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US Bank- Maybe the worst bank in the United States

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Don

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Aug 16, 2006, 10:37:44 AM8/16/06
to
3 years ago we told US Bank to not disclose anything about us to
outside parties via their privacy policy. Recently we opened a home
equity line of credit (we didn't borrow money just opened up a line of
credit). During this process we were asked if we wanted to have credit
life insurance and of course I said no. We were asked if we wanted a
US Bank platinum Visa and of course I said no. When we went in to sign
the forms for the line of credit the credit life was included so we
made them reprint the entire contract without credit life. A few days
later we received two US Bank Platinum Visas in the mail. I closed the
account immediately and complained to the bank but they acted like "oh
well".

Now we are receiving at least 3 or 4 letters a day from outside
parties trying to sell us credit life insurance. These are not US Bank
letters but third parties who know exactly to the penny what our line
of credit is for our new line of credit account. US Bank completely
denies they are selling our information to third parties and
acknowledges that they are aware of our privacy requests. If US Bank
isn't selling this information then who is?

In my opinion US Bank tries to sneak in products you specifically tell
them you don't want (credit life and credit cards) and they sell
private information to third parties in complete violation of their
own privacy agreement with the customer. I'm not sure what I can do
other than write a letter to the Colorado Attorney General's office.

The only reason I've not dumped this worthless Bank is I'm on an old
grand fathered plan that lets me do bill paying via Quicken. If any of
you know where I can go and continue to bill pay from Quicken (not the
banks web site) I would dump this bank in a heartbeat. To anyone
reading this I would avoid US Bank like cancer. They suck.

Don

Andrew DeFaria

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Aug 16, 2006, 11:27:47 AM8/16/06
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Don wrote:
3 years ago we told US Bank to not disclose anything about us to outside parties via their privacy policy. Recently we opened a home equity line of credit (we didn't borrow money just opened up a line of credit). During this process we were asked if we wanted to have credit life insurance and of course I said no. We were asked if we wanted a US Bank platinum Visa and of course I said no. When we went in to sign the forms for the line of credit the credit life was included so we made them reprint the entire contract without credit life. A few days later we received two US Bank Platinum Visas in the mail. I closed the account immediately and complained to the bank but they acted like "oh well".

Now we are receiving at least 3 or 4 letters a day from outside parties trying to sell us credit life insurance. These are not US Bank letters but third parties who know exactly to the penny what our line of credit is for our new line of credit account. US Bank completely denies they are selling our information to third parties and acknowledges that they are aware of our privacy requests. If US Bank isn't selling this information then who is?

In my opinion US Bank tries to sneak in products you specifically tell them you don't want (credit life and credit cards) and they sell private information to third parties in complete violation of their own privacy agreement with the customer. I'm not sure what I can do other than write a letter to the Colorado Attorney General's office.
Have you read their privacy agreement? Most say that they can give your information to financial institutions like credit agencies and other financial institutions.

The only reason I've not dumped this worthless Bank is I'm on an old grand fathered plan that lets me do bill paying via Quicken. If any of you know where I can go and continue to bill pay from Quicken (not the banks web site) I would dump this bank in a heartbeat. To anyone reading this I would avoid US Bank like cancer. They suck.
There are hundreds if not thousands of banks that do this. Have you done any of your own homework and say walk into or called any other banks and simply asked the question?

I use Union Bank of California, which is obviously a Californian bank. I'm moving to Texas and was told the Compass Bank is very good so I'll probably be switching to them. But, as I said, there are many banks that do this. I believe there's an option in Quicken's help or elsewhere that gives you a list as well as Intuit's own web site. Doesn't sound to me like you've made any effort to answer your own question.
-- 
Andrew DeFaria
Excuse me for butting in, but I'm interrupt-driven.

Don

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Aug 16, 2006, 1:04:54 PM8/16/06
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On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:27:47 -0700, Andrew DeFaria
<And...@DeFaria.com> wrote:


>There are hundreds if not thousands of banks that do this. Have you done
>any of your own homework and say walk into or called any other banks and
>simply asked the question?

