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At the bottom of my latest statement from the Bank of Edwardsville (www.4thebank.com) is a list of fees to be effective April 1, 2013. One of the items is “Dormant Account / Month $4.00.” I went to the bank and asked them to define “Dormant Account.” I was told that it was an account with no activity other than fees or interest deposits for one or two years depending on whether the account type was checking or savings. I think this is an announcement of intent to steal.
Why?
The cost of maintaining an account is not only negligible, the banks actually depend on depositors to leave their money in the accounts. That’s the principle behind the reserve system and the power of the government to shut down a bank to prevent a run on it (i.e. too many depositors withdrawing their money at once thus exceeding the bank’s reserves.)
Here, the bank is saying, in effect, yes, we want you to leave the money in your account, but you can’t just leave it there and let it collect the promised interest. If you do, you are not paying any attention to it and therefore, we are going to begin taking it. This is intent to deprive, theft. It is no different than taking money from your employer’s cash register or items from his/her inventories because he/she is not paying attention. It is the same as noticing that a person has left his wallet on his desk and since he is not paying attention to it, you help yourself to some of the contents.
It is wrong and it is theft on the part of the bank to just help themselves to some of their depositors’ money when their customers have done nothing wrong (e.g. causing additional expense to the bank) but, in fact, have supported the stability of the bank and the system. “Dormant accounts” are an advantage to the bank. Banks should not be allowed to take further advantage by stealing the contents simply because their customers might not be paying attention. It takes incredible chutzpah for them to announce their intention to steal and dare someone to call them on it.
Hope this helps some other folks. I’ve written to ask both of my senators to get involved. Perhaps you will too?
16 Comments
Are you sure they still need reserves? They don’t in Canada, haven’t since 1985 or 6. Depositors are just a nuisance to them. They only want us as borrowers.
And yes, yes, it is theft. As my freind who worked for a bank used to say, “It’s an OK place to work, but keep you money in your mattress.”
I don’t use banks for this very reason. I pay my bills with a prepaid card. Yeah, it can be a pain in the ass and inconvenient as hell but I’ve found that if you make a mistake with a bank, it’s your responsibility but if the bank makes a mistake, it’s still your responsibility. I’m sure as hell not going to PAY somebody for the privilege of being nonchalant about safeguarding my money but be scrupulously aggressive in trying to part me from as much of it as I’ll let them get away with. They’ve got you screwed coming and going. And the thing is, they have no incentive to change their behavior until a much larger percentage of people stop allowing them to steal from them.
P.S. Write my Senators? Yeah, I’m sure John Cornyn and Ted Cruz will get right on that. I think I’ll try something that has a better chance of producing results…like turning lead into gold with alchemy.
recommended though
Don’t know if you are aware that your card is probably owned by a bank and they make money every time you use it.
It’s nearly impossible to escape the Vampire Squid they even skim millions from foodstamps.
Every state has a law regarding unclaimed assets, which include dormant bank accounts, safe deposit boxes, etc. Rather than trying to resolve this problem at the federal level, find out what your state law says about this and talk to them.
Don’t just ask your senators to get involved: invoke the nuclear option.
Ask Elizabeth Warren to get involved.
Whitebeard, you just don’t understand. By just parking your money, you are depriving the bank of swipe fees. You are bleeding them dry. You, yes you, are solely responsible for your bank’s lack of profits.
So, go for the jugular. Have one recurring monthly bill taken out of this account. Something like your Netflix account, FDL membership, NYT subscription, etc. If I’m not mistaken these types of payments don’t incur swipe fees (someone correct me if I’m wrong). This way, your account is no longer dormant and you are depriving your bank of both the $4/month charge and swipe fees.
Or find a more user friendly credit union.
Yes, I’m aware. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not stupid. On the other hand, they aren’t hammering me for the same kinds of fees or the same amounts. The few pennies I pay for using the card is worth not having to rely on a bank account and not having to rely on minimum wage employees entering my information if I pay my bills by check, (which is also my problem when they fuck it up). I can print a receipt.
