TrickyBuddha Studios

(What follows is a boring post of my recent banking problems. Only read on if you want to hear about the banking frustrations I’ve worked through over the course of the past month-and-a-half or so. I really didn’t want to bother, but I need to rant.).

Last time I posted, I mentioned how I was supposed to go to Britain for Keltie’s wedding and then ’round-about Europe for a bit of vacation - and that the trip had fallen through. The primary reason was money. And for a long while now, I really haven’t had any money at all. What follows is the reason why.

The banking ordeal started just before my trip to New Jersey at the end of July (the 25th).

Most of the money I saved from BioWare is with my dad in his retirement account, but I had about $5000 stashed aside in my Canadian account. Even though I had moved to Indiana, I was still using my Canadian account - suffering through conversion fees and non-bank fees and so forth. Finally, I decided I needed to start up an account in the US. I picked Chase since they were all over the place and I figured that would keep me covered no matter where I went. They also told me I didn’t need a US driver license to start up an account (something another bank I explored, 5/3, (yes, the bank’s name is Fifth Third) did).

I stopped in a Chase office near where Candice works and had a very pleasant experience opening my account. My banker was super friendly and helpful, and after depositing a Canadian check for about $98 Canadian dollars, my account was opened. It did require some fact-finding (apparently, US banks just don’t know what to do with Canadian money), but was generally an easy process that ended with me getting about $92 US dollars and a bank account.

The account I opened required a $1500 minimum balance, but my banker told me I had a few months grace period before I had to meet that requirement.

On the day I was leaving for New Jersey, we drove by another Chase branch on the way out of town. We stopped in and, figuring now was a good time to get it out of the way, I wrote a check to myself from my Canadian account for about $4000.

Again, the teller wasn’t exactly sure how to accept a Canadian check so she called headquarters. They told her to charge me $25 and fill out some forms; they also said that the check would take about a week to clear.

Candice and I asked a few times why we had to do it this way since I had deposited a check for $100 previously and that required no fuss and cleared instantly. The teller wasn’t sure, but said that if this wasn’t necessary they’d refund me the $25 bucks. We also asked because we wanted to know, positively, that the money would be there in time for Europe - which we explained to her. Assured the money would be available by the 1st of August, we completed the deposit and zipped off to NJ.

Going to NJ, I didn’t have much reason to worry. I knew I’d have about $1000 or so left in my Canadian account - more than enough to cover me until the week passed. And I knew that the most expensive part of that next week would be gas money. And sure enough, I think I filled up about 4 times each way, and maybe once more while in NJ (at a cost of about $40 per fill). There was also the charge of $130 bucks as a result of a tow. Oops! But dad helped me out a lot and the trip really wasn’t all that expensive otherwise.

While in NJ, I checked my Canadian account and saw that on the 27th of July the check had cleared. In other words, my Canadian bank had sent the money to Chase. Yay, I thought at the time.

However, a few days after the week had ended (August 3rd), I checked my Chase account and noticed that it still showed no deposit. I went into the branch where I opened the account and inquired. Bad news: Chase told me that my money was sent to collections and that the branch that did so should not have done so. I was told that there was nothing that could be done now. The only silver lining was that they told me it would only take two weeks for the money to clear - meaning, they said, I’d have my money plenty in just a few more days, well prior to my Europe trip. I was given a number to call if I had further questions.

I called the number to make sure everything was good, and was told that my money was in collections and little else. A few days later I called again. This time the lady on the phone told me that my money would be in collections for about 4 weeks - meaning it would arrive just before my return to the US from Europe.

Panic.

I asked her what conditions would prompt money being sent to collections by the bank and she told me that it would be sent to collections in any situation where the amount exceeded $5000. I told her the check was for $4000. At first, she didn’t believe me. When she finally accepted I was telling the truth, she said it was a bank error and that I should return to the branch where I made the deposit and demand a partial credit on my deposit and further demand that the $25 fee be waived.

