looking for a new bank
So, I've looked through both the tags and memories, and while I found some useful information on savings accounts, I haven't been able to find any information on my foremost concern: checking accounts.
I currently have a checking account with Wachovia, but am extremely unhappy with the service both my fiance and I have received in the past couple of months. I am a graduate student living on loans. All things considered, I'm pretty lucky because my entire graduate career I've been able to get an assistantship, which pays for school and part of my expenses. Although honestly, they don't pay much - the amount I'm paid doesn't even cover our rent, thus the whole "living on loans" thing.
Usually I live in an apartment in Atlanta with my fiance and two cats, but this summer have to spend in DC doing an internship. I have much better job prospects here in DC, so it just makes sense to make the sacrifice and spend the summer here. However, my fiance does not make a lot of money, and there's no way he can pay for the rent by himself while I'm gone, so I've been stuck paying rent here while also trying to help him pay rent in Atlanta.
Well, we'd been trying to put my name on his checking account, so I could easily transfer money from my account to his account. Unfortunately, due to other circumstances that are beyond our control, he overdrew considerably in May (long story, but he's paying off his college, and for some reason they took out more than they were supposed to, but since we don't have proof of it we were basically SOL and had to pay the exorbitant overdraft fees). For some reason there was some hang up, and we were not being contacted about it. I had a very difficult time getting in contact with the right people, because the department we needed to contact about getting my name on his account are only open 8-5 M-F. My fiance, as he works as a Manager for an Inventory Company, has extremely long and weird hours. I also work very long hours, and because there's no way I can afford to live in DC, I am usually traveling to work, at work, or traveling from work, from 7:20am to 7:30pm M-F. I do not get lunch breaks (I can sit at my desk and eat, but it's expected that I work through it and don't really take "personal time"), and personal calls are very much frowned upon.
The situation of me trying to get my name came to a head right before Memorial Day Weekend, just days before we had to pay rent and C (fiance) didn't have even 1/8 of the money needed to pay our rent. I realize I should have just written him a check and mailed it, but we'd been told repeatedly that everything would go through and since before this incident, we'd had no problems with Wachovia, we took their word on it. I still do not understand what the hold up was. Repeatedly we had to do three way calling since I couldn't exactly afford to take time off and fly down to Atlanta so we could go speak to someone in person about me being put on his account. Every single time we talked to a different customer service person we were told wildly different things. It was just a huge mess. Finally, I had to risk my job by just going to a Wachovia in person at 9am when they opened and show up over an hour late for work.
Oh, but it doesn't end there. Since they were taking their sweet time trying to get my name on C's account, I took one of the customer service person's advice and tried to deposit it directly into C's account by just making a night deposit with cash taken out of my account, and put into a deposit envelope with a deposit slip. Well, despite the fact that they advertise night depositories on their website, Wachovia apparently does not intend for individuals to use the night depositories - they are apparently only meant for businesses. What more, they don't have any deposit slips outside of any of their banks, and as I mentioned, I work long hours that prohibit me from going to a bank. So, I had to take a deposit slip from my checkbook, blacked out my account number, wrote in C's account number, and then filled out all the other requisite information.
Well, not only did they put a block on my account because after that I went and bought something to eat, they initially took that money, put it in C's account for a couple days, then took it out and put it back in my account.
Now here's the thing. They didn't contact me about either of these occurrences. And to top it off, when C noticed that the money which I'd just deposited in his account was gone, he called customer service. Customer service blatantly LIED to him, and told him it was just being held and would show up in his account. If it wasn't for the fact that C had told me, and I looked into my account online and happened to notice hey! I have a lot more money thn I thought .... we would have taken this person's word for it, and we would have been in a world of trouble.
We contacted numerous people, and no one would do anything about it. We were SOL. I still wasn't on C's account (I hadn't jeopardized my job yet by going to the bank when I was supposed to be at work), and even trying to deposit the money wasn't working. Finally I also just took another risk by being reprimanded at work by calling the place that was apparently holding me up from being put on his account, and they FINALLY allowed me to deposit money in his account. But this took over a month, and due to the repeatedly bunglings of their customer service, and their outright LIES to us, it took us so much longer than it should have. It is a miracle that we got the money in his account before our apartment complex cashed the check.
