Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Impotent rage

As I've said before, what good is a blog if you can't bitch impotently about minor inconveniences?

After years of credit union banking, I have finally decided to switch to a "real" bank, with actual local offices and convenient ATMs. I chose Chase.

Account creation was easy and convenient, and I was prepared to begin the full switch. I logged into my old account, requested a withdrawal in the amount of my last paycheck, and when the check arrived, I used the local ATM to deposit the money into my new account. My Visa Check Card was declined a few hours later at dinner, but I didn't think anything of it since the account was new and I didn't expect the deposit to be immediately available.

Then on Saturday, I got two (2!) letters from Chase telling me they were placing a hold on my deposit for seven (7!) business days. I'm understanding up to a point: it was a new account, created on-line, with a first deposit of any size made through an ATM. But seven business days?! The letters gave me a number to call, where I was told this was at the discretion of local branch managers. I've just gotten back from speaking to the local branch manager, who said it's an SEC regulation, and they won't budge. Oh, if I go to the credit union (office in another town) and get an image of the cleared check and present it to Chase, then they'll lift the hold. But meanwhile, there's nothing I can do. And it will be this way for six months.

So my entire paycheck sits with a lock on it until Monday, May 7. We all know Chase has my money; they get to play with it and squeeze what interest and investment they can out of it, while I have to make do without it. Make do, when I could be spending it this weekend at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.

I guess this post can only end one way, with the immortal wisdom of Little Edie reminding us that, "This is the worst thing to happen ever in the history of America."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Big banks are evil. Actually all banks might be evil. And this sort of exploitative and unnecessary behaviour is just one of the many ways they perpetrate evil. Bastards.

Anonymous said...

Oh my god that sucks. Dude, we'll still have fun. It's not like you needed more yarn right? I'll be brosing on a budget but if it comes down to missing out on al the fried sheep, I'll spot you man!

Anonymous said...

That's bad. Chase is at the very top of my "evil list" right now, due to some extremely skeezy bait-n-switch tactics their home mortgage people tried to pull. I had to sic the Better Business Bureau on them. I think the whole JPMorgan Chase merger thing is not going well - I never had any problems when they were Bank One (or First Chicago).

FiberQat said...

That'll teach ya for going over to the dark side.

Chase was sending me all sorts of credit card offers (at least one a week) so I tried to find a way to make them take me off their snail spam list. There's nothing. Nothing. Sleazeballs.