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I tried to think of another way to title this post other than Wells Fargo Sucks, but I couldn’t think of one that did it justice.
This post is really only going to be for the American readers. The bank I use is Wells Fargo….and they suck. I encourage everyone to take their banking somewhere other than Wellso Fargo, because they suck and are are horrible for traveling.
This is what happened to me today….
I was driving from Kurrunth or something in Western Australia to Exmouth. In the morning I paid for my motel and filled up my camper with my debit card. There were no issues. I was going to get cash out but I didn’t find an ATM machine, so I figured I’d just do it later on when I could find one. I left Kurrunth at about 8:30am and stopped at the Nanutarra Roadhouse at about 11:30 to get more fuel. I had about half a tank.
I fill up, go to pay and my card is declined. This is the fifth time on my trip this has happened. Every time it is my bank trying to protect me from fraud by denying me access to all my money. Every other time I’ve been able to call the bank and get it straightened out. When I arrived in Australia back in February, I even took the time to call the bank to tell them I was going to be in Australia and NOT to put my card on hold if some sort of fraud is flagged. Even if something is stolen, I’m better off having access to my funds till I can deal with it than having everything cut off.
Well, the number given to me by Wells Fargo to call collect from overseas didn’t work. I didn’t have a credit card to make a credit card call. I ended up having to make a collect call to my parents to get their credit card number just to make a god damn phone call to my bank because the number they gave, which was supposed to accept collect calls, didn’t accept collect calls.
They tell me that the fraud flag wasn’t just put up, but that the card was flagged as stolen and that there was nothing they could do to help me until the start of business hours, when I could talk to a supervisor. They caused the problem and now I’m supposed to wait for their office to open to get access to my money. Jesus H Christ.
Then they tell me that there is a special number for Australia where I can call them. I was never told about this when I went out of the way to contact them back in February. I was just told to call the number on the back of my card collect (which can’t be done it seems from Australia, even though it says “international”). Also, when I asked about my request for my card not to be suspended to protect me from fraud, I was told that the operators and fraud protection people really don’t have any authority to do that and I have to talk to someone more senior. I’m sooo glad they told me about this when I made the request.
Also, why would my card be flagged as stoled if I didn’t notify them that it was stolen? Unless I’m telling them it is stolen (which I’d do immediately if it was) I don’t know how they get off flagging it as stolen.
Every time I use my card on my trip I feel like I’m playing Russian Roulette. Today it struck in one of the wost possible places. I felt stupid trying to explain myself to the owner. In the end, he took an old fashioned imprint of my card and I told him to just process it in a day or two.
I very much want to get a new bank, but they wont let me do a wire transfer to another bank unless I show up in person. They also will not give me another card to have as a back up incase this happens again or if my card is really stolen. Basically, they are holding my money hostage. As of this moment, they wont let me access it, they wont give me a back up, and they wont let me go to another bank.
I realise that I should probably have had some cash or a travelers check or something else just in case of emergency. I know that, and to that extent it was my bad.
However, when I explicitly go out of my way to tell my bank not to do this, and they do it, there is no excuse. When they proctect me like this, it is as if they are stealing everything I have. The fraud protection is worse than the fraud when you are traveling overseas.
I did make it to Exmouth where there is an ATM that worked, so I’m not totally screwed, but I still have to wait 8 hours for their offices to open to get this resolved. I am going to investigate every avenue possible to break all ties with Wells Fargo and open up a bank account in Singapore.
In summary Wells Fargo Sucks . I cannot stress this enough. If anyone wants to link to this article, please link it with the phrase “Wells Fargo Sucks” so it will rank high in Google when people search for “Wells Fargo Sucks”.
USA Mainland
Palestine (West Bank)
Netherlands
England
USA
All the banks in US sucks.. India is way ahead of all these fucking faggots
Try switching to US Bank. When I traveled to Australia, I had no hassles with them. I believe they are affiliated with Westpac bank over there. My debit card worked every time and was accepted everywhere I went. Making the purhcases with the debit card was better than cash because the bank automatically converted the currency and debited my account in the appropriate amount of US dollars with no fee like you would have with a regurlar currency exchange.
I was driving from Kurrunth or something in Western Australia to Exmouth. ——– is this true?
