Community

Just came across this article about Wells Fargo's move to charge fees for using debit cards:

http://www.mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2011/08/16/wells-fargo-charging-debit-card-fees/

A few things are clear from the article and the accompanying comments:

1. Fees, and not customer service, is topmost in the mind of Wells Fargo and maybe other banks hit with recent regulations around debit interchange.
2. Many customers are upset about these fees and have already closed their WF accounts.  
3. Are they switching to other big banks? Unlikely, since most of them have tarred all big banks with the same brushstroke and signaled their intent to switch to credit unions and community banks. 

It will be interesting to watch whether other big banks follow WF's lead with such fees.

While a niche segment of customers might prefer mobile payments for whatever reason, cash and checks can't be beaten for their sheer convenience among the mainstream. Once the novelty wears out, convenience will trump. According to a recent article from the TIME magazine, INGDirect USA decided to bow down to customer pressure and offer checkbooks for their - yes - online checking account holders. It's quite telling to hear ING's head of product strategy say in this article, “It’s not something that our customers want; it’s really something they need". With this move, ING hopes to "draw more customers who are ambivalent about a traditional banking relationship but don’t want to give up any conveniences".

http://moneyland.time.com/2011/08/15/online-banking-customers-demand-paper-checks/

As many - presumably GenXers and BabyBoomers - have realized, switching banks is more painful than undergoing a root canal. Willingness apart, wonder how many of the surveyed GenYers have experienced either of these pains! And it's not as though the next bank is guaranteed to provide any better customer service than the last one.

Hopefully, regulators have enough teeth while trying to get banks to comply with account number portability regulations.

Mobile RDC is a great example but isn't that a product? If my check doesn't get credited and I'm forced to avail myself of banks' customer service, I think I'd be on hold for 297 minutes with most of them!

I'd anyday prefer a bank that does things right first time so that I don't have to use their customer service.

@Finextra Member: Finextra needs to know who's asking only after s/he has asked, not before. Just to be clear, the sequence I've proposed is (1) Everyone reading the article will see the orange button without having to log on (2) If someone wants to subscribe to comments without adding a comment at that point, they click the orange button (3) The logon screen opens up and they log on (4) Finextra knows whom to send the notification emails to.       

Wouldn't it be better to see the orange button even before logging on? When I just checked, only the text link "Log in to receive notifications when someone posts a comment" - not the orange button - was visible prior to logging on. 

Receiving a statement as an email attachment, entering a password, opening it, then having to telephone the Call Center to report discrepancies - these are but a few areas of friction that make me (and many others I daresay) prefer paper statements. While the article doesn't say so explicitly, it appears that ActivePath's 2Way Email avoids attachments, provides the statement in the body of the email and allows complaints by simply replying to the email. If so, it could prove disruptive, ween a lot of customers away from paper statements and bolster the adoption of e-statements. Props to ActivePath.

Wonga guarantees that the approved loan amount will be credited to the borrower's bank account in 30 minutes. This is better use of FPS than I have seen in any other consumer service including from retail banks. Having said that, with an interest of GBP 45 on a GBP 265 loan for 15 days, its APR works out to over 4000% (Source: http://www.wonga.com/money/how-to-wonga).

There's no better way of saying it, but, if this isn't more exploitative and customer-unfriendly than usury / blackmarketing / loansharking, what is?

With the common man supposedly hunkering down on credit card debt that costs a relatively miniscule double-digit APR %, how many people are likely to use a service like Wonga on a sustained basis with its four-figure APR? Even if they don't realize the huge premium they are paying for speed, convenience and other good things offered by Wonga and others, how long will it be before regulators come down on them especially in the current regulatory environment where banks are seeing single or double digit caps on overdraft fees? Recent developments in countries like USA and India that have already brought parts of the operations of PayPal, Western Union, MoneyGram and others under regulatory scrutiny suggest that the day is not too far off. 

It has the fanfare of a feature but isn't this a bug? Seriously.

@Sachin S:

I never received SMS alerts on my UK credit or debit cards. I've read about Visa attempting a few pilots for realtime SMS alerts for credit cards in the USA and a resultant lawsuit claiming patent infringement. Since they weren't directly relevant under the context of the article or my previous comment, I hadn't brought up these points before. Now that you've made a mention, I'm keen on knowing about other countries where this feature is common / mandatory / hygeine factor. 

"To clamp down on card fraud, it ... suggests the introduction of SMS fraud alerts to warn customers of unusual spending activity."

Well, many banks in India started sending out realtime SMS alerts for every credit card transaction around 45 days ago. During this period, I've been able to spot one fraudulent transaction. Props to banks for introducing this valuable service. So far, it seems to be offered free-of-cost but I won't mind paying a nominal fee for it.