I don't get it people... I read FARK daily, and it seems at least once a week there's a new article about the Bank of America fucking over yet another customer. If you ever read the Consumerist, it's more like daily articles.

Today's latest find tells the story of how BoA slipped a dye pack into a woman's business withdrawl (for payroll), which resulted in the ruination of the money, her car, and oh, just some dye in her throat and EYES! Compensation for this, the Bank of America has assured her... They will clean the interior of her car.

WEEE! It's all fine now, because her car won't be covered in red dye anymore. Guess life goes on, doesn't it? No mention of covering medical expenses to get the dye out of her eyes, or if they even replaced the money they ruined. But this is typical of Bank of America.

Perhaps the worst story I've heard about them is how one woman's account and identity was compromised because of the BoA's incompetence, and this led to a man withdrawing her life savings (something like 40k) PLUS racking up an additional 10K in overdraft. Ok, first, why did they allow such a massive overdraft to be withdrawn, especially in light of the sudden removal of all funds from the account. Typically, a competent bank gets red flags when an account is emptied, and further red flags when overdraft exceeds $100, but BoA kept letting this guy take more and more out. Now comes the fun part... Bank of America wouldn't let the victim close the account. Why? Because it was in overdraft. She couldn't close the account until SHE repaid the 10K of overdraft. Surprisingly, she managed to repay it, but between the time when she paid back the overdraft, and when she got to a branch employee to close the account, the guy had struck again and withdrew something like another $1000. As such, AGAIN they wouldn't close it. Now this is absurd, and how the BoA handled it borders on extortion. Their mistake cost this woman her money, then they wouldn't even consider correcting the problem until the account was closed, which they wouldn't do until she PAID for some of the money stolen.

So between the dye pack, the ID theft, the countless times the Bank of America has had its customers' information lost, stolen, or raided, I must ask...

WHY the FUCK does anyone still keep an account with the Bank of America?

I can't figure it out... They suck, that much is apparent. They're irresponsible, they don't protect your money, and from what I've been told, they're damn expensive compared to other banks. Why would anyone still keep their money with them? We don't have BoA up in Canada (thank Cthulhu), but the banks we DO have aren't perfect. That aside, there has never been as colossal of a screw-up as what the BoA does daily. Do Americans just have no other choice where to bank? Because I just can't wrap my head around how BoA still has customers. Seriously, you're better off cashing your cheques at one of those payday loans places, and stashing it in a cookie jar on your front porch...

So I ask my Escapist brethren, specifically the American ones... Do you bank with the BoA, and if so, WHY?
/Rant

As a proud Canadian, I have no experience with BoA. However I do have some less-than-stellar stories regarding CIBC.

As a student I am entitled to have a student bank account, which eliminates all bank fees and allows me to withdrawl/transfer my money without any additional fees. Apparently, one day they decided that I am no longer eligble for this kinda of account, even though I was still a student. Not only that, but they also decided that I would have to pay all bank fees retroactive to the beginning of my account creation. It ended up costing be somewhere aronud $750. Of course I stormed into the bank, started screaming at the teller and manager, closed my account and made them watch me walk across the street to TD Canada Trust.... which I have been very happy dealing with.

EDIT: After rereading the OP, I cant help but feel bad for Americans... they keep getting fucked over, and they just sit there and take it. Maybe they really just dont know ay better.

Banks just hide everything in the fine print, I don't do much banking as I don't have much cash, and keeping what I do have hidden in Genesis Game Boxes and in Anime Figure boxes seems so much safer then trusting banks with it. And with the economy and smaller banks going down the tubes, well...it might just be a good idea :P.

As to WHY people put up with incompetence? They don't want to have to deal with stuff themselves.

I don't have an account with BoA. The only thing I do have with them is a credit card, which I'll probably cancel and switch to something else once my credit rating's a little more established (horrible interest rates).

You do know of the housing and credit fiascos that have run through America, right? People are irresponsible with their money, and they don't do all the research they should. While the news of fuck-ups like this are reported in the appropriate venues, we're fed advertisements from BoA constantly. Not to mention they're located practically everywhere. Lured by the promises of "rewards" and good location, people get sucked in.

