Bank Ratings – Ratings Will Help You Find the Best Bank Around and Avoid Choosing the Wrong One
March 10, 2010scfm 18 Comments »Reading bank ratings can be a tremendous way of picking the right bank to do business with. All too many people just settle for whatever bank is in their area and don’t investigate at all if it’s really the best one for their needs.
Aren’t all banks the same? In services offered, many of them are similar, but in terms of customer service and many other variables, there are many differences.
Also, the quality of service can vary widely from bank to bank. The financial advisors at one bank might not be nearly as competition as the ones at another bank, for example.
Therefore, finding the best bank to do business with is a critical step to take. Here are some tips to help you find the right one easily.
First of all, Bank of America is one of the most popular banks in the country, and they have locations all around the country, hence the name. Chances are, if you have seriously looked into the top banks around, you have at least considered Bank of America. Are they really the best?
When it comes to their customer service, they are always one of the fastest banks to respond to any issues you might have with them, which is always an important component.
Just by emailing or calling them, you can almost always get a hold of somebody very shortly, many times within the same day. They have region specific customer service numbers, so in order to find the right one for you, just check the banks in your area.
The best part about bank of America, however, is their online banking, which is really second to none. First of all, if you are concerned about security online, as many still are when it comes to online banking, you don’t really have to worry about this with bank of America.
Security really isn’t nearly as much of an issue now with any bank as it used to be, but bank of America is always towards the top of the list in this department, so if you are paranoid you can be put at ease.
Another feature they offer is the ability to set up automatic payments for certain businesses. You obviously wouldn’t want to do this with everybody you do business with, but the companies that you find yourself working with over and over, all you have to do is input their info into your account, set up a date to pay them each month, and the money will be automatically debited from your account and put into theirs without you having to lift a finger.
This is an excellent option, and one that really comes in handy with companies you work with a lot, and can save you a ton of time when paying your bills online. If you do go with Bank of America (or any other bank for that matter) you absolutely should take advantage of their online banking features, as this will save you some serious time and help you get a lot more done.
This is one of the reasons that bank of America is always towards the top of many bank ratings online.
Question about bank rates
What's the difference local bank CD rates and online bank rates?Why are local banks CD rates so much lower than the CD rates of online banks such as ING? Why can't a local bank offer the same rate?
Tags: bananas, bank ratings, gail kelly, video, westpac
Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 6:33 am
America is in steady decline and very soon we will become a third world nation where a small group of rich people live in guarded luxury while 90% of Americans live in poverty.The middle class is going to vanish in the next 10 yrs.Get prepared now for this painful reality.The super rich are stealing our future.
Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Local banks have to pay for the building, the electricity, the staff. Online banks do not so they have much more money to offer.
Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 7:36 am
If you like the current loan, by all means call the bank you currently have a loan with. There are many different places to check out current rates for mortgages Just be careful and look at the points the lenders charge for those rates. You might think a lender has a good rate, but it is because you will be paying a lot up front for that rate. It pays to shop around. Good luck.
Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 7:38 am
HAHA! LOVE THE LOGO!!!
I don’t have an account with BOA but I did get a credit card through M&T Bank that is branched to Fia Card Services that is connected to BOA-it goes in a circle,lol. Anyways I am a college student getting harassed by Fia SVS and somehow got charged a $150 interest fee. They call non stop and harass me at my work. I am on the do not call list but they stil call! I am going to tell them that I don’t want to pay them so if they need the money that bad they can sue me!
Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Bank deposit rates aren't tied to anything. They are called "managed rates" meaning that they are what managers say they are. If management has a lot of opportunity to make loans, then they might decide to raise deposit rates to attract more deposit money to loan out. If the borrowers are few and far between, then management can lower the rates so they aren't paying interest on deposits that they can't loan out. Note that "prime" is itself a managed rate on the lending side.
Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Blanket their ATMs with stickers calling them what they are. PURE EVIL. We also have to protest Bank of America in front of their banks when ever we can … I also say we should stop paying them anything. Not one more dime.
Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Bank of America, Lehmen Bros, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, AIG; these are all Zombie banks, Bankrupt, insolvent. They should be put through chapter 11 bankruptcy, which will be converted to chapter 7 bankruptcy, Liquidation.
Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
if someone wants to get out of debt today it is pretty easy with a debt consolidation plan
however it may get a bit tricky at times, I suggest you get as much information as possible online on this first,
a good place to start in my humble opinion is:
http://umgarticles.atspace.com/debt-consolidation.htm
Posted on March 11th, 2010 at 12:39 am
Closed my account today. In my robe.
Posted on March 11th, 2010 at 2:58 am
Bernanke's raises rates, that is the prime rate and since credit card rates are based on prime rate they will increase
Posted on March 11th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
would that not create a very temporary & short term solution with a very drastic & dangerous problem shortly down the road?
