Bank of America sucks!!!

[YarisSedan]

So today i went to check my balance online to find out they are now charging me a 8.95 monthly fee to maintain my checking account. Unless i have direct deposit. Which my company dosnt offer. I do keep a substantial amount of money in there. And when i opened the account they told me there were no fees if i have money transfer to my savings monthly. Until now. They just hiked up all thier fees and changed around everything.

Anyone else having recent issues with bank of america?

What are some other good banks out there. I keep seeing these commertials for chase. I am thinking of going in tomorrow and pulling out all my money and closing my accounts and bringing my business elsewhere.

[Shroomster]

two words:

Credit Union look one up near you

[tomato]

Bank of America treated me like shit years ago when I didn't have much money, so I quickly understood they weren't interested in small accounts like mine, so I closed my account and never set foot there again. I know it's silly but what can I say. It's hard for a customer to return to a place where they treated you like shit. Your whole body fights you, lol!

I went over to the other one, with the coach and the horses ;) they're probably just as bad but I haven't had any problems and nobody's ever laughed at me, not even when all I had to put in my savings account was $20 now and then, and my checking account was ahem.. pretty modest.

Not a fan of CityCorp either.

I really liked Washington Mutual, they were prety cool, a lot of free services. Now they're Chase, which is fine I guess.

As long as they don't skip town with my money, I'm cool. :wink:

You know, I think all these big banks are pretty much the same. :iono: Whatever you do, just make sure you see the FDIC sticker out there on the door. before you deposit anything :thumbsup:

[silver_echo]

agreed with credit unions, i switched from BOA to a local credit union and never looked back

[kimona]

B of A: Worst bank I have ever used in any country!!!

[JumpmanYaris]

1)Credit Union
2)US Bank
3)Chase

Personally I bank with number 1 and 2 never had problems but I heard many good things from Chase as well

[yaris-me]

two words:

Credit Union look one up near you

Good advice, but that's seven words.:laugh:

[frownonfun]

i think all banks suck personally. to be honest i'd love to just keep all my money under a mattress but it's pretty hard to do anything without a bank account these days.

right now i have wells fargo. :thumbdown::thumbdown:

i had a credit union at one time (Navy Federal Credit Union) and don't recall having problems with them but i was young and stupid then so i probably wouldn't have even known that i was being screwed.

[Shroomster]

bah.....haha....3:10 in the A.M. don't look for me to impress

[Phaeton]

Credit Union is the way to go, and your not sending your money out of your community.

[yaris-me]

bah.....haha....3:10 in the A.M. don't look for me to impress

JK. Seriously, Credit Unions are safer. In general, they are too small to get involved with Credit Default Swaps and other derivatives. The danger is that they are tied in with large banks because of the checking accounts and rely on them as a clearing house. That means that some of their money is tied in with them. The good news is that they are directly involved with their loans so there shouldn't have much mortgage defaults.

[YarisSedan]

Yeah i like the idea of credit union. I have an account already with a local one that i had refinance my car loan. I might see what they have to offer then for safe storage of my money.

The only downside its not like theres ATMs for them all over the place like with bank of america.

[tomato]

.

The only downside its not like theres ATMs for them all over the place like with bank of america.

that's why I stayed with WF. ATM *everywhere*

[AlexNet0]

I dont know about your area, but in maine there is the Five county credit union's that span most of the state, and they are not one large chain bank like it sounds, its more like all the local credit unions came together to offer account access at every location. the ATM's are all over the state.

you still deal with the same credit union you started with, you can just access that account at any 5 county credit union member location.

[frownonfun]

that's why I stayed with WF. ATM *everywhere*

same here. still think they are crooked bastards though.

[supmet]

My problem with BofA and Wells Fargo is the fact they go out of their way to make identity theft easy. They refuse to keep the online banking updated, so you never know how much money you actually have. This is of course so they can make $35 off overdraft fees from people with poor money management. I can't fault them for trying to make money, it is after all, your responsibility to know how much money you have.

But the problem is this. I pay my cell phone bill online. 10 seconds later I check my wells fargo account, and there is my cell phone bill pending. Great. I check FIVE MINUTES later, and all of a sudden its not on my account, anywhere. WTF? Obviously they have the information that someone, hopefully me, is spending money on my account? Why withhold it? Obviously its to make an extra 35 bucks when I forget I paid my bill and go spend more money than I had.