EDIT: Thousands of dollars isn't exactly easy to store around the apartment. Not to mention you often only can go to a bank to cash your paychecks when they're more than a few hundred a week. Not to mention that most banks offer an interest rate on the money you give them, meaning your money sits there and makes more money.

I do not bank with BoA, but I know some who do. There are a couple of reasons to choose BoA:

1. They'll give just about anyone a bank account and credit card - no credit, bad credit, etc.

2. They are national. If you are likely to move a lot, BoA is convenient in that it's one of a few that will have bank branches and ATM machines everywhere. My bank is local within a few states, so when I travel for work, I'll end up paying fees for other banks' ATM machines to withdraw cash.

They aren't a great bank. Lots of people know it. That's why there are so many other banks that do quite well.

meh i'm a Commerce man myself. they are better and friendlier, but without the sheer unprofessionalism of WaMu.

Well I can definitely understand the no/bad credit problem. The problem with credit is the age old catch-22. You can't have a creditcard because you have no credit rating, you can't get a credit rating because you have no creditcard. The promise of a way around this age-old problem is tempting enough to get people in with someone like BoA, but trust me, there are easier and safer ways. Store creditcards (like the Bay, Future Shop, etc) are the best way, sign up for one (They too give one to anyone), use it, but pay it off immediately. After a year, you should be good enough in rating to get a real card, and at that point, close down the other one because they're high-as-f**k interest.

I have a small debit account with PNC. By small I mean less than $500.

When I get out of college, and start a career, I imagine I'll have to find a decent bank. But thanks for the heads up, I'll know to avoid them from now on.

-EDIT-
And credit is a farce. Banks only use credit to maximize their profits by interest-gouging their customers. I never understood why a bank would make it harder to pay a loan off for customers who have a history of having trouble paying off loans.

My theory is so that they can make a quick buck by repo-ing their car/house and selling it at the auction. Since the housing bust, they cant sell their properties at a high enough cost to recover the loan, which is why you see all these banks going under. I say fucking good for them. Their bankruptcy is entirely of their own making.

Yeah, sadly the reason big companies get away with being dumb, rude and not caring, is that most people won't complain, and if they do, they stop after one call/email.

Its like AOL at the moment are offering a free laptop if you sign up for 3 years to their broadband service, my parents are on AOL and the service seems to have been declining since they sold their UK arm to another company, and this all smacks to me of 'hook in thousands of customers to a long contract, then we're at least guaranteed 3 years of constant money, no matter how crappily we treat them.

Anything where you are getting something for nothing, you're paying for it somewhere, find out where first before you sign.

No company is in business to give you stuff or make your life better, they're in it to earn money.

I'm not saying all companies are bad, just don't forget they're not doing you a favour :D

As for me, I'll personally pay an extra few bucks if it means I'm getting good service, as generally good service means the staff are content, if they're treating their staff well, its a good sign they'll treat their customers well too, and have gone the 'get customers happy so they come back and spend more' route, not the 'hook em in and shake em til they stop clinking' route.

I bank with B of A simply because in my area, they're the best choice I have.

At the Wells Fargo down the street I had a teller rip me off to the tune of a $100 dollar bill on the business account while I was standing right there in front of her, and a manager who would do nothing about it but tell me to "correct" my deposit slip. When I refused to do so, they refused to either take the rest of the deposit, or to give the money back. Eventually we ended up in an office and on the phone with my boss, thier regional person and State Farm's Accounting department and Wells Fargo agreed to "credit" the $100 to the account. Nothing ever happened to the teller that I know of, when we went in to close the account, she was still there.

There is a US Bank down the street too...and it's currently the most robbed bank in the state. That's reason not to put your money in it right there.

Another one on this street is the Educational Workers Credit Union...which anyone can join and have an account at...but which gets robbed by its own employees. It's the second most robbed bank in the city.

