Goodbye, bank

Hubby and I had a little money left over from paying bills last year and we decided to put that into a CD - Certificate of Deposit. When we opened the account, we opted for the promotional 8-month CD that the bank featured in their website and were given good rates. It was around 3.xx%, I think.

8 months later, I didn't bother to check out the rates anymore and just let it rollover and renew itself. A month after the renewal, I noticed that we got a very low 1.xx%. I called to ask about my account and was told that we shouldn't have let it roll over by itself, that we should've gone to the bank and talked to a representative about better options and rates, and that what we did was the worst thing that we could've done (financially) for our account.

Okay, I get the point.

So with that thought in mind, I decided to be vigilant and kept a countdown of the days leading to the CD's maturity.

Hubby and I visited the bank and talked to a rep about our account the weekend BEFORE - I said that we were vigilant, didn't I ? - the CD was about to mature. We wanted to know and be clear about what our options were and how best to handle this at maturity. We talked to a very helpful agent, Carmen, who told us that there was nothing she could do at that point because our CD has not matured yet but that we could come in up to 7 days after the maturity date to decide what to do about our account.

We asked about online promotional rates and was told that they (the bank) would be able to arrange for us to get the same rates, even if we did not apply for anything online, and that if we were to add a little bit more to our CD, she would also be able to give us an extra 0.1% rate.

This was music to our ears. Our other alternative was to just apply for an online savings account - one online bank offers 3.5% interest with a $1 minimum deposit. Yes, I did not mistype that, it's a $1 minimum deposit and your money does not get tied up for any period of time. The only reason why I wanted to keep our CD with the local bank was that it seemed easier to access funds if there was a local branch. With an online account, you will have to transfer funds to a checking account and it takes around 3 days before the transfer clears.

So this weekend, we went to the bank and asked for Carmen. Unfortunately, Carmen was with other clients and there were 2 other representatives who were free to talk to us. We politely declined them when we were approached and explained how we had already talked to Carmen before that we would rather that she handle our inquiry.

20 minutes later, Carmen was still occupied. By this time, the 2 other representatives and manager have already approached to ask if we were sure that we wanted to wait for Carmen. The manager came to us again (for the 3rd time) and asked if we were sure that we wanted to wait for Carmen. He convinced us that it would still be a while before she gets freed up but that another representative - Javier - would be more than happy and very qualified to help us out.

We caved with the pressure and agreed to talk to the other guy.

Javier didn't sound happy to talk to us. He was probably offended/hurt that we didn't want to talk to him at first - I don't know this for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. Bottomline, he didn't agree with Carmen's statements to us the previous week. We would have to do everything online if we wanted to avail of the online promotion.

When we got home, I found out that any changes we want to apply on our CD would have to be done over the phone and for that, we'd have to wait till Monday and do that during regular business hours. So we wait again.

This afternoon, I called and got connected with a bank rep. Bottomline ? If I were to renew my CD, I would NOT be eligible for the advertised rate because that is only for new accounts. To qualify for that, I would have to NOT renew my CD and then apply for a new one. Also, the additional 0.1% that Carmen told me about ? They would not be able to honor that online, they only honor that at the local branch - apparently, this was something that the managers / staff can give out at the local branches.

Hay. Kainis no ?

I'm not really sure if this is because I'm not a big-time account holder, I hope that this wasn't the case. But since this bank isn't even trying to keep our business, we decided to terminate the account. Online na lang, $1 to open and maintain - this would leave us with the flexibility of having funds available for DP on a 2nd car (if / when we need to buy one).

Why is it that while these institutions try so hard to tempt one into opening an account with them, they don't do anything or offer incentives for someone to maintain their account in good standing ?

I remember making lambing to the bank manager or the account manager in Manila and they would make the extra effort. Why doesn't this work here ?

I have a similar gripe about cellphone companies but that's a whole new post altogether.