cbg1027
Florida Girl
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2009
I used to be a customer of Wachovia until Wells Fargo bought them out.
I loved Wachovia and hate Wells Fargo and do not care for the people who work there.
Today for instance, I put a check into our checking account and transferred money from the checking into savings.
I forgot to bring a blank check for the transaction, no problem, they gave me a withdrawal slip to fill out instead. I then asked for a couple of extra withdrawal slips and they refused to give them to me! WTH?
They have tons of Deposit slips that you can take but no Withdrawal slips?
I said to the teller "OK, we're allowed to deposit money but we can't take any out???"
She said we can take it out but we need to go to the teller for a Withdrawal slip each time!
Is this the new thing at every bank or is it just Wells Fargo's policy?
Another thing, I hate that I don't have a bank book. Yeah, Yeah, I know, I'm back in the Dark Ages. But I want something in my hands that shows I deposited money.
How hard is it to switch banks? Has anyone done this and how do you do it? Will the new bank handle the transfer for you?
I work in a local bank.
There could actually be many reasons for refusing to give you more than one withdrawal slip. The first being the branch could be short on supplies and they needed conserve so they don't run out. We try to anticipate things best we can, but sometimes things happen we can't control.
Banks are having to cut back. We are told not to give huge stacks of deposit slips to our clients. But we can certainly give a few out at a time. Every bank and individual branch is run differently though.
Also, I've seen the WellsFargo withdrawal slips and my guess is they're a lot more expensive to produce than their deposit slips. Sounds like they're trying to control cost by not putting the withdrawal slips out where people can take a huge stack with them.
At my bank, we don't have checking withdrawal slips. You have to write yourself a check to cash. We stock blank checks for this purpose, but right after I started working there, the bank imposed a $1 fee for a single blank check. Trust me, these fees suck for the employees too. We don't want to make you angry, and I think these fees are absurd (they even charge us the fee!).
I don't know how easy it is to switch banks, but I do have some advice about choosing a financial institution.
Consider your needs - do you travel a lot? Do you tend to stick in the same neighborhood? What features are important to you? Do you care about customer service? Do you go to the brick and mortar building often or is almost all your banking done electronically?
For someone who travels or moves frequently, then a large national chain like BOA or Wells is going to be a better answer. You probably won't get the personalized customer service of a small local bank or credit union, but a large chain will offer convenience and they are usually the first ones to roll out new technologies like remote deposit (sending and image of your check).
If you plan to stick in one place and want personalized attention, than a local bank or CU would be a better option. But due to size, they are not always on the forefront of new banking technology. The pluses of a local bank are usually in the relationships you can forge. And you never know when that can work to your advantage. I'm a teller, and I will let the clients that I am familiar with and know their banking habits get away with a lot more than some person I've only seen three times in 6 months, or someone with a new account. So it can pay to stick with a place you're momentarily unhappy with. A client with an long-time account usually gets more consideration when you're wanting rules to be bent.
Let me let everyone in on a little secret. Those policies and bank rules? Most are not completely steadfast. Some are federally regulated and there is nothing we can do about them, but most things are guidelines and we can exercise our discretion on what to do. But with every transaction we take, we are risking our jobs - you never know when a check may be a fake, when a client has been scammed, if a check will charge back as non-sufficient funds, etc. All of that goes against us and a single transaction done in error could cost us our job.
So make a point of getting to know your tellers. Make conversations, learn our names, and we will try to do what we can for you.
Shop around, ask your friends, and don't hesitate to walk in places and have them explain their account structure, services, and fees.
Good luck!