From the article: 3 Reasons Not to Use Online Bank Accounts
Read and share horror stories about online bank accounts. While online banks make life easy and offer competitive rates, they come with unique problems. Find out what to watch out for, and help others avoid disasters with online banks. Tell Your Story
Warning
- I had a on line account, with a company called On Line Billpay and had programmed the system to send me a "reminder" top pay a bill. Payment required me to go on line and process the payment. The system sent me the reminder and then paid the bill without my authorization. My bank hired this company to handle the on line banking but when a problem arises, the bank immediately points the finger and no help was provided and the payment could not be reversed, putting my account in the negative.
- —Guest Bill K
I Love Internet Banks
- I have banked with ING Direct for over 5 years. I have also banked with Emigrant Direct. With both, you still need a brick and mortar account, for which I use Beneficial in Philly. Never had a problem with the internet banks. Beneficial is an awesome local bank and they give me POINTS on my debit card purchases!!! I usually get $25 cash back every 3 months or so, since I pay my rent with a debit card. You don't need the "big guys". I worked for them for years and they would cheat their own mothers to make a buck. Stay local and small. And keep track of your balances!! It's YOUR responsibility.
- —Guest Lynn B (30 year Ex-Banker)
Ally Problems
- Ally gave all sorts of free services, but only would accept deposits by mail, UPS or scanned check. But you may get an overdraft on a debit card because they allow charges greater than the account is worth. Go figure. And if you get an overdraft, you will be stopped from making any more scanned deposits. Bizarre, isn't it? Don't use Ally. They are very weird in their thinking.
- —Guest Jeffrey
CHASE also illegal practices
- A friend had her checking with WAMU (great bank) and credit card with Chase, paid her Chase bill online. When Chase took over WAMU the horror started. She got 7 overdraft fees charged, when she looked at her account CHASE had automatically WITHOUT HER CONSENT deducted the monthly credit card payment making other payments bounce. She called the bank but all they said is that she owed that on her account and since all accounts were in the same bank they thought it would be more convinient for her to have payments automatically deducted. No apology or reversal of overdrafts. And to make matters worst they raised her interest rate to 32.99% for no reason. Then call to the credit card where someone from India told her in broken English so sorry mom that is the interest rate 32.99% nothing we can do. Wouldn't connect her to a supervisor but to another Indian with same broken record. Bottom line when she lost her job last year, she stopped paying card and closed checking with Chase.
- —Guest myriam
BOFA unethical business practices.
- I used to have an account with BOFA and they would post a debit or automatic withdrawl for a bill payment first than a CASH deposit made a day or two days before. And forget about depositing on a weekend. CASH IS CASH it has to be available immediately not held two days like a check. If you have an account with BOA, get out quickly they are scammers.
- —Guest myriam
Jake
- I have now met the ultimate idiocy. I got the following message a few minutes after I had logged on to my online account with Barclays: "Sorry - we have had to log you out of Online Banking because you did not use the service for more than 10 minutes. Please enter your membership number below, and select the 'next' button to log in again." Trying again to log on, I got the same message BEFORE I had logged on. I sent an email complaint to Customer Services and received one of those insulting pro forma replies which shows that they didn't read your email properly. What on earth is the purpose of cutting you off because you didn't spend ten minutes online???
- —Guest Jake
wells fargo sucks
- Ive been using Chase for years now. Havent had many issues. A couple of extra interest things but those were taken off when i asked. The bank I cant stand is Wells Fargo. I would aviod those creeps like the plague!
- —Guest sally
This writer is really out of touch ...
- Everything in banking since the Patriot Act is internet based so some of the points this writer is attempting to make are just unbased. I work in telecommunications so I have no vested interested in his comments one way or another but I've been banking online since the early 90's and while there are some slight considerations that must be made with online banking and while I do admit customer service is the #1 place a depositor will notice a difference, the benefits of online banking far out-weigh the bad. It sounds to me like the writer really has some sort of axe to grind?
- —Guest Randy
Online Banks Are Not for Everyday Use
- I have an Ally Bank account and when it comes to deposits, even through online funds transfers, do not expect that "electronic" and "online" means "faster" deposits and quicker access to my money, in any way! They are banks, after all. This is the 21st Century, everything is supposed to be faster if online, right? These online banks all offer funds transfers between them and your other bank accounts, where they will take your money out of that other account in less than 24 hours, but they won't credit it to your account at their online bank, for your use, for ANOTHER 2-5 days! This "hold" allows them to make interest on your money, before you get it. While it may be only a couple hundred bucks to you, but add yours to other customers, they make $100k's daily. They save money by not having brick and mortar buildings, but still make money the traditional way, by holding customers money. Brilliant, but sucks from a customer service perspective.
- —Guest Pallen27
BofA, BB&T, & Wachovia now Wells Fargo
- Ive been with these three banks and they all did the same thing with debits posting in order high to low. I worked for B&T albeit very briefly, but I was in the all center and when trained we were told about how the bank would all overdraft that is a small loan for a large fee. Now on their behalf they had folks on a sort off ding scale with overdraws anfteeso may would start returning or not paying items, also with a fee. Lets face it, all we need to do is take a look at his economic scandal we us went through to see what they are all about, and its not us if we posses less than a substantial amount of money i their accounts. Which by the way the earn loads of money off of by loaning our money out. I wont go into detail on that, simply look up how a bank operates insofar as deposits to loans are concerned. I just mailed an acct closure to BofA today as I'm now with Ally, and so far so good. The other two banks were closed in the past.
- —Guest rob
Good and Bad, Online and Off
- There are no absolutes: I've had horrible customer service experiences at banks, credit unions, in person, at the drive through, on the phone, and online. Brick and mortar service varies depending on which branch you're at: the tellers at the place down the road are always nasty, but the same CU usually has good service either on the phone or at a branch a few towns away. Even companies like ING that mostly do it well have people that sometimes have a bad day.
- —Guest Joe
I've had good and bad experiences.
- I've had about 4 different online bank accounts and there have been good and bad points with each bank. I finally did some research before this last account and things have gone a lot smoother. I attribute this to an article I read here: http://www.noscamlist.com/safe-online-banking.htm
- —gregcannon37
HSBC on line banking
- I opened an on-line savings account with HSBC and held a CD for a year. The CD spanned 2 tax years but interest was not reported until maturity which meant that I had to pay tax in a single year. No other bank with which I have held a CD has ever operated this way. Customer service at HSBC is non existant. Later HSBC "lost/deleted" my on-line link to my current account which I had used many times. Unfortunately I did not know this until I urgently needed the money. Again customer service was very unhelpful and I had to borrower money until the situation was resolved. At that point I withdrew everything from HSBC. On the plus for on-line banking I have held an account with ING for many years and have never had a problem
- —Guest Tracey
sophisticated and unethical
- USBank has a habit of posting smaller purchases before larger ones several days after point of sale date so that you overdraft. i check my account daily and before i even make a purchase, and notice the transaction dates change depending upon my withdrawls and deposit amounts. Banks plan to fradulently get fees despite any and all efforts to banking reform.
- —Guest guest Name
This must be outdated...
- This information is so far away from accurate that I'm assuming this is an old article. Online banks as well as Brick and Mortar institutions that have extensive online service are safe, move and clear money just equally as quickly and give you complete access. The whole line about getting better service at a credit union because they know is subjective and just as much as a gamble. Good service comes from a solid culture, good hiring, sound training and holding associates accountable. Like I said, I'm assuming the information in this is just dated, because it is completly inaccurate.
- —Guest Phil
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