I have banked with Wells Fargo for about 6 years, and for the most part I haven’t had problems. Deposits are immediately available and debits are factored in instantly, which is pretty nice.
But with the current shape of the economy, times are tough, and that could mean you barely have enough money to scrape by.
You’ve got your car insurance, rent, and other regular expenses set up to auto-pay, and oops, you’re a few dollars short, and now your account is overdrafted by $5. No biggie, just deposit some money and that’s cleared up.
Nope, you’re hit with an overdraft fee, -$35.00. So now you’re at -$40.00. Oh, a transaction from a few days ago just posted and your balance is now insufficient. Another -$35 overdraft fee. Now you’re at -75.00. You can’t get it all paid off today, so tomorrow rolls around, and Wells Fargo hands out overdraft fees like candy on Halloween. You guessed it, another $35.00 charge. Now you’re at -$110, and it just keeps going.
As a personal anecdote, this is more or less my situation. I have given Wells Fargo about $800 this week, and my account is still overdrawn by -$200, because the fees are absolutely relentless. This may as well be considered a scam.
Not to mention, your interest rate is a whopping 0.01%, ten dollars per thousand. Of course, it’s generally better to invest wisely anyways, but considering other banks credit unions offer a higher interest rate, why settle for 0.01% when you could get 0.5%, or perhaps even 2%?
Of course, the simple solution here is to simply not overdraft your account right? Well, life is all about ebbs and flows. Do you want to bank with someone that offers little benefit to your flows, and sees your ebbs as an opportunity to make a difficult time worse? Because that is what you will get with Wells Fargo.
Perhaps this isn’t the right sub to post this in, but I would encourage everyone to stay away from this bank. Your money will go further anywhere else.
Edit: is this getting downvoted because it’s not fitting for this subreddit (my boomer self sees upvotes and downvotes as that) or because it gives off the impression that I’m not good with my finances? If that’s the case, I have several other accounts that don’t seem to have this kind of issue. I also have a number of friends who ditched WF because of their insane fees. I’m making this post to encourage people to seek better bankers who can take your finances farther, and discourage banking with a bank who won’t really help your finances at all, but will actively seek to make your bad situation worse. To keep it short, I paid nearly a thousand dollars into an overdrafted account and I now owe MORE money on it than I originally did. All I’m saying is, if times are good for you, bank elsewhere. If times aren’t good, also bank elsewhere because this bank will mess your stuff up if they have the opportunity. Is that not the point of a subreddit about bettering your finances?
I should make it clear that WF isn’t the only account I have, but It is (was) my primary banker for a while. And I would strongly encourage others to steer clear of Wells Fargo if you want to make the most of your money.
Submitted September 24, 2022 at 12:18AM by _FinanceNstuff_ https://ift.tt/oHJsyir
