Several years ago, a friend of mine had her satellite radio stolen from her car as it sat in her driveway. She promptly called and reported it stolen, requesting that service to the radio be cancelled immediately. Instead – despite multiple calls, complaints and tears – the company charged her monthly for a radio that she no longer even owned for the next three … [Read more...]
Big banks continue to get creative around fees
Everyone’s still talking about it: bank fees. Just this week, Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank settled a $90 million class-action lawsuit over excessive overdraft fees, joining a growing list of big banks that have already recently done the same thing including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and TD Bank. The basic tenant of the lawsuits is that these banks improperly … [Read more...]
Everyone Loves A Birthday Card!
I have written a lot in the past several months about all of the competition that traditional banks face today. In addition to dealing with bad real estate loans and rising FDIC fees, banks are now watching as brokerage and mutual fund firms introduce online bill pay, free checking accounts, and high yield saving accounts. In an article in the Wall Street Journal last … [Read more...]
Don’t worry about training your staff and having them leave – worry about not training them and having them stay
I’ve written before about the need for financial institutions to train their sales reps. The reason is this: most banks and credit unions have never had to worry about selling anything. They opened a branch and people just walked in and opened an account. But as we all know, those days are over. Today, even people who have bank accounts are starting to use PayPal or … [Read more...]
The switch is on – switching banks is becoming a lot easier
For several years now, I’ve been preaching about how banks and credit unions need to get their customers to use online bill pay and direct deposit. The reason is simple: the more bills a person or business pays online, the less likely they are to switch to another financial institution. Once a person inputs all of their vendors and monthly bills, they won’t want to go … [Read more...]