Oddly enough, my best experience has been with large banks. Most smaller banks/CU i've dealt with were too busy to bother to help me, but the larger banks were always happy. Another good example to that is a friend of mine needed a loan. A local CU wouldn't loan him the money since he had just changed jobs(his family had two homes financed through them, and paid off numerous loans to them), went to a larger bank that he had never done business with, they offered him a loan on the spot. As for automation, I love it. I hate going to banks, or businesses during the daytime since traffic sucks. Direct deposit is a nice convenience, as is electronic bill pay. During the month, I write 1 check, and thats for my apartment rent. Everything is done electronic.
but do you realise that often the electronic bill pay is nothing of the sort. What happens is that the bank gives the illusion of high tech wizadry by providing this service online yet when you hit the enter key they actually print a cheque and post it to the company or individual concerned... Its great that its free but honestly how sad to convert my electronic digits into bits of paper and then that gets deposited and converted back to to electronic digits somewhere else.. .its crazy.. what a waste of time, money and paper! I know this may not be true for some of the big institutions but for individuals and smaller companies it is. Even the direct deposit and everything still requires a voided cheque.. I dont have a cheque book, i dont want a cheque book, i dont want to write anything with a pen... call me old fashioned if you will
The printing of check is the case when it's a smaller recipient. However, i don't even bother with using the banks bill pay, so many of the places I pay offer EFT/ACH to do withdrawals from my account.
I have to say I have had a pretty good experience dealing w/my big bank. It was FirstUnion, now its Wachovia. I use the driveup window for my deposits and all the tellers know me by name. I think the 225 helps them with that, though. I usually deposit cash, though, since I am able to cash my paycheck where I work. I was real surprised the last month, though, when I did a mixed deposit of cash and a personal check from my grandmother (birthday present). It was only for $50, but the teller put it in as cash for me w/o me saying anything. On a similar note, I think it this past spring or last fall, I was getting the last of my stuff from storage in PA where I had gone to school. Well, I had a paycheck with me, so I hit the driveup where I always used to go. To my very large surprisel, I was greeted with this, "Hello Zach". I couldn't believe it. It had been over a year since I had last used this branch and the teller remembered me. Again, I do think the 225 helped in this situation as well. Its a hard car to forget.
There are a couple of falsehoods floating in this thread. First let me say I have been banking with the same CU for 14 years and am very happy and would never think of changing "banks" unless something very drastic happened. Angelman said: What happens is that the bank gives the illusion of high tech wizadry by providing this service online yet when you hit the enter key they actually print a cheque and post it to the company or individual concerned... That is partly correct. Some receivers can take the payment electronically, ie GM card, GMAC, Countrywide, AHFC, etc. Some others do not accept electronic payments and then your financial institution will issue a check and send it to them, ie Discover Card, Harris Bank and others. At my bank it takes 2 days for an electronic payment to get to the payee and they recommend 5 days for a payment they have to mail. I will not use a credit card that requires a mailed payment over an elecronic one because the late fee's that they hit you with if it is delayed by the mail. The other misconception is that with a debit card the fee to the "seller" is the same as the fee for a credit card transaction. That is false. That is one of the reasons that M/C - Visa lost the lawsuit earlier this year. PIN based transaction generally cost less than 1% vs 3% - 4% for a credit card transaction depending on the deal the "seller" has with their clearing house. It could be less. Welcome to the new world of consumer finance. Larry
Larry, There are no "falsehoods" in the thread, only OPINIONS! :laugh: Also, you mention you have been with the same Credit Union for 14 Years? You are just another example, to them, that proves "Loyalty Means NOTHING"! I'm not even getting into the "False Accusations" in this thread, that I know about, Firsthand (as a Representative of ONE of these "Financial Institutions", for the past 4 Years :Smarty: :TU: ), because if ALL of the people on this Board would be working WITH them, they wouldn't be COMPLAINING AGAINST them (if you got Paychecks like I've gotten, and like I see my business partners get every week!)! :Smarty: ou: :laugh: I'll just say, too, that, unlike some of you "wrongly accuse" some of these places, they actually HELP other people, and make money HONESTLY, and not by being "thieves", as you say! :Smarty: Some of "our" advantages include; Lower Interest Rates (Mortgages, Credit Card/Loan Debts) Lower Monthly Payments (Mortgages, Credit Card/Loan Debts) Lower Payments/Higher (insurance) Coverage Higher Interest Rate (Returns) on "savings/investment" accounts I will not defend ALL of these places, as I, myself, "take business" from the WRONG ones, and make sure my clients do business with the RIGHT ONE (and there is ONLY One, and THAT is a FACT!)! Have you ever heard the saying "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."? Doesn't it make sense to "Go WHERE the Money IS!"? o No: :Smarty: ou: As Brian already pointed out the Main issue; Who has the Largest buildings in your city? Banks, Insurance Companies, Investment Companies (Stock Brokers)... :Smarty: The people who WORK with Money are the people who MAKE the Money (Bankers, Insurance Agents, Investors, etc.)! :Smarty: I quit "working" (as a Dealership Mechanic), when I found out it's a LOT easier to make money with Mortgages, Credit Cards, Life Insurance, Investments, etc., because EVERYONE will BUY a HOME, eventually! :Brow: "Just sign here, and Thank You for my $1,200 commission check!" ( :shock: That was the longest HOUR I ever worked!) :TU: :bglasses:
