Is your bank robbing you?

I love my bank very much even though they pay very little interest on the money you keep in a savings account or checking account. It is a puny little interest rate but I still love my bank as they have been around a long time without merging with anyone and trust them. I have put some of my money in a higher interest savings account to accumulate more money. I would not feel safe putting money into a foreign account since I know nothing about them. Money management is definitely very important so I appreciate this discussion very much. :-)

Not really. I have made a lot of good investments in the past but there is one that I regreted. I had placed a portion of my money in a 5 years contract but the interest is not fixed. Sometimes, it will go up a little and vise versa. I haven't try doing what you posted here but it sounds interesting. I'm not really good with numbers. PS: I know I must not put down this message. But you told me not to PM you for the meantime. I just felt a little bad right now coz my rating drop 1 point. This is the thing that I hate about myself. Just a point and I'm deeply affected. Sorry for messing your thread. Real sorry.

Even i hate it,but i can not leave without bank.If you have enough money,go and open a bank.it can bring big money.They use our money to make money for them.but nothing we can do to it.

Good idea ... Have you thought about France ? The euro is in a good position, interest rates are only around 3% but there is no maintenance fees or any restrictions to money transfers ... if you got a checking account linked to your savings account, you can do transfers from one account to another online very easily, no fees, free checking - but you can only use them in france though, but its nice if you plan to travel there! - you can get a visa or mastercard with your checking account and use your funds worldwide - look for premium cards because the others will charge you a small fee each time you use you card out of France, like 0.01% of the amount spent - I got one and I am very happy about it

I think I would have to say I'm pretty happy with my bank accounts. I've had my current account with the same bank for over 20 years now and have always had my salary paid into the account. I have managed to save money every month for the last few years and have several deposit accounts, a couple with my main bank and a few others with building societies. I currently have my car insurance with my main bank too but only since last year as they offered a competitive price. In the past they weren't competitive so I used other companies who were. I act with my feet; I shop around and if I find a financial product elsewhere which offers me personally a better deal I'll go to them. In this day and age, we, as customers can afford to shop around as banks are crying out for our business so I don't feel bad about shopping around if my main banking provider isn't offering me the best deal. At present, they're doing very well with my money so they'll keep my business. On the whole, banks love you when you have money and throw loans and credit cards at you. I get offered a loan every time I walk into a branch (which is less and less often now I deal mainly with internet banking) and always politely decline, I know the staff are just doing their job which is to offer customers additional financial products as often as they can. They keep increasing my credit card limit which isn't necessary as I barely use 1/20th of my limit and clear off the balance every month. These days they don't get a penny interest charges out of me and that's the way I intend to keep it. In my younger more frivolous days, they got lots of money out of me (as would any bank) - not anymore! :)

My brick and mortar bank is robbing me blind! With overdraft fees that is see my discussion from awhile back http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/808467.aspx My online bank is awsome, I get a 4.5% rate which I feel is fairly good considering it would be making 0% in my pocket ;)

Banks are just like any business trying to figure out a way to weasel money out of you. I hate them and have not delt with them for years because I used to keep a lot of money in banks and any time I wanted to withdraw it was such a hassle and no one but me gets to mess with my money.

I haven't banked at a "bank" in probably 18 years. They're too expensive. You are so right that they charge horrendous fees and pay very little (if any) interest. Unless you have a huge amount of funds in the bank, you will get almost no interest. I belong to 4 credit unions, which are much nicer to us! I don't pay any fees at all and I make a little more interest than if I was with a bank. I'm not sure where in the US you can get 5% - except some CD's - but I know I'm getting better rates at the credit union than any bank offers. I'm not in a position to invest in futures, so the currency exchange is out for me. I put what I can into high-interest bearing CD's for short terms and roll them over as the rates go up.

The banks are big ripoff. They charge absorbant fees for everything, and the interest rate to consumers is minimal. I just closed an account yesterday because the bank was charging me $4.00 a month in service charge. I was told transfer $25.00 a month from checking. Yesterday, I open my statement and had $4.00 charge. I called the bank that said you had to maintain a minimum balance. They are ridiculous.

Hi, No thank goodness my bank is not robbing me, although I know some banks in Australia do rob people of there money which is dreadful. No I do not put my money in any biscuit tin although I know some people do this, I receive at least $50.00 a month on my interest so I am very happy with that, but I do know of another bank where I would earn even more per month but I do not want to change it and I find a lot of people do not like to change where they have there money due to this but where the banks are ripping off your money then of course it would be a great idea to change your banking.

