US Bank- Maybe the worst bank in the United States

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

Reply to
Don
Loading thread data ...

Have you read their privacy agreement? Most say that they can give your information to financial institutions like credit agencies and other financial institutions.

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.

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

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.

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.

Reply to
Don

Never use correct phone #s with banks or credit cards ever. Use a payphone #. The worst offenders will likely use that to look up "additional" information. Give out a suite # with your address or stuff like that. Nothing you are told can be trusted - as you have seen.

After 15+ years of doing this I get almost no junk mail or phone calls. What I get is generally related to Wells Fargo (per the suite #).

Mike

Reply to
nomail

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....

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

"Capt. Tuttle" 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.

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.

Reply to
John Pollard

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.

Reply to
Don

What do you me by "you" keemosabe?!? I didn't not make that list! Intuit did. Your beef is with them.

Not necessarily away from Quicken but towards the web. Hell Usenet itself is moving more and more to web based forums.

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

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! ;-)

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

Exactly!.... What I expected! ;-)

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...

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

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

Don wrote in news:qia6e257iccb3f6e8k0758ocq1427gr63a@

4ax.com:

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.

Reply to
Han

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

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

Reply to
Don

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.

Reply to
Don

On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:27:12 -0600, Don 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

Reply to
Ronald Pierce

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.

Reply to
Don

You're right. My mistake.

Surely you could find an investment on $10K that produces more in returns than the fees that they would charge...

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

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.

Reply to
Capt. Tuttle

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.

Reply to
John Pollard

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.

Reply to
Don

BeanSmart website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.