Friday, May 27, 2011

Goodbye mega huge conglomerate bank

My current mega huge conglomerate bank finally pissed me for the last time. I just got back from setting up my own personal checking account at a local credit union and I am shedding no tears for leaving US Bank.  I will not regale you with my list of annoyances designed to extract the maximum amount of money from my banking 'relationship' with them.

A typical mega huge bank manager? Perhaps.

Lest you think I'm just harping on US Bank for this rant I previously banked at Bank of America until they annoyed me too many times.  Long ago when getting my first home loan Washington Mutual backed out of a locked and approved home loan via a technicality.  I'm not playing favorites in my ever increasing disdain for the mega-huge-conglomerate banks here.

My wife has been a member of a local credit union for several years and after the Bank of America separation I opened our joint account there. What a difference.  The credit union people go out of their way to actually help you solve your problem instead of directing you to the courtesy phone for support somewhere in the world. No activity fees, no minimum balance requirements, no waiting for you to screw up to hit you with a massive fine fee.  I'm not against being charged for items but it appears the current trend in large publicly traded banks is to extract as much as possible from their customers without having them leave in frustration. I'm sure getting the fee/annoyance balance just right occupies the time of several legions of up and coming bank executives.

If your current mega bank pisses you off, take a look at your local credit union. I'm pretty sure the ethos of treating your customers fairly and in a respectful manner is much more common at your local credit union than at the very large banks.

For those of you training for a bank manager position here's the Ferengi rules of acquisition.

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