Another Ridiculous Development

Some days it is hard for me to believe that the people who own banks can sleep at night and live with themselves. The banking industry has had a lot of regulations placed on them lately. Like the Insurance Industry, they know they will not be able to charge INTEREST RATES that are unreasonable, starting soon so they are trying to screw everyone as hard as possible until this happens. Let me give you an example:
(This is from the Well's Fargo online banking website. If you can imagine, they put this on this page so a bank teller won't get yelled at or laughed at publicly having to explain this to you.)

"...Request Direct Deposit Advance
You may request a Direct Deposit Advance® of up to $500 (or your current Advance limit).




Account # XXXXX0000


Advance Amount
$ Must be a multiple of $20 (example: $20, $80, $100, etc.)
Advance Fee
This is an expensive form of credit intended to meet short term and emergency borrowing needs. For every $20 that you advance, your Advance Fee will be $2.
Note: The advance will be automatically deposited into the checking account selected above. Your account must have a positive balance to withdraw cash."

I want you to notice especially, for every $20 that you advance, your advance fee will be $2. That is ten percent interest on each twenty dollars, and the amount is only in twenty dollar increments, so if you need 41 dollars, then you will have to borrow 60. Also, this is only for a loan for a WEEK OR TWO maximum, that will be subtracted from your next direct deposit (one's payroll check, annuity check, or Social Security). So, if you needed to borrow as much as one hundred and one dollars, the amount you get will have to be $120 and the amount returned will have to be be $132.

This next notation is from the website of the Federal Reserve Board (the private banking system that calls itself Federal and acts like they are part of the government, notably the people with the reputation of keeping the Rich Rich and the Poor Poor, who used to be considered the greediest people on the planet) They are only allowed to charge you an INTEREST RATE of: "...you can expect a cost of about $3.50 per $1000 of the home purchase price with an APR depending on the state you live in of around 5% to 6% for an entire year."
My point is, the supposedly most greedy banking system is only allowed to charge you interest at a rate of 6.35 percent maximum so, Wells Fargo has - instead of calling it an interest rate, started charging instead - a FEE of ten percent on a loan that might only be needed for a couple days and won't be longer than 2 weeks to a month maximum (for Social Security or General Assistance).
So, in this time of people being in trouble through no fault or wish of their own, with the whole country having problems, it seems this is the time that the greedy CASH IN on everyone else's misery. Thanks, Bankers. You can bet that we will remember you when another Bonnie and Clyde take your family hostage with the same care and support that you showed for us.

Bank of America, AGAIN

Bank of America has been charging me in excess of 300 dollars for a payment tht they say the principle payment is only 120 dollars. They can finance charge double talk all they want but if the payment is 300 dollars and the principal payment is only 120 dollars a month, then you are paying ALMOST 200 percent interest. I have been doint that for ages and they say my account balance is now over 9 thousand dollars. They made sure to limit my credit after they fake charged it to that point and here is my point. I used maybe 4 thousand dollars of their money. If they didn't operate like loan sharks, then I would have paid it off years ago. This is preditory banking. The only help you can get online is for "TECHINCaL QUESTIONS" and their rotating ignore phone system won't let you ask what you want to.
SOMEONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THIS OVER CHARGING BUT THEY DON'T WANT TO DISCUSS THAT. I decided to resolve it myself by calling card services as they suggested. This is that they did.
They sent me a notice that THEY were limiting my credit card limit. This is AFTER I FROZE MY CREDIT LIMIT DUE TO MY CREDIT REPORT. They are trying to destroy my credit report by saying that THEY decided to let me make a 180 dollar a month payment for five years. That is 12 months one payment a month per year. So $180 time 12 x 5 years. That is 60 times 180 dollars. 60 x 180 = 10,800 dollars which is another 1200 dollars over what I might even be allowed to spend if I hadn't been diligently making payments since 2003. When you go on their website there are some specific questions you are allowed to ask and one of them isn't ARE YOU NUTS? When Bank of America was first contacted by me to freeze my account, then they tried to say they are doing me a favor. Then they send me a notice as if it was THEIR IDEA TO CHANGE MY CREDIT LIMIT, knowing full well I can't use the card anymore and refused to receive it when they sent it to me in the first place. If they send you a credit card you didn't ask for, take it to the nearest B.O.A. branch, ask the teller for a pair of scissors and cut it into little pieces there are the window in front of their other customers. I suggest that you then hand them the letter that the credit card came in and your life will be so much simpler.
There is no such thing as free money. The people who try to tell you to keep using your credit card, including the people in Arizona who won't give you food stamps until you have destroyed this card, will keep hounding you until you do. The Department of Security wants you to use your credit until you are bankrupt before they will admit that you need help.
I am on disability and can not find work for myself and can only at this point make $709 per month. Try living on that. My payment is reduced to 180 dollars a month and this is the phone number to call. 1-866-575-9070 and ask to set up a payment plan so that they can't screw up your credit report. I would suggest buying things in cash and only buying what you need instead of everything you see and want is a really good idea. Thanks to my mother and sister I now have my own condo with a small payment for insurance and H.O.A. fee at around three hundred and fifty dollars a month. I am now going to reduce my phone service to Cricket for about 50 dollars a month instead of this damn Verizon Wireless I have been paying over one hunderd dollars a month for services I don't ask for and never used and I am done with them. I will pay off my account after my cricket phone service is adjusted and started up. I have to live like a poor person until life in America Changes for me. I find it unfortunate that a person like myself who listened to the "settle for this" mentality to try to get along now is told that since I walk with a limp that I am useless in today's society. I am tired and really need a job. I see the banks doing nothing but taking advantage of these people. It is time to fight back.

