My Monthly Internet Banking Gripe . . .

. . . offered as a public service tutorial.

We had another CD mature 12/12, one we opened more than five years ago and have renewed a few times. Again with one of the really big name bank outfits that does a lot of Internet business.

The renewal letter said we were among their best customers and we would get a bonus rate if we renew. We have 7 days to make arrangements.

Yesterday when I called, the rep said we would renew at 4.65% APY. I told him I could open a new CD online, with them, for 4.85% APY. That didn't impress him. I told him I would think it over and get back to him.

This morning when I checked it online, he had renewed it, for the 4.65%. I had not told him to do that.

So, I proceeded to start the application for a new CD online, the one paying 4.85%, the plan being to fund it with the proceeds from the existing CD, which I would redeem.

At the same time I called the CS#. After the customary 20-minute wait, I got a rep. I told her I may need a Supervisor, but if she wanted to give it a shot, I'd let her.

Jumping to the ending, she checked their online rate for new CDs, the 4.85%, and re-renewed the existing one at that rate. However, she would not confirm that by email and the letter she said she will send to confirm it will arrive after the 7-day renewal period.

She said if I check our accounts online tomorrow, I will see that the rate has been changed.

So, until tomorrow . . .
- - - - -
Oh yeah, CD rates took a big nosedive recently.

I useta delight in Internet commerce, stuff like going to bankrate.com and finding the best rate. But I'm really getting to dislike it.

I think the weakness is that the dealings are not eyeball-to-eyeball, with a handshake at the end whether or not you do business. These people know I will not bump into them in the grocery store, or at church, or that we have kids who go to the same school. If we did, it doesn't make any difference because neither of us would know it.

What one does for a living is not with them 24 hours a day. There is no reciprocity, them knowing that I will treat them well in my business if they treat me well in theirs.

There is no community where what one does to get their money, or how they do it, means anything.

I guess I have become my Dad, who drove around town for the best rate, and those he did business with remember him long after he's been gone.

Yep, those were the good old days. As we move forward it's nice to remember the past, but as always we are in a new global community (internet). Matter of fact a major airline recently did away with 95% of the ticket agents at their local airport terminal and replaced them with computers. Expect the same thing at banks. As an observation how many times have we noticed a line at the ATM machine at the bank entrance door? Go inside and there is no line.

Go to a gasoline station and you're dealing with a computer to pump gas. Few if any humans are in sight. An on and on and on.

Today's generation are growing up with computers in their hands and that's the comfort zone. Why would they expect anything less in commerce transactions.

I'm all for the convenience of Internet commerce. I begrude that one last monthly bill that I have to write a check, address an envelope and (not) lick a stamp for.

But, ethics, integrity, honesty, etc. have to catch up with the Internet age.

Some Internet sites realize that. eBay, for instance, realizes they have a lot to lose if faith and confidence in their system is lost. They have a decent system of feedback and pro-actively root out those who don't abide by their code of ethics.

Hi JLB,

Some of the confusion may be the result of how banks renew CD's as per Fed Regs.

On the first day of the new term, it automatically renews unless firm "do not renew" instructions and a payout are requested. Once it renews, you have until the end of the 7th day to cancel/modify the renewal.

Your new rate may not instantly appear either.

When they send out a notice in advance of maturity, they do not know how rates will change during the next week (and have a disclaimer to that effect on the renewal notice). That was your situation last time if I recall correctly.

Hope this helps !

John

It's been a very long time since I've gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling dealing with any brick & mortar bank I've dealt with. I remember the good feelings from the days when the tellers would remember my name, and even call me if it looked as if there might be a problem with my account.
Now, I'm sure I get more personal and friendly help from ING. That's pretty sad.

Jaybee said:

It's been a very long time since I've gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling dealing with any brick & mortar bank I've dealt with. I remember the good feelings from the days when the tellers would remember my name, and even call me if it looked as if there might be a problem with my account.
Now, I'm sure I get more personal and friendly help from ING. That's pretty sad.

Click to expand...

Hey, all the tellers know me by my first name when I walk into the branch bank. It's such a pleasure dealing with them, but the next day none of them are there. My guess is most of them only work part time so the bank can avoid paying benefits. But isn't that the "new" american way! Oddly enough, that branch eliminated its drive-thru teller. So I go to the next branch that does have a drive-thru. If I keep that up I guess I'll soon be accepted into today's ME generation.

More of the same, again, deja vu, from another very big, national-sounding bank.