Now, as it is, after that whole debacle, I was quite frankly disgusted with Wachovia, and decided as soon as I got home to Atlanta that we'd switch banks. But today something happened that has made me want to switch banks NOW, if possible.
Now that I am on C's account, I watch both of our accounts online quite regularly for weird transactions. check our accounts every single day. Well, he was dipping pretty low ($5) one day, but we knew C's work was about to direct deposit a check into his account, so I wasn't too worried, since he monitors his checking account too.
Well, even though one day he had $5, and the next day he got a nice paycheck, for no rhyme or reason he was charged $105 for overdraft/unavailable funds. Which makes absolutely no sense. C was supposed to call, but for those of you unfamiliar with Inventory, his schedule is literally insane during the summer, and so he hadn't found the time to yet a week later. So, I called them myself today. After my whole experience previously, I usually write down everyone's name in case they do something out of line, but the person I talked to seemed genuinely nice, so even though she totally garbled her name, I let it slip. Big mistake.
She was trying to explain to me how even though it looked like he had enough funds in his account, he really didn't due to the check card holds. Well, what she was saying just didn't make sense to me because no matter how I did the math, it still looked to me that he had enough money. So she started treating me like I'm a complete moron and started talking to me in a rather condescending manner. Well, there are a lot of things that I can tolerate, but being treated like I'm an idiot is not one of them. I kind of started to lose my shit. I told her I wanted to speak to her supervisor because I found her unhelpful. She told me that her supervisor was gone for the day. I said I wanted to speak to whoever was in charge and she started in on how that WOULD be her supervisor but that they had no supervisor. I found this simply incredible. I got even angrier and said I wanted to talk to someone else. AND SHE HUNG UP ON ME.
Needless to say, I called back and got to speak to a supervisor. Granted, since Wachovia has 12 different call centers in the US, there's no way of knowing if I got to the same call center or not. The supervisor apologized for the treatment, we set up my fiance's account so it's linked to my savings account in case something like this happens again, and he transferred me to another department that refunded 1/3 of the overdraft fee. I'm still annoyed and I don't really understand why they charged $100 in overdrafts when it doesn't look like he overdrew. As helpful as the second person and the supervisor were, I am tired of the really awful antics of the customer service of Wachovia, and I just don't think we can wait any longer to change banks anymore.
Due to all this, I'm looking for a new bank. However, it's not as simple as it sounds. As mentioned in the cut, I live with my fiance in Atlanta, GA. However, I am spending the summer in DC (doing an internship here). I am a graduate student with a teaching assistantship. This means that as soon as I get home on the 20th of August, I have to go to my department and give them my financial information - otherwise I don't get paid. Since my fiance and I are getting married on the 18th of August, I think we probably will just want to put ourselves on one account and save ourselves the hassle. It is a huge pain to change financial information. But the thing is, I'm in DC, so we'd need someplace that a) would have my Atlanta address as the default info but b) wouldn't mind sending me the new debit card and checks at my address in DC. Not to mention, once I graduate in December, we could well end up in Birmingham, DC or NYC, so we're not looking for a local bank so much as one that has good coverage in the US and good customer service (plus free or $5/month max online access services).
I've been thinking about maybe HSBC (must have gotten HSBC confused with another bank as they have no branches in Atlanta. Everbank, maybe?) or Bank of America (although honestly after having the problems I've had with Wachovia, I feel even more iffy about BoA and have heard very mixed things about them). Any other bank suggestions? What would you do if you were in my situation? Obviously I reported the person who hung up on me but since I broke my own rule of not writing down her name I don't know how far that will get. And obviously, if she was telling the truth about her supervisor was gone, and considering the previous treatment I've had, Wachovia does not seem very concerned about how their customers are treated. I'm fed up.
From what I've seen, a lot of people seem to be fans of the ING savings account. Has anyone tried their checking account? If so, how do you like it? I'm really tempted by it ...
