Wells Fargo: no more free checking

Wells Fargo ends free checking in more states – $7 fee to be nationwide.

Wells Fargo has ended free checking in six more states, and has announced that it’s part of a plan to end free checking nationwide. In a Reuters article today, the bank stated that the next states will be on the East coast, part of the branches gained in their Wachovia acquisition.Customers will have to jump through hoops to cut costs:

Existing customers in Georgia, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania will be required to pay the monthly fee for the “Essential” checking account, unless they keep a $1,500 minimum daily balance or make direct deposits of $500 each month, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman said Thursday.

Bank of America recently denied an announced fee hike, but as more banks increase prices to make up for lost overdraft fees, it’s guaranteed to spread. At Directo, we keep costs low, and pass the savings on to our customers. We’ve seen more previously banked individuals open Directo paycard accounts, proving that we were right – Directo paycard accounts are not just for the unbanked. More and more, it’s the thrifty way to bank.

Bank of America considers monthly fee again – tests the “Essentials” account

Last year, Bank of America backed away from plans to impose a monthly fee, but the fee is back under consideration. The mega bank is testing a fee in some states, and according to a Reuters report on Yahoo Finance today, customers must buy other bank products to avoid the fee. If the test is a success, you can be sure other banks will follow B of A’s lead.

Come see Directo Paycards at the Nationa

Come see Directo Paycards at the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago!

Are Crooks Writing Phony Paychecks Against Your Payroll Account?

The latest payroll fraud tale comes from New Hampshire, where a woman acquired a Dunkin Donuts paycheck and used it as a template to create her own. She’s headed to jail, as are the man who supplied the check, and another woman who helped cash the checks. Read the whole story here at the UnionLeader’s website.

Protect your company from schemers. Go electronic and quit sending paychecks out into the world. Direct deposit, with a paycard program to help all employees participate, is proven to reduce, and in most cases eliminate, paycheck fraud risk.

Scary news: Debit use is up, but check washing and check fraud still a problem.

Paychecks are riskier than ever.  To speed deposit and decrease lobby and drive-through traffic, banks have installed ATMs that accept deposits electronically. Just insert the check and an image of it pops up with a request to verify the amount shown. The money is deposited to the account, and reconciled later. Your stolen paycheck could be run through a stranger’s account, operated by a stolen debit card, and you (and the account owner) wouldn’t find out until days later.

Far more common is for a crook to note your account and bank routing number and order new checks, or to “wash” the stolen paycheck and enter new information on it. Higher dollar amounts, new payee name – both are common ways to loot your company’s bank account.

How to keep from giving strangers your company’s banking information? Direct deposit, of course. And with a solid paycard program to allow unbanked workers to participate, you can cut your fraud risk in a single payroll period. It’s easier than you think to avert a paycheck fraud disaster.

Here’s a link to a story about some home-grown check fraud.

We love our debit cards but not our banks

Msnbc.com financial blogger Allison Linn hits a nerve with today’s post about consumer’s love of the convenience of debit cards, but not the fees that banks want to attach to them. After the outcry over rising bank fees that large banks imposed to recover lost interchange income, banks eased off, but are roaring back with different fees, this time hidden as charges for perks such as expedited online bill pay.  Be wary. And remember that for many, the answer is a payroll card account such as Directo’s: simple to use, with low, transparent fees.

Five Reasons why 2012 is the Year of the Directo Paycard

1. Paycards are an easy way to handle finances, and they’re a benefit that you can offer employees, at no cost to you.

2. No credit check! Directo doesn’t check credit. All can participate in direct deposit.

3. Changing bank rules – A growing number of paycard users are dissatisfied bank customers, looking for the ease and security of a bank account.

4. The U.S. government mandates electronic payments only, and beginning this spring all benefits will be paid electronically.

5. Eliminate rising payroll delivery costs. Whether you use couriers, mail, or gas for your car, costs are headed skyward – end them with a Directo paycard program!

Teen’s savings account – bank fee nightmare

The savings account that an Illinois mom opened with her teenage son worked well, until bank fees piled up on a low balance.

Daniel Ganziano used the account to store pay from his job. When the balance fell to $4.98, he received a letter telling him that a $9.95 low-balance monthly fee had been imposed six days earlier. That fee overdrew the account by $5.10, and daily $28 overdraft fees soon ballooned the amount owed. By the time he got the letter, he owed $229.10.  

Daniel’s mother Melinda, who had urged him to open the account, paid the fee and they closed the account. They eventually got the money back, after they complained to a local TV station’s consumer advocate. Lesson learned? Melinda says, “Banks are not the way they used to be.”

At Directo, we clearly communicate our low fees, and our customers find that they save hundreds of dollars yearly that would have gone to check cashers. Plus, they have the security of funds held in an FDIC-member bank.

Read the full story here.

Paying off site workers – a solution for the distribution hassle

Does this sound familiar?

It’s payday. Your job crews left your offices at 6:30am, and won’t return until 3:30pm. After you run the checks and get them signed, you distribute the ones in the office, then race to each job site to delivery paychecks. You return to the office just in time to go home. Meanwhile, back at the sites, the workers are chomping at the bit, desperate to leave and get to the check casher. This hectic tale doesn’t even take into account the next day, when you replace one of the checks because your employee lost it on the way home!

The solution?  Direct deposit, powered by Directo paycards. With Directo, every employee can participate in direct deposit, eliminating the distribution hassle. In addition, Directo paycards reduce your paycheck fraud risk. It’s simple, costs you nothing, and with Directo’s year-end special, your employees win, too!  Email today to find out how Directo can help your company!

 

Threatened bank fees vanish – but more are coming

The big banks have backed down from their new debit fees, but watch out – they’ll want to make back lost interchange revenue. Read Allison Lyn’s article on MSNBC:

Norma Garcia, manager of the financial services program with Consumers Union, noted that it’s rare for banks to back down on plans because consumers complain. Still, she also expects that banks will try other, less wide-ranging, measures.

“This is a victory today, but it doesn’t mean that they need to let down their guard,” Garcia said.

Garcia said consumers should pay especially close attention to whether banks are changing rules about minimum balances, and tacking on fees for people who fall below a certain level each month.

With new, perhaps hidden, fees on the horizon, Directo’s transparent pricing and simple-to-operate accounts continue to be a better choice for many.