There's also Bank of the West, downtown, where I had my account before I moved to Bank of America. They had originally been a Commercial Federal Credit Union, and I'd had an account there since my grandmother had started one for me when I was nine (I'm 32). When Bank of the West bought out the credit union, they completely screwed up my accounts. I kept getting mailings and in each one was not only a new debit card, but new checks and deposit slips as well. The account numbers were never consistant from one mailing to the next either, and then they "lost" my debit card number, and my social security number. When I got a credit card from them instead of a debit card in the next mailing and my mother got a box of my checks sent to her (with yet another account number) I told them to close the account. They refused, I got a lawyer and a notorized request to cease all activities related to the account and close it. They closed it after that.

Then there's West Bank...who's website isn't actually run by them, but you can bank on it...I'm just not comfortable with that.

On the upside, I've only had to go down to Bank of America and play "psycho bitch" one time, it was only a couple of weeks after I'd opened the account in 2003, I believe. Absolutely no problems since then.

Bank of Amigo - sorry, Bank of America is also heavily involved with illegal aliens, allowing credit cards without social security numbers. Imagine their stock value in ten years.

My son had a job which paid via direct deposit into a Bank of America account - no exceptions. It was a nightmare, they really are incompetent and lazy. He withdrew $300 and it debited his account, but gave him no money. The bank manager, at roughly nineteen the oldest of the teenage girls working there (hmm, maybe that's your answer) tried like hell to not even fill out a short payment form. Truly horrid bank, in my experience.

EDIT: Banks in general are awful. I once had a bank deposit my paycheck into the wrong account and bounced several checks. Although the check was accompanied by a personalized deposit slip and the receipt I was given was correct, turns out the teller doesn't actually enter anything into the computer. Instead, all the deposit slips are sent to a central location where everything is re-entered, and that person put it in the wrong account - a similar name, not a similar number as you'd expect. Also, when in college I knew some girls that worked deposit entry in a local bank. They were taught to separate all the checks and deposits by person, then enter them largest first, then enter the deposits last. The purpose was that if you were overdrawn without the deposit, you would bounce as many checks as possible even if the deposit came in first and covered all the checks. (That wouldn't work on banks with more than one branch, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have software that does the same thing.) It's no surprise that banks earn more money on penalties than on interest.

BoA is huge, if you scrutinize any company that large, you can find hundreds and thousands of horror stories about them. It has less to do with poor company policies and more to do with the fact that the larger a company is, the more chances there are of things going wrong. Then again, I'm in public relations, which from my experience apparently makes me inherently evil.

Thais:
I bank with B of A simply because in my area, they're the best choice I have.

At the Wells Fargo down the street I had a teller rip me off to the tune of a $100 dollar bill on the business account while I was standing right there in front of her, and a manager who would do nothing about it but tell me to "correct" my deposit slip. When I refused to do so, they refused to either take the rest of the deposit, or to give the money back. Eventually we ended up in an office and on the phone with my boss, thier regional person and State Farm's Accounting department and Wells Fargo agreed to "credit" the $100 to the account. Nothing ever happened to the teller that I know of, when we went in to close the account, she was still there.

There is a US Bank down the street too...and it's currently the most robbed bank in the state. That's reason not to put your money in it right there.

Another one on this street is the Educational Workers Credit Union...which anyone can join and have an account at...but which gets robbed by its own employees. It's the second most robbed bank in the city.

There's also Bank of the West, downtown, where I had my account before I moved to Bank of America. They had originally been a Commercial Federal Credit Union, and I'd had an account there since my grandmother had started one for me when I was nine (I'm 32). When Bank of the West bought out the credit union, they completely screwed up my accounts. I kept getting mailings and in each one was not only a new debit card, but new checks and deposit slips as well. The account numbers were never consistant from one mailing to then next either, and then they "lost" my debit card number, and my social security number. When I got a credit card from them instead of a debit card in the next mailing and my mother got a box of my checks sent to her (with yet another account number) I told them to close the account. They refused, I got a lawyer and a notorized request to cease all activities related to the account and close it. They closed it after that.

Then there's West Bank...who's website isn't actually run by them, but you can bank on it...I'm just not comfortable with that.

On the upside, I've only had to go down to Bank of America and play "psycho bitch" one time, it was only a couple of weeks after I'd opened the account in 2003, I believe. Absolutely no problems since then.

