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madbakerThe new posting format sucks. Mostly because it ate my previous attempt at this post, which I had spent many fine minutes honing to a razor-sharp edge. Ah well, here's a quick rewrite attempt (because I want it out of my system so I can eat lunch).
I closed out our SCA bank account at J. Large National Bank today. There were several reasons, but most involved their utter unwillingness to consider customer needs in response to bank policy. For example, we have three signers on the signature card, and all three are likely to change in a two-year period. For this account, they can be physically located anywhere in the greater Bay Area (say, Hollister to Santa Rosa). Conceivably one of them could be in Reno, or even Alaska.
But the bank's current policy is that all three must with no exceptions be present any time any one changes. Excuse me, what?
So I went in, expecting a little bit of defense on their part to try to keep the account, and I would respond as above. Nope. Darn, there goes that prepared blast of righteous indignation.
Instead, I find out that if you close out an account before month-end, the bank keeps the interest.
Now, the sum we're talking about in this case is virtually meaningless - about fifty cents. But multiply that by a couple hundred thousand accounts, and that's a tidy profit center for the bank.
My objection is more philosophical. The bank had our money for half the month. Our account earned interest. I want it, because the bank had the use of the money while we didn't.
It's a lost cause, I know; after some arguing, I just closed the stupid account. But there are reasons why my personal money is in a credit union, where service is less of an afterthought.
I closed out our SCA bank account at J. Large National Bank today. There were several reasons, but most involved their utter unwillingness to consider customer needs in response to bank policy. For example, we have three signers on the signature card, and all three are likely to change in a two-year period. For this account, they can be physically located anywhere in the greater Bay Area (say, Hollister to Santa Rosa). Conceivably one of them could be in Reno, or even Alaska.
But the bank's current policy is that all three must with no exceptions be present any time any one changes. Excuse me, what?
So I went in, expecting a little bit of defense on their part to try to keep the account, and I would respond as above. Nope. Darn, there goes that prepared blast of righteous indignation.
Instead, I find out that if you close out an account before month-end, the bank keeps the interest.
Now, the sum we're talking about in this case is virtually meaningless - about fifty cents. But multiply that by a couple hundred thousand accounts, and that's a tidy profit center for the bank.
My objection is more philosophical. The bank had our money for half the month. Our account earned interest. I want it, because the bank had the use of the money while we didn't.
It's a lost cause, I know; after some arguing, I just closed the stupid account. But there are reasons why my personal money is in a credit union, where service is less of an afterthought.
