I recently dumped Wells Fargo as my primary bank and I wanted to share my story as to why. I actually promised my Wells Fargo personal banker I was going to blog about my experience as well as post it on Facebook and Twitter. So, here is the blog and I will link to it on FB and Twitter when I finish posting. Hopefully it will enlighten some of you as well.
Background
I was a member of a local bank in Fayetteville, Georgia for a number of years before it was bought out by Wachovia. After adjusting to Wachovia and using them for several years, they were purchased by Wells Fargo. I have to say, once the transition was made to Wells Fargo, I was immediately unhappy with their level of service and product offerings, specifically their online banking. Having already related my story to family, friends and co-workers, I am finding many of you have been very unhappy with Wells Fargo as well. However, it wasn’t until my recent experience that I was finally pushed over the edge with Wells Fargo and was motivated to dump them completely.
Already unhappy with Wells Fargo
I was already not pleased with Wells Fargo due to their inadequacies in online banking. The Wachovia online banking experience was, in my opinion, far superior to that of Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo interface is far more bloated, busy and confusing. My biggest concern however, was the way their online payments were scheduled. Instead of selecting a pay date for the bill, you are required to back out the date and determine a send date and schedule your payment there. Even though the calendar app will show you the dates to choose from, it is still an additional and somewhat confusing step. The problem with this is… Wells Fargo will deduct the funds from your account on the send date, not the date the payment is actually made. For instance, if you send a check to an individual, the funds are removed from your account on the send date, regardless of when the check is received or cashed! While I considered this unacceptable, I still was not fully motivated to dump Wells Fargo… yet. It wasn’t until they revealed themselves to be totally and utterly uninterested in me as a customer that I finally dumped them and moved to the Delta Community Credit Union.
Our embarrassing experience… thanks Wells Fargo!
This past December, Beth and I went shopping for Christmas gifts for each other. For anyone who knows us at all, this led us to the Apple Store. We had decided to purchase the new iPad Mini for both of us… one in white for Beth, and one in black for me. Of course we wanted the 64 GB LTE versions, top of the line for both. We had checked at the Lenox Apple Store and they were not available, but we were fortunate to find them in stock at the Perimeter Mall Apple Store. We were excited to find them and decided to buy them immediately on the spot… or so we thought!
We selected our two iPads and our salesman ran Beth’s Wells Fargo debit card. You guessed it I’m sure, the card was declined. Declined! Even though Beth had significantly more than enough in her account to cover the approximately $1,300 bill. No worries, our supportive salesman said, it sometimes happens with purchases like this, so you might want to call the bank. Embarrassed, we had to step out of the holiday line and make a call to Wells Fargo to straighten it out. Now I am sure you are thinking like we did, that a simple phone call would resolve this and we would be on our way with two shiny new iPads. Not so fast. Beth called the number on the card, and after a series of prompts was finally connected to a real person. She explained the situation to her, and was met with a surprise. Wells Fargo has a $1,500 per day limit on their debit card, and Beth had made a $500 purchase online earlier in the day. Fair enough. So, we are calling to verify Beth’s identity and have the purchase approved, right? Nope. The voice on the line said… Wells Fargo won’t raise the limit and authorize the purchase even with verified identity. The limit is $1,500… period. That can’t be right you are thinking… so read on…
By now our iPads have been set to the side, and our salesman is helping others (who are looking at us wondering why we are blocking the line). So, we decide to pay by check and inquire if Apple will take a check. Yes, they will take a check, but we are told they will verify funds using the same method as the debit card. Hmmmmmm. Ok, so we then decide we will put one iPad on Beth’s debit card and one iPad on my debit card. This will reduce the charge on her card to about $700 plus the $500 she ordered online earlier in the day, putting her well under the $1,500 daily limit. Declined again! So now, because we had tried to access the full charge and had it run, we are unable to access any funds in the account! Totally embarrassed, we assure our salesman we do have the money to make our purchase, and to his credit he is very supportive. We finally use a totally different card on another account to make Beth’s purchase, and we are able to complete the transaction for our iPads. Humiliated, we take what should have been a joyous purchase of our Christmas gifts and we excuse ourselves from the other customers who were held up because of us.
