Wells Fargo, You SUCK!

I’m not generally one to name names, but in this case it needs to be said. Wells Fargo Bank is the WORST.

Why? Well, let me tell you.

We have been living primarily in Mexico for the last five years. Before that, my husband and I both worked and contributed to various retirement accounts, all held by Wells Fargo Bank. We also had two checking accounts, two mortgages, auto loans, lines of credit, and, well, you get the drift. We had as a couple a relationship with the bank for more than a decade. I personally had a relationship with them for more than 40 years.

And yet, over the past year, Wells Fargo has decided to CLOSE our accounts (without warning), and then limit our access to our RETIREMENT FUNDS because they think we are money launderers. WTF?

First, let’s look at the fallacious logic in all of this. The money we currently have with Wells Fargo is derived from three primary sources:

1. A Circuit City pension that is managed by the US government and automatically deposited into our checking account.
2. My Social Security, managed by the US government and automatically deposited into our checking account.
3. Lyn’s retirement from Capital One and GE that were consolidated into a Wells Fargo brokerage IRA account.

That should address the issue of money laundering. Right? But, even before this most recent harassment, we had problems with the bank.

More

Over the past more than 10 years, We HAD two checking accounts in the consumer banking department. About four years ago, WF arbitrarily CANCELLED my checking account debit card without giving me any kind of reason. I found this out when I was traveling. I called. They answered, but THE BANK’S system was down so they couldn’t ask me the security questions. To add insult to injury, they could not text me because of my Mexican cell phone number. I’m not sure why they couldn’t email me, but that was not an option.

Resolution: Well, there was NO immediate resolution, and I ended up using credit cards until I could get back home to call again. When the customer service people on the consumer side of the bank still couldn’t resolve the problem, I called the brokerage people with whom we had a great relationship, and they sent me a card to use directly with our brokerage cash account. I have relied on this card since then, until recently, when it STOPPED WORKING. I could transfer money between this account and our consumer checking account online, too, which was great for us.

Ultimately, to get a new debit card from the consumer checking account, I had to actually GO TO A BRANCH IN BOISE. So, for about $1,000 in round-trip travel, they on-the-spot gave me a new debit card. Now, WTF?

Oh, And it gets better

More recently, WF decided that we had to have a permanent address in the US in order to maintain our accounts. I called them and changed the addresses on all of our accounts to a US address that I use for these purposes. Nevertheless, the CLOSED one of our CHECKING accounts without notifying us. When we discovered this and called, they said we hadn’t changed the address. Huh?

Oh, well, it is a joint account, they said, which means that LYN also had to change HIS address… OMG, Are you kidding me? For real??????

And, most recently, even after jumping through all of their stupid hoops, they have decided to harass us some more by questioning every transfer we have made from our bank in the US to our bank here in Mexico. We had a standing order with the brokerage for these transfers. We called, they gave us the spiel, transferred the money, and done. On the forms they had to put a reason, so “rent” was the option most of the time. “Rent,” however, is another way of saying, “living expenses.” In other words, we used it for rent, groceries, gas in the car, maintenance, insurance, and other things we needed. Hell, it’s our money, right? We earned it, we paid taxes on it, we followed all of the rules. So I ask again, WTF Wells Fargo?

Where to from here

If you don’t already know, I’m a New Yorker. We New Yorkers call bullshit what it is — bullshit. I have called our broker (who can’t seem to do one simple thing on our behalf), emailed every person on every email chain regarding this matter, and hope to at least have a virtual meeting before the end of the week with someone with enough sense to put the matter to rest. Clearly, Wells Fargo doesn’t want our business anymore. If that means we cash out and move our money elsewhere, that’s what we will do.

As of now, we are currently researching options here. (Did you know interest rates here on regular checking accounts are 10+%?) I do know that Social Security will deposit my money to a Mexican bank, so I assume I can get my other pension account deposited here as well, so this is likely the best option for us. Moving our money here will make our break with the US much cleaner, albeit I will be sad to know that one stupid financial institution could be the final straw that finally cuts our connection with what we always thought of as “home.”

So much for being a US citizen. Thank you Uncle Sam and a Happy 4th of July to You All!