I just opened up my monthly statement from Wachovia and saw the following notice in the envelope:

Quote :

"Important Message for Personal Account Holders Who Use Quicken, QuickBooks or Microsoft Money. Beginning April 1, 2007, a monthly fee of $5.95 will be assessed if you access Wachovia Online Banking directly from within your personal financial management software such as Quicken, QuickBooks, or Microsoft Money. This monthly fee does not apply if you download your personal account information from wachovia.com into personal financial management software or if you have a Crown Select, Crown Classic, Crown Banking, Crown Access, Crown Regular, Crown Interest, Custom Banking, Performance Banking or Command Asset Program account."

This really pisses me off that I'm going to have to pay $75/yr to use MS Money (probably converting to Quicken soon) to manage my finances. Before Money/Quicken had the built-in capabilities to login to the bank sites automatically, I remember downloading the QIF files manually and importing them into Money. That was a pain in the ass, and would often skip an entry or so.

I have no plans on upgrading my account to their next tier because I don't want to have to keep a balance of $5,000 in my accounts. I usually keep a minimal amount to survive, and keep the rest in other interest-earning accounts or investments.

I thought about switching to BB&T, but discovered that they are $4 unless you have their elite access account which is a $25,000 minimum balance.

Are there any other banks out there that don't charge such fees?

Edit: Just called Bank of America, they charge $10/mo unless you have their upgraded account.

3/25/2007 3:11:02 PM

yeah, it's bullshit. Charging $5/month for a service which literally costs fractions of a penny per person, probably per month or year.

3/25/2007 3:13:57 PM

Look to local banks and credit unions.

Down here in Charleston we have First Federal, which we switched too from Bank of America, and I couldnt be happier.

Great service, no fees, and best of all, the top of the food chain is an office that I can drive to if need be.

3/25/2007 3:19:44 PM

Quote :

"yeah, it's bullshit"

i haven't decided what i'm gonna do yet either.

3/25/2007 3:23:37 PM

That reinforces what I keep telling people about Wachovia:

They aren't satisfied making money using your money, they want to take your money. They aren't bank, they're thieves.

3/25/2007 3:34:49 PM

Wachovia succeeds through marketing and people's complete ignorance of their illegal practices. You know that it's ILLEGAL to charge more than $30 for a returned check or for a lack of funds? Wachovia was sued and LOST yet they continue to do the practice because they made more money doing it than the entire court case cost.

I don't care who you are or what you say Wachovia is a horrible company and I avoid doing any direct or indirect business possible.

3/25/2007 4:01:38 PM

^can you show me where you found that fact out at....my gf was charged a hefty fee before and i was interested to read that it may have been illegal.

3/25/2007 5:21:46 PM

It sounds like as long as you don't store your password into MS Money to download when you update your account but just log into your account and download it directly from Wachovia it will not be a problem.

It is not as easy to do but will only take an extra minute or two and then you can keep using MS Money and not have to pay the fee.

I know it sucks but it beats having to do it the old way and use a Check Ledger.

3/25/2007 5:36:34 PM

Fucking weak.

3/25/2007 5:48:22 PM

Quote :

"I thought about switching to BB&T, but discovered that they are $4 unless you have their elite access account which is a $25,000 minimum balance."

4 dollars for what? I pull my statements from BB&T every month, never been charged.

3/25/2007 8:36:29 PM

Bank of America Al quaeda bringing their reputation to North Carolina.

3/25/2007 8:38:20 PM

Quote :

"4 dollars for what? I pull my statements from BB&T every month, never been charged."

According to the two people I spoke with on the phone, I would be assessed a $4 charge per month if I used Quicken or Money to access the BB&T Online Banking site.

I wonder if they are meaning that to send bill payments directly from Quicken/Money to the online service would result in the $4 charge?

3/26/2007 7:35:10 AM

This really doesn't surprise me.

Quote :

"They aren't satisfied making money using your money, they want to take your money. They aren't bank, they're thieves."

Quote :

"Look to local banks and credit unions."

3/26/2007 8:05:49 AM

man i had a bitch of a time finding the case. I was part of the class action lawsuit against Wachovia, Bank of America and uh... hell I forget. I got a notice explaining my rights and I got a standard settlement check of $112. This was in 2002 when i GOT the check.

