TBTF Banks Will Screw You

Posted by Michael • June 17, 2013

Way back in 2007, I penned a post in which I voiced my displeasure with folks who whine about overdraft fees. In the comments, I was called lots of names … “bank apologist” among the nicest of these.

Thanks to the fine, upstanding management team at Bank of America, I now have the opportunity to make something crystal clear: The Too Big To Fail Banks (TBTF) banks will screw you any chance they get. This is not a new opinion for me; I’ve felt this way since long before I started this here money blog. I’m just reiterating it here, for those who aren’t paying attention.

I absolutely felt this way when I wrote the overdraft-whiners post, too. The way I see it, the fact that these banks will hose you at every opportunity is a given. Thus, we as consumers and bank-users must do everything we can to NOT give them that opportunity. That includes knowing how much is in your checking account at any given time, and not executing transactions above that amount, and not giving the bank any reason at all to slap you with a $50 service fee. If you DO give the bank a reason to FeeSmack™ you, then don’t whine about it.

It’s plain as day: The TBTF banks are in charge. Our government and our economic system require this, because debt is money, and debt underpins EVERYTHING. TBTF banks hold, service, issue, and securitize debt in enormous amounts, so they make the rules. You and I simply have to play by those rules.

Now allow me, if you will, the opportunity to show just how far TBTF banks (Bank of America, in this case) will go to (1) bend their customers over a counter, and (2) make a buck:

JDSupra Law News: BOA Senior Admits to Being Told to Lie

If you have dealings not only with Bank of America, but with pretty much any bank that’s “regional or larger” in size, you really should take a moment to read the article. I’d say that Simone Gordan’s affidavit is a staggering admission, but really, it isn’t. Of course BOA reps were told to lie to customers. BOA was woefully unprepared for the various mortgage- and loan-modification programs which U.S. FedGov thrust upon them, and besides, by lying to customers, there was cash to be made.

From the affidavit, as stated by Bank of America senior loan collector Gordan:

Using the Bank of America computer systems I saw that hundreds of customers had made their required trial payments, sent the documents requested of them, but had not received permanent modifications. I also saw records showing that Bank of America employees have told people that documents had not been received when, in fact, the computer system showed that Bank of America had received the documents. This was consistent with the instructions my colleagues and I were given. We were told to lie to customers and claim that Bank of America had not received documents it had requested, and that it had not received trial payments (when in fact it had). We were told that admitting that the bank received documents would “open a can of worms” since the bank was required to underwrite a loan modification within 30 days of receiving those documents and it did not have sufficient underwriting staff to complete the underwriting in that time…. Site leaders regularly told us that the more we delayed the HAMP modification process, the more fees Bank of America would collect.

Nice, huh? If you or I tried crap like this in our business dealings, we’d go to jail. But a TBTF bank does it, and they get paid.

Are we clear on how this works yet?

You must carry on your financial lives as if you are, well, prey.

Because with TBTF banks, that is absolutely what you are.

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