This sounds like a fun story.

I have had a BoA checking and Savings acount for over 15 years and never had a single problem. I'm not really supporting them, but you need to realize that one or two stories like that does not mean it happens to everybody, media blows things out of proportion. The only American based creditor I have ever had a problem with was American Express, they are the real spawn of satan when it comes to banking. But like I said, that is just my one experience out of 10,000,000+ people. I've heard similar horror stories about every bank in my local area.

Someone else commented about the moving thing. I moved 12 times in 10 years and kept the same bank accounts, that was kinda nice.

Also the "they give just about anyone an account", I was young when I started my account and it was one of those completely free student account things (no fees for anything, free checks, free ATM, free everything) and 15 years later (so not a student anymore) I still have the same account and don't pay any fees for anything, ever, kinda neet.

We have CD's at a different bank simply to cover ourselves with FDIC. But BoA has been around forever and is not going to fail anytime soon. MANY smaller banks and local banks have gone under in the recent housing crysis here in the states, so being with one of the big boys (BoA, Citi-Bank) is a little reasuring. But if I was to have a similar experince as the one you discribed, I probably wouldn't stay with BoA. But after 15 years, they have never done me wrong, of coarse I am one of the few Americans who has little to no debt (I don't count morgage).

v3cks:

Thais:
Blah blah blah-bitty blah blah oh fuck.

This sounds like a fun story.

It's a story that starts out "It was a dark and stormy February morning and the rent was due. Little Princess Head Up Her Ass had accidentally recorded my deposit of my paycheck as a debit..."

wgreer25:
But after 15 years, they have never done me wrong, of coarse I am one of the few Americans who has little to no debt (I don't count morgage).

Who-hoo, there are two of us here! All I have is a little $700 store card with about a $300 dollar balance left on it. Anybody else making through life without massive amounts of debt?

Khell_Sennet:
So I ask my Escapist brethren, specifically the American ones... Do you bank with the BoA, and if so, WHY?
/Rant

I bank with Bank of America, for the following reasons:

1. They are national, so I don't need to worry about moving or access while traveling
2. They have a very nice online banking/bill pay system
3. They are large enough that they are probably not going to get acquired
4. They convert my payroll into spendable digital money without any effort on my part

Additionally, I have never had a problem with them. No misplaced checks, no strange fees, nothing. The one time I had to contact Customer Service was for an online banking glitch, and it was fixed in under 5 minutes. That doesn't make me like them, it just means they did their job acceptably.

Sure, you hear horror stories, but I firmly believe that, like cellphone companies, all banks are inherently terrible and you're just as likely to have the same problems with one as their competitors. Pick any major bank you want and you'll find people willing to recount how absolutely awful they are and how they'd never ever go there.

Thais:

v3cks:

Thais:
Blah blah blah-bitty blah blah oh fuck.

This sounds like a fun story.

It's a story that starts out "It was a dark and stormy February morning and the rent was due. Little Princess Head Up Her Ass had accidentally recorded my deposit of my paycheck as a debit..."

wgreer25:
But after 15 years, they have never done me wrong, of coarse I am one of the few Americans who has little to no debt (I don't count morgage).

Who-hoo, there are two of us here! All I have is a little $700 store card with about a $300 dollar balance left on it. Anybody else making through life without massive amounts of debt?

We've got two car loans with about $6,000 to $8,000 together left, but no credit card or consumer debt and our house is paid off.

Credit card debt is insane. Financing a pizza at 29%?

I'm glad that I don't have any identity to steal (Seriously, I don't have a credit card or ever give out any information except my email) and if I ever feel the urge to ever make an account with them, someone stab my eyes out.

Note to self: Move to Canada!

SenseOfTumour:
Yeah, sadly the reason big companies get away with being dumb, rude and not caring, is that most people won't complain, and if they do, they stop after one call/email.

...

As for me, I'll personally pay an extra few bucks if it means I'm getting good service, as generally good service means the staff are content, if they're treating their staff well, its a good sign they'll treat their customers well too, and have gone the 'get customers happy so they come back and spend more' route, not the 'hook em in and shake em til they stop clinking' route.

