[jpnh]

Originally Posted by ASBSECU E93

@jtodd_fl - I was gonna ask the same thing.D

TXSTYLE - I started in banking 20 years ago, and you are exactly right. Consolidation has removed the community banking element as you noted.

The Dodd Frank debaucle further accellerated this trend and was a GIFT to big banks

The dems pushed this bill under the premise that it would protect consumers but all its done is eliminate privacy under an unaccountable quasi gov agency and further eliminate local/community banks

Its classic big gov establishment clinton-esque cronyism to big business all the while they tell the little people that the bill will protect them from mean evil limited gov types

[TXSTYLE]

Whenever you hear anyone try and lay blame on Democrats or one specific party for that matter, you know you are being fed some bullshit.

The Real Deal

So who is to blame? There’s plenty of blame to go around, and it doesn’t fasten only on one party or even mainly on what Washington did or didn’t do. As The Economist magazine noted recently, the problem is one of "layered irresponsibility … with hard-working homeowners and billionaire villains each playing a role." Here’s a partial list of those alleged to be at fault:

The Federal Reserve, which slashed interest rates after the dot-com bubble burst, making credit cheap.
Home buyers, who took advantage of easy credit to bid up the prices of homes excessively.
Congress, which continues to support a mortgage tax deduction that gives consumers a tax incentive to buy more expensive houses.
Real estate agents, most of whom work for the sellers rather than the buyers and who earned higher commissions from selling more expensive homes.
The Clinton administration, which pushed for less stringent credit and downpayment requirements for working- and middle-class families.
Mortgage brokers, who offered less-credit-worthy home buyers subprime, adjustable rate loans with low initial payments, but exploding interest rates.
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who in 2004, near the peak of the housing bubble, encouraged Americans to take out adjustable rate mortgages.
Wall Street firms, who paid too little attention to the quality of the risky loans that they bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), and issued bonds using those securities as collateral.
The Bush administration, which failed to provide needed government oversight of the increasingly dicey mortgage-backed securities market.
An obscure accounting rule called mark-to-market, which can have the paradoxical result of making assets be worth less on paper than they are in reality during times of panic.
Collective delusion, or a belief on the part of all parties that home prices would keep rising forever, no matter how high or how fast they had already gone up.

The U.S. economy is enormously complicated. Screwing it up takes a great deal of cooperation. Claiming that a single piece of legislation was responsible for (or could have averted) the crisis is just political grandstanding. We have no advice to offer on how best to solve the financial crisis. But these sorts of partisan caricatures can only make the task more difficult.

–by Joe Miller and Brooks Jackson

[jgoens]

Originally Posted by TXSTYLE

Whenever you hear anyone try and lay blame on Democrats or one specific party for that matter, you know you are being fed some bullshit.

The Real Deal

So who is to blame? There’s plenty of blame to go around, and it doesn’t fasten only on one party or even mainly on what Washington did or didn’t do. As The Economist magazine noted recently, the problem is one of "layered irresponsibility … with hard-working homeowners and billionaire villains each playing a role." Here’s a partial list of those alleged to be at fault:

The Federal Reserve, which slashed interest rates after the dot-com bubble burst, making credit cheap.
Home buyers, who took advantage of easy credit to bid up the prices of homes excessively.
Congress, which continues to support a mortgage tax deduction that gives consumers a tax incentive to buy more expensive houses.
Real estate agents, most of whom work for the sellers rather than the buyers and who earned higher commissions from selling more expensive homes.
The Clinton administration, which pushed for less stringent credit and downpayment requirements for working- and middle-class families.
Mortgage brokers, who offered less-credit-worthy home buyers subprime, adjustable rate loans with low initial payments, but exploding interest rates.
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who in 2004, near the peak of the housing bubble, encouraged Americans to take out adjustable rate mortgages.
Wall Street firms, who paid too little attention to the quality of the risky loans that they bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), and issued bonds using those securities as collateral.
The Bush administration, which failed to provide needed government oversight of the increasingly dicey mortgage-backed securities market.
An obscure accounting rule called mark-to-market, which can have the paradoxical result of making assets be worth less on paper than they are in reality during times of panic.
Collective delusion, or a belief on the part of all parties that home prices would keep rising forever, no matter how high or how fast they had already gone up.

The U.S. economy is enormously complicated. Screwing it up takes a great deal of cooperation. Claiming that a single piece of legislation was responsible for (or could have averted) the crisis is just political grandstanding. We have no advice to offer on how best to solve the financial crisis. But these sorts of partisan caricatures can only make the task more difficult.

–by Joe Miller and Brooks Jackson

Dude, what's up with all this bold type? I mean if your talking about Plantation Rum I'm in..but I couldn't even decipher what was here..uhmm..well I've been drinking Plantation.

[TXSTYLE]

Originally Posted by jgoens

Dude, what's up with all this bold type? I mean if your talking about Plantation Rum I'm in..but I couldn't even decipher what was here..uhmm..well I've been drinking Plantation.

Aren't you happy I recommend that superb spirit?

[jtodd_fl]

Originally Posted by ASBSECU E93

Older than me too

Wait wut? I thought you had a walker and shit? Damn shoei!

[ASAP]

Honestly, the only plus a big bank can offer is branch / atm locations... and general availability everywhere... but I cant think of a single thing else. But even then, most credit unions have shared branches and co-op atm's everywhere.

[jpnh]

Originally Posted by ASAP

Honestly, the only plus a big bank can offer is branch / atm locations... and general availability everywhere... but I cant think of a single thing else. But even then, most credit unions have shared branches and co-op atm's everywhere.

