Comments on: Very Disappointed In Wells Fargo

By: Aurie

Aurie — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:13:03 +0000

Thank you for sharing this post. This is why I made the switch to work for a credit union. Although no financial institution is without fault or problems, it is my opinion that to maximize your financial relationships, you should never put all your eggs in one basket. Whether it is looking for primarily online savings to yield better interest on deposits, going to a local community bank or credit union for better rates on loans, and a combination of self-directed investment strategies, etc. it’s sad to say that there is no longer any loyalty in the banking industry. Things have changed completely in our world.
It’s really messed up how they closed you out because they can’t make any interest off you.

By: erin

erin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:06:12 +0000

I own a small business and just logged into my Wells Fargo account today to pay off the balance off of my business credit card, as I do every month. What do I see? Big red letters stating ‘THIS ACCOUNT IS CLOSED’. I was never notified, never saw this coming. My experience very much mirrors that of frugalbabe and is absolutely horrible. This is my business! My life! I’ve been banking with Wells Fargo for 15 years and this is how I’m treated. I’m switching banks asap. It was so nice to see, though, that I’m not alone…

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:19:51 +0000

Same thing happened to me. I had a small business credit card with a huge limit that I told them would never be used. I had recurring bills paid with the card every month and I paid off the card every month. I went to the post office one day to buy stamps and the card was declined. I called WF from the post office parking lot and got the same exact wording, low usage and experian report….

After many calls and visiting a branch, I ended up pulling all of my accounts from WF. I don’t want to bank with a company that has so little respect for its good clients. I had my credit report with me at the bank and it was in excellent range. The rep I was working with at the branch told me that he didn’t think it was fair what WF was doing either.

I would have been ok with them cutting my credit limit down or I might have even been ok if I had been informed of the date it was going to be canceled so that I could get things in order, but my notification came almost 3 weeks after the date I tried to use it.

My advice is not to bank with WF, especially for small business.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:40:03 +0000

Welcome to the new world of financial instability. I have/had 2 cards with Wells Fargo, being human, I forgot schedule a payment in advance as I usually do and remembered at the last minute. I logged on, went to payments and clicked the WRONG card. Now, my husband is 73 and we are on a fixed income. I called Wells Fargo as soon as they opened the following business day. Of course, it had already been submitted so they said they could do nothing about it, to stop payment at the bank. The bank said it was too late to stop payment because it was already in their system, but if there were not sufficient funds to PAY the amt due, they could send it back. Needless to say I could not afford 2 $335.00 payments so I went to the bank, withdrew the money and gladly payed the NSF fee. I called Wells Fargo and explained what I had done and why. They said they understood and I had to do what I had to do. So, I paid the CORRECT account and, made a payment on the other card too. Low and behold now, 10 days after the fact I have 2 $335.00 deductions in my account from Wells Fargo. What the representative DID NOT TELL ME WAS THEY SUBMIT PAYMENTS 3 (THREE) TIMES!. So, ignorant me not only has the original (erroneous) payment deducted from my account, I have $300.00 in NSF charges now also. Am I mad, certainly, will I do anything differently? Yep. Go to a new bank, and close the credit cards…….oh yeah – I forgot only Wells Fargo can close an account when there is a balance……an individual can’t. Guess who I am not going to be doing business with anymore. I am on a fixed income, guess what we don’t buy for the next 4 weeks until I can pay this off???? I guess I really did need to lose some weight.

By: K Kranz

K Kranz — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:37:11 +0000

Des,
I respect your comments about being in business to make money and you are right….on the business side a company wouldn’t want to continue to lose money on a service they provide. The flaw may rest with you if you believe that ever offering the option of a) not using the card, b) using it only occasionally or c) using it and paying it off every month, all of which results in in paying no finance charges (bank profit) actually costs the company money. They wouldn’t allow these options if there was a loss involved. Bad business model. While I am not sure how the money is made just yet on the bank side from non-finance charge paying customers, I am reasonably sure that the banks are not losing anything but rather not gaining as much in profits.