There used to be. I've called 4 banks in my area today and for bill
pay you must use their website and for downloads you must use web
connect. If this is what you mean then I agree there are tons that do
this.

>
> Doesn't sound to me
>like you've made any effort to answer your own question.

Yes I have. And I've found that many banks say they support bill pay
via quicken only to find out they mean to say they support bill pay
(via their website) and Quicken via web connect. That Andrew, is not
the same as I have now.

Message has been deleted

Andrew DeFaria

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Aug 16, 2006, 2:43:07 PM8/16/06
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Don wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:27:47 -0700, Andrew DeFaria
<And...@DeFaria.com> wrote:

There are hundreds if not thousands of banks that do this. Have you done any of your own homework and say walk into or called any other banks and simply asked the question?
There used to be. I've called 4 banks in my area today and for bill pay you must use their website and for downloads you must use web connect. If this is what you mean then I agree there are tons that do this.
I understand fully and I am totally on your boat that direct download into Quicken is way preferable to web connect. The two banks I recommended do direct download. Others I've heard of are banks like Wells Fargo, etc.

You are right, lots do web connect and say they do online banking because they have a web site that does so. In fact, Union Bank of California (UBOC) does have a web site too and you can do online banking there. But they also do direct download into Quicken. In fact they started that way and the web site was added later.

I'd even think that many of the banks you called also offer direct download into Quicken but you're talking to the first line tech support here and all they know for sure is the web site and web connect. Be insistent and ask for the capability of direct download and ask to speak to somebody in the bank who knows for sure.

Doesn't sound to me like you've made any effort to answer your own question.

Yes I have. And I've found that many banks say they support bill pay
via quicken only to find out they mean to say they support bill pay
(via their website) and Quicken via web connect. That Andrew, is not
the same as I have now. 
Again, I understand fully and I'm on your side. Sorry but your initial post wasn't clear as to what homework you did before coming here. And again, often the front line people don't know what they are talking about. Even with UBOC, a bank who's direct download has been working fine for me for 10 years and who used to have a pretty savvy tech support dept has faded a bit and when I call there tech support (on rare occasions) they always try to talk to me in terms of web based online downloads or whatever. I am insistent that no, I'm speaking of direct connect not web based connect. Sometimes they just say "Oh.." and understand - other times I ask to speak to level two.

Still this is not a hard search task. Going to intuit.com and I find: http://web.intuit.com/personal/quicken/search.cfm?type=basic&qwid=qw1400&qmid=qm1400&qbid=qb1400

Which states:

Account Access
Two ways Financial Institutions support account access:
Use Direct Connect to access your account information, pay bills, transfer money and send other instructions to your institution right from within Quicken or QuickBooks. Specific services may vary by instituition.
Use Web Connect to automatically enter transactions and update balances in Quicken and QuickBooks simply by logging on to your financial institution's web site and clicking the "Download to Quicken" or "Download to QuickBooks" button.

And I click on Quicken for Windows and a very long list appears. This took me like 2 minute.

Have fun and I hope you get a good bank....
-- 
Andrew DeFaria
Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive.

Capt. Tuttle

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Aug 16, 2006, 3:39:11 PM8/16/06
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Andrew DeFaria wrote:
> Don wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:27:47 -0700, Andrew DeFaria
>> <And...@DeFaria.com> wrote:
>>
>>> There are hundreds if not thousands of banks that do this. Have you
>>> done any of your own homework and say walk into or called any other
>>> banks and simply asked the question?
>>
>> There used to be. I've called 4 banks in my area today and for bill
>> pay you must use their website and for downloads you must use web
>> connect. If this is what you mean then I agree there are tons that do
>> this.
>
> I understand fully and I am totally on your boat that *direct* download
> Account Access
> Two ways Financial Institutions support account access:
> *Use Direct Connect* to access your account information, pay bills,
> transfer money and send other instructions to your institution right
> from within Quicken or QuickBooks. Specific services may vary by
> instituition.
>
> *Use Web Connect* to automatically enter transactions and update
> balances in Quicken and QuickBooks simply by logging on to your
> financial institution's web site and clicking the "Download to Quicken"
> or "Download to QuickBooks" button.
>
>
>
> And I click on Quicken for Windows
> <http://web.intuit.com/personal/quicken/results.cfm?type=basic&product=qw&qwid=qw1400&qmid=qm1400&qbid=qb1400&qbmid=>
> and a very long list appears. This took me like 2 minute.
>
> Have fun and I hope you get a good bank....
>
> --
>
> Andrew DeFaria <http://defaria.com>

> Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive.
>

Bank of America has a red lightening bolt. You can't direct pay.
Wachovia also has a red lightening bolt. That is also wrong. I moved my
account to Wachovia only to learn it is only available for "old"
customers. I can download transactions directly, but I can not direct
pay with Quicken.
The bottom line is the list you provided is not up to date at all. My
choice of banks locally is very small, but if I could find one that
worked the way it use to I would move my account again.
More and more banks are moving away for Quicken IMHO.


John Pollard

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Aug 16, 2006, 4:26:54 PM8/16/06
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"Capt. Tuttle" <Tut...@mash.4077> wrote >

> Bank of America has a red lightening bolt. You can't direct
> pay.

I'm not sure what you mean by "direct pay". But BofA-All Other
States definitely offers direct download and definitely allows
billpay (using their billpay) via Quicken.

In fact, I had considered recommending BofA to the op, as I
think they do a good job and offer almost everything I can think
of.

Don

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Aug 16, 2006, 4:43:40 PM8/16/06
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On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:26:54 GMT, "John Pollard" <inv...@invalid.com>
wrote:


>In fact, I had considered recommending BofA to the op, as I
>think they do a good job and offer almost everything I can think
>of.
>
>> Wachovia also has a red lightening bolt. That is also wrong.
>

I've come to the conclusion that US Bank probably broke no privacy
laws or agreement. When I read over the statement it is all about
fooling the customer into thinking he/she is making their information
private. There are a million caveats to this thing which basically
means they can do whatever they want with your information.

With that said I still think US Bank is the bottom dweller of banks
because they tried to sneak in credit life insurance (probably the
biggest single rip off in the financial industry) and they sent me two
Platinum Visa's when I specifically said I have no interest in that.

I'll probably stick it out with the bottom dweller since my Quicken
access is free. Actually free is a relative term here since they pay
me .01% interest on a $10,000 savings account. That's how I get it for
"free". Bottom Dweller 1 .... Don - 0.

Andrew DeFaria

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Aug 17, 2006, 12:33:57 AM8/17/06
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Capt. Tuttle wrote:
Bank of America has a red lightening bolt. You can't direct pay. Wachovia also has a red lightening bolt. That is also wrong. I moved my account to Wachovia only to learn it is only available for "old" customers. I can download transactions directly, but I can not direct pay with Quicken.  The bottom line is the list you provided is not up to date at all.
What do you me by "you" keemosabe?!? I didn't not make that list! Intuit did. Your beef is with them.

My choice of banks locally is very small, but if I could find one that worked the way it use to I would move my account again.
More and more banks are moving away for Quicken IMHO.
Not necessarily away from Quicken but towards the web. Hell Usenet itself is moving more and more to web based forums.
-- 
Andrew DeFaria
Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. - Niels Bohr

Andrew DeFaria

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Aug 17, 2006, 12:36:41 AM8/17/06
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John Pollard wrote:
"Capt. Tuttle" <Tut...@mash.4077> wrote >
Bank of America has a red lightening bolt. You can't direct pay.
I'm not sure what you mean by "direct pay". But BofA-All Other States definitely offers direct download and definitely allows
billpay (using their billpay) via Quicken.

