

1. I have had eight banks consumed ending with Wells Fargo.

I started with a local Savings and Loan in High School. I still have the same bank account number even though the banks have changed hands/names eight times.

Banks suck.

[DURHAM D]

2. Is this the Wells Fargo wagon you are talking about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X81l2GJksBE&feature=related

[prodigals0n]

6. I don't think so. I think it's this one:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal.html

[LiberalEsto]

3. Try a credit union

We switched a couple of years ago and have been very happy with the credit union.

[Angry Dragon]

5. Have been with the same Credit Union for over 35 years

[CreekDog]

8. My main bank has always been a credit union

I only established an account at a bank when my credit union dropped its Federal Insurance for a while. (dumb move)

[DavidSegal]

4. Megabanks vs Whistle-blowers

Crimes committed by the big banks helped crash our economy -- and WikiLeaks is saying that a whistle-blower has sent them enough evidence to take down Bank of America. So now the big banks are fighting back by trying to get the government to muzzle future whistle-blowers.

They want rules to force whistle-blowers to go to their bosses before going to the government -- giving employers the perfect chance to shut them up! Even the Securities and Exchange Commission admits that its proposed rules could "discourage" whistleblowers.

Will you help us protect financial reform, by telling the SEC to implement strong, pro-whistle-blower rules right away?

http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/whistle...

PETITION TO THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: More whistle-blowing about corporate crimes could have made the foreclosure crisis and economic meltdown less severe.

Whistle-blowers should never be forced or encouraged to take their concerns to their potentially corrupt bosses first: Those who go directly to the government deserve the strongest rewards and protections allowed by law.

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. They changed my friend's 'free for life' Wachovia checking into a monthly fee based account.

I'll tell you what I told her. Look into ING. Dutch owned, online banking access and I haven't had an ounce of an issue with them since 2003 or so when I first learned of them. Sailed through the 2008 crisis like a champ.

[CreekDog]

9. I found a small credit union that offers better than ING

and has branches and local ATMs in my area.

better suited to me. but thanks! :hi:

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. I wish I had the option. No CUs within miles of me.

Congrats on getting out!

[CreekDog]

17. I think you do have that option...you can join online and do your banking at a local ATM

often the credit union doesn't operate the ATM, but they will allow you to do banking through their COOP network within their terms. Frequently that's all you need.

you often don't need a branch in your local area (it's nice). so you can keep a small savings account at a big bank to get access to basic banking there when you really, really need it.

and run everything else through an out of area credit union where you have access through COOP network ATMS.

if you do choose a credit union online, just verify the terms will allow you to use it effectively and at no cost using network ATMs. different CU's have different policies. one of my CU's lets me use the network without limits, the other limits my out of network transactions.

[Ruby the Liberal]

20. Interesting!

I live in the city and have about 4-5 banks within walking distance, no CUs. Never thought about looking into partnerships.

I used a CU for over 15 years, years ago (until they closed their local branches). They were wonderful to work with.

[mwooldri]

31. Pentagon Federal Credit Union will pretty much allow anyone to sign up.

If you have a military connection it's all go... if you have no military connection then you can join an organization for a nominal fee and through that organization join the credit union.

I do have a local credit union for my day-to-day banking, I joined PenFed as an effective means of doing remote non local banking where my money is safe.

[Statistical]

28. Some credit unions offers online deposits. Scan a check (or take photo w/ smartphone) to deposit.

USAA also does this.
USAA also provides free access to any ATM in the country (they even pay the bank fee up to $3 per ATM transaction, max of like 5 per month).

Not everyone can use USAA but if you can (any family member is military or veteran) it is a great MEMBER OWNED bank.

[JoePhilly]

10. Hit me with a monthly $2 fee for a service that had been free before ...

The takeover. It was small, so it took me 4 months to notice it, and determine what it was.

The "service" was "including a scanned image of my cleared checks" with my statement. A service I never requested. It just came "for free" when we opened the account. A service, that I never needed. I don't recall ever looking at the images that came in the statement. The account writes about 4 checks a month. So maybe 4 scanned images. They don't care ... 1 check, or 1000 checks, same $2 fee to scan the images, per account.

