DO BANKS RIP THEIR CLIENTS OFF?
Several years ago, there was a woman who personally told me their family’s struggle to get back their entire fortune which was taken over by a bank thru some insidious practices. They went to court and to the media to fight their battle. She said they are winning but they still have a long way to go.
We all know now how the big international banks practically cheated us of our money by creating all those complex financial instruments that eventually brought down the world economy. Thankfully, that has already gotten everyone’s attention and hopefully, one of these days, something good would come off it. I mean, the authorities are already on to it, right? Right?
Anyway, if those things that they did in Wall Street, and wherever else they cook up schemes like that, are kinda impersonal I am not too sure that they are not doing it on the more personal level.
Last month, I went to a bank where I was maintaining a savings account deposit and asked them to convert the equivalent of U.S. $1,000.00 from that account and wire the amount to a clearing house in the U.S. for further credit to my account in a U.S. online brokerage house.
My local bank did as instructed. It converted the money according to the prevailing exchange rate at that moment and charged me their fees accordingly. The wire was sent and a few hours later it was credited to my U.S. broker account.
It was a fast and painless transaction. For a while, I thought about how wonderful it was to do business with a bank – until I saw the figure credited to my broker account. It was U.S. $15.00 less! My $1000 became $985.00 after it passed thru the wires!
Immediately I contacted my bank and inquired what happened. They promised to look into it and said they will get back to me. They did, with the assurance that US$1,000.00 was wired to my online broker.
I sent an email to my online broker in the U.S. asking if there were fees that they are charging their clients that they somehow failed to mention in their communications with me. I told them the amount of money I sent them and the amount that reflected in my account with them.
Very courteously, somebody from the U.S. online stock broker’s office assured me that there were no hidden fees that I had to pay and that they don’t charge acceptance fee on wired funds. They further said that they don’t use intermediary banks which normally charge fees.
That was great! I have two very efficient organizations handling my very small amount of money. One of them sent the exact amount I specified in my instructions. The other faithfully recorded the amount they received thru the wires.
Except, somehow, during the process, a portion of my money disappeared!
I know, it’s just U.S. $15.00 but…?
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