Unfortunate. Sort of. Not for Citibank. I guess Inconvenient is a better word.

[cyrano]

I'd heard, both from the news and from customers, some of the crappy things CitiBank was doing on a macro and a micro level. I'd been with them .... since they bought Bank of California and absorbed my account. And they had, more or less, worked with me, making sure I had an account with the things I felt were important. Admittedly, once in a while I had to surrender ground, but luckily we never got into a position where they had to give any.

The last shift, I joined the "Thank You" rewards program so that I could have a savings account that didn't get a monthly fee if I had direct deposit and at least four transactions on the account. Today I discovered that, as of December, that loophole was closed and now I have to have direct deposit and use the automatic bill pay system.

And so I'll be finding somebody else to serve my banking needs. Luckily I don't have a credit line with them, so I won't have to find a way to pay that off, just alert my student loans holders that they'll need a new account number for their automatic withdrawals.

Comments

[melimus.livejournal.com]

Find a credit union.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I have, in fact, been looking at local credit unions before this incident, just because I'm uncomfortable aiding and abetting the major banks in the way they do business.

[roisnoir.livejournal.com]

I second the credit union suggestion.
When I finally figure out all my autopayments and passwords for the utilities in question, that's my plan.

Why reward the banks for bad behavior?

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I want to make sure I can do direct deposits and assisted withdrawals and easy transfers, and that's pretty much the only things I need doing.

[gconnor.livejournal.com]

I am loving these guys so far: https://www.patelco.org/accounts/checking.aspx

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

ooo, I like this so far. Personal experience?
(Looks like they have co-operative arrangements with some local CUs.)

[gconnor.livejournal.com]

They are local to me, so if I need to go to a branch, like to change my pin number or something, it is convenient. If they are not local to you, using a distant credit union is fine most of the time... I have also used DCU which is local to East Coast. But, you may be able to find another CU with very similar deals that is local to your area.

For me the important thing was that they have good support for Quicken sync on their website (which made me move from DCU to Patelco) and they don't charge me a fee if I overdraw checking, as long as I have the money in savings and have authorized them to transfer it ahead of time. Your wish list might be different... I'm guessing there is a 50%+ chance that any CU you drive by during your local errands will welcome you and have what you need.