stressing over bank sale

**mek42** · 08-15-2011, 02:25 PM

I'm one of the HSBC bank customers in the upstate NY area who is possibly going to be effected by the possible upcoming sale of the upstate NY HSBC branches to First Niagara. I am stressing over this.

I've lived more than 15 miles from a branch for several years now and have adapted to being an online customer. I have my bill pays set up, my bank-to-bank transfers setup and don't want to reenter all of that information again. I don't remember when the last time I used a paper check was.

If the ATMs went away, I could do a bank-to-bank transfer to the local credit union where our emergency fund is held and then take out the cash at the credit union ATM (unless the credit union was open, in which case I could just get a cash advance using the debit card).

My stock investing account has been sold several times. Each time, the commissions increased. So part of me is nervous since my prior experience with involuntary financial account transfers has been to my detriment.

What little information is available seems to be that in-person banking will remain unchanged. This means very little to me, as I do almost no in-person banking.

I have used the in house email system and received a near useless response. Also, the closest branch doesn't know anything more than I do.

Please forgive me if this post is a little less coherent than my usual - I'm very stressed and frustrated over this and am hoping that just getting it out on electrons (as opposed to paper, see?) will help. I'm also looking forward to hearing from other folks here who might have thoughts or advice.

Thanks!

**Telephus44** · 08-15-2011, 03:21 PM

People DO get stressed over changing banks. That's why they can raise their fees, because you don't want to go through the hassle of switching.

Personally, while I wouldn't exactly think of this is as the best way to spend an afternoon, you'll probably spend a couple hours re-entering information and setting up transactions, etc. Then you can probably go back to auto-pilot.

And as long as you're going to be forced to - maybe now would be a good time to comparison shop and check out other banks?

**mek42** · 08-15-2011, 10:57 PM

Well, small world that it is, I just received a post card today reminding that as a new FASNY member, I'm eligible to join the FASNY credit union. Looking into that now. If I have to change (what I really want is to just keep being an online customer - to the point of briefly considering transferring to the TO branch, but at the end of the day I do think I should have my account in USD not CAD) then I do think I should drive the change, not just let it happen.

**sinopa27** · 08-16-2011, 01:33 AM

i was thinking that the online customers won't be affected. I have a HSBC online account. How do I find out then?

**indigo53** · 08-16-2011, 10:29 AM

My Mom's bank, National City was sold to First Niagra a couple of years ago. The only problem was the debit cards didn't work right for a couple of days. Apparently National City debit cards were Mastercard and First Niagra didn't accept MC. There was some mess up with that. But she tells me the online stuff went smoothly.

**mek42** · 08-16-2011, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by sinopa27

i was thinking that the online customers won't be affected. I have a HSBC online account. How do I find out then?

If you only have an online account at HSBC, allegedly it will stay. If you have any accounts that are somehow attached to one of the branches affected by the proposed sale, everything gets moved over, including the online savings.

Originally Posted by indigo53

My Mom's bank, National City was sold to First Niagra a couple of years ago. The only problem was the debit cards didn't work right for a couple of days. Apparently National City debit cards were Mastercard and First Niagra didn't accept MC. There was some mess up with that. But she tells me the online stuff went smoothly.

Did she have to re-enter all the address and account number data?

My big things are online bill pay and online bank-to-bank transfers. And, of course, no minimum balance, no monthly fee checking (for debit card / bill pay) and savings. Though I guess the savings I can do elsewhere in a pinch.