I'm absolutely mind-blown by the cluelessness - not to mention rapacious greed - displayed by Wells Fargo bank over the past few years.
- Back in 2015, the bank endured a major scandal involving accounts opened for customers without their permission (after which they were charged a great deal in fees and other expenses). It led to a criminal investigation. A massive fine was levied against them, and the CEO lost his job. The bank launched a big advertising campaign to persuade customers that it had changed, and was fixing the problems . . . but any positive result was rapidly demolished by the next scandal to come along.
- It emerged last month that Wells Fargo had imposed unnecessary insurance charges on thousands of customers who'd taken out vehicle loans. It affected 'more than 800,000 people', and 'pushed roughly 274,000 Wells Fargo customers into delinquency and resulted in almost 25,000 wrongful vehicle repossessions'. Many customers' credit ratings were affected. Great customer relations, that.
- Not content with two major scandals in a row, Wells Fargo has just been accused of misleading and ripping off thousands of merchants using its credit card services, resulting in millions of dollars in losses to those businesses. The bank's contract was reportedly 63 pages long, hiding the details inside the morass of fine print. (Personally, if I get handed a contract that long, I'll hand it back unsigned. Why subject myself to something that's undoubtedly weighted against my interests? If it wasn't, it wouldn't be deliberately designed to be impossible for the average layman to understand!)
- I wonder what will be the next scandal to break over Wells Fargo?
I have to say, with a bank like that for a friend, who needs enemies? Right now, just about the last bank in America I'd trust with my hard-earned dollars would be Wells Fargo!
Peter
17 comments:
Agreed. yet another reason to stay away from them - in general, I stay away from all of the big national banks; I'm too small for them to care about, so why should I give them business or care about them?
If they are "too-big-to-fail", then they they are too big and should be broken up into several smaller banks.
I searched in vain for a list of people who went to jail over what amounts to theft and fraud.
Funny how that works.
My bank was absorbed by them some time ago. Ultimately, I moved my account to the still liberal (but less offensive) credit union!
Since my run-ins with them, I've referred to them as Wells F***o...
I know, I'm crude.
gfa
Many many years ago, as a high school student, I opened a Wells Fargo account to cash a couple of checks that I'd gotten as graduation presents.
I didn't do much with the account until the day that their customer service called me to say that they were closing my account. Fair enough, there'd been no activity in it except for the account maintenance fees they kept taking out, but they wanted to know what to do with the remaining balance.
I asked if they could cut me a check, and they said they'd have to charge me $25 to send a check for the $7 (or whatever) that were in the account.
Obviously that wouldn't work, so I told them to close the account, keep the money, and I've never done business with them since.
Credit unions are the way to go.
Peter,
Sorry, but.. what's the length of KDP's contract?
Take care
Ferran
Not "too big to fail" but "too stupid to rescue."
Unfortunately, that's the company that my former employer uses to handle their retirement accounts.
Wells Fargo is the very picture of a modern sleazy predatory lender. I paid off a credit line I had cosigned for and they wouldn't even give me a receipt for the payment. Their practices are deliberately opaque and misleading.
Wells Fargo isn't the only one. Before you open any account anywhere you need to go on line and look at their ratings and investigate any and all fee schedules.
There is a reason most Blacks and Hispanics use cash only.
Wells Fargo was once known for its integrity and reliability. Of course that was back in 1875.
Hi Peter,
To expand on your story, in addition to unnecessary insurance, they were ripping off veterans with unnecessary fees, which they concealed, when applying for federal loan guarantees. Settlement is to the Gov't is $108 million dollars, but I wonder how much the cheated veterans will get.
-- Steve
Out West they're nicknamed "Hells Fargo" ...
In the East, prior to the Hells Fargo merger, there was a bank called Wachovia.
People were split by whether to call them "Watch Over Ya" or "Walk Over Ya".
Bank of America has problems as well.
Wells Fargo is one of the businesses I will never willingly do business with. Too many of my friends have had home loans through them that they got screwed over on. My bank is local, just serves ND and a couple of MN border communities, and services their own home loans. If I have a question I just walk in or call one of the neighborhood branches to get an answer. Last week I noticed my debit card was starting to break, so I stopped in and they replaced it for me right there. I was able to walk out with a new card instead of having to wait 2-3 weeks for a new one in the mail.
Ah the banksters. Is there any crime they can't get away with?
I do my banking with the local community bank and another local bank with 3 or 4 branches in small rural areas. I see no need to do business with the likes of wells fargo, bank of america, us bank, chase, citibank etc.
Credit Union, every time, although some small area banks are good for silver mining.
Wells Fargo is where the Emperor goes to get his loans for the Death Star -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ0wZMgEM6c
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