Wachovia $5.95 fee for Auto-Sync with Financial Software
A couple of months ago Wachovia sent out a small notice that they will begin charging clients with their "Free Checking" account a $5.95 monthly access fee for Direct Sync Access for financial software like MS Money & Quicken starting in April 2007.
I use MS Money to manage my finances. As soon as I got word of the impeding new charge, I went into MS Money and unchecked my Wachovia accounts from the "Update Accounts" screen so that MS Money wouldn't sync with Wachovia on those accounts. I figured no problem!
However, I was shocked to see a charge on my Wachovia account for $5.95 for April a few days ago! What happened? I did some digging -- apparently unchecking the account from the "Update Accounts" screen is not enough -- MS Money can still sync with the institution in the background. I had to go into the Account setup and delete the password for the account. Hopefully this will prevent more charges.
On my to do list: Call Wachovia and ask that the waive the $5.95 charges for April & May!
Comments (14)
Better yet, protest with your feet. Find another bank. This would be a deal killer for me. I really hope that my CC companies don't get an idea like this.
Posted by Jojo | May 10, 2007 6:44 PM
A $5.95/month charge for on a "free" checking account?
I'd be calling and complaining too.
Posted by samerwriter | May 10, 2007 9:14 PM
I would dump the bank also !!!
By the way, I relocated to Shenzhen from New Jersey last month and will be staying at least one year on a company assignment.
If you have a few questions regarding How to settle in Shenzhen, do not hesitate to contact me: I am an avid reader, and about the same profile and spirit regarding net worth and investing :)
Regards
Posted by Vincent | May 11, 2007 3:54 AM
It's nice to have a local bank. I would recommend opening two accounts there, i.e. a HELC and a crown savings. With two accounts there is no minimum balance (or at least that's what they told me last time I went in) and you get the benefits of a higher end account (free checks, free notory, ...) Also, I try not to leave any substantial amount of money in the account, just enough to make sure I can cover my outflow. It's too easy to get a higher return with INGs, Countrywides, and even ETrades' offering 5+%.
Posted by Jeff | May 11, 2007 4:10 PM
Yeah, thats a good one. I just signed up for a free checking account with PNC. If you do much of anything other than make deposits and withdrawals, you get charged. I guess that "free" checking accounts are becoming less "free".
Best,
James
Posted by James | May 11, 2007 9:45 PM
Dump them like a hot potato! This is a service that costs them nothing!This is the equivilent for charging you to access your account via the Internet.
Bank of America tried to charge me for the same service, and I called and had them waive this ridiculous fee. It wasn't even a fight.
Posted by Shadox | May 11, 2007 10:49 PM
Couldn't agree more. Dump them!
I would think that serving up your data electronically would cost a LOT less than printing and mailing it out to you in a statement. Sooner or later, these guys will learn that adding "creative" fees isn't the way to keep their customers.
Posted by fin_indie | May 12, 2007 10:01 AM
I agree with everyone else. Dump the bank!!!! You most definitely qualify for a credit union. Many of the credit unions pool their resources and allow reciprocal banking and ATM use. I will never use a commercial bank again. I like putting my money in an institution that doesn't make a profit and doesn't try to come up with all kinds of ways to take my money!! (BTW, credit unions pay much higer rates on deposits and charge less for loans too)
Posted by Hazzard | May 12, 2007 9:56 PM
You can blame Intuit (Quicken) for this one. They charge astronomical fees to companies who want to use OFX technology so their customers can sync their accounts with Money or Quicken. It's also why many banks aren't upgrading their .qif technology to .ofx - it's too expensive and time consuming.
So no, this isn't a cheap or free service by any means.
Posted by erin | May 14, 2007 2:36 PM
Yeah, that happened to me with Chase Bank last December - except they charge $9.95/mo. They waived the fees for me, but now I have to manually download transactions every month which is annoying. I'm moving in a couple months and will definitely be switching banks when I do so.
Posted by Angela | May 15, 2007 7:31 PM
I don't know how money downloads the things, I think it's an automatic charge if you used money ever to do this, as I've had to reformat my computer back in feb never reinstalled money and I still have the charge on my account.
Posted by ChrissMari | May 22, 2007 6:10 AM
Does anyone know of a bank in north carolina that does free quicken downloads like wachovia used to?
I want to leave them.
Posted by john | July 17, 2007 5:48 PM
1.The quicken service must be deactivated with customer service before you will stop being charged.
2. Wachovia's downolad system is reliable and you make the $6 back by using free online bill pay which synchronizes nicely in quicken.
3.Wachovia's web site is also very professional as well as their 24 hour customer service.
4.My home bank just shut down quicken direct connect access which is somewhat frustrating so I am happy with Wachovia
5.They are doing well financially because of their business practices-free is nice-but you get what you pay for.
Posted by Franz | January 3, 2008 10:49 PM
I hate Wachovia. First they yanked me around with a loan. Then they charged me for this without my explicit permission to do so. Now I am doing my taxes and I find out that they don't let you get your statements (except in PDF form) for longer than 3 months back! An absolutely pathetic company - I am very unhappy. Switched to Charles Schwab - so far, great bank. No ATM fees. No local branches, but great service that makes me feel like they actually care.
Posted by Nikita | March 22, 2008 12:27 AM