There are many reasons why a person would change banks
from their current bank. Today I will give you several examples of why I
changed from the banks I worked with.
#1 My father
banked with United California Bank (UCB) in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area in
the 1960’s and 1970’s and I also opened an account with UCB when I joined the
United States Navy in March 1972.
Shortly after that my father wanted to change banks. He went to UCB and
asked to withdraw all his money and close his account. I believe the amount he
had in his account at that time was less than $10,000. UCB told my father they
refuse to give him his money. He complained stating it is HIS money and he has
every right to withdraw it and close the account. Then UCB changed their excuse
to state they didn’t carry that much money in the bank at any given time. My
father told them he knows they carry well over $50,000 at any given time and
then he told them he will be back in the morning to withdraw his money and
close his account and if they money wasn’t available he was going to bring a
lawsuit against them. They had his money the next day and closed his account to
prevent a lawsuit. I changed from UCB to Bank of America shortly after my
father’s incident.
#2 During my
time banking at Bank of America (BofA) things went well. Then I purchased a car
while serving in the Navy in San Diego. At that time, which was in the
mid-1970’s, there wasn’t the ACH automatic charge to your bank account or
credit card as they do today. Back in those days you made an Allotment which
was sent to the bank. Basically explained the bank would receive a spreadsheet
with all the Allotments and account numbers and someone in the bank would
process the payments to the appropriate accounts. Every month my Allotment from
the Military arrived on the 1st of the month. However Bank of
America put a due date on my car loan of the 30th of the month. So
each 30th of the month Bank of America would claim my car loan
payment was overdue and charge me a late charge. I complained telling them they
know my Allotment shows up on the 1st of every month so stop
charging me the late fee. They continued charging me the late fee so I switched
banks.
#3 My final
change of bank really wasn’t a change for a detrimental reason or customer
service it was due to the branch being about 15 miles away when I had several
other banks located in Redlands, California within 3 miles of my home. While
searching for a bank to change to from Great Western which had only one branch
15 miles from me I searched out Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo in Redlands.
Washington Mutual stated if you have Direct Deposit to
your bank account then your Checking and Savings are SERVICE CHARGE FREE. While
talking with the banker at Washington Mutual I repeated that they offer service
charge free Checking and Savings with Direct Deposit. The banker said yes and
then went on to explain that I would be charged $10 per month service charge on
my checking and 15 Cents per check. I protested and repeated about service
charge free checking with Direct Deposit and several more times they told me
even with Direct Deposit the fees are $10 per month and 15 Cents per check.
I stormed out of Washington Mutual mumbling about them
being idiots and walked across the street to Wells Fargo Bank. Wells Fargo also
told me you get service charge free accounts with Direct Deposit. I’ve been
with Wells Fargo Bank since 1998 so I’ve been with them for 19 years.
If you give me good customer service I will stay with
you. If you give me poor customer service I cease to use your services.
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