Last year, I made the decision to move my money out of Bank of America, largely for political reasons. The bank I chose to hold my money was Umpqua Bank, a local community bank that had a branch within walking distance of my home. The distance thing was a primary factor in my decision, but I also liked the idea of a checking account that had no fees (as long as I maintained a minimum average daily balance), and getting ATM fees refunded (up to $10 in Umpqua fees and $10 in other bank fees). Those were nice little perks that I didn’t qualify for from BofA.
Lots of folk suggested I join a credit union, but in my head I rejected that idea because there were no credit unions in my neighborhood. Clearly I was still making the decision based on simple emotional thinking. Neighborhood is always better, right?
I’ve been mostly happy with Umpqua, although there have been some small annoyances. First, I found out that Umpqua’s practice, proudly explained to me by Adam, my personal banker, when I first opened my account, of not re-arranging debits and credits to produce the most overdraft fees, wasn’t something they’d done from their founding. In fact, they had only recently changed their policy but it hasn’t stopped Umpqua from being sued, class-action style, for it. Oopsie.
Second was another annoyance that I worked around, but annoying nonetheless. For Christmas I traveled to Cancun, Mexico for vacation. Several weeks prior to leaving, I emailed Adam, my personal banker, about the trip, in the hopes of avoiding having my debit card stop working because I flagged some bullshit “fraud detection” software. I emailed him again a few days before departure as a reminder. No reply either time. Man, I hoped that worked.
I’d had that happen several times at BofA, most often because I use a French company, Gandi.net, to purchase my internet domains, and every time they renewed, I had to call or email BofA Customer Service to explain that yes, just like before, this is a legitimate charge that I authorized.
Fast forward to the middle of my trip, when I got a phone call from some unknown US 866 number that left no voice mail, or couldn’t leave a voice mail, or voice mail didn’t work because my iPhone was in Mexico, or whatever. And then less than an hour later, I got a call from the local Mexican travel agent who had been unable to run an authorized charge for a tour I had signed up for the day before. Add in the frustration of having to know the secret to calling US toll-free numbers from Mexico (you have to use a different area code, depending) that took me a while to learn, on top, and it was a large frustration indeed. I was able to get it all straightened out by calling back to my Sellwood branch (on my dime, of course), and Amy (I think), the bank lady I talked to confirmed that Adam had indeed noted my account about the travel (which hadn’t prevented the third-party company from freezing my debit card). Still annoying.
Then last week I come home to find in the mail a flyer from Umpqua detailing their new checking account options! They explained in careful PR-speak that the old accounts are going away and I’m going to be moved into a default option unless I come in and talk to them. The default option earns no interest, carries a $6 per month fee (which they’ll waive if I keep a minimum average balance of $500 or a minimum daily balance of $1000), but does refund a whopping half of the amount of ATM fees that I’ve been getting ($10, split between other bank fees and Umpqua fees).
There are other checking accounts, too, including one that refunds unlimited US ATM fees if I can keep a $25,000 minimum balance. Man, if I had twenty-five large I would not be keeping that in a bullshit checking account just so I could avoid bullshit ATM fees that banks only use to increase the ways they pry our money out of our hands.
Oh, @umpquabank you’re making your checking accounts suckier. Way to make me think I should’ve switched to a credit union last year.
Which naturally prompted a reply from Teri Lou, the woman who runs the @umpquabank Twitter account:
“@lunarobverse Our helpful store associates can chat about your concerns. We put a lot of thought into the options & would hate to see you go”
Now, look, I know that Teri Lou, the person running the Umpqua Twitter account, is in the unenviable position of having to defend her bosses’ decisions. I didn’t, and don’t, want to take out my anger on her. But last fall, in response to Occupy Wall Street’s taking up of the message to move our money out of the big banks, everyone was suggesting credit unions, and I defended Umpqua even though it was a for-profit bank, which got this reply from Teri Lou:
@lunarobverse @MeiLinMiranda @markos for the record, hopefully we won’t pull any bone-headed moves period. :)
I don’t really know that she should have made that almost-promise. Because it appears that for-profit banking just naturally increases the greed of those running that institution. I guess I’ve finally reached the point in my transition to a dirty communist hippy socialist fascist that I think maybe other people shouldn’t be making obscene profits off of my own money, charging me bullshit fees and setting unreasonable limits on what I can do with it. Maybe banking should be run as a utility, making enough money to pay decent employees’ wages and benefits and not earning CEOs outrageous bonuses. Is that weird of me? Then so be it. I’m weird.
Because, look. Look at what I could get from a quick survey of local non-profit credit unions:
- Unitus Credit Union only offers 0.05% APY dividend on their Unitus Checking account (though that’s still five times more than Umpqua), and they don’t refund ATM fees. They’re on a par with Umpqua, basically.
- Rivermark Credit Union offers Rewards Checking: no monthly fee, 0.5% APY interest (oh, sorry, dividend) on balances up to $25,000, up to $12 a month in ATM fees refunded if you meet the minimum requirements of direct deposit, e-statements, and 12 debit card transactions a month. Plus you can earn rewards points on transactions!
- Advantis Credit Union offers something called Fusion Checking: no minimum balance, no monthly fee, 2.0% APY on balances up to $25,000, and $25 a month in ATM fees refunded.
- I’ve saved the best for last, and the one that will likely get my business. First Tech Federal Credit Union offers Dividend Rewards Checking, which includes a 2.54% APY on balances up to $25,000, unlimited US ATM fee refunds, no-fee overdraft protection, and requires no minimum balance, average or daily or otherwise.
I was proud of myself last year, because between my savings account at EmigrantDirect, which pays 0.6% APY, and having an interest-bearing checking account at Umpqua, which pays the aforementioned 0.1% APY, I made $21.77 in interest in 2011, $15,64 at EmigrantDirect and the rest from Umpqua. That’s more interest money than I’ve earned in (probably) my life entirely prior.
If all that money had been in First Tech Fed CU in 2011, though, that would have been $221.91 instead. That’s… that’s significantly higher, my friends. And I haven’t even sat down and figured out how much I would have gotten back by not paying bullshit ATM fees at all (OK, except for my trip to Mexico).
I’m not mad at Umpqua executives about this. They’re playing the system the way it’s been set up, the way they’ve worked hard to set up; for-profit banks have lots of money and get to help politicians write the regulations they labor under. I get it. That’s how the system works for now. It’s just business, baby.
I’m sure Adam and Teri Lou and Amy and all the other folks just doing their jobs are great people, people that like working with the public and love their families. I don’t blame them, even more than I don’t blame the higher-ups.
So when I move my money out of Umpqua Bank and into a credit union that’s willing to pay me 25 times more in interest (sorry, dividends) and make sure I never have to pay other banks’ bullshit ATM fees, it’s just business, baby. I’d be stupid at this point for not doing it. Umpqua management made a bone-headed decision that has resulted in me making more money in the future, so it’s a win for me and the Devil can take the hindmost in the end.
Thanks, Umpqua.