If they just arbitrarily raise rates another whole point as you suggest, & hypothetically, it works & they get fresh cash. Since it will cost them that much or more to get that money, they will have to inflate the cost of lending to you & me, b/c they dont want to just break even or work at a loss. & guess who pays for that? Yes, you & me!
That "solution" will then create a much worse problem as they will continue to need more money just to make the interest payments to the high rates, & will keep needing to satisfy you by artificially making better rates available to people that will just take it & run in a year to a more stable company that is not about to declare bankruptcy. Then, they will need to start all over again. What do you think they are? the US Govt?
Are you going to invest in a company who is on the verge of bankruptcy? dont you want to help them out by putting $100k of your cash to let them pay bills that they are behind on & thier rating is droping by the minute? Do you think some people would be a bit hesitant to do so?
Institutions just cant jack up rates to any level "just because". That is a bad misconception that banks just make up rates to what ever they want them to be.
Posted on March 11th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
I’m fed up with BOA too! I’ve been an outstanding customer for over 3 years with no late payments and great credit history. I’ve been trying to get an issue resolved with them, but they stall, stall, stall. None of their phone numbers give you an option to speak w a live agent. You have to know to hit 0 to get live agents. Most are from India and are clueless. I have a Mgr’s name and ph # and left over 30 messages since Jan 5th, but he has yet to return my call. They are the EPITOME OF POOR SERV
Posted on March 12th, 2010 at 12:54 am
Yes, rates remain somewhat low historically speaking. No, mortgage rates have nothing to do with the Fed Funds rate.
No, low interest rates are not to blame for people loosing their homes. Greed, timebomb loans and irresponsible borrowing and lending, declining markets and fraudulent appraisals were the real culprits. This is the perfect storm for a mortgage crisis.
Banks make there money when they originate loans (junk fees), sell the loans to FNMA and FHLMC (gain on the sale by originating at premium rates) and through servicing income (they make 0.25% per year for processing payments and performing various other admin tasks on the loans the originate.
They do not generally hold the paper as they would be exposed the the interest rate risk that caused the S&L crisis 20 years ago. That is, if you originate a loan at 6% and rates go to 7%, your 6% mortgage would be worth less than the face amount as it would have to be sold to yield 7%. It may lose as much as 10% of its value. That would errode a banks capital like nothing else and could lead to its insolvency which would threaten the deposit insurance fund.
What rates will do in the future is pure speculation. Some market analyst are calling for the 10 year bond yields to fall by the end of the year. If that happens, the required net yields on the mortgage back securities in the secondary market(which drives what rates banks can afford to offer in the retail/primary mortgage market) should fall as well.
With that being said, my finance professor told me that we, as consumers, should not speculate about what will happen with interest rates. That is, if you need to borrow and you find a rate that you like, you should take it because it may not be there tomorrow. How true that wisdom rang this January when rates dipped to about 5.375% on a 30 year for about 6 hours before they shot back up 0.5% when the stock market started its recover.
Who is really loosing money? The people who insure the loans that are going in to default; the FHA, VA and the PMI companies and some of these other companies that supposedly insured the uninsurable loans called non-prime/sub-prime loans (these companies could not possiblly have charged enough to cover the losses on the loans they insured so they are largely bankrupt) and everyone who had investments in companies that bought into these pools of sub-prime loans.
Between the diminished home equity and actual losses due to defaults, I believe the that the actual losses will be around 2 trillion dollars by the time the crisis is really over.
All those people who talk about Bears Stern being a watershed are clueless about the liabilities that Countrywide has failed to recoginize. I think there could be hundreds of billions that will be scuttled if the merger with Bank of America goes through. Another back room deal in the making in the name of the governments "too big to fail" doctrine.
Posted on March 12th, 2010 at 4:10 am
OK, family meeting folks, no more buying shit from China, cancel all insurance policies, walk bye bye credit cards (fico: huge fraud), walk and bye bye underwater mortgage, fuck the banks. Hey,…it’s just a pragmatic family business decision. Got the idea from Wall Street too big to fail banks, sob’s got my Tarp money and all, so screw them. Start me a family weed/veggie garden, some gunsNroses, pop me a cool heineken,…and Fuck the Census!
Posted on March 12th, 2010 at 6:56 am
Me too.
Posted on March 12th, 2010 at 8:17 am
yes
but you must be good one for the bank i mean regular deposits, no credit rolling and dues they grade u based on number of such things
and if you personally know the manager it will really make a difference
Posted on March 12th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Posted on March 13th, 2010 at 1:40 am
You ROCK! Right on for you. Slowly the water will start to shift through a small crack in the dam until it busts OPEN!