Well what about when I get my wallet stolen and someone tries to pay bills with my account(oh wait that already happened). Guess what? I don't find out someone is stealing my money until 2 days later when they decide to tell me what is happening with MY MONEY. I was on the phone with the police, checking my bank records, telling them "well, it looks like they haven't tried to use my card at all" within minutes of them using my card.

So I can't turn on the news without hearing some story about how bad identity theft is, but the banks aren't taking even the first steps to cut down on it... Oh well, they made 70 bucks in overdraft fees off me, and they only had to reimburse my account 500 dollars


Boycott BofA

[silver_echo]

Yeah i like the idea of credit union. I have an account already with a local one that i had refinance my car loan. I might see what they have to offer then for safe storage of my money.

The only downside its not like theres ATMs for them all over the place like with bank of america.

well make sure that the CU you join is part of this network...

http://www.cuswirl.com/

then you have atm's pretty much across the country where you can go for no fee

[Bob Dog]

Bank of America wanted to $10 charge me to cash one of their own checks that I got in a business transaction.

[tomato]

:rolleyes: Don't even get me started on ID theft.:mad::mad:


Most companies do not protect people very well at all. All these companies making you key in your SS# and DOB in order to access your account or even talk to someone about your account? :bs::thumbdown::thumbdown:
Always ask for a subsitute number so you can enter that instead of your SS# if you can. Phone servers keep track of *everything* you key in.

I know, I'm off topic, sorry, my bad.

[Kioshi]

To OP: If you dont travel abroad and stay within your own state.....go with a credit union company., can't go wrong dude.....If you travel abroad or like to go to places outside the USA, you would want a big bank name....

I hate to say it, but I support Bank of America. I will tell you why I support them, but first off...on to the negatives...

BoA sucks because....
- they monitor your spending like hell. In Asia, esp. Japan, its good to use cash most of the time and not credit cards. SO Instead of getting charged a fee for withdrawl every time, i decided to withdrawl 50,000 yen each day (back at that time) so i dont have to make several trips to the ATM....
They shut my account down....i had to SKYPE them on a laptop to get ahold of them to activate my account back up again. I bought a Gucci purse for my friend and after that purchase, they shut my account down AGAIN. I called them up again and got it activated. Last day before i leave Japan, i withdrawled some money and it was closed again....

Mind you i had missed my flight, and because i couldnt take money out, i had to suffer at a 24/7 internet cafe to get my flight the next day. Fuck them....

Good stuff......

I've had 3 fraud scenarios....and all three of them...BoA has refunded me my money. A couple questions and then BAM i have my money back, no hassle. Also, my parents were in a credit crunch.....i talked to the general manager of the company......he politely asked me what was wrong with our bills and payments..what is the story, divorce, etc? I explained him the story and kindly he said he wanted us to be part of his company for years to come.....
He lowered our monthly payments and REDUCED the debt to more than 60%.....
And for that i appreciate BoA more than any bank out there.....THAT meant a lot to me.

WaMu/Chase...had ONE fraud charge...and they hassled me over the phone like my family was the one being accused...WTF? You dont do that to a customer.....

Point is....pick a bank, stick to them. Credit Union - good for the state within. International: bigger banks...

I hope my bad experience and good experience helps you and others pick a bank thats good.

[slothman86]

Navy Federal Credit Union.

[SilverBack]

So BofA is now $9/month eh? I'm glad I left them 10 years ago when it was $5 and joined WaMu. Even with the name change to Chase, I still haven't had any problems

[Shroomster]

So BofA is now $9/month eh? I'm glad I left them 10 years ago when it was $5 and joined WaMu. Even with the name change to Chase, I still haven't had any problems

apparently we had been sending our payments for cable to an old address and the mail was getting forwarded. we never received notice of this and when chase finally switched us over to their online banking we got charged late fees by the cable company. was really a mess.

[Lafiro]

Don't credit unions keep a percentage of your money?

My g/f takes I believe $250 out of each paycheck to put aside, for a credit union.

I never understood though if they keep some sort of profit or not?

Either way for me this doesnt apply, my account with my community bank is completely free, just no interest. Which is fine with me.

[DevilGirl]

Don't credit unions keep a percentage of your money?

My g/f takes I believe $250 out of each paycheck to put aside, for a credit union.

I never understood though if they keep some sort of profit or not?

Either way for me this doesnt apply, my account with my community bank is completely free, just no interest. Which is fine with me.

I use a credit union here in PA. Unfortunately, the only branches are like 2 hours away from me. However, I have used local bank ATM's to make deposits at no charge, and I almost always can find some "fee-free ATM" to make withdrawals.

As far as the keeping a percentage of your money thing, my credit union only withholds $5 from me. That's all. And that is the same $5 used to to open the account many years ago.

[TLyttle]

Yup, Credit Unions. Better than that, if you have money that you wish to invest, the CU is standing right there, and you are investing in your own community, not some overseas gamble. Decades ago, I got stung by a CU, but it was a dishonest employee, and the situation was very complicated. Otherwise, I have yet to hear of any problem with Credit Unions; don't you wish you could say the same about the banks?

[EleKid]

Fuck. I gotta change my bank now.
Citi is doing this thing where you get 100 cash and 100 gift card if you deposit 1000 in a new acct or 50 cash if you deposit 500.
I'm not sure if you have to get it done by someone you know though. My friend said he has to be the one to do it but he could be just saying that to get commission.

[Darb]

Wow... I've never had an issue with BoA, at all. They've actually been my favorite bank to work with. Wachovia and United suck.

I guess my only gripe is that they don't have any banks in Pittsburgh.

[Kioshi]

EleKid, a lot of banks, esp. up here were doing this. I know Bank of the West gave you $100 just for opening an account with them.

They will get commission probably, but getting money to deposit that amount isn't bad...of course i dont even have $1000 to deposit lol.. You have to go through your friend or someone working there...

Darb - other than the problems I mentioned earlier, i haven't had much from BoA...been w/ them since 2004..

[Darb]

Darb - other than the problems I mentioned earlier, i haven't had much from BoA...been w/ them since 2004..

Yea, I've been with BoA for awhile now, too.

[SilverBack]

apparently we had been sending our payments for cable to an old address and the mail was getting forwarded. we never received notice of this and when chase finally switched us over to their online banking we got charged late fees by the cable company. was really a mess.

I knew I didn't trust online banking for a reason. I usually just get my bills paid through the autopay system of each billing company and not the bank itself. If something changes or goes wrong I'll always get an email from the company right away.

[BailOut]

BofA has had problems for quite while now. When my wife and I first met over 10 years ago her account was with BofA. Her debit card number was her login to their online banking system (!) and her pin code was the password (!!!). I griped to them about this early on and was rebuffed.

Fast forward to 2000. She was still a Windows user at the time and there were no less than 4 cookie exploits for Internet Explorer. I again warned BofA about it and they basically told me that I didn't know what I was talking about. Within weeks many mainstream websites that served off of the Windows platform has been compromised and were combing visitor's cookies when they used IE.

Sure as hell, 3 weeks later a charge showed up in our account for a losing $1,000 bet at an online sports book. I checked out the sports book's site and they didn't even require an expiration date, name or anything else for a transaction... just a credit card number.

BofA took 3 weeks to give us our money back, and when they mentioned they would issue my wife a new card we said, "Don't bother." and merged our accounts into Wells Fargo.

In 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008 we read of BofA being grilled, both publically and by Congressional committees, for mischievous practices such as always putting a hold on checks (even interbank transfers), processing debits before deposits (in order to make the account bounce), stacking the highest debits first (in order to make more transactions bounce, thereby generating more penalty income for them), etc.

Now in 2009 we read of their CEO resigning after a surreptitious and bungled merger with Merryl Lynch at the peak of the recession and while they were receiving taxpayer-funded bailout money.

Why anyone maintains an account with them is beyond me. We've not missed them once since we left them.


that's why I stayed with WF. ATM *everywhere*
That's true, but only as long as you don't go east beyond Texas. Wells simply does not exist in the east.

Let me provide you with some warnings concerning Wells:

- Any transaction that favors the bank will take place either immediately or overnight; any transaction that favors you will take 2-5 business days.

- Each Wells branch has a Banker. The Banker is responsible for running the branch, has the final say on loans, etc. They are intended to be the lifeblood of the branch. However, our local branch turns over Bankers faster than Taco Bell does drive through workers. Our next-to-latest one outright lied to me in telling me that our checking account type would now bear interest, and said such interest was a higher rate than even their best accounts provide. He also told me that we would have to pay some fees for their best account which I soon learned was inaccurate as we have our home mortgage through them, which automatically qualifies us for the better account. If you can't even trust your local Banker...

