Bill you gotta call up higher management. The people you talk to first hand are trained to tell you they can't do anything. Keep asking to talk to the superior of whatever douchebag youre talking to and dont take no for answer. Eventually you get to the guy that will refund your money instantly without a problem. Most people don't realize you can negotiate almost every fee and percentages that the tellers/call service clerks will tell you "can't be changed". In fact, if you learn how to negotiate and not take no for an answer, you can call up your bank right now and get your credit card % dropped down to lower number. I fuckin forget the book name but I read it a few years ago and the guy talked about all kinds of negotiations you can do with your finances. I was amazed at how much banks will do for you. It just involves getting passed those first few grunts that don't have authorization to handle your request. If you play it right, you can manage never paying a single fee ever again. Just justify your value as a customer, be reasonable and specific of what you want, express your loyalty this far and perhaps hint at your "reluctance" to switching to a competitor. A good business knows that that keeping their customers is the #1 priority. You can actually call up almost any good business be it your gym, cable/internet provider, etc and negotiate lower rates. Knowing this is like living in the fuckin matrix. People usually just accept fees and pricing on the first offer. You go to the car salesman, he says "This is the price" you say OK and sign the papers. He will be laughing inside because he was willing to drop the pricing and %'s a lot lower if you really pressed for it. Think about it. As a salesman, lets say you can sell a computer for $2000. The person wants it for $1800. The salesman can either gain $1800 dollars or if you leave without a purchase he will lose $1800. On top of this, if you cut someone a deal, that's money that didn't go to your competitor. If you cut a deal, the customer is satisfied and is more likely to come back again AND tell their social network about it and bring in more business. As a salesman, cutting that $200 discount isn't about losing $200. It's about gaining $1800 AND generating THOUSANDS of more dollars in potential earnings, AND taking away a sale from your competitor. Products are already marked up insanely high so there's almost always a profit still to be made on discounted deals. Next time you guys pay for ANYTHING ask yourself, "Can I convince this person or their superiors that offering me a lower price is beneficial for both of us".
If you don't believe the amount of power you actually have as a customer, call up your internet/cell phone/cable provider right now and talk about how you recently found a better deal with another company and were considering switching and if there is anything they can do for you to keep you on OR even some shit like you can't afford what youre paying at the moment and were looking for temporary lower rates or a free month(s) just to avoid shutting down your account and/or switching to a cheaper competitor. If after a while you truly can't hack out a deal (unlikely), tell them you will be calling back briefly to finalize your cancellation. Call up a competitor, tell them you were interested in switching from your current company but that you require an incentive like waived signing fees and lower payments than what you are currently paying. Competing gyms, for example, will usually pay 100% of your cancellation fees to get you to switch AND give you discounted/free months. Guaranteed within 5min to 1hr you will have earned more money in savings than you normally make in an hour. How much you save is dependent upon how good you are at negotiation. Keep in mind the fine lines in this art-form: Be assertive but don't be an asshole. Don't ask for too much. Don't ask for too little. The more you know about the subject/industry, the better. You will have more angles to plead/defend your case with. A little ego stroking compliment here and there can likely end up in the person going that extra mile for you but there's no need to start sucking the company dick.
xxxmrhankixxx yea, that sounds like the wall Bill would run into when trying this technique. It’s not impossible, though. Just takes a good compass to diagnose when people are bullshitting you to start with. That’s half the fight.
I have 10 thousand dollars in a savings account in Wachovia. I get 40 cents a month interest for that 10 thousand dollars. How petty is that? I'm losing more than that from inflation.
Thanks Bill, we need a bigger name who doesn't sound completely insane standing up for this. Another big problem is many companies make it mandatory to have a direct deposit and force us to use the banks.
Gollum: "Thieves! The dirty little thieves! They stole it from us!" Next thing you know they'll come up with the most frivolous fee of all fees... a FEE fee. $1 dollar fee for every fee that they charge
i recommend it..otherwise banks are not a safe place to hold money..although nf is a credit union..but still..it's the only one that i would recommend, of which i am aware
haha...careful about opening another account later...a guy that works at a big bank told me they get people opening accounts that owe money from 5-10 years ago and they let them open the accounts and actually wait til they make a big deposit...then close that shit out.
I work for a bank and if a account fees being charged without any deposits and the amount overdrawn gets to a certain point (it’s less then 1000) the bank should automatically close out the account and put the amount owing to collections. You’re not required by law to pay it back but you can’t open any more accounts or products with them until that amounts been paid back. I’m not sure how you’d go about getting them to give you your money back.
reading some of the comments on thois page are making me think about starting an account at a credit union. i pay 10$ a month just to keep my money at tcf . .. they never told me they were gunna start taking the money, they just kinda started to do it. fucking pisses me off so much. the whole deal with banks was that they use ur money to loan to other ppl and thts how they make their money but now they just take it from u. fucking no shame dude. we jsut sit there taking it too :(
First National Bank Texas robbed the fuck out of me. They kept overdrafting me without me doing any transactions and when I finally checked my balance, I was like -$280.
Like most people have said, which to a Credit Union. My family and friends and myself have had accounts with Credit Unions for years. No fee's and no stupid bullshit. Banks are a fucking joke.
In denmark you have to have a bank account if you want your salary... You cant get a cash salary payment at all. It is illegal for your employer to pay you cash! so that a think.
Adding, c'mon Bill. In the early years of Mayberry, Sheriff Andy was hip deep in beautiful women. Elinor Donahue, Joanna Moore, Barbara Eden, Julie Adams, Gail Davis, etc.
Billy Boyyyy! I work at a bank (in Canada). Our records go back 18 months, but TYPICALLY we're only able to refund 3-4 months of fees. Why? It's your fuckin money, it's your fuckin account, check it semi-often to make sure nothing fucky is going on. There's millions of customers (most of whom have multiple accounts) that we have, how're we supposed to monitor EVERY account? Do ya check your visa statements? of course ya fuckin do. Check your bank statements too. However, if you really wanna get more than 4 months back, just go to the branch manager. They're softer than a fuckin peach fruit cup and they'll generally help ya out. Anyone saying "take it to court!" no, you'll lose, every time.
naw i'm not PR, I just hate when people come up to me and start bitching about banking policies. no one in a branch makes rules, we just follow em so we don't get fired. so just quit yellin' at us -.-
you are as bad as the soldiers working in hitlers army. just following orders doesn't fly anymore chief. get a different profession or you will always be hated.
Just bug the shit out of them and they will help you. Try to get higher management involved. Its better for them to refund your money rather than get that much bad publicity. They need loyal customers
The other day on tv they said "... like back in the days when women were treated like property..." Huh? WTF does that mean? Were there 'women auctions' or something? If not being treated like property is probably a good thing -- you TAKE CARE OF your property, compared to today when its 'fuck it, let the bitch fend for herself' I wonder if there will ever come a day when we look back and say the banks treated us like SLAVES -- at least thats fucking TRUE.
