General Banking Advice - Page 4

I moved my money from BoA to a smaller local bank, and they're just happy that anyone is walking through the door so the service has been great so far.

Who did you go with as I've been debating the same move (current bank is BoA)?

It's actually only in the Miami area, I wanted to be as localized as possible.

Ahh. I was looking at First Citrus and 1st United. Both Florida banks with strong ties to the community.

I know what you mean. I did my research to the best of my ability to make sure the bank has enough capital behind it to be a bank for as long as I need it to be. Which is about six more months.

I called them up. They noted that they saw an increase in purchases, which I explained was due to my recent move. I spent approx. $2000 over 4 mos to furnish my new apartment which are obviously one time purchases. I reiterated that I'd been a loyal consumer paying more than the minimum payment each month with no missed payments and that I was nowhere near the previous limit ($13000). They said with the economy and my student status they thought I was high risk. You know what makes me a high risk, douchebags? Fucking with my credit score because the credit limit slash maxed my credit limit!

In any case, they said if I reduced the debt (roughly $5000) they'd reconsider raising the limit; it's currently reduced to $6100. My brother sold some of my stocks to liquidate some cash and I paid a lump sum of $2500 today. He also referred me to Privacy Assist. For $9.99/mos they give you total access to all your records. I got my credit score from all three creditors (two were in the high 600s and one in low 700s); a lengthy credit report with every credit card, loan, etc. I've ever had my entire life; free email and text alerts any time there is activity on my credit report; and best of all the site has a simulator where you can plug in any number of scenarios to see how it would affect your credit score. You can also talk one-on-one to a Credit Specialist to ask specific questions are go through your report with you.

I fiddled with the simulator and basically, if I close a few of my department store cards (which I never use anyway) and bring down the debt on all my cards to under 50% of the limit (which they were before this clusterfuck), I can increase my credit score by over 30 points. My current credit score after this clusterfuck is Fair to Good. Hopefully, after this payment goes through, I should bump up to a solid Good rating.

Seriously, if anyone wants to join the Privacy Assist, use my name to get the $9.99 referral rate. All they asked me is who referred me, I said my bro, and that was it.

Totally. Though I wouldn't have spent that much money on the card if I didn't have the means to pay it off. My grandfather taught me well. My brother said that when he got his first car, he had my grandfather co-sign. The woman saw his credit and exclaimed she had never seen a score so high. He is fanatical about paying things on time, not paying fees of any kind, and generally keeping on top of all things financial.

Anyone interested in alternatives to one of the corporate banking giants can find out a lot at Move Your Money.

I work for a medium-sized credit union and today, with options like shared branching, the Co-Op Network, and with so many merchants accepting check/debit cards and offering cash-back, there are a lot fewer barriers to moving to a community bank or credit union; most offer every financial service you'd need, and typically with better rates.

The fact that the majors have ATM's on every corner used to be one of their big selling points, but that's becoming less and less important as more merchants offer debit/credit transactions, and move away from surcharges for plastic purchases: in most places, paying for a coffee with your debit card costs no more than paying in cash.

ETA: And while I don't know for sure about community banks, credit unions were generally far less likely to get into subprime lending. They're also covered by NCUA, with government-backed insurance that works the same as FDIC.

You might double check on closing the cards. Some places look at closed cards as a problem. Usually it's about having all your debt at a low ratio to your available balances on all cards. It's ok to have cards you don't use.

If any of you have a parent, sibling etc in the Military, do your best to join the Navy Federal Credit Union and/or USAA. Statistically Military personnel tend to pay their debts more consistently, so you can get some great loan rates and Credit Card interest rates

Last year USAA actually lowered my credit card interest rate, well below anything those bastards at Citi were willing to offer, and I didn't even ask!

Really? I might look into that when I move.

Nah, I did. I have cards I don't use. But Department store cards have low credit limits and high APRs. They generally aren't worth keeping.

Yeah, my dad was in the Navy, and I've had USAA insurance since I could drive. Over the years, I've had other companies take a shot at beating their price/service, and no one could do it.

Be careful about any limitations a small bank may have on you. I did that once about five years ago - figured I was sick of the big banks nickle and diming me, so I went with my friendly neighborhood local bank. Bad, bad stuff - I hated them, I was with them for about a hot minute before I went running to open an account with BoA (where I've been pretty happy for the past five years - so far!).

The first bit of trouble I ran into with them was a very big red flag. I had gotten a holiday bonus which was just enough for a new sofa and coffee table. The money hit my account, and off to the furniture store I went. I picked out the sofa and table I wanted, and the saleswoman wrote up the paperwork. I gave her my bank card to pay for it with - and it was declined. I not only enough money in my bank account, but I had much more than enough, so I didn't understand. It was very embarrassing, we went to call the bank - and all that was on the back of my card was the number for my local branch, which was closed by that time of the day. No emergency 800 number or anything. So we had to terminate the sale, and I had to go home and wait till the next day to call the actual branch and find out what happened.

