Need Bank Suggestion :(

[DreamBig]

Hey all, thanks for this forum!

I was visiting my fiance's family in Korea in May and back then I had a Schwab investor checking personal account. Schwab called me about something, not sure what, and they heard my voicemail saying I was in Korea on vacation. They quickly closed my account and banned me from Schwab for life. It took 12 hours on the phone with tons of different people at Schwab to finally talk with their risk management department, who said that unfortunately, Schwab account owners are, by policy, not allowed out of the United States. Ok....

So I've been using ING Direct to withdraw from my other accounts and save. There were numerous returns when Schwab randomly banned my account without notifying me.

I called ING Direct today asking about refinancing my home to a lower interest rate. Apparently, calling them flagged my account for security review and instead of talking about mortgages, they talked to me about how bad I am and said I'm banned for life and my account is closed... but what about the $50k in my account??? They said at this time, they are not sure how or when I will get my money from ING.... and they could end up sending a lot of it back to the non-existent Schwab account instead of sending it to my ONLY open bank account right now, my Bank Of America business checking.

I am appalled at how banks have been treating me since the economy turned down.

Can anyone suggest these for me:

1. Business checking account without tons of crazy fees like Bank Of America, and with online or by-phone wire transfer?
2. Personal checking account with decent interest rate and no crazy fees.
3. Online savings account with ability to schedule recurring automatic transfers

[disneysteve]

I find it very hard to believe this story. Why would Schwab care if their customers traveled? They couldn't possibly enforce a policy like that. What bearing does that have on your account? And what was ING's reason for closing your account? ING can't send your money to a non-existent account. They can only either send the money to you directly or to whatever account you designate.

[DreamBig]

I find it very hard to believe this story. Why would Schwab care if their customers traveled? They couldn't possibly enforce a policy like that. What bearing does that have on your account? And what was ING's reason for closing your account? ING can't send your money to a non-existent account. They can only either send the money to you directly or to whatever account you designate.

Try telling that to the people on the phone who said that stuff to me. The person at Schwab said "I am very sorry and I know it can be a bit strange since we don't have the same policy for brokerage accounts, but that IS the policy for Investor Checking accounts. It's just the world we live in right now, and I am very sorry" she was apologizing so much because I was crying on the phone...

ING's reason for closing my account is for the returns that happened in the 2-3 days after my schwab account was randomly closed (i had automatic withdrawals setup).

ING's policy is that I'm not allowed to designate an account to send the money to. They refused. They said if the ACH to the closed schwab account gets returned to them, they will send me a paper check in the mail only.

I've been talking with a lot of other banks this evening trying to find someone I feel I can trust. American Express and Ally seem pretty good so far... Any ideas?

[disneysteve]

Try telling that to the people on the phone who said that stuff to me. The person at Schwab said "I am very sorry and I know it can be a bit strange since we don't have the same policy for brokerage accounts, but that IS the policy for Investor Checking accounts.

That is really bizarre. I can't imagine how they possibly justify or enforce a policy like that. I would love to see that in writing. Did you ever get any written confirmation of that policy? If so, please post it.

ING's policy is that I'm not allowed to designate an account to send the money to. They refused. They said if the ACH to the closed schwab account gets returned to them, they will send me a paper check in the mail only.

That actually makes sense from a security standpoint, though there should be a way to log in to your account and change your bank information. Of course, if the account has been closed, you probably can't log in to your account.

[DreamBig]

Unfortunately Schwab never sent any proof of that policy. They continue to send me statements for my empty accounts that are closed, too... Weird stuff.

Also, ING, yes that does make sense - they said it's because they keep records of where it came from, by deposit. So it gets sent back to where it came from. But it's ridiculous to me that they'd say no, we're sending it to your closed account, and there's nothing you can do about it.

[disneysteve]

Also, ING, yes that does make sense - they said it's because they keep records of where it came from, by deposit. So it gets sent back to where it came from. But it's ridiculous to me that they'd say no, we're sending it to your closed account, and there's nothing you can do about it.

That is probably not ING policy but federal banking law and Patriot Act stuff. I don't think you can fight that one. Ever since 9/11, banking security policies have gotten quite extreme.

[jpg7n16]

"Dear ING,

Since you have closed my account, please mail me a cashier's check for the remaining balance in my account to the name and address on file.

Sincerly,
Me."

Interesting questions: ING DIRECT Help Center

I also find it very hard to believe the claims you have made above.

No bank in their right mind would ever stipulate that account holders must remain inside the US - or be banned for life. They target high balance customers - who are prone to travel to say, Europe on business. That policy would defeat their own clientele.

And I also find it hard to believe that a bank would have no one at it capable of assisting a customer who transferred money from a bank account that is now closed. That must happen all the time, and surely someone would know how to deal with it. And likely have a policy on file for that specific situation as it's prone to come up so often.

[JoshuaHeckathorn]

This is a crazy story...very weird stuff. I really hope you can get it all figured out soon.

You asked for some bank suggestions, so here's mine:

-Check out HSBC for business, personal, and online savings. (They LOVE international clients, and I've had very good experiences with them)

-HSBC Advance (online savings) is super easy to use, allows you to link to all your business and personal accounts (external or HSBC) and they maintain decent interest rates.

[feh]

3. Online savings account with ability to schedule recurring automatic transfers

redneckbank.com