Wow...if this is true, you could see Wachovia going down hard with federal investigations.
Large national banks are nothing but legalized mafias.. the sooner and faster they fall the better off everyone will be.
Citi looks like they are going to be the first... hopefully many more will follow.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of banksters. If they go down, there will be a lot of crying in Charlotte.
Without having heard the show but having heard a little about this, from what I understand, the people who were having their accounts drafted authorized the drafts.
bump
I bank at a small community bank where the president is my neighbor. It’s amazing how much nicer a bank relationship is when the bank’s ownership and management has to see you and be able to look you in the eye in the grocery store.
And this sort of fraud can still happen if you're with a credit union. The simple solution is to visit your local branch and place an ACH debit block with only certain debits allowed, e.g. for bill payments, certain electronic check conversions, and so forth. And, let your financial institution know the exact range of checks you have (preferably by ordering directly through them) and ask them not to pay checks that are not in that range.
Either way, stay vigilant, and watch your account regularly to catch fraudulent or simply erroneous transactions. This applies to all of you, regardless of whether you bank with Wachovia, Citibank, Bank of America, Navy Federal, USAA, or any other U.S. financial institution.
Wachovia allowing illegal drafts from checking accounts (Clark Howard Show)...
hope they are fined into bankruptcy....and they can take bank of america with them!!!!!
I like the Clark Howard Show. Especially the segment about making one ply toilet paper out of two.
People have to be told to do this? I learned to do this when I opened my first checking account when I was barely in my teens. If people don't keep track of their accounts I can imagine a lot of money leaking out.
For the first twenty or so years my monthly statement was a copy of the daily transactions to and from my account. Every statement I received showed bank errors that they caught and corrected. There were also a few errors that I caught and had them correct. I'm sure the same happens today but I don't get to see all of the activity.
I used to think that was a good idea, until my credit union (US Federal) decided to start holding practically all checks for a few weeks before releasing the funds. I've been a member for over 20 years, and if I deposit a $1000 check from a personal party, they want to hold all but 100 or so for two weeks, long after the check has cleared. Wells Fargo gives me my own money to use when I need it.
The CU is OK with loans and Visa. But without that, I would have no reason to have a checking account there.
I'm no a Wachovia bank fan, but if the NY Times is reporting it, I have to take it with a grain of salt. They aren't the most credible of journalists.
Or, ditch your mega-bank and bank at a locally owned bank. That's what I have done. And, should this local bank get bought out by a mega-bank, I'll be gone in a heartbeat, probably to a local credit union.
Six weeks ago, I felt as you do. I dumped my Washington Mutual account (got tired of dealing with customer 'support' from Bangalore) and tried to set up an account for online banking with a local credit union that primarily serves one of the drug manufacturing firms in this area.
Well, I use initials (yes, it's my legal name) and they just couldn't deal with it in their computer system. It wouldn't let me get an online management account name because it said "You need to enter a first name." The only problem was, I had NO way to do that myself, there was no blank to fill one in. I made MANY requests of all kinds of multiple folks at the credit union to help me, and after three weeks, I got tired of it. Rather than taking my paycheck to them, I just simply opened an account at a bank that Key Bank recently bought in my area. Now, the hours are not ideal (they only stay open after 3PM one day a week!) but even though I had to wait for my debit card to arrive to open an online-manageable account, I was still able to get it done within about a week.
I transferred the rest of my money from the credit union to Key just today.
The moral of the story is: Credit unions are great, when they are strong and able in the areas they serve. But there are indeed areas where they are pitiful imitations of banks, and I guess I wound up moving to one of those places.
Great. Guess who bought my bank 6 months ago.
I like my credit union (Navy Federal) very much. I still keep the majority of my cash there even though the nearest branch office is over 2000 miles away. I can do almost everything I need to online and the interest rates, fees and service are far superior to those of the mega-bank where I keep another account just to have something local.