This is the one against Bank of America
http://www.complaints.com/2006/september/19/Bank_of_America__right_of_offset__14294.htm

This is one of the aftermath ones against Wachovia
http://www.attorneyannmiller.com/wachovia-complaint.htm

It's funny that I can't find the case specifically and then the subsequent article because Wachovia is being sued too much. There are too many other articles about the other things Wachovia is being sued for.

3/26/2007 8:08:56 AM

I guess the details of the class action might be appropriate.

in 2000, I had left Wachovia and about 6 months later I recieved a notice from a class action lawsuit. I could settle now for $140 or wait and recieve a piece of the actual settlement. In the settlement it stated that the MAXIMUM a bank/merchant can charge it's customer is $20 (not it's $25). That means if you bounce a check at Bestbuy the MOST they can charge you is a $25 fee. That's current law. State Employee's will back that up.

To be able to recieve any payment I had to meet the following requirements.

1) Have been fined a bounced check, lack of funds, or inactive account fee between 1998 and 2000.

2) Did not have those fines/fees refunded already.

I had bounced one check for $90 and it caused a chain reaction of fines which totaled almost $600. I had yet to pay those fees/fines and had no intention of paying them as I was short a whopping total of .08cents at the time of the bounce.

Basically what happened is that I moved the incorrect amount to my checking to cover the checks and purchases I had on my account. 12 charges in total. When it bounced the $90 check, it locked the account into a sort of "lack of funds" mode. Where, all the other charges would have gone through fine had the $90 check not gone through. Instead of seeing what would go through it put the biggest amount first and then down. I had realized my mistake that evening and had moved the appropriate amount over through the online interface.

While I knew this was my own fault I didn't think the other 12, $5-$7 purchases would bounce as well.

Each purchase recieved a 29.95 lack of funds charge. EACH of those 12 items was on my check card. You know the type that's supposed to take money out immediately?

An hour long phone call to wachovia resolved nothing and I refused to pay the fines on the phone. So I cancelled all of my accounts effective immediately and went over to state employee's.

I have bounced one check at State Employee's and it was a $10 fine. That was simply because I forgot about an auto-withdrawal from my account for my bills. They even waived the fine and I set up an overdraft fund link to my savings account. No more worries.

Wachovia is a crooked organization who profits off the lack of law. They more money breaking the law than following it.

3/26/2007 8:38:34 AM

Quote :

"Wachovia is a crooked organization who profits off the lack of law. They more money breaking the law than following it. "

if theres a lack of law, how are they breaking it?

3/26/2007 8:39:56 AM

yikes. that wasn't clear at all. It means that they profit due to the lack of the law setting an adequate punishment. They made a profit breaking the law.

3/26/2007 10:25:55 AM

oic

3/26/2007 10:27:01 AM

Quote :

"This really pisses me off that I'm going to have to pay $75/yr to use MS Money (probably converting to Quicken soon) to manage my finances."

why dont you just manage your finances independently?

3/26/2007 10:28:22 AM

I'm a member of NCSECU but there is Coastal Federal Credit Union that is not hard to get into. They even have instructions on their site on different approaches for gaining membership. One includes joining the 'Capital Club' for $10, then you qualify for membership. http://www.coastalfcu.org/verify_eligibility.htm

They do have this about Quicken in their FAQ:

Quote :

"Coastal has chosen not to support the real-time .OFX interface required for Quicken 2005 as Intuit now charges each financial institution a yearly licensing, setup and maintenance fee to achieve the same functionality available in all previous versions of their software. However instead of assessing a fee based on the number of actual Quicken users here at Coastal, they require a fee based upon our asset size and TOTAL number of members. As a not-for-profit organization, we are not willing to submit to such an unfair pricing structure."

So this doesn't help with the Quicken access, but can help with the fees side of things. Their money market is currently at 4.5% which isn't too bad.

-- Dave

3/26/2007 11:08:20 AM

Credit Unions FTW!

3/26/2007 1:57:04 PM

Well me personally I haven't had a problem with Wachovia, but I have only been with them about 8 months. Small community banks are best for customer service I worked for Bank of Granite for a couple of years and the customer service was great, however drawbacks to small community banks are lack of ATMs/POS to withdraw money especially while on vacation in the US. Banks do have to follow FDIC rules. However, if you use your debit card it doesn't come out immeadiately it memo's out. When you run your card through it checks your available balance and some POS devices don't settle immeadiately.

