Premier banking w/ Wells Fargo?

[Gregory1776]

I had been wanting to leave PenFed behind for years now, opened a checking account with Wells Fargo whom gave me a better limit on my AC, and for the bonus. 

what kind of benefits other than advertised do they give you with the premier checking tier? Customer service/ care wise, short wait times if I have to call, that's usually what I look for with my banking and don't feel like I got any of at PenFed. 

I vastly prefer smaller especially local credit unions but there aren't any near me so some kind of big bank will be my option. Chase, Bank of America, PNC are other options I am considering. US BANK too with this new CC coming out.

Edit: i am also considering the 20,000 balance tier, with 50-60% of my balance in a CD or something and the rest in checking for expenses. I can't not earn $0 a month. And I am not close to 6 figures at this time.

[NoMoreE46]

Can't answer this but whenever I call into WF, I often get a "Premier Banking" agent; never had to wait.   

Have a had an auto loan, and currently have two CCs along with a  standard checking account that gets a payroll DD into it.  (Love the Early Pay Day that drops on Wednesdays vs Fridays.)

We park our money into a local CU that offers higher rates.  

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@Gregory1776 wrote:

I had been wanting to leave PenFed behind for years now, opened a checking account with Wells Fargo whom gave me a better limit on my AC, and for the bonus. 

what kind of benefits other than advertised do they give you with the premier checking tier? Customer service/ care wise, short wait times if I have to call, that's usually what I look for with my banking and don't feel like I got any of at PenFed. 

I vastly prefer smaller especially local credit unions but there aren't any near me so some kind of big bank will be my option. Chase, Bank of America, PNC are other options I am considering. US BANK too with this new CC coming out.

Edit: i am also considering the 20,000 balance tier, with 50-60% of my balance in a CD or something and the rest in checking for expenses. I can't not earn $0 a month. And I am not close to 6 figures at this time.

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[AndySoCal]

@Gregory1776 I agree with @NoMoreE46 @in regards to savings rates you can do better elsewhere than Wells Fargo. I also do not understand what the benefits are of premier checking that makes it worth the $35.00 monthly fee. There are 2 internet banks that offer 24 7 phone service as well and better rates. There are two internet banks are Discover Bank and Ally.  I have banked with Discover and currently am banking with Ally. Alliant Credit Union is an on line credit union with 24 7 phone service if I understand the website correctly.

I understand internet banks  etc is not for everyone. There valid reasons for needing to go into branch of a bank or credit union.

[Varsity_Lu]

I am genuinely curious as to why anyone would do business with Wells Fargo. They made the news again this week with a hefty fine for their corrupt behavior. For most of my adult life (25+ years) they have shown time and time again that they have no interest in acting ethically. With literally hundreds of other options out there, what is it about WF that attracts customers?

[Anonymous]

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@Varsity_Lu wrote:

I am genuinely curious as to why anyone would do business with Wells Fargo. They made the news again this week with a hefty fine for their corrupt behavior. For most of my adult life (25+ years) they have shown time and time again that they have no interest in acting ethically. With literally hundreds of other options out there, what is it about WF that attracts customers?

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You are misinformed. They were not hit this week with a hefty fine or even a penalty. What they were given was a list of things they had to fix to be in compliance with the law and regulations.

As to why anyone would do business with them? I will give one reason, they offer some valuable products.

[AndySoCal]

@Anonymous  What the OCC found was Wells Fargo anti money laundering and other financial crimes safeguards were to lax as the Reuters article below says

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/occ-issues-enforcement-action-against-wells-fargo-2024-09-1... 

In my opinion these policies and procedures in this area should be a pillar of any bank and not a weakness cited by a regulator.