Thanks so much for your help.
I currently have a checking account with Wachovia, but am extremely unhappy with the service both my fiance and I have received in the past couple of months. I am a graduate student living on loans. All things considered, I'm pretty lucky because my entire graduate career I've been able to get an assistantship, which pays for school and part of my expenses. Although honestly, they don't pay much - the amount I'm paid doesn't even cover our rent, thus the whole "living on loans" thing.
Usually I live in an apartment in Atlanta with my fiance and two cats, but this summer have to spend in DC doing an internship. I have much better job prospects here in DC, so it just makes sense to make the sacrifice and spend the summer here. However, my fiance does not make a lot of money, and there's no way he can pay for the rent by himself while I'm gone, so I've been stuck paying rent here while also trying to help him pay rent in Atlanta.
Well, we'd been trying to put my name on his checking account, so I could easily transfer money from my account to his account. Unfortunately, due to other circumstances that are beyond our control, he overdrew considerably in May (long story, but he's paying off his college, and for some reason they took out more than they were supposed to, but since we don't have proof of it we were basically SOL and had to pay the exorbitant overdraft fees). For some reason there was some hang up, and we were not being contacted about it. I had a very difficult time getting in contact with the right people, because the department we needed to contact about getting my name on his account are only open 8-5 M-F. My fiance, as he works as a Manager for an Inventory Company, has extremely long and weird hours. I also work very long hours, and because there's no way I can afford to live in DC, I am usually traveling to work, at work, or traveling from work, from 7:20am to 7:30pm M-F. I do not get lunch breaks (I can sit at my desk and eat, but it's expected that I work through it and don't really take "personal time"), and personal calls are very much frowned upon.
The situation of me trying to get my name came to a head right before Memorial Day Weekend, just days before we had to pay rent and C (fiance) didn't have even 1/8 of the money needed to pay our rent. I realize I should have just written him a check and mailed it, but we'd been told repeatedly that everything would go through and since before this incident, we'd had no problems with Wachovia, we took their word on it. I still do not understand what the hold up was. Repeatedly we had to do three way calling since I couldn't exactly afford to take time off and fly down to Atlanta so we could go speak to someone in person about me being put on his account. Every single time we talked to a different customer service person we were told wildly different things. It was just a huge mess. Finally, I had to risk my job by just going to a Wachovia in person at 9am when they opened and show up over an hour late for work.
Oh, but it doesn't end there. Since they were taking their sweet time trying to get my name on C's account, I took one of the customer service person's advice and tried to deposit it directly into C's account by just making a night deposit with cash taken out of my account, and put into a deposit envelope with a deposit slip. Well, despite the fact that they advertise night depositories on their website, Wachovia apparently does not intend for individuals to use the night depositories - they are apparently only meant for businesses. What more, they don't have any deposit slips outside of any of their banks, and as I mentioned, I work long hours that prohibit me from going to a bank. So, I had to take a deposit slip from my checkbook, blacked out my account number, wrote in C's account number, and then filled out all the other requisite information.
Well, not only did they put a block on my account because after that I went and bought something to eat, they initially took that money, put it in C's account for a couple days, then took it out and put it back in my account.
Now here's the thing. They didn't contact me about either of these occurrences. And to top it off, when C noticed that the money which I'd just deposited in his account was gone, he called customer service. Customer service blatantly LIED to him, and told him it was just being held and would show up in his account. If it wasn't for the fact that C had told me, and I looked into my account online and happened to notice hey! I have a lot more money thn I thought .... we would have taken this person's word for it, and we would have been in a world of trouble.
We contacted numerous people, and no one would do anything about it. We were SOL. I still wasn't on C's account (I hadn't jeopardized my job yet by going to the bank when I was supposed to be at work), and even trying to deposit the money wasn't working. Finally I also just took another risk by being reprimanded at work by calling the place that was apparently holding me up from being put on his account, and they FINALLY allowed me to deposit money in his account. But this took over a month, and due to the repeatedly bunglings of their customer service, and their outright LIES to us, it took us so much longer than it should have. It is a miracle that we got the money in his account before our apartment complex cashed the check.