When I confronted them at the local branch, the nice manager lady was happy to explain that in one of my statements in the month prior to this "change", there was a notification, about the new fee for this service ... again ... a service I never asked for, a service that I never even noticed.

She was happy to let me know, in a very condescending fashion, that it was my responsibility to monitor my statements closely, so that I would know of such changes.

My response was not overly rude, but definitely loud enough so that those around me could hear it. I said something to the effect of ... "I see ... it is my responsibility to read these statements closely so that ensure Wachovia doesn't pad its profits with new fees for useless services thus squeezing small amounts of money out of thousands of its customers."

To which she replied ... "It is not illegal". To which I replied, "A business practice need not be illegal for it to be disgusting and unethical."

Then I said ... "I need to go now and talk to Bob (Wachovia re-finance guy) over there ... see I came in here today to not only check on this ridiculous fee, but to finalize details on refinancing my home through your branch. Given what I've learned about Wachovia, and its business practices, I won't be refinancing through your company. You can keep the $8, and I'll give my refinance business to some one else.

"Bob" had realized there was something going on so he came out of his office. I told him that I had decided to not refinance through wachovia, and that the nice manager lady could explain why.

[customerserviceguy]

16. That's a great story

You're my hero! I have long wanted a shot at being able to so openly play the 'gotcha' game back on a financial institution.

[CreekDog]

19. good story...my interaction with the Wells person that called me ended similarly

he called me to switch into one of their own accounts with a minimum, which incurred a fee if things dropped below, for a very marginal improvement on the interest rate. as we were discussing things, i said well, it's only marginally better than the 0.15% i'm getting on my money market and he said, that i only had regular savings account which gets only 0.10%. so i told him, i had a money market with Wachovia, why didn't they at least enroll me in the lowest category of that (so i'd still have a money market but not get dinged if my balance fell --for a slight gain in interest). he said, they didn't know what account i had over at Wachovia (maybe they fired everybody over there...). he said they put everyone with Wachovia accounts (money markets) into regular savings.

so he was telling me my options and i told him.

look, everything you're telling me shows that Wells has done little things to get a few pennies out of me when you obviously didn't need to do that.

so i finally asked what was the next way Wells was going to grab a few cents, or dollars from my account in various fees or policy changes that slipped by in fine print that i'd not noticed (and i'm not a lawyer). i told him that all i knew is that based on how Wells treated us, they'd do this again and that i didn't plan on being a customer long enough to find out how they'd do it to me.

so i told him congratulations on getting a few pennies from me, i'm sure somebody thought it was a marginally beneficial benefit to Wells and the stockholders and whichever executive got credit for it. but my trust in them was now gone and i was leaving, never to come back ever again and that i would tell my friends my experience.

and most importantly, i wouldn't reward behavior that shouldn't be rewarded.

i told him, i have options, Wells was one of them, i no longer consider it one anymore.

he was pretty nice, and i actually felt kind of bad, but this way of making money is typical of big banks and they were doing it to the hilt. so nice guy or not, i was not going to stick around long enough to have them figure out how to ding me with a $5 or $10 service charge somewhere down the line. my credit union never pulled this kind of stuff on me --or it was really easy to know the fees involved.

anyway, i like your approach.

[PBS Poll-435]

11. WackyBank had "less than sound" business practices

Hence their failure and requiring Wells to purchase them.

Wacky should never have bought Golden West Financial and their "controversial" Pick-a-Pay.

[CreekDog]

18. this thread is about the game Wells played with me to their advantage

without being upfront about it.

[mwooldri]

29. It is.

I think we're trying to point out that Wells Fargo have been taking advantage of the whole scenario across the whole board.

Just a few months after Wells took over Wachovia we needed to buy a new vehicle. Wachovia at least approved me, but Wells Fargo was a flat out "no". The loan ended up with my credit union in the end, who have been fantastic (Summit Credit Union in Greensboro, NC if you want to know).

If Wells, the parent company of Wachovia, wouldn't give me an itty bitty loan for a new vehicle, secured by the vehicle itself, then their schenanigans in reducing your APR and changing your money market account to a basic savings account isn't surprising.

I'm going to keep open my Walkalloverya or Wells Failgo account just in spite and because it's my first account in the USA... but by no means is it my main bank. Technically I'm costing THEM money but sometimes the account is useful to me.