In fact, I had considered recommending BofA to the op, as I think they do a good job and offer almost everything I can think
of.
I've had a horrible experience with a BofA credit card so bad that I swore never to use them again. Recently they sent me one of them thar credit card offers with the checks and all. Luckily they included the weapon which is a self addressed and postage paid envelop which I proceeded to use to mail an extremely profane letter back to them. Man that felt good! ;-)
-- 
Andrew DeFaria
I tried sniffing Coke once, but the ice cubes froze the end of my nose.

Andrew DeFaria

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Aug 17, 2006, 12:39:39 AM8/17/06
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Don wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:26:54 GMT, "John Pollard" <inv...@invalid.com> wrote:

I've come to the conclusion that US Bank probably broke no privacy laws or agreement. When I read over the statement it is all about fooling the customer into thinking he/she is making their information private. There are a million caveats to this thing which basically means they can do whatever they want with your information.
Exactly!.... What I expected! ;-)
With that said I still think US Bank is the bottom dweller of banks because they tried to sneak in credit life insurance (probably the biggest single rip off in the financial industry) and they sent me two Platinum Visa's when I specifically said I have no interest in that.
Ah... excuse me but sending you to Visa's that you did not ask for is not being the "biggest single rip off in the financial industry". It's stupid, bad customer service and makes them look like a fool, I agree, but nothing was ripped off financially. I understand you're angry and I would be too. But let's at least remain logical...

I'll probably stick it out with the bottom dweller since my Quicken access is free. Actually free is a relative term here since they pay me .01% interest on a $10,000 savings account. That's how I get it for "free". Bottom Dweller 1 .... Don - 0.
Why don't you put that $10K into a better investment then?
-- 
Andrew DeFaria
If you blow into a dog's face, it will drive it crazy. Why is it when you take them for a ride in a car, they stick their head out of the window?

Han

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Aug 17, 2006, 6:53:05 AM8/17/06
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Don <d...@comcast.net> wrote in news:qia6e257iccb3f6e8k0758ocq1427gr63a@
4ax.com:

> 3 years ago we told US Bank to not disclose anything about us to
> outside parties via their privacy policy. Recently we opened a home
> equity line of credit (we didn't borrow money just opened up a line of
> credit).

<snip>

I belive you might have overlooked a simple fact. I think I have this
correct, but will accept corrections.

By getting a line of credit you have just "registered" a mortgage with the
local governmental institution(s). Here in NJ that's the county. That is
public information that anyone can access, and of course the leeches will
try to profit. Depending on your personal situation, it might be a good
idea to get some kind of insurance against the eventuality your
breadwinning potential stops (as when run over by a truck). Usually term
life insurance is the cheapest (I believe). It seems likely that in your
case something like that is superfluous, but others may not be that lucky.

--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid

Don

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Aug 17, 2006, 8:27:12 AM8/17/06
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On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:39:39 -0700, Andrew DeFaria
<And...@DeFaria.com> wrote:


>Ah... excuse me but sending you to Visa's that you did not ask for is
>not being the "biggest single rip off in the financial industry". It's
>stupid, bad customer service and makes them look like a fool, I agree,
>but nothing was ripped off financially. I understand you're angry and I
>would be too. But let's at least remain logical...

reread my post. I said Credit Life is the biggest rip off not credit
cards.

>Why don't you put that $10K into a better investment then?

Then everything I get for free wouldn't be free. That's why.

Don

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Aug 17, 2006, 8:33:25 AM8/17/06
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On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 10:53:05 GMT, Han <nob...@nospam.not> wrote:


>By getting a line of credit you have just "registered" a mortgage with the
>local governmental institution(s). Here in NJ that's the county. That is
>public information that anyone can access, and of course the leeches will
>try to profit. Depending on your personal situation, it might be a good
>idea to get some kind of insurance against the eventuality your
>breadwinning potential stops (as when run over by a truck). Usually term
>life insurance is the cheapest (I believe). It seems likely that in your
>case something like that is superfluous, but others may not be that lucky.