- Our last home insurance carrier made a mistake and double billed our Wells Home Mortgage escrow account for our annual premium. Wells paid it without checking, and the insurance carrier refunded the extra cash to me instead of placing it back into escrow (I'd rather not even do it through escrow but since it's a VA loan it is mandated). This should have been an easy thing to correct but it took no less than 6 phone calls, 3 emails, 2 snail mails, 2 visits to a local branch, 3 escrow analyses and 11 business days to correct.

For these reasons I am almost through migrating us to a new bank.


I gotta change my bank now.
Citi is doing this thing where you get 100 cash and 100 gift card if you deposit 1000 in a new acct or 50 cash if you deposit 500.
I'm not sure if you have to get it done by someone you know though. My friend said he has to be the one to do it but he could be just saying that to get commission.
Aside from how slimy the setup with your friend sounds allow me to provide you with an outright warning against Citibank. For 2.5 years we had a Shell Mastercard via Citibank that gave us cash rebates for anything we spent on it. We used it in the most responsible way possible, meaning we used it in place of a debit card but paid it off every single month. Of course, the credit card industry refers to people like us as "deadbeats" because they don't make any extra money off of us (they still make per-transaction fees at the merchant level, and money still changes hands between Shell and Citi for handling the account, etc.).

Without any warning they shut off our card last Tuesday. It wasn't just us... thousands of Shell/Citi customers had their accounts closed. We were all given some bullshit excuse that it was "something on your Experian credit report... a change in your FICO score". What made no sense from the start was that I'd just pulled our credit reports not 10 days earlier (a semi-annual event) and not only was nothing negative shown, but our FICO scores had gone up by roughly 30 points due to refinancing our home and some other dealings. Your FICO score is also not a static measurement, but a constantly evolving number. I mentioned all of this to the Citi CSR and he made it clear that it only said "something" on my Experian report, not necessarily something negative.

The accounts were closed, conveniently, on the 13th, because the billing cycle ends on the 14th and that's when they would normally disburse everyone's rebates. The fine print in the contract lets them keep the rebates if they close the account for any reason.

So, aside from the hassle of losing our primary credit card, we also lost over $50 in rebates that were due to us.

While the closure of our account was just a nuisance imagine if it had happened on someone's way home from out of town, or trying to catch a flight or buy a bus ticket, etc., and having it be their only source of funding at that time. After all, it's the sole card I used to carry.

This is not my first dealing with Citi, but it is indeed my last.

----------

I have migrated our savings to ING Direct and am almost done migrating our checking, primary credit card, home insurance, auto insurance and flood insurance to USAA, which is where I should have been all along. No company is perfect but their motto is "People before profits", they are not publically traded (so there are no shareholders to pressure stupid decisions or to force a short term view), they took no bailout money, they have no branches but let us deposit checks from our mobile phones and home computer scanner, they let us perform 10 ATM transactions per month on anyone's ATM at no charge, and they refund us up to $15 each month of whatever fees the ATM owners charge.

Sadly, USAA is not open to everyone. It is only available to active duty military personnel, veterans, and their descendants.

I also just signed up for an American Express Blue Cash card because I don't want to get stuck having our only credit card ripped out from underneath us like Citi just did. I will be adding a 3rd card, likely from a local credit union, in order to add some extra credit security and to help out our FICO scores by keeping less than 30% of our total available consumer credit used at any moment.

[TLyttle]

Wow. A bank is offering YOU money to open an account???? DINGDINGDINGDING!!! Alarm bells, can ya hear 'em??

[Shroomster]

I also just signed up for an American Express Blue Cash card because I don't want to get stuck having our only credit card ripped out from underneath us like Citi just did. I will be adding a 3rd card, likely from a local credit union, in order to add some extra credit security and to help out our FICO scores by keeping less than 30% of our total available consumer credit used at any moment.

Good choice on the Blue cash card. I've had them for I think 4 or 5 years, and not once have they ever done me wrong (yet). I've had several transactions fall through and they've found on my side (because I had documented evidence)
all the times and never questioned me about it. plus the cash back is nice after 6k in spending you receive 5% back on most everything (sans wal-mart and the like)

I've always been under the guise of I don't care what the apr is unless I can't afford it.