2009 and Wells Fargo is still as bad as ever. I have a Auto loan , I called them to see if I could get a late fee waived. ( that was my fault I lost my job, father died, bad car accident , Yes in one year) after being tranfered more than 5 times I spoke to a man that told me to write a hardship letter and fax it . Then he told me if I make a payment with him right now it will look really good and help me get the late payments fee wavied. It was the 13 of the month and my payment was due 23, I asked him was there a fee and he said yes, but would waive it. I told him if the fee was waived I would make the payment. So when I looked at me bank statement on the 23 it was short by $10 I knew were to look. I have been told by two mgrs that one if I could pay the car payment I should be able to pay 10.00 / they told me I did ok the charge and to stop complaining/ , and if that was not enoght then the guy asked me how did I want to pay the late charges…Are you kidding me..REALLY..I gave him my account number ..123..when hell freezes over..and put a litle something extra for him too.. What have I learned …If I dont have the money in the bank I can not buy it ….and to get a new loan with USAA my new credit Union Thanks for lisening
2009 and Wells Fargo is still as bad as ever. I have a Auto loan , I called them to see if I could get a late fee waived. ( that was my fault I lost my job, father died, bad car accident, basically life happened) after being transferred more than 5 times I spoke to a man that told me to write a hardship letter and fax it. Then he told me if I make a payment with him right now it would look really good and help me get the late payments fee waived. It was the 13th of the month and my payment was due 23. I asked him was there a fee and he said yes, but would waive it. I told him if the fee was waived I would make the payment. So when I looked at my bank statement on the 23 it was short by $10 I knew were to look. I have been told by two supervisors that if I could pay the car payment I should be able to pay $10.00 / they told me I did ok the charge and to stop complaining/ , and if that was not enough then the guy asked me how did I want to pay the late charges…Are you kidding me..REALLY..I gave him my account number ..123..when hell freezes over..and put a little something extra for him too.. What have I learned …If I don’t have the money in the bank I can’t buy it EVER….and to get a new car loan with USAA my new Credit Union.. Thanks for listening
I went to China for a business trip. Tried to take money out of an ATM with my wells fargo card and it didn’t work/said to call the bank. I called the wells fargo collect # and the first time I was disconnected. The second time they answered, but didn’t talk for about a minute or two until I started saying what kind of company are you running here on the phone trying to get some attention. The representative said that I had a “fraud hold” on my account and I had spend about 10 minutes proving my identity. After that she removed the fraud hold and said I could withdraw money. I said that i’d try and did, but same BS. I could not get money out. The representative got her supervisor and they said that I had to wait until Monday a.m. and I had to call the Fraud department directly even though they removed the hold. What a screwed up process. Not to mention it is Saturday so I have to wait 2 days to get my money out of this crappy, sucky bank. I asked for compensation for this experience as Wells Fargo has MY MONEY, but won’t let me take it. I will switch if they don’t come back with a good retention plan.
I’m travelling in Australia as well :) A little over a week before I left to spend 5 months in Australia Wells Fargo turns off my debit card, because of suspicous charges. They ask if I recognize an online transaction from a month ago and I cant really remember so they ask me if I want to turn off my card and get a new one. I explain to them that I am leaving the country and need my debit card so I would rather not in case I dont get the new one in time. They tell me its fine they can put a rush delivery and have it to me in two days. It never comes. I call them 4 days later and ask where my card is and they tell me it takes at least a week, and I told them I put a rush delivery on it, and they said thats impossible to do. So I got stuck going to Australia with almost no money, because its all in the bank and I live on the east coast where there are no Wells Fargos that I could go to in person to make a withdrawal. ( I go to school in the west, which is why I had that bank. ) The second I get back to the US I am closing my account.
holy shit dude. thank you. i am in the military and i pcs’d (got orders to move) to korea. upon arrival, i used my debit card a couple times, then all of a sudden my account was closed with money in it, because of potential “fraud” so here i am stuck with no money. i called the fraud department, and they could not verify my identity because i got a question wrong about a street adjacent or not adjacent to my mailing address. it was very ridiculous. did i mention im stuck in another country with no money and i am 14 hours ahead of them? i have to stay up til midnight or later just to speak to someone to give me a goddamn runaround. i dont feel like i should have to check in everytime i go somewhere, whether i pcs or deploy. its seems now, if i dont check in with mommy or daddy (wells fargo) then i wont get my allowance. fuck these motherfuckers.