I think you're right about the registered mortgage stuff. My wife
sells for Re/Max and said the same thing. Believe me we don't need
insurance on a line of credit. The only reason we got the line of
credit is because I recently took advantage of the new Colorado law
that lets you freeze all three credit reporting accounts so that no
one can steal our identity. So just before we did that we got a large
line of credit just in case we stumbled on a home that was a steal and
had to move fast. Other than that we would never tap into this credit
line.

Ronald Pierce

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Aug 17, 2006, 8:55:32 AM8/17/06
to
On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:27:12 -0600, Don <d...@comcast.net> wrote:
...

>>Why don't you put that $10K into a better investment then?
>Then everything I get for free wouldn't be free. That's why.

Ah, but "Free" takes on a whole new meaning here - How much interest
do you make on that $10,000.00? How much interest would you make
putting that $10,000.00 in a Internet based bank savings account at
5.2% interest? Does the cost of online-banking cost more than you
would earn in interst? How about if you put it in a large-cap growth
fund averaging 8-10% per year? Would you earn more interest than
online banking costs?

In this case, Free means the lost opportunity cost of the $10,000.00
to earn more than the measly .01% interest. Calculate it out and you
may or may not want to pay the cash for the online-banking - as the
out of pocket costs may or may not be less.

- Ron

Don

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Aug 17, 2006, 9:15:30 AM8/17/06
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On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:55:32 GMT, Ronald Pierce <r...@pierceplace.net>
wrote:


>Ah, but "Free" takes on a whole new meaning here - How much interest
>do you make on that $10,000.00? How much interest would you make
>putting that $10,000.00 in a Internet based bank savings account at
>5.2% interest? Does the cost of online-banking cost more than you
>would earn in interst? How about if you put it in a large-cap growth
>fund averaging 8-10% per year? Would you earn more interest than
>online banking costs?
>
>In this case, Free means the lost opportunity cost of the $10,000.00
>to earn more than the measly .01% interest. Calculate it out and you
>may or may not want to pay the cash for the online-banking - as the
>out of pocket costs may or may not be less.
>
> - Ron

Ron ..... this is a very old argument. I know about opportunity cost
and even mentioned this in an earlier post. I agree with everything
you're saying and understand all of it. It's only 10k which is not a
large sum of money. And yes I could change banks but what a pain in
the ass that would be. I have lots of auto bill pays through US Bank.
I have this checking account linked to Emigrant Direct savings in NYC
(which pays 5.15% on normal savings). Most likely what I'll do is move
the 10k to Emigrant which would more than offset the $15/month I would
then incurr with ScrewUs Bank. Time is money Ron. It's only 10k.

Andrew DeFaria

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Aug 17, 2006, 10:14:26 AM8/17/06
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Don wrote:
On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:39:39 -0700, Andrew DeFaria <And...@DeFaria.com> wrote:
Ah... excuse me but sending you to Visa's that you did not ask for is not being the "biggest single rip off in the financial industry". It's stupid, bad customer service and makes them look like a fool, I agree,  but nothing was ripped off financially. I understand you're angry and I  would be too. But let's at least remain logical...
reread my post. I said Credit Life is the biggest rip off not credit cards.
You're right. My mistake.

Why don't you put that $10K into a better investment then?
Then everything I get for free wouldn't be free. That's why.
Surely you could find an investment on $10K that produces more in returns than the fees that they would charge...
-- 
Andrew DeFaria
I love defenseless animals, especially in a good gravy

Capt. Tuttle

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Aug 17, 2006, 1:09:11 PM8/17/06
to
John Pollard wrote:

> I'm not sure what you mean by "direct pay". But BofA-All Other
> States definitely offers direct download and definitely allows
> billpay (using their billpay) via Quicken.
>

What I mean is that you enter a payment into Quicken, do an update, and
your transactions are sent and received.
What I don't want and didn't have to do until recently was as you said
"using their billpay". The key word here is "their". The banks use to
allow payments sent directly from the program. There was no "their" web
site or "their" payment program. Quicken did it all very simply, very
easily, and very well.