When I was with US Bank someone got a hold of a check I had written. The person had "washed" the check ie changed the payee on the check. The check was presented at a US Bank branch to be cashed. The telller did the due dillegence ie noticed the memo stated the check was for babysittting and the account owner was nearly 60 in age. Long story short the check was not cashed and the person who tried to cash it was turned over to law enforcement. I told the branch manager we're I banked that story and the manager's response was simply I am glad we did our due dillegence. I have had US Bank decline credit card transactions because the amount being charged to the credit card was out of the range of my normal spending at the store IE normally I spend 40 to 50 dollars a week and the amount being charged was 300. I learned in those cases to call US Bank and warn them of a large purchase ahead of time. Yes, it can be a pain but I know why they do it and I tolerate it due to what it can prevent.

As I stated earlier Wells Fargo has dug themselves a very deep hole. The if and when Wells Fargo ever gets out of it is a long ways off in my opinion. At this point in time I have no confidence in Wells Fargo. If I was forced to bank with large bank it would be US Bank. I left them due their sub par savings rates. 

[Gregory1776]

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@NoMoreE46 wrote:

Can't answer this but whenever I call into WF, I often get a "Premier Banking" agent; never had to wait.   

Have a had an auto loan, and currently have two CCs along with a  standard checking account that gets a payroll DD into it.  (Love the Early Pay Day that drops on Wednesdays vs Fridays.)

We park our money into a local CU that offers higher rates.  

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@Gregory1776 wrote:

I had been wanting to leave PenFed behind for years now, opened a checking account with Wells Fargo whom gave me a better limit on my AC, and for the bonus. 

what kind of benefits other than advertised do they give you with the premier checking tier? Customer service/ care wise, short wait times if I have to call, that's usually what I look for with my banking and don't feel like I got any of at PenFed. 

I vastly prefer smaller especially local credit unions but there aren't any near me so some kind of big bank will be my option. Chase, Bank of America, PNC are other options I am considering. US BANK too with this new CC coming out.

Edit: i am also considering the 20,000 balance tier, with 50-60% of my balance in a CD or something and the rest in checking for expenses. I can't not earn $0 a month. And I am not close to 6 figures at this time.

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I also love the early payday, but I'm only getting my paychecks 11 PM Thursday. Which is useless. This past Thursday I've got it at 6 PM, I'm not sure why that is? Hopefully as a weeks go by it cold earlier and earlier. I would love a deposit. 

[Gregory1776]

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@AndySoCal wrote:

@Gregory1776 I agree with @NoMoreE46 @in regards to savings rates you can do better elsewhere than Wells Fargo. I also do not understand what the benefits are of premier checking that makes it worth the $35.00 monthly fee. There are 2 internet banks that offer 24 7 phone service as well and better rates. There are two internet banks are Discover Bank and Ally.  I have banked with Discover and currently am banking with Ally. Alliant Credit Union is an on line credit union with 24 7 phone service if I understand the website correctly.

I understand internet banks  etc is not for everyone. There valid reasons for needing to go into branch of a bank or credit union.

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I've been with PenFed as my main checking account for seven years so I'm used to not having a branch around. I love that with PenFed. ATMs are everywhere not the Wells Fargo, however, he is becoming more and more mediocre to me and I have been on the hunt for a change past two years. 

[Gregory1776]

@AndySoCal I also do use Ally for savings, and I will open an additional savings account that will EARN me more APY when I have the money to deposit

[Gregory1776]

@Varsity_Lu I know, I honestly don't care about their deposit fiasco, all banks, big bang that is are inherently evil. I know that I'm willing to deal with it because that's what we have. But what appeals to me is what benefits I might be able to through them. Tracking my purchases, how much I spent in the year, money management if anything is offered. That is kind of what I'm looking for. I don't think penFed offered anything like that. I also never had the balances to be concerned about it before, but that is slowly changing as the months go by. 

I do prefer credit unions, and I hate that I had to move to South Jersey because my old, local credit union which I didn't use offered awesome things like extended banking hours (Which changed with Covid) The ability to use a coin machine in branch, which is to me valuable. I hate carrying change. Awesome things like being able to use any Allpoint PTM  they just had no rates so I stopped losing them regularly, or direct deposit