So, if you can arrange to pay off your credit cards every month to avoid finance charges, by all means do so. To be penalized by an allowable event is hypocritical at best.

By: K Kranz

K Kranz — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:16:38 +0000

Great post. I encourage all who bank with the large banks to look for a reputable credit union for the following reasons:

1. Lower borrowing rates
2. More financially sound
3. Fees are much less and there are less of them
4. Personal attention
5. Sources for just about any service you can find at a big bank
6. You are one of many owners by virtue of your membership
7. More forgiving grace periods if needed on loans and debts
8. Will work with you should a problem arise
9. Has positive equity and in no need of a bail out.
10. Better customer service.
11. Less bureaucracy.
12. Reports to the credit agencies.

By: Andre

Andre — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:30:52 +0000

I received a letter from Wells Fargo that they are lowering my credit limit from $14,700 to $1,000. I was extremely dissapointed to find out about this because I have never made a late payment and my account was in good standing. At the time they received a credit report from Experian, I had accrued debt because I started a new business but I quickly paid them off. Unfortunately they did not take that into consideration and Wells Fargo said they would be glad to a credit check to verify what I said was true but it would be a hard hit. I told them why would I want to get a hard hit on my credit card to get the limit I once had just because they did not see all of the latest information. Anyways, if all my bills were not automatically debited from this credit card, I would have gladly closed the account and went to another bank but I don’t want to deal with the mess of updating all my accounts. My final comment, the credit card I have with them has been opened for over 5 years and it has been in perfect standing. Now that I think about it, I will close my account. Hopefully others will do the same.

By: FrugalBabe

FrugalBabe — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 21:30:19 +0000

Patricia – That was the first thing I did. I sent letters to our senators, congressional reps, and our state attorney general. I wouldn’t have involved them except for the TARP money. Once a bank starts taking taxpayer money, they have to be held to a higher standard of accountability.

By: Patricia Tucker

Patricia Tucker — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:56:01 +0000

I would be sending copies to my senator and my congressman. They need to know this kind of *** that is going on. It would be great if you could send some of the comments too, but don’t know if that is OK.

By: Dan n DFW

Dan n DFW — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:26:16 +0000

Interesting comments on this situation. I think that Frugal Babe is correct in pointing out that Wells Fargo after getting 25 Billion of our money is suddenly closing cards or adjusting credit limits. I was just notified that my credit card limit with WF was just decreased to just $140 above my current balance with them. This smells badly in several ways. While I have enjoyed a 731 FICO score for almost a year now, this move by WF (to “max” out my card with them) will certainly torpedo my FICO score with the other two credit reporting companies. By the way, always current, never late, always more than minimum payment consumer here. Also, I have (change soon to “had”) 3 savings and 2 checking accounts at WF.

I find it interesting that Experian has moved away from FICO scoring to consumers (as of 2/14) and to their own credit rating. It is extremely interesting to me that so many people are getting suddenly lowered FICO from Experian just prior to their change to their own system of rating. Can you say “I need to buy my Experian credit score before they switch to their own to see why my FICO score with them is suddenly lower.”? Would be interesting to see what Experian sales were during the month of January and February of this year versus last year’s same time frame. My $10 says it was extremely higher on the consumer side of their sales.

By the way the same day I got notification of this decrease in my credit limit with WF, I also received two notification from other credit cards I currently have announcing that “because of my excellent credit rating” my credit limits with them had been increased. ????!!!???

Interesting.

To Le Bob (and anyone else with credit rate increases): Too bad you already closed your account with Citi. I got the very same letter, moving me from a 9.8% to a 16.99%. In your same position with pay-off of account scheduled for first half of this year. Called Citi and after talking to rep on line (not even the supervisor) voiced my concern about this change and mentioning that I would be paying off the account this year and closing the account. Suddenly things changed. I now have a different type of account (not Dividend but Cash Back , same account number) but now my new card with them has an 8.6% interest. Actually dropped on interest rate!

(Here’s an interesting sidenote; because I changed to a Cash Back type account I actually got $165 back for changing to this account and a lower interest rate!!). FYI for everyone, in the future I’ll call first and see what they are willing to do.