I wrote a piece about today's banks.  I used Wells Fargo's practices as an example.  But frankly, it could have been any of them.

Here are some of the comments.  I'm posting this as a separate blog with the hopes that some of the mega-bank senior officers, board members and major stockholders will stumble on it. 

I think it's what their customers really think about their bank, and maybe it will be helpful to them to know.

****************************************************************************

Bill -

You hit the nail on the head in your post.  We still have some small local banks in southeastern CT.

They may have some faults but you can still talk to the president of the bank and you see them around town just like a regular person. 

Happy New Year.  Let's see if we can start changing some of this nonsense. 

PHIL

Bill,

We deal with 3 banks in our area.  I don't like having all the accounts in one place - guess that's my grandfather's paranoia handed down.  

The largest bank is one that will process the checks first, then does the deposits.  It drives me crazy!!!  I have not bounced a check, but that is only sheer luck when you look at their policieis.  The second one is purely a savings account so there is little danger there.

The third bank is where we have our business accounts. 

This is a small chain of banks, but they operate like a neighborhood bank and they treat you like a important customer.  The tellers and officers will know your name after the first visit, they will call you on occasion to ask if you have any questions about your accounts, etc. 

And I can go in the bank, fill out a small sticky note type of form and hand it to the Personal Banker for a mortgage pre approval.  By the time I'm done with the teller and my deposit I have an answer.  

The customer service levels at these banks are truly SO different. Makes ya wonder. 

Carol

Bill,

When I was studying for my undergraduate degree in Finance, many of my instructors were BANKERS. That's in all caps because that is how they thought of themselves. It really put me off. I still don't like bankers very much. Arrogance is hard to take, especially when it isn't justified.

My worst experience was with US Bank. They bought my small town bank. i had a $1000 over-draft protection. I had need of using it. I over-drafted my account by about $10. My credit card processor debited my account for charges for my acceptance of credit cards periodically.

They sent these charges through ACH individually, some as low as 5 cents. About $50 worth of these charges caused me to be assessed over $1000 in over-draft fees. This happened exactly for the reason you stated.

Bill R.

Phil--

Thanks for your note.

Until a few years ago, the only place I lived where I had to deal with a bank with a zillion branches was New Orleans.  Most if not all of the banks there had zillions of branches all over Louisiana.  It was the worse experience of my life because I could never find anyone who could make a decision or had the authority to handle a problem.  The branch I banked with burned down.  They claimed that that branch's records went up in flames, too.  I don't know if that was true or not, but for about a week, they returned checks.

The huge banks in St. Louis didn't have branches, and there were plenty of neighborhood banks there, too.  In fact I worked for one -- a bank in Clayton.  All of them, big or small, operated like a bank should.

Houston and Galveston's banks were customer driven.  I loved banking in both places.

And then out of the blue the regulations changed, and bank holding companies appeared and like Pac Man they gobbled up the small banks and before we knew it, banking for the ordinary man on the street became and remains a disaster.

I'm glad you've still got options in Connecticut.

Bill Cherry

Miss Carol--

Anytime you hear "we want to self-police," you can bet that those being self-policed are getting ready to rationalize bad behavior.  Banks, stock brokerage houses, doctors and especially attorneys.  To all of them it's been my experience that self-policing is an oxymoron.

I honestly don't see how your bank can debit checks before it credits deposits.  That's not even good bookkeeping, for goodness sakes.

Bill Cherry

___________________________________________________________________________

Bill R -

You and I have walked so many of the same roads that I hope some day we meet in person.  I really do.

Bill Cherry

Bill -

I have to tell you this was written with me in mind, either that we have the same thoughts and frustrations with the same banks! Wells Fargo has been my main bank for years, I have other accounts but for some reason I want to hang on to WF and after a few run ins with them, I find I always am heading out the door in amazement that they can stay alive! T

hey can nickel and dime you to death on fees, it's amazing! Every time I go into the bank, they are constantly wanting to change up my bank accounts, I get so frustrated that when it works for them for me to modify my account they are super eager to assist, yet on times when I need their assistance they just don't have the time or answer! What gives?

I don't like to dwell on this and I do use them out of convenience and for traveling, but man oh man....I sure do miss the days when I was a kid and the banks really cared... What would it be like to go back in time and appreciate a customer?  You definitely hit a nerve with me..I hope if you are experiencing this issues it gets resolved soon!  Happy New Year!!

Candace

Bill,

Thank you for the truth blog.  I sure miss the good old banking days when you could write a check for whatever investment you wanted to buy and then go see your banker.  I could expand on this but that time has long been gone.

Don  

Candace & Don-

I'm so appreciative you took the time to tell us your experiences.

The amazing thing about the true mega-banks is that they became mega-banks by doing leveraged buyouts of smaller banks.  By far, the majority of their customers didn't show up at their door step wanting to be their customers...and that's because they had nothing whatsoever to offer them.

No one on the planet, unless he's a masochist, has ever wanted to have to apply for a loan through a 22-year old banking star gazer whose job it is to pass a filled-out form on to people he's never seen and doesn't know, so they can feed your answers into a non-human model to see if the bank is going to give you a "yes."

Banks were originally designed for the purpose of serving the financial growth-needs of the community they served.  I deposit my dollars in my savings account, and the bank lends it to you so you can buy the Christmas inventory for your store..the store that's two doors from the bank...the store that's owned by a guy I see at the Little League games with his son.

That, for all practical purposes, has been totally removed because it is no longer one of the requirements for a bank charter.  And that's why your bank doesn't care about you.  It doesn't feel it needs to.

When I was a college student, sometimes I would inadvertently overdraw my checking account at the bank in Galveston.  Dear Mrs. Grant, who had been my Sunday school teacher,  would call me at school, tell me I was overdrawn, and ask me if I wanted her to transfer some money from my savings account. 

I would thank her, ask her to make the transfer, and all of this was done without a pin number, a finger print, a picture ID, and the 14-people-committee to give the approval.  

And further, it took nothing in writing from me.  My voice was good enough because Mrs. Grant knew my voice. 

And, by the way, that bank didn't service charge college students' bank accounts for anything.  Their idea was to build lifetime relationships with the new generation of adults.

God bless Mrs. Grant and God Bless the old W.L. Moody & Co., Bankers, the bank -- one of many -- that served its community and customers well.

Bill Cherry