Is anyone else having bank problems?

February 1, 2008 6:41 PM

Has anyone noticed banks here in the U.S. pulling shenanigans today? This may be nothing but I want to ask anyway.

One of our friends tried to cash his CD today for several thousand dollars. The bank manager had to call a higher-up to get approval, and they declined to cash the CD saying that because it wasn't paid for in cash, it couldn't be cashed out. Another friend said their bank imposed a cap on wire transfer limits this week.

Tonight, my wife and I were doing our monthly bill paying, the same way we've always done. Up until last month the web interface always allowed us to move money immediately between our accounts. It no longer allows this and is making us wait until the next business day (Monday), thus we're unable to pay our bills out of that account this weekend and understandably we're pissed.

And of course what do I hear on the news but job numbers being way down and Bush finally talking about a recession.

Is this just weird coincidence or have you all noticed any new troubles?

posted by mr. creosote to work & money (27 comments total)

Both me and a friend had trouble logging into our bank's web interface today. We have different banks too! I suspect this is just a coincidence, but certainly a valid enough data point for a conspiracy theory.
posted by mto at 6:47 PM on February 1

Up until last month the web interface always allowed us to move money immediately between our accounts. It no longer allows this and is making us wait until the next business day (Monday), thus we're unable to pay our bills out of that account this weekend and understandably we're pissed.

Have you tried calling your bank?
posted by vacapinta at 6:50 PM on February 1

I just moved some money back and forth between linked accounts, no problem.
posted by true at 6:53 PM on February 1

Have you tried calling your bank?

Well, this bank's not open on Friday night at 9 pm.
posted by mr. creosote at 6:55 PM on February 1

Ok. Mine has 24-hr phone assistance. So, not the same bank I guess.
posted by vacapinta at 6:57 PM on February 1

I haven't noticed any problems.
posted by delmoi at 6:58 PM on February 1

The bank that handles direct depositing payroll for my wife's company somehow screwed up the deposit to all the employees and had to do late wire transfers.
posted by drezdn at 7:08 PM on February 1

I made 2 deposits into 2 accounts today (same bank) and just paid a bill online (same bank). No problems with my personal bank.
posted by iguanapolitico at 7:15 PM on February 1

Verified my direct deposit came in, transferred some money and paid down a credit card. No problems here (regional credit union).
posted by Brian Puccio at 7:27 PM on February 1

Interesting... yesterday, when attempting to pay a bill online from my checking account, the site was "unavailable" for nearly four hours...
posted by HuronBob at 7:44 PM on February 1

No problems with my credit union today. Got paid via direct deposit, saw that a check I wrote was just cashed, transferred some money.
posted by wtdoor at 7:56 PM on February 1

got paid today but boa website was screwy.
posted by k8t at 7:58 PM on February 1

No problems with Chase yesterday/today. We deposited my husband's bonus, and his regular direct deposit came in at midnight. I shifted money from checking to savings instantly, and have been paying my bills all day with no delay.
posted by headspace at 8:28 PM on February 1

Everything is working fine here.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 8:28 PM on February 1

BofA website was screwy for me, and depositing my physical paycheck yesterday turned into a huge hassle. They didn't want to accept a check with my shortened first name on it -- as in, Beth Public not OK, but Elizabeth Public was. I ended up depositing through an ATM, since they outright refused to take my check. Calls to Customer Solutions leave me doubtful as to whether or not they'll accept it or end up rejecting it. I thought it strange, as I've never had this problem before and I've always been a good customer of the bank -- high balance w/ 100% check acceptance, no overdraws, multiple accounts, etc.

I'm switching banks due to all the hassle and lack of assistance, not a happy camper today. I don't know if this is part of something larger, but wouldn't be surprised if it was -- they kept referencing "red flags", "patriot act" and "fighting terrorism" when denying my deposit for Beth vs. Elizabeth. I think the regulations might've been tightened again, but I have no specific information.
posted by cior at 8:56 PM on February 1

I just moved my bank accounts to another bank (a credit union, actually) because the big commercial bank (Chase, if anyone is curious) I was using charged me about five hundred dollars in overdraft fees after 'losing' two transfers that I had receipts for and delaying another transfer I made online by three full business days even though the online transfer gave me the date it'd be credited and I had by that point stopped trusting them and started keeping every shred of documentation on every transaction I did with them.

And of course, they wouldn't return any of it.
posted by SpecialK at 9:03 PM on February 1

If you asked this question on any day ever, you would get answers about people who get screwed over by their bank that day.
posted by smackfu at 9:10 PM on February 1 [4 favorites]

I've noticed no statistically significant increase in the number of bank problems I've seen/heard about. It's quite possible that the law of averages is just not on your side today.
posted by wsp at 9:23 PM on February 1

You guys saw this Mefi thread from a few days ago, right?
posted by neckro23 at 9:30 PM on February 1

There were major internet troubles Thursday which may have causes some access troubles for banking web sites.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 9:53 PM on February 1

Seconding bottlebrushtree. I work in the internet group for a large bank, and the broken cable near egypt was definitely causing some issues. A lot of financial institutions have data servers in India, and connections were not so great for a while (or still, i'm not so sure...).
posted by logic vs love at 10:24 PM on February 1

Monthly processing is done at the end or beginning of the month. My Credit Union's online banking is down at these times for several hours. I know because I used to work at my CU.
posted by Justin Case at 7:43 AM on February 2

I'm switching to a local credit union because my bank tried to screw me for a few hundred $$$$ in overdraft fees by *back posting* a deposit.

Which I didn't think they could do, but regardless they did a lot of trickery in combining fees, stacking the order of things to maximize the cost. I finally managed to get it undone, but it galls me they have the nerve to do stuff like that.

They didn't used to.

As it stands now, I've been told the *only* way I can know if deposited checks are good is to call the banks they're written on - even if it's been *posted to my account for 30 days!*

Which basically makes it impossible to use my bank account. They finally admitted that no, there is no way to know *Exactly how much money I have available!* A check can bounce *weeks* after it's posted to my account! WTF?

I hope the credit union works better.
posted by raikkohamilonso at 8:43 AM on February 2

Interesting... yesterday, when attempting to pay a bill online from my checking account, the site was "unavailable" for nearly four hours...

Well, my banks website is down all the time. (at least once a week). It's actually been getting better over time, so I didn't consider it a 'new' problem.
posted by delmoi at 9:15 AM on February 2

1) Was the CD mature? Maybe they thought something hinky was going on.

2a) On a micro level, maybe that bank branch was simply low on inventory (cash). According to Wikipedia, the bank can delay payment to prevent a run on the bank. If the guy in line ahead of him just cashed a check for $20,000, that could easily happen at a small branch.

2b) On a macro level, perhaps the bank is currently low on reserves and is trying to slow down the outflow of deposits. When a bank is below their statutory reserve level at close of business each night, they have to borrow money to show the correct level on the books. The less they have to borrow, the more profits they make.
posted by gjc at 10:20 AM on February 2

ConspiracyFilter:

US Banking System Teetering on the Brink of Collapse

The gist (from what I gather) is that the banks have burned through their reserves and have to borrow massively from the Fed.
posted by ChefQuix at 12:00 PM on February 2

Wow, that's some serious stuff. I hope those graphs are somehow incorrect. OTOH, it sure explains why people are screaming recession when the economy is still growing. And it explains some of the odd behavior. And the concept of a credit bubble popping certainly makes sense. Yikes.

(Check out that one graph that's almost dead flat during Greenspan's tenure. Guess he did know what he was doing.)
posted by gjc at 7:08 PM on February 2