I despise banks. There, I said it. I realize that they serve as a general evil necessity, but still. After the Wall Street crash and sub sequential government subsidiaries to private entities (which, I should now be entitled to a portion of a share, seeing as though my tax dollars went to save private entities which “can’t” go bankrupt) I have exponentially increased my desire to leave mainstream banking.
When I was a child, my mom had me set up with accounts at the local credit union. I never talked to her about it; that’s just where my money was. It wasn’t until I got a job and started making money that I began thinking about where I ‘d like my money to be. I left my my cushy credit union and transferred all my money to that trendy, cool place where all your friends hung out – Wells Fargo.
Back in the day, everyone had their money at Wells Fargo. They had branches almost as frequently as McDonalds. That, and they had a smartphone app. That was probably the deciding factor in why I left my credit union. I figured that if everyone and their mother had their money at Wells Fargo, it was probably a cool place to be. Knowing what I know now, I would forcefully open-hand slap my 18 year old self. I’m convinced that as far as banks go, Wells Fargo is the devil.
Here’s the progression of my thinking towards Wells Fargo over the last year alone:
“Hmm, Wells Fargo gives crappy interest rates for savings accounts; we should research other places.”
“Dang, even though I’ve been with Wells Fargo for 15 years, they won’t lower the interest rate on my credit card.”
“WTF, Wells Fargo is funding the pipe line? Get my money the fu*k out.”
“Wow, they didn’t care at all that I closed my account.”
“Well, they said they closed my account, but I can clearly still see it; they’ll probably charge me fees for not meeting the minimum balance.”
To sum up; Wells Fargo gives indecently, intolerable savings account rates but still find it necessary to charge exorbitant credit card rates, even for long-term customers. Not only that, but Wells Fargo, in their evil entity, nefarious sort of business decided to fund the Dakota Access pipeline – to which I am opposed. After “closing” my account, the representative made zero attempt to get me to stay, again after 15 years – which goes to show how they actually “value” customers. Lastly, turns out that they didn’t close my account after all; I can still clearly see it. I am sure that they’ll be sending me minimum balance fees since I transferred my money out.
To further hammer in the point; at one time I had over $40,000 in my savings from our construction loans. This money remained in my account for over 6 months. In that time, I accrued – wait for it – $0.35 in interest. Sweet.
As a comparison, I also have a savings account online with Ally. At this very same time, I was generating $1.00 a month in interest for a balance of $1,000. So if I had transferred the $40,000 to Ally for the 6 months I would have made $240 in interest as opposed to the $0.35.
Needless to say, I will be leaving Wells Fargo. The only caveat to that is I felt it prudent to wait until our house is finished, we’re moved in, and we can settle our finances a little bit. I’ve already identified Qapital as an excellent savings source in a previous post, but I’ll be taking a harder look at Ally as a savings and checking account and looking for a new credit account as well.
If you’ve had success with a non-conglomerate corporate bank credit card, will you please let me know in the comments below? My wallet thanks you in advance.