Being somewhat involved in the integration of Wachovia and Wells Fargo, I am fully aware of the questions and stresses people are dealing with these days. Customers and clients face the stress of wondering how products, services, and relationships will change. Even more broadly, people face the stress of paying bills and keeping up with debt.
There's also the stress of dealing with market volatility. A couple of months ago that stress stemmed from watching market declines — now it may stem from watching the market going back up and wondering when is the right time to get back in!
I never liked the word "stress." Perhaps because it's one of those words that by itself may evoke the emotion it designates. Often when people talk about stress, they actually get stressed. As you know if you saw my last post (Bouncing Back in Tough Times), I think it's much more helpful to focus on the positive, our resilience, rather than on stress.
In cardiac medicine, when folks with a medium risk of heart disease are worried about their hearts (due to various risk factors, such as smoking, family history, or high cholesterol), they undergo stress tests 
to diagnose how well the blood flows through their arteries during exercise.
Certainly the market gyrations — whether up or down — feel to me like one of those tests. The intensity sometimes just appears to grow and grow, like a treadmill that won't stop rising.
But what can you do beyond getting tested? What can you do to help you make it through the ordeal or even to do well when you get to the other side?
One of the things we know (again, from cardiac medicine) is that patients who have made it through an "event," such as a heart attack, and who return home to a social, engaging environment with people they love and trust, do much better than people who leave the hospital and must manage alone. Trust and connection help us heal.
Trusted connections can help us heal from this economic "event" as well. So how can you make such connections, especially when you may feel that your advisors or others may have let you down? Here are some qualities that I look for in a trusted connection:
- Confidence. When I ask for help, I put myself on the line. I need to know that the person I trust will respect my confidence.
- Respect. Someone I trust must respect me, but I must also respect him or her.
- Affirmation. I don't want my trusted advisors to be "yes" men or women. Someone I trust must tell me the truth, even when it hurts. But a trusted connection will also affirm my strengths and lift me up when I'm down.
- Hope. A trusted advisor will always point out the risks to me, but will also remind me that I have the power to make choices that can enhance my life, my work, or my financial situation.
And here are two more characteristics that form the core of trust for me:
- Competence. I must trust that people I look to for help know what they are doing and are at the top of their game.
- Good Intent. Trusting involves sharing and making myself vulnerable. I must know that the people I trust truly care for my own good and have my best interest at heart.
A long time ago, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates criticized his fellow Athenians for knowing exactly how much silver they had in the bank, but not being able to enumerate their most important assets, their true friends.
So, stepping off the treadmill for a moment, who do you trust for good advice and wise counsel? How did you find these people? Do they have other characteristics in addition to the ones listed above? Please let us know.
Trust? "Wachovia" and "trust" should NOT be in the same sentence...
I would like to use your blog to denounce Wachovia for lack of better business practices. IT IS A SHAME THAT AFTER ALL THOSE MILLIONS (IF NOT BILLIONS) OF DOLLARS THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS GIVEN THIS BANK, WACHOVIA CHARGES INSANE OVERDRAFT FEES INSTEAD OF HELPING ITS CUSTOMERS TO AVOID SUCH CHARGES.
So before I close my account, I would like to have some answers to the following questions:
1. Why would Wachovia allow a customer to charge purchases when there are no funds in the account?
2. Why would Wachovia NOT automatically notify the customer that they are now overdraft so that the customer does not keep on using his/her card
3. Why not stop/cancel all purchases once the account has been identified as overdraft?
HAD I NOT CHECKED MY ACCOUNT THIS MORNING, I WOULD STILL BE ABLE TO USE MY CARD AND KEEP ON OVERDRAFTING TRANSACTION AFTER TRANSACTION AT A RATE OF $35 EACH? O MY GOD!!!
Where are your business ethics when you allow a customer with a $0 balance to keep on overdafting only to charge fees for every transaction?
I'm not a banker, but I'm sure there are better ways to make money from your customers. I hope the $70 I paid in fees goes to save somebody's job, instead of going to a bank policy maker, who does not care about Wachovia's customers.
I would love to hear from somebody who can answer these questions, other than a phone representative who has little or no power to make changes to your bank policies.
People around the internet should be aware of this bank's predatory practices
An overdraft by another name is called a bounced check - they send you to jail for those.
I don't understand why you are angry at the bank. They didn't tell you to spend more than you have.
ALL Banks have overdraft fees, and they should - I don't want to have higher account fees because you spend more than you have.
By the way, if there is a legit reason for the o/d - contact your branch manager. Depending on the situation they might waive some of the fees.
I accidentally went o/d once due to a vendor double charging my card and they waived my over draft fee.
that's why they have a balance book with your checks
I'm sorry but are you blaming Wachovia for your inability to manage your checking account?
I'm not always a fan of the big banks but this one is on you.
Maybe you should have taken a life skills course in high school to learn how to balance your checkbook. It isn't the bank's fault you don't know how to manage your finances.
People that overdraft their accounts cost the bank and other customers money for the additional costs to process the bounced checks and transactions.
Take responsibility for your own actions instead of blaming the bank.
@Jamie (June 17, 2009 11:18 a.m.)
It's called personal responsibility. These charges are disclosed on Wachovia's fee summary (given to every account holder and made available upon request). It is your responsibility to monitor your account. You can log in online or call (800) WACHOVIA 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Wachovia accounts have fraud protection. If a transaction posted to your account that you didn't make call Wachovia and speak with an agent. They're more than willing to help.
I don't know where people get the idea that it is the financial institution's fault for their own neglect to manage their personal financial matters responsibly.
I'm no accounting expert here... But I know how to balance my checking account.