John Pollard

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Aug 17, 2006, 1:48:57 PM8/17/06
to
com
Please reply to newsgroup
"Capt. Tuttle" <Tut...@mash.4077> wrote in message
news:Xo1Fg.9966$0e5....@newsread4.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Sorry, but you are misunderstanding what I said; and your
interpretation of what BofA offers (and others with the same
arrangement) is incorrect.

This

"you enter a payment into Quicken, do an update, and your
transactions are sent and received"

is exactly what is meant by "using their billpay" "via Quicken".

"Using their billpay" "via Quicken" does NOT mean logging onto
their web site to use it.


Don

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Aug 17, 2006, 5:47:00 PM8/17/06
to
Here's an update on US Bank. I went into a branch today and said if
they couldn't pay better than .10% interest on $10,000 I was closing
out my four accounts. They immediately put the $10,000 in a 9 month CD
paying 5% (yes I'm aware I could do better without tying my money up
in a CD but I want to avoid $15.95/month checking account charge).
Even better they flipped a code on my checking account to make is some
Gold elite or something that means it's free period. Free checks, free
traveler checks, free money orders, free everything. Perhaps it was
the rather large home equity line of credit I opened who knows. So I
found one person in US Bank who seems to care and had the power to
make things right. And she was good looking to boot. Life continues.

Capt. Tuttle

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Aug 17, 2006, 6:44:17 PM8/17/06
to

Maybe I misunderstood or I'm incorrect, but from my own experience you
can not pay bills with Wachovia or Bank of America via Quicken. You MUST
use their web site.

Don

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Aug 17, 2006, 7:28:13 PM8/17/06
to
On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 22:44:17 GMT, "Capt. Tuttle" <Tut...@mash.4077>
wrote:


>Maybe I misunderstood or I'm incorrect, but from my own experience you
>can not pay bills with Wachovia or Bank of America via Quicken. You MUST
>use their web site.

Actually I recently opened a new account at Wachovia for my parents
because they said they support bill pay via quicken. WRONG! But after
I went up the food chain I got what was promised and pay their bills
via Quicken not their website.

John Pollard

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Aug 17, 2006, 11:26:43 PM8/17/06
to
"Capt. Tuttle" <Tut...@mash.4077>

> Maybe I misunderstood or I'm incorrect, but from my own
> experience you can not pay bills with Wachovia or Bank of
> America via Quicken. You MUST use their web site.

I use BofA (All Other States): I have no idea how Wachovia
operates. I pay (some of my) bills by entering the billpay
transactions in Quicken ... then letting Quicken send the
transactions to BofA when I do a One Step Update. I never have
to log on to BofA's web site to do this; but the process does
use BofA's bill pay service, *not* Quicken Billpay.


John Pollard

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Aug 17, 2006, 11:30:01 PM8/17/06
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"Don" <d...@comcast.net> wrote

Who'd a thunk it? :)

Perhaps if you start throwing your weight around a bit more, you
might find ... who knows? :)


pyotr filipivich

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Aug 18, 2006, 6:15:08 AM8/18/06
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Okay, so I'm late and catching up, but Ronald Pierce <r...@pierceplace.net>
wrote on Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:55:32 GMT in
alt.comp.software.financial.quicken :

>On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:27:12 -0600, Don <d...@comcast.net> wrote:
>...
>>>Why don't you put that $10K into a better investment then?
>>Then everything I get for free wouldn't be free. That's why.
>
>Ah, but "Free" takes on a whole new meaning here - How much interest
>do you make on that $10,000.00? How much interest would you make
>putting that $10,000.00 in a Internet based bank savings account at
>5.2% interest? Does the cost of online-banking cost more than you
>would earn in interst? How about if you put it in a large-cap growth
>fund averaging 8-10% per year? Would you earn more interest than
>online banking costs?

I opened the Premium account because I had enough cash to qualify for
the "free" services. But as the years when by, and the cash left dwindled
(moved to other investments, major bills getting paid off), I down graded
the account, as I saw no reason to be excited over an interest payment
which was smaller than the service charge.

--
pyotr filipivich
"Set phasers to deep fat fy, extra crispy, Cajun style."

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