They pretty much told me the same thing that Diva ran into. "Oh, well, it was such a big purchase, we got nervous about the amount." And you know, great, I'm all for my bank looking out for me, but on the other hand, it's not their business to tell me how much to be spending. She actually said on the phone, "It just seemed like it was a lot more money than our other customers normally spend." I mean, what?

So I was pissed - plus, at that time, my brother had just died not too long before that, and my niece and nephew were still pretty young, so I was staying with them every so often if my sister-in-law had a business trip to go on. And I thought, "Jesus Christ, what if there's an emergency with one of the kids, and these dickheads decide I can't spend money for medicine or an emergency room visit?" And no emergency after hours 800 number - just that local branch number that you can't get through after 5:00 PM. So, yeah, I think I banked with them about two months tops before I closed my accounts and fairly sprinted over to BoA for the covenience of a big bank.

True, but that's also why I like BoA - I have that after hours emergency service where I can do that, plus, they look out for me pretty well in general. Oh, and the little bank - I couldn't even fix the problems they caused me over the phone! I had to come into the branch to do anything! The branch was in my neighborhood in Queens, I work in Manhattan, so by the time I'd get back to my neighborhood, the bank was closed. So if I ran into a problem on a Monday, I couldn't deal with it till Saturday. Unless BoA does something really really heinous with me, I'll tolerate a small amount of nickle-and-diming for the protection of a big bank.

By the way, many financial institutions today allow you to give their security department your cell phone number so they can call you immediately to verify transactions like that.

I have a question as it pertains to credit scores and the people/companies that offer to help improve your credit score for, say, $300.

My situation is kind of a crappy one. I've never had a problem paying most bills, never been late on utilities, credit cards, mortgage, car loans, any of that stuff. However, starting around 4-5 years ago, I routinely had significant medical bills I couldn't afford to pay. I wasn't smart about it at the time and never really called the hospitals or doctors to work things out and keep it smooth. I just stopped paying stuff and stopped answering the phone when they would call. Stupid, I know. Well, now I am in a better financial situation and as soon as I get my credit card debt all paid down (hopefully with my tax refund but definitely by mid-year if not before) I want to start working on getting my credit score improved because I'd like to move to another, better house sometime in the next couple years..

So I check out my credit score for one of the bureaus and, as I suspected, it was complete shit. But the thing that took me by surprise was it said I had somewhere around $11,000-12,000 total that debt collectors were trying to get from me. I don't have the paper trail to prove them wrong, but I'm fairly certain I never amassed more than $7-8k in medical bill debt that I didn't pay. Do these debt collectors up the amount they are trying to recover? CAN they do that, legally? If they can, I have no idea how much I should be paying.

Related to all that, I've had friends before sing the praises of these people that will fix your credit. My understanding is that they just constantly send in letters disputing anything bad on your credit and by law if the debtors don't respond in a certain amount of time then it can be removed...or something like that. Are these people worth getting in touch with?

Never, ever get in bed with a for-profit credit counselor. That's like having a pimp mug you and running to his bottom girl for a redress of wrongs. Look up the non-profit credit counselors in your area.

I'm not talking about the councelors. These are the guys that actually perform a service. They actively work at bringing your score up for you.

My brother sent me this link today... UGH.

http://www.mint.com/blog/how-to/bank-fees-08312010/

I got hit with almost all of those. My checking and savings were already linked, but there's like a few day in between when I pay bills and get my second bi-weekly paycheck that has me drop below the $1500 minimum balance each month. It causes me to get hit with a fee even though the majority of the month I'm well above the limit. I got the bank to reverse the fees on that since I do maintain a healthy balance most of the time.

However, I could not get them to reverse the "maintenance" fee that stared appearing on my no fee checking account. So I switched to a student account (I somehow never did that when I started my graduate program) and that has no fees.

Luckily I use my debit card for everything so I haven't had any problem there.

Alright Judas, here's one for you. And thanks for the thread. I just saw it bumped.

I've talked about my credit issues at length here before, and currently I'm seeing a bit of the light at the end of the tunnel.

So I want to know what exactly will happen with my credit score when all these accounts have been settled.

I've been on several payment plans, and I've made all the payments on time so far. When these debts have been settled, will my score go up? How is it repaired, exactly?

During this time period, I've maintained just one active credit card, which, upon reading your advice, I will be contributing a bit more to the payments to get the balance owned down, so thanks for that protip!