Banking Manipulations:

[Greenflame]

I don't know about Europe, but in the United States the
economy is off balance, and going down the toilet. The
Bank I resently started doing buisness with is ripping
me off big time. They do things wrong on purpose; be-
cause the account holders have to pay for their incomp-
itence due to fees, and payments, purpously put in
place to profit off of the lazyness of its imployees.

It costs $35+ U.S. everytime a check is prosessed and
the account holders Paycheck isnt deposited until a few
hours afterwards. This is a headache, because Ill write a
check, wich isnt very smart anyway, and the dumb bitch
at--Bank of America-- prosesses it on purpose.

That policy is halfway justifiable compared to the BS I
am about to tell you about. Since the summer of 03, the
Eastern Division Bank of America C.E.O. decided he was
going to raise his bonus by close to 14.9 Million Dollars
U.S..His Salary was already exeeding 2.2 Million, but that
wasnt enouph.

The bad thing is, is, that this problem is all over the place. I
think I will just stop useing Banks; they dont have any worthy
benefits.

[THErAPIST]

I have a bank account... I never keep more than $100 in it. at this very moment I've only got $28 in my account. I also know the value of a dollar and I'm not in any way materialistic, so I've managed to save $7k from my low paying job over the last year by throwing it into a mug that I've got on a shelf.

The way I see it the bank is pointless unless you have HUGE amounts of money that need to be secured and insured, or unless you buy/ sell lots of shit online, or if you're so far away from your utilities' offices that you can't just drive there easily and hand them the cash.

You may want to see about opening an account at a small bank that only exists in your area. The home grown town banks usually aren't as big on fucking you over. The only problem with using a small bank is that theres the always existant foreign ATM fee if you use your ATM card at another bank. Other than that though the benefits highly outweigh the bad things when it comes to the smaller less known banks.

[DoctaD]

I assume from reading this thread that things are different, concerning banks, in the states.

Here, there are strict rules which banks must follow. I've been using my bank for years and they have never screwed me out of money. If I have insufficient funds for a direct debit I have to pay a ?35 fine, but I know that. Apart from that, the only money taken from the account is with my card.

Something I have always wondered is how do banks make money? Do the loan and mortage interest rates really make the company enough money to pay their staff, run their buildings, pay their insurance as well as everything else which comes along with running a company? Or where does the money come from? Maybe greenflame's account... :hmmm:

[Stone]

Banks trade your money on the stock exchange and make a fortune from that. I've never had a bank screw me out of money either though.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Maybe you should try switching banks if you aren't satisfied with BOA's policies. I, personally, use Washington Mutual and have never had a problem with them (except for several seemingly random cancellations of my ATM card, which were fixed with a simple phone call). Then again, I don't use a checking account, I just have a savings account that I use like a piggy-bank, whenever i need moeny i just go by the ATM machine, no hassle with checks and nonsense.

[KaRMa]

I have washington mutual. You should definately switch to them. I have a checking account and they have no hidden charges. Sometimes they'll even refund my ATM usage fees if I don't use one of their ATMs.

[Zbot]

I use TCF bank for all my college shit and Wells Fargo for everything else and they have yet to give me any problems.

[Adrian_Faythe]

I use some small-time, local bank called....uh...*searches for wallet*...Mercantile Banking. So far, I haven't noticed any overly unusual transactions, but then again, I'm buying random, unnecessary shit online every other day.

[Greenflame]

Yea, I am just gonna do scheduling online, so they dont prosess
any bills till my check goes in.


I think it sucks that here in NC, everytime some millionares want
to build a statium, or monument of somekind, the tax payers
have to pay for it. It also sucks that Basketball players make 16+
million US in a six month period when someone with a decent ed-
ucation and job dosent make but maybe/rarely 40 thousand yearly.

Those Athletes are also getting payed with Government money.
Thus the tax payers taxes continue to go up despite current
inflations. Millions pay to watch NBA,NFL,NHL even if they don't.

I have a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, and I am currently attending
college again as a CS Major. I have never made in excess to 38k
a Year; nor have I ever meaten any Engineers or Analysts who have
made more than 40k Yearly.

[phoenix]

I have had no dramas with my own bank (Commonwealth Bank Australia) however when it came to getting credit a small nightmare evolved over time.

For a start I borrowed $1200 to pay off a fridge from GE Credit. I didn't receive a bill for over a month because they were sending the bill to the wrong address. I knew simply by checking the delivery address that they had stuffed up.

So long story short, I tell 'em where I really live, they call me weekly until I explain to them that I'll pay a bill as soon as they send me one. Thus far the bill is paid for, however if you plan on going for an interest free dealio, for any amount of time, make sure you can pay it off long before the interest starts because they will rape you where they can.

It's how they make money,

[Biovore]

Im also with CBA, and damn, if i wasnt so lazy and would have to close a few different accounts and invesments id change banks...

I currently have a large term deposit with them... i get 2.8% interest pa..... my ING account makes me 5.25% and i have the money the next day when i need it...
Good netbanking though

[phoenix]

Netbanking rocks my socks off.

Bpay is so rediculously easy it almost makes paying bills too easy however as I said GE Credit will ignore you if there is a problem until you tell them. By all rights and purposes I could have got away with a $1000 fridge as they were not interested in investigating my address, which was blatantly incorrect.

I know for a fact though that after the interest free period, they would have found me and charged every cent of the 35% interest on the total I owed no hassles at all. Still, had I left the country they would have had nothing on me.

[DoctaD]

I don't trust net banking... I can check my balance, recent transactions, transfer money etc. over the phone. It takes up to 48 hours to update at times, which is annoying, but I dont have to put my details into a computer.
-DD

[Greenflame]

I use the SSL and Certificates, even though it's probably
some type of weak Encryption instead of RSA,GOST etc...

The fact of the matter is, is that even if you stay away
from E-Commerse, your Information is still available
from Data Mining Companys; that buy Database Records
from your Bank.

I'm poor! so I dought any intelligent person is gonna try
and free-load off of my account.