Not to worry, that is not common belief! :0)
I prefer to keep the acct open, but with a 4 or 5 cent balance. Deposit a few cents now and then, just to keep it “active”. I do this with my bank since we closed our banking accts to move to Credit Unions. Chase has dutifully sent me a statement every month for my current balance of one cent.
You can also overpay bills by a couple of cents, too. It allegedly costs them more to deal with this than it would otherwise.
My solution is to run my account as an overdraft account secured by a mortgage on my rental property. Whenever I get that kind of shit from my bank, I call the manager and let him know what his choices are: he can keep the $4.00 charge and lose the $500 monthly interest payment, or he can drop the charge and keep the interest. Works every time.
I had an interesting conversation when i closed my Wells Fargo account, the bank manager handled the termination and she had some interesting answers to my reasons for leaving.
When she asked for the reason for my leaving WF I replied that they were a corrupt institution, her response was that there was no entry for that reason on her e-form, i don’t know what she entered. She then proudly stated that they were job creators and i asked if she was refering to those low wage serfs they call tellers. She replied that they didn’t need much money because they were mostly second wage earners.
She then ended our chat with a smirk on her face while she explained to me that the tellers were really just lazy people and inferred that they didn’t deserve good wages.
I was suprised by her candid remarks and left feeling that the managerial class don’t even try to hide their disdain for working people.
The evidence is rather overwhelming.
“Service fees” are the biggest form of theft, bigger even than this $4.00 dormancy charge.
I pay > $10 “Service fees” per month on my chequing account, and that’s with a Credit Union. If I didn’t have everything being auto-paid out of that account I would shut it down and stick the money in a safe in my garage.
I have not had an account with a bank since sometime in 2007. My local grocery store gladly cashes any personal checks made out to me, for free, as long as the person whose account it is drawn on is also a local. For bigger checks, like US Tax Refund, there is a grocery up the way that cashes those checks. I pay 2.5%, but I don’t have to worry about how much money I have. I can count the cash in the envelope under the mattress, and that’s how much I have.
Right before I made this decision, My spouse and I paid some $ 200 in “NSF” funds for a bank where we hadn’t written any checks. The bank claimed that a “check” for $ 6.50 was hitting our account. They said it didn’t have a number. We asked them to investigate (This was when we only owed for two or three $ 33 NSF fees.) Bank wouldn’t.
We tried closing out the account, but as long as this $ 6.50 was floating around, we weren’t allowed to close it out.
It turned out that some time before this, we had signed up for a website that wanted $ 6.50 every six months, deducted automatically. When you stop and think about it, it was wrong for the bank to keep hitting our account – since the fee was not able to be paid, we weren’t getting anything, so the “check” should have just been rejected! (The “internet radio service wouldn’t subscribe till the money was actually processed.) I mean, in the old days, some 15 yrs ago, when a check was bounced, you at least had the satisfaction that the bag of groceries for which you now owed an additional $ 33 NSF fee was at least in your possession. But now it is all “air ware” floating around inside the banking system.
So I prefer cash now. We both did have the satisfaction of knowing the bank in question, Washington Mutual, went down the tubes.
Gee, I remember someone mentioning these minimal banking services would be a great way to reinvigorate US Postal Service bottom lines if offered there.
I don’t think the banks would mind the competition as small accounts seem to be so inconvenient for them to deal with.
Heh! I opened an account at a credit union here in Toronto, but it was nearly impossible for me to actually make a deposit due to minimal bank machine access and their short hours. I *could*, maybe, deposit by mail — not my favourite option, esp not for cash. After a few months they took my entire deposit *and* my 25$ membership as ‘fees’. I am not so impressed by credit unions, they have been co-opted, at least here in Canada. Any other suggestions?
That is a strange way for a CU to behave HF. My CU in NM has no fees, free checking and free checks. The only negative with them is they only pay 1% on savings because the interest rate depends on their loan to cash balance, they have too much cash.