I always flip through the business section of whatever newspaper is available to see what’s going on. I like to stay current with the business world. The other day a piece on customer dissatisfaction with banking caught my eye.
According to a recent study mentioned in the Toronto Sun from J.D Power’s annual report on customer satisfaction, some fascinating results were derived about what’s bothering bank customers.. What are the leading causes of customer dissatisfaction with brick-and-mortar banks?
The biggest issues are the fees and problem resolution.
Bank customers are simply tired of usage fees, unexplained fees, and the time it takes to get issues resolved.
I went into a new bank the other day to check something out. The customer service rep tried to sell me on their checking accounts. I told her how I enjoyed my free checking account with ING Direct. So the person goes on about how they don’t have any no-fee checking accounts, but they do offer more overdraft protection. WTF? Why would I care about that? If I don’t have the money I shouldn’t be spending money. If I really did need the money I would much rather use my credit card than dig into overdraft and the crazy costs that come with it.
One of the individuals in this study mentioned that when she graduated from school she was switched to a low-fee banking account with only minimal free transactions per month. Well guess what? 20-SOMETHINGS USE THEIR DEBIT CARDS A LOT! She ended up paying over $90 a month a few times for her checking account. As you can imagine she wasn’t too impressed. She also likely switched over to an online banking account.
This is why online banking is taking over. Us customers are simply tired of being nickel-and-dimed with fees that are never explained to us. What’s a maintenance fee? What maintenance does a checking account require?
If you’re tired of paying “maintenance” fees for your checking account, you need to look at my list of free online checking accounts. It’s time that you held on to more of your money.
If you sign up with PerkStreet you can earn 2% cashback. I would I could tell you more, but this service isn’t offered in Canada. It does look like a damn good deal to me.
If you sign up with ING Direct for a free online checking account, you can get a $50 bonus. This is my account of choice. I recommend it to everyone. Everything is online, there’s no hassle, it’s easy to use, and you can create many sub-accounts. What else do you need?
Do you have a free checking account? Are you tired of getting ripped off by your bank?
(photo credit: arjin j)
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Unfortunately, my secondary checking account requires a physical branch I can visit, unless they have a virtual deposit setup, like Chase is constantly advertising. I get paid via a pre-paid debit card which would be fine if any of the bills I need to pay accepted credit/debit transactions. So for now, I’m just using the the bank kiosk at my grocery store where I buy the money order.
A couple months ago, the bank added a maintence fee. Like most banks that I’ve looked into, there were ways to avoid the fee. Like $500+ in direct deposits or $25+ per month monthly transfer into a linked savings account. The loophole that the teller let me in on is that the money doesn’t have to STAY in the savings account. So I have a transfer schedule moving $25 into savings once per month and three days later moving it back into checking.
I love my online bank! (ING Direct). What is really interesting though is when they “fire customers” because customers require too much time and energy. Isn’t that crazy–a bank getting rid of customers? Of course it’s because they need to keep their overhead low to keep the higher interest rates.
I never heard of them firing any customers. How common is that?