Illinois Teen Learns About Bank Fees the Hard Way

Do you remember when minors were encouraged to open a savings account and every dollar that was deposited was considered a good thing?  Minimum balances were not required for minors and instead of service charges interest was paid.

My how things have changed!

Illinois Teen Learns About Bank Fees the Hard Way

After $229 in fees caused because he let his balance drop to $4.85 I bet they are all happy for the wonderful customer service they have received.

Wells Fargo Passes Counterfeit $100

After cashing a check at Wells Fargo the funds were taken to Chase to make a mortgage payment. Among the bills a counterfeit $100 was detected! After almost an hour of review and completing forms the bill was confiscated for the Secret Service .

I am out $100 with no recourse!! I went back to Wells Fargo and was told that since I cannot PROVE the money came from them they would not replace it.   Now if by some small chance after 4 bank employees at Chase having reviewed the bill if the Secret Service were to decide they had made a mistake I would get the bill back in a month. 

I hope this makes you as angry as it made me. If we cannot trust our banks to pass out real money than something is terribly wrong.    Now regardless of whether I can PROVE it or not if I had wanted phony money I would have dug into my Monopoly game, not gone to a bank.

Yes, I'm stewing on my next soapbox post and will have it up soon. Please don't jump to the conclusion that "See, debit cards are better" before you read it. As I mention on the sidebar I was in banking and worked in the computer center of a major bank. I was one of the small fry people working on EFT at the birth of what was called Merchant Services in the early 70's. This eventually became what is now called the debt card. That is why I DON'T have one.

I wanted to keep this short and simple as the story is, the title says it all:

Wells Fargo passes counterfeit $100!