Getting money refunded from fees normally take a talk to a Branch manager. Doing it over the phone to a call center is not personal and they will try to save there fees. Not paying those fees can be reported to a Credit reporting agency. Most banks are in the business of making money no doubt, and unfortunately if you don't have a large sum of money they tend to treat you like dirt.

I am still trying to figure out why people are upset, you can still download it from Wachovia's site for free its an extra step but its not that difficult for college educated people. I use Excel to balance my accounts its not that hard.

3/26/2007 2:37:12 PM

Quote :

"Intuit now charges each financial institution a yearly licensing, setup and maintenance fee to achieve the same functionality available in all previous versions of their software. However instead of assessing a fee based on the number of actual Quicken users here at Coastal, they require a fee based upon our asset size and TOTAL number of members."

If I were wachovia, I would charge people an access fee too.

3/26/2007 2:46:26 PM

I'm sure they are doing this because they aren't making any money off your student account anyway. Lets think:

- You already said you keep "minimal amount to survive, and keep the rest in other interest-earning accounts or investments", so that isn't doing them much good if your interesting accounts and investments are at another institution.

- Student account is no fees, no minimum balances, free checking. So unless you are bouncing checks like crazy or depositing things in person all the time, you probably aren't getting charged any fees.

People with real money in their accounts (like their $5000 min balance) are the ones that the banks actually make some money on, they give out free student accounts hopefully so that one day you will upgrade once you actually have money. It's not out of the kindness of their hearts.

I mean I'm playing devil's advocate here (I'm sure I'll really get flamed for it), but are you really expecting banks to give you something for nothing? Are you really bitching because you over-drafted your account and got charged for it?

3/26/2007 4:11:35 PM

You're probably right.

I keep anywhere between 2,000 and 4,000 in my account at any given time, and sometimes even go over the 5,000 mark that would qualify me for the Crown checking account (and free MS Money).

I'm sure they're making plenty of money off the amount of cash I keep in my checking account, but damned if I want to be required to keep that minimum balance to keep them happy.

[/whine]

3/26/2007 5:47:19 PM

WACHOVIA IS THE MOST HORRIBLE BANK IN EXISTENCE

3/26/2007 6:47:08 PM

I haven't read the thread

but

Bank of America does this for free. You go online, look at your account, and somewhere in there you'll see "Download" and you can choose Quicken2004, MSMoney2000, 2 or 4 digit QIF files, Excel, or just plain printable.

If you know someone who is at BOA, get them to "refer" you before you join, then you'll both get $50 after you've been there a year. $50 ain't a grand sum, but it's a nice dinner at least

[Edited on March 26, 2007 at 6:50 PM. Reason : and yes Wachovia sucks ... I have had MAJOR issues with them in the past]

3/26/2007 6:49:57 PM

that's not what's at issue here. you can still download data from the online banking, but you have to now pay to automatically download it while using MS Money

3/26/2007 6:52:15 PM

hahaha

wachovia

glad i bailed out of there when they lost a paycheck of mine a few years ago

3/26/2007 6:59:41 PM

wachovia, more like walkallovaya

3/26/2007 7:11:23 PM

3/26/2007 7:12:11 PM

fyi, if you go TALK to a rep at BB&T, I give it about a 99.5% chance they will waive the fee for you. They've done all kinds of cool stuff for me just because I asked about it

3/26/2007 7:23:59 PM

BB&T ftw!

fees are a hard cost, the branch manager eats it when they waive it and even though wachovia's pocketbook is 10 times bigger, they have about a 1/10 shot at being understanding enough to waive it

it's the community bank model versus the large commercial model

oh and if you need a couple million dollars, call me, i don't waive fees though, i talk until you feel good about paying them

[Edited on March 26, 2007 at 9:30 PM. Reason : ll]

3/26/2007 9:25:44 PM

walk al ovaya

3/26/2007 9:41:53 PM

it's not Wachovia's fault that their members bounce checks and want to whine about how bad their bank is. I'm glad that they have the business practices of hefty fines for piss poor money management and sticking to their guns about the fines.