We had a CD maturing 4/12, again with the promise that we were getting a special renewal rate because we were among their best customers.

Only the special renewal rate was substantially lower than the rate new customers were getting for new CDs on the same site.

So, 4/14, I called and pleaded. They would not budge, she being the renewal person, not the rate person, and since I had to wait so long to get her, and this was Groundhog Day all over again, I said (to myself), "Screw it!" I told her I wanted to a Roth IRA with some of it and to send me the rest.

That did it. She transferred me to someone else in another city.

That person opened the IRA.

Online nothing changed, so I called 4/24, and was told everything was hunky dory.

When nothing appeared to change again, I mesaged them through their website and got an answer on 5/2, parroting what I had said, "Yes, we have opened your IRA and will be sending you the balance of your CD, with interest running til the settlement date."

Now, 5/10, the IRA has appeared online (with an opening date of 4/14), plus all of the original amount is still appearing in the CD account, with the appearance that it has renewed at the horribly low rate!

Wait and see.

JLB - and you are remaining a customer of this bank ....why?

I had a brokerage and banking account with E-Trade for several years. Horrible customer service. Finally closed everything and moved on. There are places that have better service - when you don't get it move on to a better place.

Cuz it was the 14th of April, I needed to open an IRA, and they were the ones with available money belonging to me.

If you followed what I said, which I don't always , I did ask to close the maturing CD, and for them to send me the balance after funding the IRA.

dougef said:

JLB - and you are remaining a customer of this bank ....why?

Click to expand...

JLB:

Time to become a mebmer of TUG dont you think!

Off topic.

LAR said:

JLB:

Time to become a mebmer of TUG dont you think!

Click to expand...

I finally noticed what the bank did. Here is the message I just sent them:

This regards two CDs>>>20-075XXX-9 & 20-075YYY-9

Does anyone there know what you're doing? Every time I have a CD mature you screw it up.

Here's the deal this time.

20-075XXX-9 matured on 4/12/08. Because you would only give me 2.50%, which is less than you were giving new customers, I asked you to:

1. Open a Roth Account CD for $4900, taking that from 20-075XXX-9, &
2. Send me the balance.

Please note I told you not to renew the CD at 2.50%

Since then I have been trying to figure out what you did. I have called and asked and you will see I have sent a message, which you replied to, saying you would do that.

Now I see what you did. You took the $4900 from my other CD, 20-075YYY-9.

You ignored my request to redeem, took $4900 that was earning 4.92%, and left $39441 m/l earning 2.5%, when I could get more elsewhere.

What do you suggest you do to fix it?

In their reply they said upon review of my account they found (everything I said). They suggested they start over again, and do it as I requested, with an interest adjustment.

Now we are trying to pin down what that means.

Also, I notified our AG of this situation, not really expecting anything to come out of that. But they said to submit a formal complaint if Big Bank does not resolve it.

Huh!?

Different Internet Banking Gripe:

I am finally paying as many bills on line as possible. So the past few months I've set up our credit cards to be paid directly from our checking account. All with same credit card company - which is very good overal and we are happy with them.

Well, 3 accts. I set up perfectly and all is well. On the 4th account something didn't work and the payment was bounced back. A few calls later and all fees reversed, etc. but no one could figure out what had happened. Fast forward several weeks and while still trying to get the online payment for this one card to work it was discovered that when I set up the account I accidently clicked the pay from "savings" instead of "checking" button. Oops.

The kicker is that on this one acocunt I will not be able to use online payment for SIX MONTHS as the bounced back payment has put a flag on the account that no one can remove. System thing and that is that. What a PIA! Ok, I made the mistake, but geez... 6 months of being in the corner with a dunce hat on my head seems a little much!

I'm not quite to the automatic on-line payment stage yet, but I do have it to the pointwhere I can pay all but one bill on-line. Cuz I still like to watch where our money is going and sorta be involved in the bon voyage party.

That is the one that is the PIA, the one I have to pay by mail.

They offered $30-ish, the interest difference because they took the $4900 from a higher-paying CD.

They did not offer anything on the $35000 that they kept against my instructions, and have been paying over 2% less on since.

I countered with $140-ish, the interest difference on both CDs.

After setting aside my last two notices of CD expirations, I managed to not decide anything before they automatically renewed. Luckily, both were with Countrywide Bank, going under or being bought by Bank of America, but they have goods rates. New cd auction site debuted today: moneyaisle.com It works like priceline sort of.