Bank of America

Computer Failure

Nice for a company to name themselves after our country, isn't it? You would think they are part of our government or something. Just like the Federal Reserve is no more part of the government than Federal Express. Bank of America is famous for losing things. They lose your interest earned on your Command Deposit (CD's) Accounts all the time. I have worked for temporary accounting firms who have to go back in and refigure the account balances whenever their computers go down. This happens regularly. Think about it, how many times do you go to their branch near you and be told, "We're sorry for the inconvenience, but, our system is down."
That means not only are they hoarding your money but they are NOT allowing you to post money to your account to cover checks you need to write. You may have already written a check with a postdate of "after next payday" and they slow you down from being able to cover it. IF they can charge you for every time you are late with a deposit, shouldn't they be libel to you when they screw up your account? They seem to forget it's YOUR MONEY.

Slow Posting

You are going to really love this one. Do you know how you seem to always have to pay late fees and how when you look at your statement it never matches the day you put your money in the ATM? Get this! Bank of America can take up to a week and a half to post YOUR MONEY to your account when you deposit it in the ATM. Here is the kicker, then they will charge you a fee to deposit it through the teller as if the ten minutes they spent with you was worth fifteen dollars of their payroll time. They use the excuse that it is to encourage you to use the ATM. First, we all knwo that is nonsense, and the real reason they do it is so when you deposit in the ATM, they can make a SLOW POST (up to a week and a half) to your account and then charge you a Non Sufficient Funds charge as if it is your fault that your checks didn't clear. When you point out to them that they did this they try to act like it is your fault. They act like they don't know it's a STUPID COMMENT to look at you and say, "Well, it didn't get posted before "such and such" date."
I have actually had B. of A. tellers look me right in the face and say, "Well you ought to make a deposit earlier so your bills won't be NSF, instead. Or just wait for your account to clear your checks before you write bills." (Yeah, just tell your boss to pay you in advance a week and a half early because your bank is too slow to allow you to use your checking account, right? Or wait until you get late fees every month because THEY can't post it fast enough? Nonsense!)
Watch your statement really carefully. If you catch an error, they will correct it while you stand in line screaming at them. If not they act like they don't realise sloppy accounting on their part is not your responsibility. Now they will come to you demanding money early but treat you like you are stupid enough to believe that it is ethical to cheat you if they can get away with it.

Computer Error

Oh, and one more thing: here is the proper response to idiots from Bank of America who tell you it is a computer error: "Really, you mean you have computers that post things without the data being input? When did they invent those?" Every error is because some stupid bank employee made an error, not the computer, don't allow them to sell you that hogwash! Please post your comments and experiences, especially the bad ones that you have had with Bank Of America.

