Orlando Local

Wells Fargo completed its takeover of Wachovia and immediately implemented some draconian changes. There was one particular change that convinced me that I could not remain a customers, despite having been with Wachovia (and First Union before it) for a couple of decades.

It’s pretty simple. If you use online bill paying with most banks, the funds are withdrawn from your account when the recipient receives the payment and makes the claim. Wells Fargo extracts the funds from your account on the date you make the payment, even though it may be up to five days until the recipient gets the money. If you want to pay your mortgage on the first of every month, you can expect Wells Fargo to take your money five days prior, even though it isn’t paying your mortgage company.

I can only think of one reason for doing so – they want to use your money to earn interest or for some other business to their advantage, and at your expense. Your money is not available to you or those you pay. It’s spends time in Wells Fargo’s account, working for them. In my opinion, this is a despicable and consumer-unfriendly practice.

However, it wasn’t a surprise. This practice was explained to me long before my account was converted from Wachovia to Wells Fargo. I thought it over and decided to make a switch to SunTrust.  Doing so takes a bit of time, though, and my first pay deposit required about ten days advance to switch.

After my switch to Wells Fargo, I went online and changed the payment date for my mortgage and other payments, and I confirmed the changes were accepted.  Instead of being due on the first, I changed them so I would submit the payment on the first of July – a Friday when my paycheck arrived. Imagine my surprise a few days before the first, when I was sending a large payment to a charge card company, to learn that Wells Fargo had changed my bills back to arrive on the first of the month and that the funds were already gone. That put me in a bind to make the charge card payment from existing funds when I planned my other bills for a check that had not yet arrived.

I called Wells Fargo to inquire about this, but it was no help.  The money was gone and they would do absolutely nothing to correct the problem, nor could they sufficiently explain why my changes for the bill dates were reverted.

Goodbye, Wells Fargo. I’m leaving you because of your shady business practices and lack of respect for my money.  There’s an old saying, “money goes where it’s treated well.” I know that Wells Fargo isn’t treating my money well, so anyplace else will be an improvement.