Bank woes

**mateosbaby** · 05-02-2011, 07:01 PM

I am curious how many of you have banks for your main checking/savings accts who do online Billpay, etc? We just switched to a local bank (our other one was 45 min. away near my family where we lived for awhile). However, in setting up my acct online, I had to have 3 separate passwords/codes, I got Billpay set up and now cannot find it anywhere, their Help button links to a dead page, and their secure email just gives me my own personal "mailbox" but no email address to email them at! It was a bear to set up, and I still can't figure out where the "real time" account debits and deposits are. I am beyond frustrated with it, to the point where I don't even want to call or go there in person to ask about it. I am afraid I will yell at them - and I'm in a very small town where everyone is very, very nice. LOL

What would you do? The only other banks in town are WF, USBank, and another small, local bank, but I've heard not-so-great things about them.... Unfortunately no credit unions, which is what I'd prefer.

**dcompton** · 05-02-2011, 09:40 PM

I don't know any of those banks, but the hassle you are having sounds completely unacceptable to me. It shouldn't be that hard to get to our own money.

I use Chase, and have no problems at all. It's totally simple.

I would go in and talk to them. Maybe start by saying, "I don't want to yell, but ...." If it's just a glitch, maybe they can help you resolve it. If it's business as usual, I'd try one of the other banks. Tell them the problems you had here, and get them to demonstrate how their system works.

**2_at_the_farm** · 05-02-2011, 09:54 PM

I hear ya..and understand too well. Sometimes you have to choose the lesser evil.

) We used the same bank for 100 years, then they did the bill pay thing and we never could get it figured out...and the frustration! Same story... We finally switched to a little local bank since we are so much closer to it now.

I don't use our bank's bill pay, but set up everything through the electric company, phone, etc to take the payment from my bank account. So much easier that way, for me, anyway.

**Eskielover** · 05-05-2011, 09:42 AM

I agree that you should go talk to the bank--but maybe wait until you're not as frustrated/angry. It may be a glitch in the system, as 2_at_the_farm said. US Bank seems to be a stable bank if you choose to change. I've not heard of WF.

I also don't use bill pay since there is a charge for using it at most banks. I go to each account site and do my own fund transfers. I pay credit cards, loans, utilities, cable, and cell phone online with "electronic checks". Easier that way.

Eskielover
_______________

**stinkbug** · 05-05-2011, 10:48 AM

We've used USBank for almost 20 years with no problems at all. We just refi'd our home through them.

I do not use an online account...or bill pay though.

**mateosbaby** · 05-05-2011, 01:47 PM

Hee, hee, WF is Wells Fargo.

Sorry, thought everyone knew that. Never assume......

Yeah, I still can't get it figured out, so I will have to go talk to them. When, is the question... Having a yard sale next weekend, so BUSY here! May have to wait a while. For now, I'll just use checks. At least I know how to use those.

I purposely choose banks who have Billpay for free, and little to no other charges. I choose to bank for free so they have the privilege of using my money to potentially lose it to some nut who can't afford the loan he's taking out.

The few fees any of our banks have had, are fees that we never end up paying (going below the minimum balance, returned checks, overdrafts, etc, etc).

Well, I'm hoping it's a glitch....

**kita** · 05-05-2011, 05:38 PM

Having lived on both sides of the country...and the middle as well, banks and grocery stores that may saturate the market in your area and look "nationwide" may not really be that way.
I think I have only seen Wells Fargo here in the west. FifthThird is in the middle and the banks in NJ were changing hands so quickly it made my head spin...

**mateosbaby** · 05-05-2011, 07:38 PM

Huh. That's strange. I live in MN, and WI before that, and we have Wells Fargo everywhere. Never heard of FifthThird.

**kita** · 05-05-2011, 07:58 PM

I just did some internet sluething and discovered that Wells Fargo owns Wachovia which IS a name I recognise from NJ.
That is the other thing, companies may use different names in different areas of the country.
And my "middle" section of the country was MI and when I searched there it only gave me IN locations.

**mateosbaby** · 05-05-2011, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by kita

I just did some internet sluething and discovered that Wells Fargo owns Wachovia which IS a name I recognise from NJ.
That is the other thing, companies may use different names in different areas of the country.
And my "middle" section of the country was MI and when I searched there it only gave me IN locations.

Haha, go figure.

They switch so quickly, too, especially right now. Yeah, Wells Fargo bought out several banks, I believe. Washington Mutual, too, I know, and I forget some of the other ones.

I am glad I have a small local bank with only 1 branch. That does help. The other small local bank has about 3 or 4 branches in our area, but like I said, I've heard a few not-so-great things about them. So it's the one I'm at where I can't figure out how to access my money, or huge Wells Fargo or huge USBank, both of whom took a bailout from the gov't that I sorely disapproved of so wish to avoid entirely. What to do....

**mateosbaby** · 05-05-2011, 10:24 PM

Eureka! I found it! I found the Billpay section! Evidently there are 2 sections that have a link to the same acct (the link is just the acct #). But if you click on 1 of those, it takes you to Billpay (called IPAY, go figure), and the other takes you to everything else, which is where I kept ending up. Grrrrr.... At least I finally found it!

Now to get used to the weirdness.......

**mndtrp** · 05-06-2011, 01:49 AM

I do the same as Eskielover. Instead of using the bank's billpay, I go to each site and enter my information. The only ones I have set up for auto-pay are fixed-amount student loans, and only the ones that give an interest rate deduction for setting up auto-pay.

It's good you found what you were looking for, unlike that poor U2.

**craftypam** · 05-06-2011, 08:34 AM

The issue I have with going to each site is that you are giving your personal information to each place. I was nervous about doing online banking and the lady at the bank said that if you do it through your bank no one else gets your personal information and I like it that way.

**McD** · 05-06-2011, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by craftypam

The issue I have with going to each site is that you are giving your personal information to each place. I was nervous about doing online banking and the lady at the bank said that if you do it through your bank no one else gets your personal information and I like it that way.

EXACTLY!

Also, buried in all that little fine print that you have to agree to before making payments but no one ever reads, are default clauses that can really screw with you. I have horror stories from when I worked in banking about this.

Here's how I used to explain it to customers: When you do your bill payment through the company's website, you are basically opening up your account and letting that company stick their hand in and grab it. With your bank's billpay, you are the one telling your bank what to do with your money. And if an error incurs, your bank is much quicker to fix it.

**Judi Dial** · 05-06-2011, 09:59 AM

I"d call them.

We've had the same credit union for > 20years, very few problems. The biggest one being that at one point they upgraded their software and took me off the account to talk to them about $$$. I still had signature power, but couldn't talk to them abut the accounts. DH had to talk to them about 3 times before they added me again.

Our mortgage is with Chase, and I purely hate them. I feel about them like Nikosan does about B of A, for similar if not exactly the same reasons. We paid off our cc with them, and if/when I can find a way to switch the mortgage, we'll do that too!

We had Wachovia, who raised our rates, refused to lower them on a cc, and they had our IRA too. We pulled both and put them in the credit union, immediately got a lower interest rate and didn't have the nasty person telling us that our credit was lousy (We'd just renegotiated our other cc accounts down!) The IRA account seems to have made no impact at all, so we move both to friendlier territory!

Call them and see if they can help would be my first step. Then see who else is available locally...or that's what I'd do!

Judi