Travel overseas with a small town bank card can suck

ATM fees if you do any travel can suck and add up fast

Web security with small town banks is often times worse than bigger banks

Customer service universally sucks at big banks......

[ASAP]

Originally Posted by jpnh

Travel overseas with a small town bank card can suck

ATM fees if you do any travel can suck and add up fast

Web security with small town banks is often times worse than bigger banks

Customer service universally sucks at big banks......

Horrible idea to use a debit card overseas in the first place... bring cash or pay credit. In country travel, co op branches and partner atm's everywhere. Web security? This isn't 1995... my old CU had a better site that BOA.

[jpnh]

Originally Posted by ASAP

Horrible idea to use a debit card overseas in the first place... bring cash or pay credit. In country travel, co op branches and partner atm's everywhere. Web security? This isn't 1995... my old CU had a better site that BOA.

Debit cards are also credit cards and in past when I have used them to get local currency while overseas the rate was not punative.....ymmv depending on bank

As far as web security goes.....its not what you can see obviously....its whats on the back end.....one of the major banks we all know cant even accommodate a complex password....thats just one example.....

[VRG_135]

My partner was hit by a scam where they charged $18 per car rental charge for a service that would prevent him from getting charged if he made a reservation and didn't show up. Why anyone would ever need such a service is beyond me. As he extensively uses his amex card (its billing statement is 10 pages long per month) he didn't notice the charge till recently. Now they are stonewalling him about a refund (as he never agreed to the service in the first place). And on top of all that, they say they have a recording of him agreeing to this service, but they tell him he has to get a subpeona to hear it.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by VRG_135

My partner was hit by a scam where they charged $18 per car rental charge for a service that would prevent him from getting charged if he made a reservation and didn't show up. Why anyone would ever need such a service is beyond me. As he extensively uses his amex card (its billing statement is 10 pages long per month) he didn't notice the charge till recently. Now they are stonewalling him about a refund (as he never agreed to the service in the first place). And on top of all that, they say they have a recording of him agreeing to this service, but they tell him he has to get a subpeona to hear it.

Surely you aren't serious VRG!

If you're confident of the veracity of this story I'd like to share it around a bit. Don't worry I'm a geek - very few friends.

[kprocivic]

Originally Posted by wdb

Surely you aren't serious VRG!

If you're confident of the veracity of this story I'd like to share it around a bit. Don't worry I'm a geek - very few friends.

Lol yes that sounds like bs 101

[jgoens]

Originally Posted by TXSTYLE

Aren't you happy I recommend that superb spirit?

Absolutely!

[TrevorM3]

so how much of your guy's money is kept in banks?

[M_Six]

Got semi-screwed by US Bank. We had a free checking account because we have a mortgage thru them. But when our mortgage dropped below $25k in June, they started charging us $17.95/mo for the checking account. I didn't see it until last week. Bastards got ~$54 from me until I saw what was going on and changed my account back to a lower level for free checking. When I called them and asked WTF was going on, they acted like I should have remembered that all those years ago when I set up this account it was free based on a mortgage account of over $25k.

[ASBSECU E93]

Originally Posted by jtodd_fl

Wait wut? I thought you had a walker and shit? Damn shoei!

Nope - I'm WAAAAYYY younger than most think.

shoei has people believing I've got one foot in the nursing home :

[David70]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Got semi-screwed by US Bank. We had a free checking account because we have a mortgage thru them. But when our mortgage dropped below $25k in June, they started charging us $17.95/mo for the checking account. I didn't see it until last week. Bastards got ~$54 from me until I saw what was going on and changed my account back to a lower level for free checking. When I called them and asked WTF was going on, they acted like I should have remembered that all those years ago when I set up this account it was free based on a mortgage account of over $25k.

I had a similar problem with them and a line of credit (which they then sent me a credit card on), which I opened only to keep free checking. I canceled the credit card and they started charging me $12 a month. I called, they offered to reimburse one month if I reopened the line of credit. I changed banks.

If they do something you don't like and you don't take your business somewhere else they essentially won. They got your $54 with no negatives to them.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by David70

I had a similar problem with them and a line of credit (which they then sent me a credit card on), which I opened only to keep free checking. I canceled the credit card and they started charging me $12 a month. I called, they offered to reimburse one month if I reopened the line of credit. I changed banks.

If they do something you don't like and you don't take your business somewhere else they essentially won. They got your $54 with no negatives to them.

Very true. I'm staying basically out of laziness because the Paypal account I use for buying and selling camera gear is tied to this bank account and I'm too lazy to go through the hassle of opening a new account elsewhere and moving the Paypal account. Plus our mortgage is through them, so it's not like I can leave them completely anyway.

[ORIGIN M.]

Actually they are simply a BUNCH OF ASSHOLES!

Originally Posted by Fundguy1

Actually in the grand scheme of things, wells is an angel. BOA is the real nasty one for fees, etc.

[BayMoWe335]

I love Chase.

[Naz24]

Anybody else think Elizabeth Warren had way too much animosity towards John Stumpf? It was obvious that she was not acting impartial nor respectful.

All the news stations are calling it an "epic takedown". I cant stand the media....

[VRG_135]

Originally Posted by Naz24

Anybody else think Elizabeth Warren had way too much animosity towards John Stumpf? It was obvious that she was not acting impartial nor respectful.

All the news stations are calling it an "epic takedown". I cant stand the media....

I REALLY try not to follow Warren.......life is to short