Now, as it is, after that whole debacle, I was quite frankly disgusted with Wachovia, and decided as soon as I got home to Atlanta that we'd switch banks. But today something happened that has made me want to switch banks NOW, if possible.
Now that I am on C's account, I watch both of our accounts online quite regularly for weird transactions. check our accounts every single day. Well, he was dipping pretty low ($5) one day, but we knew C's work was about to direct deposit a check into his account, so I wasn't too worried, since he monitors his checking account too.
Well, even though one day he had $5, and the next day he got a nice paycheck, for no rhyme or reason he was charged $105 for overdraft/unavailable funds. Which makes absolutely no sense. C was supposed to call, but for those of you unfamiliar with Inventory, his schedule is literally insane during the summer, and so he hadn't found the time to yet a week later. So, I called them myself today. After my whole experience previously, I usually write down everyone's name in case they do something out of line, but the person I talked to seemed genuinely nice, so even though she totally garbled her name, I let it slip. Big mistake.
She was trying to explain to me how even though it looked like he had enough funds in his account, he really didn't due to the check card holds. Well, what she was saying just didn't make sense to me because no matter how I did the math, it still looked to me that he had enough money. So she started treating me like I'm a complete moron and started talking to me in a rather condescending manner. Well, there are a lot of things that I can tolerate, but being treated like I'm an idiot is not one of them. I kind of started to lose my shit. I told her I wanted to speak to her supervisor because I found her unhelpful. She told me that her supervisor was gone for the day. I said I wanted to speak to whoever was in charge and she started in on how that WOULD be her supervisor but that they had no supervisor. I found this simply incredible. I got even angrier and said I wanted to talk to someone else. AND SHE HUNG UP ON ME.
Needless to say, I called back and got to speak to a supervisor. Granted, since Wachovia has 12 different call centers in the US, there's no way of knowing if I got to the same call center or not. The supervisor apologized for the treatment, we set up my fiance's account so it's linked to my savings account in case something like this happens again, and he transferred me to another department that refunded 1/3 of the overdraft fee. I'm still annoyed and I don't really understand why they charged $100 in overdrafts when it doesn't look like he overdrew. As helpful as the second person and the supervisor were, I am tired of the really awful antics of the customer service of Wachovia, and I just don't think we can wait any longer to change banks anymore.
Due to all this, I'm looking for a new bank. However, it's not as simple as it sounds. As mentioned in the cut, I live with my fiance in Atlanta, GA. However, I am spending the summer in DC (doing an internship here). I am a graduate student with a teaching assistantship. This means that as soon as I get home on the 20th of August, I have to go to my department and give them my financial information - otherwise I don't get paid. Since my fiance and I are getting married on the 18th of August, I think we probably will just want to put ourselves on one account and save ourselves the hassle. It is a huge pain to change financial information. But the thing is, I'm in DC, so we'd need someplace that a) would have my Atlanta address as the default info but b) wouldn't mind sending me the new debit card and checks at my address in DC. Not to mention, once I graduate in December, we could well end up in Birmingham, DC or NYC, so we're not looking for a local bank so much as one that has good coverage in the US and good customer service (plus free or $5/month max online access services).
I've been thinking about maybe HSBC (must have gotten HSBC confused with another bank as they have no branches in Atlanta. Everbank, maybe?) or Bank of America (although honestly after having the problems I've had with Wachovia, I feel even more iffy about BoA and have heard very mixed things about them). Any other bank suggestions? What would you do if you were in my situation? Obviously I reported the person who hung up on me but since I broke my own rule of not writing down her name I don't know how far that will get. And obviously, if she was telling the truth about her supervisor was gone, and considering the previous treatment I've had, Wachovia does not seem very concerned about how their customers are treated. I'm fed up.
From what I've seen, a lot of people seem to be fans of the ING savings account. Has anyone tried their checking account? If so, how do you like it? I'm really tempted by it ...
Thanks so much for your help.