I hate my bank because they tell me what I can do with my own money. I have three accounts at my bank. I use different accounts to separate my spending, saving, and bill money. Sometimes I need to transfer money between the accounts to use it to buy something. My bank will only allow me to do that three times per month, which I think is very rediculous. It is my money and I should be able to do whatever I want with it, as many times per month as I wish. They draw interest off of my funds so I should be treated with more respect for allowing them to do so.

LOL - my brain is not function well this morning so not following your numbers (and I was a math major) but I have to say - I love my bank. It's not really a bank, but a credit union, I have my checking and savings account with them and have been there for 10 or more years. Their always friendly and helpful, have never (knock on wood) lost or misplaced my money, and I earn interest on both accounts, not a lot but better than a jar in the cupboard or under my mattress.

I think that banks do rob people. Many bank charge a monthly for just for having the account. I think that is unfair. Why should we have to pay them? They make plenty of money on the loans that they charge a lot of interest on. My bank for example charges a dollar a month, just for having an account. A dollar isn't much, but overtime it adds up.

I don't really have a problem with my bank. But then technically it's not a bank but a "credit union". All it means really is that I don't pay service fees nor do I have to worry about keeping a minimum balance in my checking account. THe interest rate on my savings is pretty low, but I don't mind really :)

So far I'm happy with my bank. I don't have any issues with them, they are being great for me. I have multiple accounts with that bank and they have treated me well. I am looking forward to do more business with them. They don't pay me much interest on my savings account, I also have a term deposit account that gives me much higher interest rate. Yes I do manage my money carefully as it will be needed for my family life. Interesting topic really, looking forward to hear more people about their bank and their experiences. Cheers!

I am so glad that you have pointed this out. At least I know now that it is not just me and my husband suffering form our stupid bank! We have had so many random charges tacked onto our account that it would save us more money to hide everything under the mattress. I have even called the bank to figure out what the hell these charges are from and why they are being assessed and even they don't know. I mean when have you ever heard of being charged for writing a certain amount of checks. My husband and I write checks every month to pay all of our bills and all of the sudden there was a check writing fee!!!! I could not believe it, so I called the bank and they say there is no fee but if you look at the account there is one put there.

I have a variety of investments, even though I don't even have that much money to invest. It's a topic that interests me greatly because I work in a bank. =p The important issue is balancing investments between low-risk and high-risk. Putting money into the foreign exchange market is okay for your high-risk part, but you should also have lower-risk bonds or savings accounts. Plus some medium-risk type stocks that have been steady performers over a number of years. Myself, my largest chunk of "savings" is through my 401(k) at work. My company matches what I contribute (up to 6% of my pay) dollar for dollar, which means the account grows much quicker than if I were only contributing to it myself. Also, once in the 401(k), I can allocate my funds throughout several different types of investments, with various risk thresholds. A small portion of my money goes into company stock, but one of the biggest mistakes you can do with investing is put ALL of your money into your company's stock, because if something happened to that company, you could take HUGE losses. I also do some small-dollar self-directed online trading, through my bank's online brokerage. It's useful mainly for learning about investments, and later when I have more actual money to invest I'll upgrade that account so I can do more, and have the knowledge and experience to manage it intelligently. I also do have some money in savings accounts. The interest isn't great, but it's easily accessible and I know I won't lose that money. It's basically an emergency fund.

Actually I like the bank we are with . They have been really good to us and even went on and above what they had to , to help ensure us credit to buy a house we wanted to a few years ago . We ended up not getting the house as it was sold from under us but our bank was really good in helping us to be able to get the money we would have needed for it and we are sure they will be just as helpful the next time . I don't agree with all their charges but every bank does this so I can't blame the bank we are with .

One of the credit card companies that I use really infuriated me recently after my card was used fraudulently. They were absolutely useless at resolving the situation, even suggesting that I should contact the company that used my card fraudulently instead of them, even though it was they that allowed the transaction to go through. Suffice to say I will never use that credit card again!.

I have 3 banks, the one I hate most... "Poor Oblivious Silly Bucket-shop". And one in overseas which I use for transfer (like paypal) and the last one is my favorite, the big 'O'. I get to "deposit" in almost any currency I want, the only catch is I need to "sell" another currency. Normally the interest pays well. :D I am interested in the RMB, would be nice to get 6% interest and looking at appreciation at the sametime. My spare cash... I don't have any. Yay... If I have any... I would buy gold bars? gold coins? stocks? t-bills? bonds? currencies? property? Too confusing... too confusing... pfff... I let money mange me... :p