Financial Archive

Capital One: Low Blow to Low Interest Rates

October 19th, 2009. By LucyC

Capital One got hit with a potential class action lawsuit this week, and one guess what it’s about? Interest rate hikes on its supposedly low interest rate credit cards. 

I would dare to hazard a guess that unless you live in a cave, you have likely seen one of the several Capital One’s ads promoting their low interest cards… you know the “what’s in your wallet?” campaign? Not a lot by the time Capital One is finished with you, from the sounds of things. 

The back story is sadly, not unique, but rather the predictable narrative of deceptive business practices which appear to have become the hallmark of big banking.

Capital One, the suit alleges, raised interest rates on many card holders whose accounts were in good standing. Why? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Capital One, credit cards
Posted in Financial | 1 Comment »

Prepaid Debit Road Test: Paying up front to get ripped off

October 18th, 2009. By Hunter West

Tyrell Blocker is a young fella with a family and doing the best he can. At 20 he has a newborn and all the responsibilities to go with it. 

What he doesn’t have is a bank account. He only has one piece of ID. The bank requires two, so what’s a young father to do? Head to the check-cashing place and hope to escape with the majority of your pay in your pants once you pay the fee. Or just maybe there is another way… 

Oh! But there is, says the prepaid debit card industry to the 80 million Americans who are classed as unbanked or underbanked. Just bring your paycheck to the Green Dot kiosk, or MiCash, or NetSpend, or AccountNow. Wal-Mart has one. 

Our boy Tyrell hooked up with Pay-O-Matic in Manhattan. Took his paycheck and bought a Pay-O-Matic card. Note that it’s HIS money on the card. The card is worthless until it’s pre-loaded with the client’s cash. Aside from operating the storefront, printing the cards and owing anywhere from a nickel to 20 cents to the owner of the logo that emblazes the card, card providers haven’t a whole lot to lose beyond any loss associated with a bounced paycheck or overdraft. 

But still, is that risk enough of a reason to charge more than two-dozen fees? That’s how many there are tagged to the Pay-O-Matic card. Poor Blocker didn’t know what hit him. As soon as he noticed the balance dropping like a rock every time he used his Pay-O-Matic card, even if he didn’t actually buy anything, he high-tailed it back to the kiosk to ask what the *@$% was going on. It was only then Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AccountNow, Green Dot, MiCash, Millennium Advantage, NetSpend, Only 1 Visa, Pay-O-Matic, Prepaid Debit Cards, Silver Prepaid Mastercard
Posted in Financial | 2 Comments »

Green Dot Should Be Greed Dot

October 12th, 2009. By LucyC

Almost everyone has a tale of woe when it comes to fees charged by bank cards and credit cards, but what about prepaid debit cards—the new kid on the block? 

Reportedly, some 80 million Americans are using these cards in lieu of having a bank account— and it’s proving exhaustively expensive. Why? These types of cards automatically deduct a laundry list of fees, information on which may not be easily found, and which can result in a “Surprise!” zero balance. You know—you put $200 on the card, spend $150 and then go to make a $20 purchase sometime later only to have it declined due to insufficient funds. Where’d the remaining $50 go? To the card company—in fees. 

Take Green Dot . for example. Green Dot is among the largest providers of prepaid debit cards in the US. Here’s a list of their fees that are not put front and center on their marketing materials:  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Green Dot, Prepaid Debit Card
Posted in Financial | 1 Comment »

Bank Overdraft Fees…Legal Robbery?

October 5th, 2009. By LucyC

Ever been hit by your bank with surprise overdraft fees, sometimes totalling more than the actual debit itself?  You know—you make a $3 purchase on debit, and the bank takes an additional $30 as an overdraft fee for processing the debit instead of returning it NSF—which would also have cost you money. (So where’s the protection?) 

That practice, of being “enrolled” in overdraft protection programs without the bank actually contacting you, may be coming to an end, thanks in part to lawsuits. One woman in Baltimore recently filed an overdraft fees lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, against M&T Bank in Maryland, alleging the bank’s overdraft programs are in violation of the state’s consumer protection laws. 

What’s her beef? $370 in overdraft fees. She was reportedly overdrawn twice in a 12-month period: a $12.08 charge for lunch triggered a $37 overdraft fee. And something similar happened again the following year. Maxine Given, the plaintiff, is a senior director of finance and administration for the Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine. In order to dispute the fees with her bank she had to take time off work. 

Umm, just so we’re clear—the bank didn’t need Given’s permission to take money out of her account—but did require her to come down to the bank in person with questions about the withdrawals?  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bank of America, Overdraft fees
Posted in Financial | 24 Comments »

SunTrust week from hell: Robbers! CO2! Overdraft Fees!

October 1st, 2009. By AbiK

SunTrust just can’t keep out of the news lately. If you believe in the adage that any PR is good PR, well then, SunTrust must be racking up new customers left and right. However, my gut is the type of news SunTrust has been involved with isn’t the run-right-in-and-open-an-account type.

Here’s the SunTrust round-up for the week:

1. SunTrust Bank gets Robbed

Central Florida’s been getting hit with some bank robberies as of late. This past Monday, it was SunTrust’s turn—at the SunTrust branch located at 200 S. Orange Ave. in downtown Orlando. The Orlando Sentinel reported that the suspect, a white male between 25 and 30 years old got away with “an undisclosed amount of money”. The suspect was wearing a black messenger-style bag. Thankfully, no one was injured.

2. Carbon Monoxide Fumes fill SunTrust Mortgage Location

I could make a lousy play on words here and say something about how “at least something’s getting filled at SunTrust” in relation to recent charges against SunTrust for not filling (or more aptly, freezing) some clients HELOC accounts, but I won’t. (oh, I guess I just did—sorry). But this is no joking matter. The Richmond Times Dispatch reported earlier this week that Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: SunTrust
Posted in Financial | 2 Comments »