Re: The first bit. I began my banking with Royal Bank (RBC). From age 14 thru to 19 I had been a loyal Royal Bank customer. I picked them because they were closest to my home at the time, and because in Nanaimo BC, they had the most bank machines in malls I shopped at. So I move back to Edmonton, and I decide now that I'm living on my own, I need a credit card. I started out with a Sears card to build up credit, then after 6 months I tried at Royal to get a real card, one with only a $500 limit, and I was working full time and pulling in decent cash (decent for that point in my life). Royal told me "Get Lost", almost in those exact words. So I tried CIBC and TD, the TD one only having a 300 dollar limit, both denied. Last place I tried, Scotiabank, gave me a Visa card with $1000, no problem. Geeze, wonder who wants my business eh? 3 months later, the Bank of Montreal approved me for a $70k mortgage. On that day, I opened a chequing acct with BMO, walked in to RBC and told them I wanted to close out my account. The clerk asked me why... I told her "I applied for $500 worth of credit with your company and you told me to get lost. Scotiabank gave me $1000 in credit, and BMO gave me a mortgage. So why the f**k should I bank with you?"

So with regards to the above comment, complaining to a company doesn't do very much. No longer doing business with a company does much more, and warning people away from bad companies does a hell of a lot. I advise all my friends not to bank with Royal, they don't give two shits about their customers, and they have become the most expensive company in Canada to bank with (not counting places for high-risk customers).

As to the second part of the quote, I totally agree with paying more for good service. There is a price to everything, if you shop Walmart, don't expect low-low-prices to translate into quality cashiers or good service. Quality costs more, always has, always will. Any company that claims they're both quality and low price, is cutting corners elsewhere.

Thais:
Who-hoo, there are two of us here! All I have is a little $700 store card with about a $300 dollar balance left on it. Anybody else making through life without massive amounts of debt?

I'm virtually debt-free; the only "outstanding loans" are those of a life insurance policy as a result of a screw up trying to get it to be self-sustaining... it's earning more dividends than it's costing in premiums, but somehow the billing (which is supposed to bill from the dividends first) isn't set up right. Even then, the "loan" against my policy is a tiny fraction of its current cash balance.

I got burned pretty badly in the '90s by credit card debt; never again. I pay that sucker in full on the first day of the month... if I ever had to float a balance, I'd take a loan against the life insurance and retirement savings instead at half the interest rate.

-- Steve

I'm with that above guy far more than the idiot he's replying to :D

As for service, even tho I'm still pretty broke, if I do find myself eating out, or getting a cab or anything like that, I still tip, and in fact, I hear from many people in the service industry that poorer people are regularly better tippers than the rich (maybe that's because the rich generally dont let go of their cash).

I know I was in debt a few years ago, with many banks n cards, and all but one were reasonable about it, once I faced up to it and started trying to deal with it.

Halifax however, flatly refused to negotiate, come to any agreements and in fact seemed to get tougher once I admitted I was in trouble and wanted to come to a deal.

Since then I and most of my family and friends have told people not to go with Halifax as if you have a problem they dont want to know.

On the subject of debt however, the moment you feel you're in trouble, the first rule is be honest and contact anyone involved, secondly get help from friends, family, etc, I dont mean money, I mean help with dealing with the paperwork, calls, etc. I was lucky enough to have a family member step in and we stated that I would only deal with people thru letters, and if they really needed to talk to someone, they could call her on my behalf.

Also at least in the UK there's the CAB, and more specialised, the CCCS who helped me no end, and set up repayments for me. I believe there's a similar org in USA too.

Of course, this took a lot of pressure off, making my life and work a lot easier, and less stressful, enabling me to work more and pay more off my debts. Nowadays I'm far more careful with my money, never use credit unless unavoidable. If something isn't going to last 3 years, but you're still going to be paying monthly for it in 3 years, its flat not worth getting. Also if I'm tempted to buy something now because its on offer, I mentally add a years credit card interest to the price and see if its still a bargain after I've paid an extra 20-30%.