[mwooldri]

26. First Union should never have taken over Wachovia in the first place.

Wachovia was always the better bank, First Union was the questionable one.

Why would a big bank like FU swallow up Wachovia and then take its name because that bank had the better reputation? I had hoped that some of Wachovia's good sense would have rubbed off on First Union but obviously it didn't and a whole lot of people in Winston-Salem got shafted because of it, and now a whole lot of people in Charlotte are getting shafted because of essentially First Union's F-Ups...

Mark.

[PBS Poll-435]

27. Ironically, Norwest Bank of MN buying Wells Fargo almost put them under

They called it a "Merger of Equals", but Wells Fargo bought First Interstate Bank and it nearly did them in.

Wells Fargo before Wachovia was Norwest + First Security of the Rocky Mountain States + Wells.

Strangely, they are now the most solvent and powerful bank in the US.



Who knew?

[truedelphi]

12. K & R. A big K & R. Thank you. n/t

[truedelphi]

13. BTW, in addition to your experience, anyone holding a Calif mortgage through

Wachovia or World Mortgage should check all this out:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=48986&mesg_id=48986

The Wells Fargo banksuit, netting Mortgage holders some two billion bucks, applies to World mortgage holders and Wachovia mortgage holders.

Even if you have already been foreclosed upon.

(Mods: I know we aren't supposed to interlink topics, but this is information that might help out DU'ers who have/had these mortgages, and don't realize from the news media that it is not just about Wells Fargo customers.)

[Rex]

15. Well, to be fair they are a 'too big to fail' size company and as such

are given immunity, because you know it is impossible to allow someone else to step up with a better product. That was SO last century capitalism! :crazy:

[AlecBGreen]

21. I too am a Wack-off-ya -> Wells Fargo customer

no bad experiences... yet. Im just waiting. Only major negative experience I had was with SunTrust. Long story short, they made a mistake, admitted it, and STILL wanted me to pay $50 to clear it up. After quoting Will Farrell ("I feel like Im takin crazy pills!") I was asked to leave :evilgrin: They can rot. As the saying goes, a happy customer will tell another person. An unhappy customer will tell 10. The bank manager just couldnt get it through his head. He can refund me the money and keep a happy customer or he can keep the $50 and lose my business forever. He kept the $50 and I took out a home loan with another bank. These banksters are just so short-sighted they cant see past their own immediate profit to a long term, lucrative relationship with a satisfied customer. Fools.

[Statistical]

22. Simple answer to all these big bank horror stories...... DONT EVER DO BUSINESS WITH A MEGABANK!

Ever. Under any circumstance. Never ever do business with them.

IF enough Americans did that
a) they wouldn't be a megabank anymore
b) they would need to "reform" their policies.

It is simply supply and demand. Any business enttity tries to get max price and pay lowest cost. If people continually accept that banks will rip them off..... guess what banks will rip them off. Banks will only change when their policies cause them to lose accounts, and a significant amount of accounts.

If you are military (or have military family member) I recommend USAA (free ATM access from any ATM in the country).
If not try either a local bank or a credit union.

DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH MEGABANKS. PERIOD.

[CreekDog]

24. i never did --two megabanks bought mine

and i've been trying to figure out where to go ever since .

[Statistical]

23. Wells Fargo High Yield account requires a $25K balance.

If you have less than $25K balance why would you expect they would give you the "premium" rate (pathetic 0.15% is the premium rate) with less funds?

[CreekDog]

25. my only objection was them taking me out of my money market account

without my permission.

at the time they called me and i found out this had been done (months before)...the rate on the lowest money market (with no minimum balance) was 0.15%.

[Broderick]

30. Seems all the banks are out of control

Weather caused BBT to close. EFT deposits were delayed a day, and I couldn't make a deposit on Monday but they returned a draft on Monday night. They take their debits, but delayed the credits and charged me a large return fee. Went in to complain, and they apologized and took the fee off, but then now I have to deal with a supplier because the draft was already returned. Doesn't matter what bank you are at anymore. Checks clear immediately, but deposited checks take 24 hours to show up in your account and sometimes they put 2 or 3 day holds on them. Just whining I know, but it relates to the games they are playing all over the place.