Banks - Chicago,IL

We are with a credit union and could not be happier with their level of service and lack of fees. Never going back to a regular bank!

I use Chase. But there is not a bank out there that isn't trying to "fee" you to death. We can thank our politicians for that

They tried to make the banks less profitable as a punishment for the banking crisis we are in. The banks responded by looking for different ways they could charge us more money so their profits didn't decline. Why? Because many CEO have pay plans based on profits. Lower profits mean less money for the CEOs and all of the executives right under them.

How do you change that? toss out the encumbants that have been elected and sent to Washington duting the last 8 years, including the man at the top. If you vote any of the encombants in AGAIN, then you are the one responsible for your own problems.

Good luck to you and yours.

I love my credit union but they are just like what you explained. Thing is if something is supposed to come out on the tenth taking it out before business on the 11th that is your mistake.

You have the ability to look at what has gone out on bill pay and then see that indeed it has not been removed from your balance. So if you see it going out on one end and haven't seen it posted in the other then you must removed that from your balance.

Here is the thing coming from someone who was a teller supervisor, read the person who tends to get your calls, customers tend not to listen. You want your money back and other than hearing we will refund you don't listen. After a while it gets frustrating. Personally I have never hung up on someone but usually when I persist it is not a bank error they tended to hang up on me.

Instead of starting off with piss and vinegar you should have went with could you please explain your bill pay system, clearly I don't understand. After you listened to that you would have understood it was in fact your error. Then you say oh, I understand so it goes from pending to posting and disappears until close of business. I didn't know that, would there be any way you can refund the fee, I promise I get it now.

I say this because then you would have understood their system, had your fee back, and wouldn't have had to post this.

I believe that the date you set to pay is the day they guarantee the check to be received by your biller. Therefore they would have to start processing the payment in advance to ensure it arrives on time. Otherwise you would incur late fees.

Quite frankly I am not sure why you would keep money out of your checking account. In today's economic climate I can not see you making great returns by keeping the money in a savings vehicle rather than a checking account. Certainly not more than the $33 iverdraft fee.

Regardless of which bank you decide to move your money to, I would make sure I understood the ins and outs of the online banking and consider keeping enough money in the account to cover all pending transactions.

Ditch that bank and switch to a credit union!! I can't tell you how much money my husband and I wasted on fees for years. Banks charge you significantly more for everything, whereas credit unions are not for profit, so the fees are much lower, you get higher interest rates on your savings accounts, and money back as a shareholder. Plus, their customer service is much better, and there's always free coffee and cookies. :) I've been over-the-moon thrilled with my credit union, and would never do business with a bank again. Good luck to you!

Am I understanding you right that the bank hung up on you?

I would go higher up the chain and complain to high heaven. Is Chris the manager? If not, go to the manager. Find a manager higher than THAT manager. Hanging up on a customer is totallly unacceptable.

Don't go in with guns blazing, but go in. If you keep on with it, I'll bet you'll get that $33 back.

You also need to sit down with them and work out how to make sure that you have money moved from one account to another before they charge you an overdraft fee. There may be a charge for doing it, but that would be better than what you are facing now.

And by the way, the only way that banks DON'T charge these fees is by government telling them that they CAN'T, or customers changing banks because of the fees. Voting out "encumbants" doesn't help you - it helps the banks. It was greed on all of their parts that allowed the banks to lose billions upon billions of dollars. Vote for those who don't allow the American public to pay for the banks' mistakes.

Dawn

I'm not a bank person, we use our credit union for all our needs. You should see who is local around you and check them out, systems and fees. You will be happy you did.

I use Bank of the West and LOVE them! They really keep a good eye on my account and they call me to verify anything out of the ordinary.

I don't do any auto payments out of my checking account. I want to be the one in charge of when it comes out.

We work with Bank of America for personal and our business and we also work with Chase bank for business. We have several accounts with both banks.

