BOA not charging $5 for debit cards another DUH momment for banking.

 Why is it that highly paid bank executives have cognitive issues? Let's take a walk through logic land and see how big cheese bank executives arrive at the $5 debit card fee.

*Damn banking regulations no longer allow us to charge ridiculous rates on Credit Cards and other accounts.
*Let's take advantage of a loop hole to make up what we lose by charging $5 for the use of a debit card.
*It doesn't matter that we would be the only one doing it because our customers are so pathetic that they will just pay it and stay with us.
*Make sure we don't consult anyone that will disagree with us because we are much more intelligent than everyone else.

Of course this is not exactly what they say it is a much more convoluted process. There are studies and spreadsheets and analysis that go into all this. The problem is they are just using it to justify what they are going to do anyway. It just makes it look good. Here is the simple logic that almost always eludes them.

*Why would our customers pay $5 for something they can get for free anywhere else, DUH?

You have to know that someone said that in a meeting and that person was blown off and labeled "Not a team player".

Bank of America to charge $5 for debit card use.

Non of this should be a surprise, but it should make you angry. BOA has lost billions of dollars through their own stupid arrogance and now will charge their debit card users $5.00 (see this article) to make purchases. Banks have no physical products they make money on "Other Peoples Money" (OPM). So ,in essence, banks are parasites. Think about that when the bank takes your money.

You paid for the PNC bank bailout and they shipped your job overseas

It has come to my attention that PNC bank has moved some of its' collection services out of the United States. People are getting calls to collect on their overdue mortgages and other loans from phone numbers from other countries. So the scenario goes, bank screws up and loses tons of money. Bank gets millions of dollars of tax payers money to save their lives. Bank uses money to buy another bank (instead of lending it out to stimulate the economy). Bank ships jobs overseas. There is something grossly wrong with this picture. I think a call, letter or email to your congressman would be in order.

THE BANK GIVETH AND THE BANK TAKETH AWAY THEN GIVES IT BACK

I recently had my bank test my patience by making funds, from a deposit made on a Friday, available in my checking account and subsequently putting a hold on those funds after I was told they would be available on Monday. Having had my chain jerked before by banks I decided to check my account on the banks website. Sure enough the funds were available so we wrote our checks and made our payments. All was right with the world. On Tuesday the shock came. The Loss Prevention (their loss not mine) department had put a hold on the funds because the signature looked squirrelly. Many of the checks and payments were made to places that have no sense of humor when checks  bounce. We started hitting the phone trying to head off as much disaster as possible. The township agreed to swap out our personal check for a cashiers check (the bank made some funds available after we called them about their bad behaviour). Unfortunately the personal check was sent in as well as the cashiers check. Boing, boing, boing!!!! Another Non Sufficient Funds charge. Once the dust settled on this fiasco we approached the bank about refunding the fees. They agreed to refund their fees, but not the fees from the institutions we attempted to pay. "We do not refund fees from other institutions" was the company line. They had forgot that I worked in the Banking and Finance industry for many years. I knew that was nonsense and I told them so in a lengthy letter to their branch manager which contain names, dates and places. I threw every piece of insider information about how banks work that I had. In the last paragraph I mention that I had not contacted any legal institutions or consumer groups YET!!!! I had to hold back something and give them a chance to do the right thing. Which they did. The lesson here is that banks can put a hold on your funds, but they can't lie to you and if they do they have to pay up.

Protecting Your Credit Score

I am finding it difficult to get loans approved and help people get the money they need to make things easier for themselves. What the problem is the situation that they are trying to improve is the thing keeping them from making it better. Credit scores are in a free fall. People don't understand that there are consequences from not taking there debt seriously. Point in case, I had a client that wanted a loan to move into a new place to stay. He only needed a few thousand to make the move. Unfortunately he had a disagreement with his cable company. They said he owed them money and he said he didn't. Guess what was on his credit report, a collection account for the cable bill. Guess what he didn't get, the loan to move into his new place. You can't just walk away from your bills. You need to deal with the issue and get it resolved. Likewise you need to make your payments on time. That shows up on your credit report as well. Some of your utility companies have taken to reporting to the credit agencies as well. If you have a dispute with a creditor, deal with it and get it resolved.

Shady Collection Agencies

There are a lot of businesses that serve useful purposes. Sometimes there are businesses that take advantage of our ignorance or fear. I recently received a call from Allied Interstate. I didn't recognize the company name so I got on the internet and looked them up. One of the first items that popped up was this article ,which was very enlightening. Allied Interstate is a collection agency with a shady reputation. There tactics and methods are very questionable and possibly illegal. I do have any accounts that are in collections, meaning that I don't have any accounts that I have neglected paying on for a extended period of time. Typically if you have an account overdue and you haven't recently moved you will get a written notification of accounts that are past due. I have not received any past due notices. Because I am certain that I don't have any accounts in collections I am not responding to Allied Interstate, but I will be checking my credit report soon to find out if there is anything on my report that I am unaware of. The reason I am not talking to Allied is their reputation for rude and obnoxious behavior. Do a google search on this company it gets real interesting.

Need A Loan

I am doing small business consulting and loan brokering now. Strictly in Michigan for the time being. I will start a series of articles on the loan process for small businesses.