I ended up going to my original branch first (since it’s more convenient). I explained to my banker (the guy who opened my account) what I was told on the phone and it was obvious that he was sincerely bothered by the situation. He said he would tell their manager and see if they could do anything. That night, I also wrote a letter of complaint to Chase on-line. (A couple days later, I received a response back saying that any money could be sent to collections and that everything had proceeded as per bank policy. The e-mail stated that I would get my money within 4-6 weeks and - and generally was just a list of policy and not really a response to my criticisms. But going back a step…)

The next morning, quite early, the manager called me in a state of near-panic. She said she tried everything she could but, like everyone else, wasn’t able to do anything. She said she was really upset about what I was going through (yadda yadda yadda) and, like the rest, apologized. She told me that the money likely wouldn’t take more than 4 weeks to clear, though, and told me to return to the branch where I made the deposit and complain. She also suggested I call collections (again).

I called collections back and the story was about the same: “We can’t clear your money. It’s going to take a while. It shouldn’t have been sent here in the first place. We’re sorry. You should go complain. And get the fee waived.”

With both the collections group and that branch telling me to go to the other branch to complain, I finally did just that. I stopped in and explained my situation to the teller who had accepted my original deposit. I told her how I was told that the money should never have gone to collections, and that other parties were telling me that I should expect a partial credit and a refund of the fee.

She called the manager or assistant manager over and explained exactly what I told her, and also mentioned how she had been told to act as she did by their headquarters. The manager left for 5 minutes and then came back, talking to her loudly enough that I could hear - but speaking as if I wasn’t there. Of course, Candice and I decided to talk about him - loudly enough for him to hear, but acting as if he wasn’t there.

He finally talked to us, but he may as well have continued ignoring us. He told us that he certainly would not give us a credit and that I should have read the documentation that explained, clearly, that my deposit “would take two weeks”. I laughed and said, “ya know, if I could get a consistent answer out of any of you, I wouldn’t be so bothered by your service.” I then pointed at the documentation that explained my deposit would take 4-6 weeks. I also let him know that the “two weeks” had already passed.

He tried to joke, saying “well, you’ve almost got your money then!” Candice then reiterated that we had a trip to Europe in a few days and we had only made the prior deposit after being assured the time line we were looking at was one week - because of this trip. We explained to him how greatly he was impacting our vacation since the money wouldn’t come until the trip was over - at best.

He finally (acted like he) relented, saying, quite carefully, that he would make some calls and if there was anything he could do to “expedite the situation,” he would let me know. Either way, he said, he’d call me the next day. He never did.

So I waited. And I waited. And canceled the trip to Europe. And on the 30th of August, when my money finally cleared I stopped in at the branch where I opened my account and told them I was closing my account. The lady said that since my account was open less than 90 days, they’d have to assess me a $20 fee - until Candice and I finished explaining exactly why I was closing the account. She ended up waiving the fee and apologizing a lot, and encouraging me to complain.

Just today I got a copy of the receipt from my check passing through collections and I see that they converted my money at 0.9257 when the conversion rate has consistently been around 0.95. (It’s 0.9528 right now.) The difference of 0.03 works out to be about $120. Plus, there’s a new, mysterious $57 fee added on. Blah!

I guess the one thing I can say Chase did well in my 40 or so days with them is open and close my account. The rest left a lot to be desired.

Wanting the powers-that-be to understand exactly why I dropped Chase, I wrote a second letter of complaint. The letter was pretty much the same as this journal post except shorter, more focused, and cleanly separated into bullet points of contention. I received a response saying it might be a month or two before they’d respond, but if I wanted to call them (no thanks, not again)… I don’t expect anything to happen at this point. I think sometimes life throws you a curve and you just have to deal with it as best you can. I’ll suck up the annoyance of the banking hassle and move on.

Anyway, I took the check that Chase gave me (the $4000) and used it to open a new account - this time with Allegius. It’s a credit union bank that Candice has used for about 6 years now, and she’s pretty happy with them.

I should have gone to them in the first place.

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