Okay, so some back story here. When I moved to Austin I got a bank account with Wells Fargo and it went well and I was very impressed with their electronic banking services - very impressed. This was about the time that banks were just starting their electronic banking services, so for me to actually see it and use it was great. I was with them for about three years until I got the dreaded credit card. I needed to pay for school and I didn't have the money at the time, so I figured...get the card and use ONLY when you need it. Well, sooner or later you start justifying transactions like, "Well, I will use it just this once... it's only $20 and when I get paid I will pay it...no biggie." So after coming into debt and experiencing high interest rates for really the first time in my life I used a second credit card with a much lower interest rate to consolidate my debt, pay off Wells Fargo and close my accounts with them. It's an unstoppable snowball - I know.
In comes Velocity Federal Credit Union. Austin based, local business, seemed like they had their stuff together. So I open an account with Velocity and during this period I held about 3 different jobs - you know just to pay rent and other bills and have the occasional recreational time. I'm basically living paycheck to paycheck. Now before being stabbed in the back, by Velocity, I assumed that their services would be the same as any other bank, but better because they are a credit union - lower interest rates on loans, higher rates on savings, NEW facility that would technologically be up to date!, etc.
Now that you know that, this is why Velocity sucks:
I had gone to a seafood place and ordered. When it came time to pay, I gave them my debit card from Velocity. The waitress comes back to me stating the card was declined to which my response was, "That's weird. I just deposited money into my account two days ago and haven't used the card since." After trying to come up with other options I asked her to please try it again. This time it was approved....thank God!! Little did I know that this incident would haunt me later.
I went to go and pay some bills and my card get declined again, so after cursing my credit union, I tell the person I will be back later. So, between the seafood place and the bill place i had made a series of transactions from buying gas and snacks to cigarettes and groceries. After the bill place I went home to check my account and discovered I was in the hole more than $600 because of all the overdraft fees Velocity has charged me!! WTF!!! After some of my rage dissipates, I phone velocity to see how this has happened and explain to her that the very first overdraft fee was charged to my account while it contained a positive amount of money in it. She states that she would be happy to refund my money if they can prove it was the credit union's mistake, to which I replied, "...fine, but hurry, because I have to work."
What happened? you ask.
Well, that first declination that happened at the seafood place apparently got passed through for authorization from my credit union, but the credit card machine lost its connection and as a result of it not receiving a response from my credit union, declines the card. However, that amount is now being held as a pending transaction by Velocity. The reason they suck so bad is because I never knew about this alleged "pending transaction." This pending transaction NEVER ever shows up on your electronic banking services, whether it be online or on the phone. The only ones that ever see it are the employees at Velocity. They consider this to be my fault and they are not to blame in the slightest (rage returns right here). After speaking and yelling with the Vice-President and arguing with him for over an hour, he agreed to refund 90% of my money to me and he still, to this day, has yet to refund the other 10%. Rather than waiting for that, I have since closed my account with them and opened it with another bank which I trust.
This experience has taught me not to assume people know what they are doing or know how to run a business, just because you have seen a standard out there and expect everyone to meet or exceed that standard. I love technology, but in this case it was not used to its fullest potential and I got stiffed. Velocity's customer service has much to be desired especially in the field of electronic banking services. The customer should have FULL access to view his/her account or listen to it on the phone. For someone like me who doesn't like to manually keep track of my transactions, this can be very dangerous. However, in my defense, even in this situation a manual log have failed miserably. So, unless you are able to watch your expenses like a Hawk on a rat in an open field, don't bank with velocity.
I apologize for the lengthy post, but it has been a while since I have talked about this, and I have to admit, blogging it feels pretty good. Cheers!
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4 comments:
That sucks, It seems for every technological solution their is a always a human at the other end. I think most systems are made without thinking of the end-user, in this case you. Systems are created to make life easier for the creator of the system, the bank, and for the user selling services, the restaurant. Systems built like this will always be flawed because they take little account for the end-user.
In Information Science we study the end-users of systems through usability testing and Social Informatics. We test interface design such as websites but we also test computer systems, but we refer to them as Social-technical systems rather than as technical systems. The social impact in most cases is as important or more important in system design than technical issues.
I use UFCU, they are on the drag and they give low interest loans and high interest savings. The cool thing about them is they are use to working with students. Students are one of their primary markets so their "systems" are made with students in mind.
Thats it Gabe! let it out, let it all out!
Nice Blog, I like the design and i like the name. Link Blot. Nice!
Cool blog gabe, I like it. A few things about banks and savings though, if I may.
Personally, I keep my money with Wells Fargo (I just have my checking account with them though...get to savings in a bit). Through my experience I have never had any issues with Wells Fargo. They are pretty reliable and they have ATM's everywhere which is awesome. When you overdraft they put it on a credit card (one that i dont use and is only there for overdraft protection) and you get charged a fee for it but its not too bad. And yes, it does show up in your online statements so you know when you're in the red. Honestly, the simple solution to not over drafting for me is that I now just actually log all of my expenses so I always know how much I have in the bank. Periodically I reconcile it online to make sure everything is cool. Kinda nice always knowing how much cash I have without having to check online, heh.
Anyways, about savings, forget savings accounts man. Typically, you're getting hosed there. Take your money and put it into a good money market account or toss it all into a low fee index fund. Vanguard has the best one imo (symbol is VFINX) and its free to setup the account so long as you have the minimum amount of initial cash to invest. Anyways, point of all this is that a money market account or an index fund will make you a ton more money than the average savings account and the money is just as accessible in case of an emergency. You can even get checks and a debit card for it if you want to (the money-market account, not sure about index funds...depends on how you setup your investment).
In any case, sorry this was long but it sucks about what happened with that bank man. When it comes to banks I'm always for large institutions...they often seem to be more organized and managed better.
I'VE HAD MY CHECKING ACCT WITH VELOCITY CU NOW FOR 2 YEARS. THIS BANK IS VERY UNDERHANDED, BECAUSE THEY ARE MAKING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OFF OF THEIR OVERDRAFT PROTECTION PROGRAM. EVERYTIME YOU SWIPE YOUR CARD AND YOUR SPOUSE SWIPES THEIR CARD. YOU WOULD THINK WITH ALL THE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES OUR SOCIETY HAS THAT WHEN YOU WENT TO YOUR VELOCITY ONLINE ACCOUNT IT WOULD CLEARLY SHOW YOU EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN PLEDGED AGAINST YOUR ACCOUNT. NOPE THATS NOT THE CASE WITH THEM. THERE COULD BE SEVERAL FEES THAT YOU CANNOT SEE. SO JUST WHEN YOU THINK ITS SAFE AND ALL TRANSACTIONS CLEARLY HAVE POSTED AND PULLED FROM YOUR ACCT. SURE ENOUGH YOU GO TO USE YOUR CARD AND THEN GET ONLINE TO CHECK YOUR MOST RECENT BALANCE, WELL GUESS WHAT...... THERE IS A WAY THAT THE CREDIT UNION CAN UPDATE THEIR SOFTWARE, BECAUSE WHEN I CALLED AND COMPLAINED ABOUT THIS ONGOING ISSUE THAT IVE BEEN DEALING WITH THE REP ON THE PHONE SAID," WE ARE CHECKING IN TO SOME NEW SOFTWARE, THAT WILL ALWAYS SHOW OUR CONSUMERS EXACTLY EVERY DOLLAR AMOUNT THAT IS BEING PLEDGED AGAINST HIS OR HER ACCT." IF THEY DO NOT CHANGE THEIR PROGRAM SOON THEY'RE GOING TO LOSE A LOT OF CONSUMERS.
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