Slightly off topic, but hey, maybe it'll help someone.

I'm not a fan of B0A, but in all fairness your examples are anicdotal in nature. There are millions of customers making even more transactions and every once in a great while (transactionally speaking) something goes wrong.

werepossum:
[quote=Thais post=18.68317.624732Who-hoo, there are two of us here! All I have is a little $700 store card with about a $300 dollar balance left on it. Anybody else making through life without massive amounts of debt?[/quote]

We've got two car loans with about $6,000 to $8,000 together left, but no credit card or consumer debt and our house is paid off.

Credit card debt is insane. Financing a pizza at 29%?

Three of us here. I have heard many horror stories of friends of friends with like $20,000 or more in credit or consumer debt. When I was younger I racked up some medical bills due to my employer having horrible insurance. So I had not choice and built up about $6000 in debt, but I paid it off fast. Too many people here live way beyond their means (see current housing market crysis).

But to your comment about Bank of Amigo, I haven't heard the illegal alien thing before. I know they outsource just about everything to India (who doesn't now a days). But as I said, 15 years, 12 moves, no problems.

Now, perhaps I am the only one, but I've had a decent experience at BofA.

They have always had good customer service. They've always had no trouble helping me when I lost my debit card, or moved. And the only time they made a banking error, they not only fixed it within 24 hours, but credited my account with an additional amount for my trouble.

So its understandable that I assumed all banks did this.

I recently moved to Canada, and was quickly debused of this notion.

wgreer25:

werepossum:

Thais:
Who-hoo, there are two of us here! All I have is a little $700 store card with about a $300 dollar balance left on it. Anybody else making through life without massive amounts of debt?

We've got two car loans with about $6,000 to $8,000 together left, but no credit card or consumer debt and our house is paid off.

Credit card debt is insane. Financing a pizza at 29%?

Three of us here. I have heard many horror stories of friends of friends with like $20,000 or more in credit or consumer debt. When I was younger I racked up some medical bills due to my employer having horrible insurance. So I had not choice and built up about $6000 in debt, but I paid it off fast. Too many people here live way beyond their means (see current housing market crysis).

But to your comment about Bank of Amigo, I haven't heard the illegal alien thing before. I know they outsource just about everything to India (who doesn't now a days). But as I said, 15 years, 12 moves, no problems.

Wow...who are these people that pay for everything with a credit card? Here in Des Moines not long ago we were one of the highest "debt proportion" cities in the country, what that means is basically we had one of the highest debt-per-person ratios in the country. What with the housing crisis now, I doubt thats still true, but it was a good thing to see as fairly early on I decided that I didn't want to have that kind of thing hanging over my head every day of my life. I still am amazed when I go to an acquaintance's home and see that outside of the "show" areas, they're basically living on folding chairs, card tables and futons, and that there's nothing but ramen noodles in the fridge.

I've always dealt with with a small(ish) local bank and they've always done well for me, so.

I work with banks daily, depositing millions of dollars per day (lol courier for a law office). In all honesty the only Canadian bank that is absolutely terrible and I would recommend to everyone to stay away from is Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank). They have no idea what they're doing and how inter branch banking works. They claim they won't send money between banks because there is the potential it will get lost, if you have a mortgage to pay out that you registered at a specific branch, you have to travel to that bank to pay the mortgage out. By contrast, TD Canada Trust has an overnight mailbag that will send ANY payout OVERNIGHT to any branch in Canada. So do all other banks that I work with.

wgreer25:

werepossum:
[quote=Thais post=18.68317.624732Who-hoo, there are two of us here! All I have is a little $700 store card with about a $300 dollar balance left on it. Anybody else making through life without massive amounts of debt?[/quote]

We've got two car loans with about $6,000 to $8,000 together left, but no credit card or consumer debt and our house is paid off.

Credit card debt is insane. Financing a pizza at 29%?

Three of us here. I have heard many horror stories of friends of friends with like $20,000 or more in credit or consumer debt. When I was younger I racked up some medical bills due to my employer having horrible insurance. So I had not choice and built up about $6000 in debt, but I paid it off fast. Too many people here live way beyond their means (see current housing market crysis).