I know that even though I have a good balance today, there are checks outstanding that can post at any time. Just because I write a check, the funds aren't withdrawn when I mail it off.
This whole issue with overdraft fees has me disturbed, NOT with the bank, but by people who are unable to manage their checking account.
It's very simple folks: DON'T SPEND WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE.
There... So don't hate the bank. Check yourself.
It should be noted that both Wachovia and Wells Fargo offer overdraft protection. If someone fears they will overdraft their account (which they shouldn't if they balance their checkbook or monitor their account activity online), simply link the checking account to a savings account, credit card, or line of credit. I use overdraft protection not because of an error on my part, but because I fear a merchant may make a mistake. A small fee may be charged to cover the purchase, but it will not be more than numerous $35 fees.
Why are you not keeping up with your own balance? Why did you sign the depositors agreement that told you why,when and how the fees would apply? Why do you not have overdraft protection that Wachovia provides to help customers who don't have enough sense to keep a register? Why don't you take responsibilty for spending money you don't have?
Let's see the bank has two choices...
1. Let you bounce your payments to utilities, mortgage and cause your credit to be damaged (or cause you embarrassment at the store), or
2. Give you a loan to spend their money so your transactions go through and then charge you a small fee for the cost you caused them to process the transactions so your mortgage and power bill is still paid on time.
If I was irresponsible and couldn't balance my checkbook like you, I'd choose option 2. You can call the bank and have them tun on the feature so transactions do not go through. You can also get overdraft protection.
I agree that overdraft fees are a nuisance, and I don't understand why they charge for each instance. For example, $35 for an instance where I went $5 over through a series of $2 and $1 charges, which resulted in fees of more than $100. That seems a bit excessive. They "loaned" me $5 and charged me $100.
The bank did not "loan" you the money - you took what did not belong to you -hence the fees
Overdraft fees are supposed to deter you from doing it again. If the overdraft was caused by an error you can request to get the fee waived - if not - then perhaps paying the $100 will make you pay closer attention in the future.
I agree that the bank is taking advantage of it's customers and are making millions upon millions off of overdraft fees. Transactions of even less than a dollar are allowed to go through at $35 a pop. I believe that yes we should be notified about these charges, Virgin Mobile warns me when my minutes are low or when they are going to charge my monthly ammount or when I get close to going over my minutes. Its time for banks to set a new standard.
I honestly believe that some of the respones here have been from our very own bank employees.
The bank "WILL" allow charges to go through until they meet there "SET" limit of OVERDRAFT and NEGATIVE balance combinations. Thanks for the $165 n fees!
Again, for those who are complaining of the overdraft fees, did Wells Fargo and/or Wachovia not disclose these fees to you when you opened the account? They did for me. And, no one forced you to open a checking account with these banks. Also, why don't any of you have overdraft protection? Link the account to a credit card or line of credit, and you won't be charged multiple overdraft fees.
And, I am NOT a Wells Fargo or Wachovia employee.
I AM A WACHOVIA CUSTOMER. I must say I don't know what Wells Fargo was thinking! I ordered a card for a second account that is for my grandson(his mother died 2003). Somehow, whoever handled this KILLED my main acct card. I was told DECLINED at Taco Bell when I knew the acct. had 2700.00. So I used the other card. Ok , thought it was a fluke, came home checked online, sure enough our money was still there. Next day I was declined ! Called so-called CSR, was told she would order me a new MAIN card, would Fed-Ex it. I took off work to receive it Wednesday the 1st like she said, it has to be signed for. This is Sunday the 5th , it is still NOT HERE !
For those having problems with o/d fees - why not use a pre-paid visa for your purchases? That way you would not have to worry about o/d fees - the card won't let you spend more than you have.
I am a Wells Fargo customer, soon to be ex wells fargo customer (i'm switching to a credit union on the next pay period). While I hold myself entirely responsible for the O/D charges I make (times are tough right now and I'm scraping by, so please don't judge), I also know for a fact that Wells Fargo purposely rearranges my charges so that they overdraft. Say I have $70 in my account. On Sunday I make a $20 purchase, and a $30 purchase and on Tuesday the $114 for my Wells Fargo loan automatically gets taken out of my account. They process the loan amount first over drafting my account and then process the last two overdrafting it two more times. I've seen them do this many a time. And it's just stress I don't need when I'm already trying to make ends meet. The $70 in fees they took from me this time I was going to use to buy groceries.
Yes, I just went into a Wells Fargo Bank for the second time to close a home equity loan - again. The first time they did not close my account and said that they applied it my principal instead of interest keeping it open. This is after I had gone through the trouble of obtaining a cashiers check for the exact amount and taking it to them. Then I had to go back and close it again after they pulled another payment from automatic withdrawal even though I already had a net positive balance on my account from overpaying. I used to think that Wells Fargo was the best of the banks, now I know it is not. No, trust and respect do not belong in the same sentence as Wells Fargo. I am happy to be a credit union member even though it makes things more inconvenient for me sometimes.
We have a rental villa in Florida and sometimes get paid by foreign banks. A Canadian customer went to the trouble of obtaining a US dollar check (Royal Bank Of Canada) for $250 deposit a few months ago and we desposited it OK. Then they sent the check for the rest of the rental, $685, again a US dollar check on Royal Bank of Canada.
This time Wachovia charged us a $75 fee, and another $50 fee. Why is this? We emailed to ask and they said they could not help, we had to phone them. The person on the phone did not know why, hiding behind 'official charges' but they didn't seem to know and just wanted to get us off the phone. How can a $685 check in US dollars be charged $125 to deposit it in a US bank account? This sort of thing does not happen in the UK - we would be charged a maximum of $30