Credit Cards

You should know this: Periodically, Bank of America sends out credit cards to everyone. Illegal aliens are their favorite but they are hoping to find someone stupid enough to listen to their nonsense. When their sales people are afraid on not making their "quota" for sales in one month they will call you and find out you don't already have a credit card and will send it to you if you qualify or not. I was actually screaming over the phone at the idiot who sent mine, telling him I didn't want it. Let me describe why. First, while I was working and desperate for more credit that I oould have easily paid off right away, they denied my application for any B of A Credit card. Then when I was disabled and had no money and wasn't able to pay a big credit card bill, they insisted I have one and mailed it to me as I screamed at the guy not to and he hung up. Later, when it was laying in a drawer, the situation that salesman was counting on happened. I had an emergency, then another, then another and I was stupid enough to use the card as if it were free money for me to use in Emergencies. They keep changing the rates, it is supposed to be illegal for them to do that. Let me explain. We let them screw us. When they say, "We have changed our policy...", the proper answer is: "that they are breaching a contract and you will sue them, because you didn't sign a contract and they can't legally change a contract at their own whim. Part of why the banks are in trouble is that some of us didn't put up with that. Those of us who did and are still making payments ridiculously are letting them screw us, those who refused are now supported by the white house. We can go apply for a low interest rate card and let the balance get paid to the reputable bank instead. Talk to a lawyer about it today.

Compass Bank

Most of us would have trouble forgetting that Compass Bank had the words Subprime Loans emblazened in huge letters big enough to cover the whole area on the back of all of their envelopes as if they invented the idea. I wonder if they had any idea that the phrase "predatory lender" would be attached to those same words a few years later. If one goes online they will see lots of reports of how Compass Bank stole money from their customers. They are not the only ones but I will get to that in other posts. I want to start this blog post with something they did to me first, and from there on, anyone who wants to, please post a comment, you are entirely welcome to.

One meets all kinds of people when they address people in our society. Some of us have had problems with alcohol or drugs ourselves. We go to 12 Step meetings that ARE very important but unfortunately there is no screening process at the door, so let this be your warning. Let this warning be part of your recovery if you are serious about staying sober and have to be one of the ones who is more than "Around" the fellowhip. People you might meet in a 12 step meeting seem nice enough and some might seem like your friend when you are in a meeting. I can tell you an example of a person. Her name is EDNA and Edna says lots of things and calls herself by many names but the fact remains that Edna is NOT a sober, honest, nice person who is in recovery. She is one of the parasites that go to meetings and takes advantage of the rest of us. She asked to come over to my place and talk. We talked and then I had to go to the store. She whined about how she didn't want to leave and wanted to just sit and rest and I thought to myself, "What harm could come of this?" So I let her stay there while I went to the store for a few minutes. When I returned, everything seemed normal and I didn't suspect anything was wrong. I went to the bank and for the first time I got in trouble with a bank as they said I was overdrawn. I told them I couldn't be because I had just paid all my bills and had a positive amount of a buffer of about one hundred dollars left over in cash that I saw the week before and the only thing I had bought was about twenty dollars worth of groceries.

The teller started her next sentence with, "Well, when you wrote a check to Edna...", I immediately realised what had happened. The teller said the checks were out of order with the last other ones I had written. Edna stole some checks from the back of my checkbook so that I wouldn't notice for a while that they were missing. Previously when I had been working construction on a regular basis and was earning a good salary, I might not have even noticed eighty dollars missing until I checked my statement.

As I was to later find out, Edna had forged one of my checks, walked into Compass Bank using her own legal I.D. and in front of a camera, committed fraud by telling the bank teller of Compass Bank that I had written a check out to her and she then took the money and left, leaving my account in a state of being Overdrawn. I went to the bank manager who assured me everything would be alright if I would report this to the police and then file a report with them for forgery and fraud. I did both of those things, but the manager who told me this was either in collusion with Edna or was so in trouble financially that he not only didn't straighten out my account, he told the police when they called that he had no information for them and that he was going to charge ME with the amount that EDNA stole from ME right on camera. He refused to report the theft, fraud, forgery, etc. to the police and took the rest of the money from what was left in my savings account and then made up a fee that they, on a monthly basis took the rest of the money from my Savings Account and lied to me about their intentions. So, not only didn't they follow their written company policy to refund my money since it was THEM who didn't check my signature and let Edna get away with forgery, then they stole the money they were supposed to replace I am here to tell you, NEVER PUT MONEY IN COMPASS BANK, their policy is to steal money from their customers because they got in trouble over Sub Prime Loans and are getting it back by cheating their customers any way they can. They make up fictitious illegal rules and state that they will, because of a policy change have to "KEEP" your money. Take your money out of Compass Bank. If they hadn't done everything I am saying and I was lying, then, believe me they would sue me for libel but they never will because every word of what I say is true.

If you have had a bad experience with Compass Bank Stealing from you, please let me know by leaving a comment. If you can, pleasse leave as many details as possible. Don't say that you know what is going on, just little by little, deposit less and less and then withdraw all of your money after establishing an acoount with a different bank.