As far as fees, I have never paid any bank fee due to the type of account we have set up and the balances required that stay that way. At BOA we do link 2 business accounts together and have 3 personal accounts which are all linked together so that no "insuffificient funds" would occur. In the event I made an error, the money would automatically come from savings to cover the error.

However, I am on top of all accounts daily to reconcile and make sure everything is good to go. That is just me and how I am with running our company.

When you schedule a bill to be paid online, they must begin processing before that set date from you account so that the merchant will be paid by the date you specify. Some of these take up to a 4 day turn around, therefore it would be "processing" and "pending" on your account. It should be clear when you check your account online to see what is processing and pending.

We have a solid relationship with a personal banker at both banks who know our business plan and how we manage things. I would suggest getting to know the people in your bank so you can have a network. I am at the bank almost daily and at both BOA and Chase, they address me by name and help out if I have a question.

It sounds like you did not get the greatest Customer Service at your bank. Go in and be very nice, sweet, non-confrontational and talk in a normal positive tone and they might refund the fee.

I would also suggest keeping extra money in the account to cover yourself just in case. If you use online banking, you need to make sure the funds are available. We keep max balances to ensure everything is ok with exception of our ACH account which is when some customers pay us online vs sending checks for their payments. In that case, I keep a minimum in the account (few hundred bucks) because if someone is able to wire money in, they are able to wire money out so this is our safety net just in case someone is dishonest, we are not out a lot of money to recoup.

Good luck to you and I hope you get your fees refunded.

First off, you should have enough money in your account at all times to cover all of the bills coming out! Get rid of automatic bill pay, because you are watching the numbers instead of your check book. When I write my bills, they are subtracted out and that money is gone in my mind, so I only look at the balance in my book.

Charter One Bank and Fifth Third Bank are both good banks to work with.

Our local bank got bought out by Heartland Bank and overall I am really happy cause they kept the same rules as we used to have - free checking w/no min, interest on savings, I think $200 min, online banking that is usually sent within 24 hours (depends on when you enter it) deposits credited immediately, etc. Never had a problem with customer service.

Now this could have all been cause they bought out the local one but I think these are all regular things for them cause I do bank online for the bill pay and stuff.

We have used Chase for years and exclusively bank online. We have our savings account set up to "automatic overdraft protection" so that if we have a payment come through oddly, it comes from our savings and does NOT give overdraft fees.
Also, the online banking via smart phone and email allows us to set up alerts (in the event of fraud or card stolen) we set the alert at the amount we choose (mine is $150, hubby is set at $50) so any payment larger than that we get pinged. This allows for us to take immediate action if we feel something has occurred fraudulently.
good luck.

I agree with the other poster that you need to rely on your check register to know what your balance is. I keep "extra" money in my checking so that while the balance in my register is zero, I have an extra $100 in the account as a back-up. This helps to handle surprises or if I forgot to log a debit charge. I keep plenty of money in my checking - I am not worried about someone getting my ATM card. Keep in mind, to use your account they would need your pin. I am confident that I would notice it was missing quickly enough that I could cancel the card. I also have an overdraft on my account which is linked to a savings account.

We do our banking through a credit union and have had a much better time. You earn interest on both checking and savings, though the rate on the checking is slightly lower than the savings account.
I keep a physical checkbook where I enter all transactions or pending transactions and keep the balance accurate. If I know something is always autopaid on said date I enter it before that date, I usually get an email notification that tells me they are about to charge said amount to remind me to enter it if I have not. I always keep a buffer of extra money in my checking account to cover any extras. It isn't a good idea to keep the balance so low that it's always tight, especially if you have the money in another account.
I would also consider not having too many accounts. There isn't a reason to have more than a checking and a savings unless you have a business that needs it's own account. Having multiple checking accounts is asking for trouble as you play the eternal game of making sure money is in the right one and constantly moving funds around.

We use Navy Federal Credit Union.