[advocate]

two words:

Credit Union look one up near you

Shroomster has it right Jason. BOA is the reason we're in a financial crisis right now. My entire family are members of Technology Credit Union. They have a good amount of local branches and have always done right by me.

www.techcu.com gogo

[YarisSedan]

Bailout after reading your post i just looked into and applied and got approved for a american express blue cash i love that 5 percent cash back. Am going to open a checking account with my local credit union the same that finanaces my car. And turns out they have a no free checking account that no only that offers .25 percent on top. I mean wow. And then once i migrate all my money there i am going to open and orange savings account. I love that 1.25 percent on my savings. Talk about making your money work for you. So now i will be gaining interest on my normal every day spending and my savings isntead of having it cost me.

I just called my bank and acted all nice and got them to reinburse me for the 8.99. But plan to still close my account once i have a chance to open one at my credit union on my day off.

From now on im going to use my american express blue whenever possible. Even when i have cash in pocket and then just pay it off every month. I typically spend about close to 10 grand a year between me and my fiance on normal every day expenses such as gas, groceries, eating out etc. That comes out to be 500 dollars cash back at end of the year. Thats free money.

[EleKid]

BLEGH. I'm just going to dig a hole in my backyard and hide all my money there.

[Kioshi]

just remember not all places accept American Express Yaris Sedan and Bailout....

Right after my Under Drive pulley installs at Speed Element...they refused to take my American Express Blue Student Card because they had some dick on the east coast buy something off of them and get a total refund through American Express.....

Just FYI.... and dont get me wrong, i love AMEX to death, had it since 05 and no probs, easy credit limit increase :D

[YarisSedan]

Yeah i have a visa credit card as my secondary for those places who dont take amex. It is a bank of america though. If i wasnt on the markte for a home i would cancel all my cards with bank of america and find someone else. But i dont want to be doing so many drastic changes to my credit score at the moment such as opening and closing different lines of credit.

I have a visa and amex with bank of america. Retarded thing is i requested a amex so what they did is they cut my credit limit on my visa and took that credit and put it on my amex. So it was pretty much pointless. So my total available credit through bank of america is the same. If i knew they were going to do that i wouldnt have applied for the amex in the first place and went with another lender. So i plan to cancel my bank of america amex and just keep the visa. Now the question is if they will let me merge the credit line back with my visa.

[yaris-me]

It should not be much of a problem, if you carry only the AmEx card. You can travel and eat at most places. Most stores will take AmEx. If you need the ability to use Visa, you can get a debit card from your bank.

Building credit is easy. Pay your bills on time, if not ahead of due date. Late payments deducts points from your credit score. Make small loans and pay on time.:thumbsup:

[YarisSedan]

It should not be much of a problem, if you carry only the AmEx card. You can travel and eat at most places. Most stores will take AmEx. If you need the ability to use Visa, you can get a debit card from your bank.

Building credit is easy. Pay your bills on time, if not ahead of due date. Late payments deducts points from your credit score. Make small loans and pay on time.:thumbsup:

Yeah i followed all those rules you stated. Within the past year and half my credit score has jumped over 100 points. I think my car loan was the biggest boost to my credit.

[Shroomster]

to be fair see if the Credit union offers a cred it card (visa or mastercard)

it's what I do.

We have our WaMu Visa/debit, a Bj's Visa ( great if you're a member ) and the Blue AmEx

[TLyttle]

Our credit union offers Mastercard, no trouble ever, unlike Visa: the left us hanging 300 miles from home because we had made an error before we left for a long trip. That was almost 20 years ago, and the bastards are still renewing their mark against our credit rating! Never again with Visa.

[Kioshi]

Try Bank of America, leaving me hanging all the way across the Pacific Ocean... lol..
I was tired, sweaty, couldn't take a shower (no money) and got yelled at by cute japanese girls... FML 3 years ago~~

[tomato]

bailout, thanks for taking the time to write this post, it certainly provides most interesting information.

BofA has had problems for quite while now. When my wife and I first met over 10 years ago her account was with BofA. Her debit card number was her login to their online banking system (!) and her pin code was the password (!!!). I griped to them about this early on and was rebuffed.

Fast forward to 2000. She was still a Windows user at the time and there were no less than 4 cookie exploits for Internet Explorer. I again warned BofA about it and they basically told me that I didn't know what I was talking about. Within weeks many mainstream websites that served off of the Windows platform has been compromised and were combing visitor's cookies when they used IE.