But to your comment about Bank of Amigo, I haven't heard the illegal alien thing before. I know they outsource just about everything to India (who doesn't now a days). But as I said, 15 years, 12 moves, no problems.

It's kind of funny really when you see someone going into repossession and they've got two or more $40,000 or higher automobiles, a pair of jet skis, a 28' cruiser, a $20,000 Harley, more in furniture than our house is worth - that's someone who could easily have lived a great life, but got greedy and risked too much. I've seen people literally have more in credit card debt than I make in a year. What's the point? There are a lot of things I'd love to have, but there's not much I can't live without. I still keep credit cards though, because I don't like using my debit card in some places such as the Internet - I would much rather argue to avoid paying a fraudulent charge than to have to try to get my money returned after it.

werepossum:
It's kind of funny really when you see someone going into repossession and they've got two or more $40,000 or higher automobiles, a pair of jet skis, a 28' cruiser, a $20,000 Harley, more in furniture than our house is worth - that's someone who could easily have lived a great life, but got greedy and risked too much.

Yeah, tell me about it. I overheard someone the other day complaining about how it wasn't right that the banks were being bailed out, but individual homeowners like him weren't. When his friend went all over "OMG, you're loosing your house!" the jerk doing the complaining actually said, "Well, just the little one out at the lake, not the one we live in here." *rolls eyes* There's a guy who's got little or no right to complain.

Thais:

werepossum:
It's kind of funny really when you see someone going into repossession and they've got two or more $40,000 or higher automobiles, a pair of jet skis, a 28' cruiser, a $20,000 Harley, more in furniture than our house is worth - that's someone who could easily have lived a great life, but got greedy and risked too much.

Yeah, tell me about it. I overheard someone the other day complaining about how it wasn't right that the banks were being bailed out, but individual homeowners like him weren't. When his friend went all over "OMG, you're loosing your house!" the jerk doing the complaining actually said, "Well, just the little one out at the lake, not the one we live in here." *rolls eyes* There's a guy who's got little or no right to complain.

Now if there was any justice in the world, everyone in the building would be required by law to line up and slap him silly. Um, sillier.

In regards to the "low prices always = low quality" thing, I agree with that being generally true, EXCEPT with food. Food, somehow, is always better at the cheap local places than the expensive fancy places, IMO.

Nothing beats paying five dollars for a one pound baked potato covered in chili, cheese, onions, and some more chili. Mmmmmmm....

A large majority of people are really stupid, which means a large majority of Americans and non-Americans.

I don't use BoA (thank the lord)... I'm not actually sure what the name of the bank I use is. It's just know it because of it's color scheme, and the fact that it's a block away from me.

werepossum:

Thais:

werepossum:
It's kind of funny really when you see someone going into repossession and they've got two or more $40,000 or higher automobiles, a pair of jet skis, a 28' cruiser, a $20,000 Harley, more in furniture than our house is worth - that's someone who could easily have lived a great life, but got greedy and risked too much.

Yeah, tell me about it. I overheard someone the other day complaining about how it wasn't right that the banks were being bailed out, but individual homeowners like him weren't. When his friend went all over "OMG, you're loosing your house!" the jerk doing the complaining actually said, "Well, just the little one out at the lake, not the one we live in here." *rolls eyes* There's a guy who's got little or no right to complain.

Now if there was any justice in the world, everyone in the building would be required by law to line up and slap him silly. Um, sillier.

And it is not even like you can't have your toys if you want, you just sacrifice in other areas, it will really make you think about weather you really need/want it. My wife and I have done lots of home improvements, but we don't do it unless we can pay cash for it. We do that for everything. I am like you, I only use my one credit card for online purchases, for the same reason you stated... security. However, we do live a little comfortable now, becuase we don't have kids yet and that helps.

Another big F-up nowadays is not having any savings. We always have 6 months of bills at a minimum in one savings account. The rest of our money is to make money for us.

But back on topic, EVERY bank, large or small is going to have an anecdotal horror stories. And you are right, khell, the only way to get to them is to take away your buisness.