3/26/2007 10:16:25 PM

just curious do they have a fee for going inside for service more then a couple times a month? I heard that from somewhere is this true?

I have SECU and USAA for most of my money, but i'm going to be needing a bank with lots of Atm's not in around here, so I wanted to open a small account at a major commercial bank.

[Edited on March 26, 2007 at 10:25 PM. Reason : .]

3/26/2007 10:24:26 PM

BB&T has some type of account like that.

3/26/2007 10:26:14 PM

Quote :

"it's not Wachovia's fault that their members bounce checks and want to whine about how bad their bank is."

3/26/2007 10:28:49 PM

I've all but closed my accounts at Wachovia - I've given them way more of my money than I can even stomach thinking about. I think its amazing that as Wachovia drives customers away doing shit like this there are great banks out there like ING Direct offering innovative new products that make me want to use them.

3/26/2007 10:33:14 PM

Quote :

"it's not Wachovia's fault that their members bounce checks and want to whine about how bad their bank is. I'm glad that they have the business practices of hefty fines for piss poor money management and sticking to their guns about the fines."

I agree, people who mismanage their money should be fined.

Quote :

"just curious do they have a fee for going inside for service more then a couple times a month? I heard that from somewhere is this true?"

I know the college account they have limited you to 2 window/inside visits per month, and $5 for every one after those 2. That forced you to use the ATM almost exclusively. I'm not sure what the free checking is.

Quote :

"Bank of America does this for free. You go online, look at your account, and somewhere in there you'll see "Download" and you can choose Quicken2004, MSMoney2000, 2 or 4 digit QIF files, Excel, or just plain printable."

I tried this last night on Wachovia to import into Money. I downloaded the QIF file from their website, and it failed to import everything properly, especially sequential transactions that are the same dollar amount. I withdrew $200 last week, and again last Saturday. It only imported one of them.

3/27/2007 5:58:31 AM

Walk all over ya

3/27/2007 6:03:30 AM

I've been a customer with Wachovia for almost ten years. As soon as I return to the States I'm switching to another bank. I used to be happy with Wachovia but they've been slowly becoming greedier and more of a pain in the ass.

3/27/2007 6:14:02 AM

It was always awesome before they got bought by First Union

3/27/2007 6:15:30 AM

^ Exactly. That was probably the worst thing that could have happened to Wachovia.

3/27/2007 6:17:25 AM

I just hope that BB&T doesn't make the same mistake. I've been told that John Allison is trying to position the company to be purchased by someone else.

3/27/2007 6:22:19 AM

Quote :

"it's not Wachovia's fault that their members bounce checks and want to whine about how bad their bank is."

Most of the problems that I have heard from people that have problems with Wachovia center around them not crediting accounts with deposits for several business days... which causes people to bounce checks. I guess you'll just say that it's still their fault for not always having a bank roll to cover it - and you'd be partly right. It just seems to me that these same whiners would have problems with any bank, but they only seem to complain about Wachovia. Makes you wonder.

[Edited on March 27, 2007 at 6:34 AM. Reason : -]

3/27/2007 6:24:53 AM

Only time I've bounced with Wachovia is when something got double charged on my account. Which wouldn't have been a big deal, except it was a laptop being double charged. Two weeks and several phone calls/hours later, they finally dropped all of the bounce fees and other bullshit associated with the problem. What should have been a simple, "Oops, our bad," turned into a huge headache.

I would have never expected them to give me a hard time over something stupid when I first opened an account with them. Now days that seems to be their normal course of business.

3/27/2007 6:46:00 AM

I've been writing checks for almost 10 years and never bounced one. I don't understand it, it's like driving your car until you run out of gas on the side of the road (which is equally retarded excluding mechanical malfunctions).

^ And before you go postal, that wasn't directed at you, just in general.

[Edited on March 27, 2007 at 1:06 PM. Reason : ^]

3/27/2007 1:05:28 PM

i shouldnt even be commenting in this thread but my family owns wachovia and i bank there but yeah there are some major bullshit charges that everyone has to go through, including this one. Ive tried, my dad, granddad, and many others have tried to change it for many years. All i can say is complain to them and try and change it.

3/29/2007 5:00:21 PM

.

3/30/2007 5:55:05 AM