Sure as hell, 3 weeks later a charge showed up in our account for a losing $1,000 bet at an online sports book. I checked out the sports book's site and they didn't even require an expiration date, name or anything else for a transaction... just a credit card number.

BofA took 3 weeks to give us our money back, and when they mentioned they would issue my wife a new card we said, "Don't bother." and merged our accounts into Wells Fargo.

Are you saying that some hacker sites highjacked the information contained in the cookies?



Let me provide you with some warnings concerning Wells:

- Any transaction that favors the bank will take place either immediately or overnight; any transaction that favors you will take 2-5 business days.

Yes, I would agree with that, which can be infuriating at times. :rolleyes:



Without any warning they shut off our card last Tuesday. It wasn't just us... thousands of Shell/Citi customers had their accounts closed. We were all given some bullshit excuse that it was "something on your Experian credit report... a change in your FICO score". What made no sense from the start was that I'd just pulled our credit reports not 10 days earlier (a semi-annual event) and not only was nothing negative shown, but our FICO scores had gone up by roughly 30 points due to refinancing our home and some other dealings. Your FICO score is also not a static measurement, but a constantly evolving number. I mentioned all of this to the Citi CSR and he made it clear that it only said "something" on my Experian report, not necessarily something negative.

The accounts were closed, conveniently, on the 13th, because the billing cycle ends on the 14th and that's when they would normally disburse everyone's rebates. The fine print in the contract lets them keep the rebates if they close the account for any reason.

So, aside from the hassle of losing our primary credit card, we also lost over $50 in rebates that were due to us.

I'm always leary of these types of cash-back and rewards type of cards. For one thing, many come with fees and fine print and loopholes nobody understands, and they find ways to weasel out of their promises too easily. Closing an account on you is cold!! They usually just change the terms of the contract. I've only lost my airline miles, but that was enough of a warning for me to understand that there is probably no free lunch so why bother, I don't earn/spend that much money so the rewards would be negligible anyway . :iono:


I also just signed up for an American Express Blue Cash card because I don't want to get stuck having our only credit card ripped out from underneath us like Citi just did. I will be adding a 3rd card, likely from a local credit union, in order to add some extra credit security and to help out our FICO scores by keeping less than 30% of our total available consumer credit used at any moment.

I don't like American Express, because they charge a huge fee to merchants (used to be something like 15% of the transaction?) Small businesses are having a hard enough time as it is, and many do NOT take AmEx. Plus it's not free or at least it wasn't when I looked into it.

If you want banking horror stories then try to get a credit card through Barkley's (spell?) back East. :rolleyes::rolleyes::mad::mad::mad:

[yaris-me]

I prefer AmEx over Visa and by the way Visa screwed Mastercard years ago. I've never had a problem with AmEx and have traveled with it for over 25 years.:thumbsup:

[Shroomster]

I don't like American Express, because they charge a huge fee to merchants (used to be something like 15% of the transaction?) Small businesses are having a hard enough time as it is, and many do NOT take AmEx.



Amex is mending it's ways with small business by adding incentives (i.e. more revenue on the amex cards equals lower fees over time etc.) so a lot are actually taking it now (example: lots of merchants about 3-4 years ago in Key West did not take Amex AT ALL, when we went this year everywhere we went we paid with it)

Plus it's not free or at least it wasn't when I looked into it.

they have a wide variety of cards with and without fees the Blue cash does not have a fee plus you get cash back every year (on anniversary)

If you want banking horror stories then try to get a credit card through Barkley's (spell?) back East. :rolleyes::rolleyes::mad::mad::mad:
Barclay's. that is who Bj's does their visa card through no problems whatsoever (yet:wink:)

[tomato]

Good to hear AmEx is changing his ways. That's excellent news.
Good to know about the Blue, too, thanks.

As to Barclay's , they underwrite the LLBean card, I believe, and the story is long, boring, and the details will not help anybody, but I've said this much already so in a nutshell, it involves turning down someone's request for a $200 credit card (!!) (who has otherwise an excellent and long credit history in California) based on the Patriot Act alone. Uh?

I will *never* give these people my money if I can help it.

I think Barclays also underwrote another card I used to have some years back, and I closed my account. They wanted to charge me a $70 fee for not using the card enough. WTF?!!!

I'm a bad client anyway, always pay off my credit card debt monthly, so they don't like people like me because they don't make any money on finance charge.