The plot thickens…
As you can imagine, I was not happy with Wells Fargo. So, on the following Saturday, I made a trip to my local bank to complain about how we were handled… and to hopefully find out it was all a mistake, get an apology and correction, and move on. Boy, was I wrong.
I finally sat down with my personal banker after an extended wait in the lobby. I let them know I was an unhappy and unsatisfied customer, but I wanted to give them the opportunity to shed some light on what happened and to make the situation right. I then proceeded to tell my story. Once I finished, I was in for more surprises from Wells Fargo.
My personal banker verified again the spending limit on the debit card was $1,500 per day, and there would be no exceptions, even with verified identity… in other words, the voice on the phone had been correct in denying our purchase. Further, the personal banker assured me the $1,500 would not and could not be raised, even if I requested it from the bank (which I was doing in person). My biggest shock, however, came when the personal banker told me she herself did not bank with Wells Fargo for this very reason, and kept her money at another financial institution.
Now, if you know me, I am likely to walk into the Apple Store and make a purchase over $1,500 at any time… iPads, MacBooks, Thunderbolts… in fact, I purchased our two MacBook Airs at the same time, as well as our two Thunderbolt displays. But there are many purchases that can exceed $1,500… big screen TVs, auto repairs and more. So, exactly how does one make such a purchase with Wells Fargo? Well, I asked that exact question. The answer was surprising to me again. Put it on a credit card. Yes, that is exactly what I was told. For those purchases, I will have to put them on a credit card and then pay them off (if I choose to), even though I have the money in my account. Seriously? That, or I was told I could come by the bank and get cash. However, calling the bank and authorizing the amount on my debit card is not an option. And here is the kicker, I was told this was for my protection! To this I said, that’s bull***t, and you know it, it is for your protection, not mine. After mumbling a bit, my personal banker finally admitted it was not for my protection but for the bank.
At this point I told my personal banker I would be closing my account. I could not and would not keep my money in a financial institution that denied me the basic and fundamental ability to use my own money. Based on the lack of interest they are paying on my money, I told her I would be better off keeping my money in my mattress where I would always have access to it and would not have to have their permission to use it. I told her I would be blogging about this, and posting it on FB and Twitter, to which she replied, let me check on the $1,500 limit for you and get back to you. I gave her my business card with my phone and email and said she better check quick. That was in December. It is now February. I guess that shows how Wells Fargo follows up with customers.
Delta Community Credit Union… the Chick-fil-a of banks
I have since moved all my money and accounts over to the Delta Community Credit Union. As a retired Delta employee I have had my DCCU account for over 15 years, but only used it as a secondary account. Now, it is my primary and only account.
The customer experience at DCCU is awesome, and I consider them the Chick-fil-a of banks. Their employees are friendly and knowledgeable, and more importantly, they are extremely helpful and courteous. However, I rarely need to speak with an employee because I use their awesome online banking.
Online banking is once again a pleasure to use with DCCU. The interface is the simplest I have ever seen and is completely intuitive and straightforward. AND they schedule payments on the pay date! No more taking money out of my account early! I simply select the date I want the bill paid and I’m done. Imagine that!
Debit card limits? The debit card limit is $2,500 for debit and $2,500 for credit in the same day = $5,000 per day if you split how it is charged. AND if you need more, just call and they will adjust your spending for that day to enable you to complete your purchase. After all, it is my money and I should be able to spend it the way I want to.
The moral of the story…
This Saturday, I needed work done on my truck and the bill came out to $1,562.40. I reached into my wallet and pulled out my DCCU debit card and smiled as they ran it. Approved! How simple was that?
You, of course, are free to choose your own banking experience to meet your needs. However, if you bank at Wells Fargo, you might want to check into their practices and see exactly whose money is in your account… yours… or theirs…
I had a string of bad experiences with WF myself. Way back in 1999 they allowed some random person with no ID cash checks they stole from me–at the WF branch counter! They cashed thousands of dollars in checks even though the account barely had $100 in it. I shut that account down after I got my money back.
Fast forward about 10 years or so: WF took over Wachovia, which had recently taken over my local bank. So I was stuck with WF again. This time they held up a business deposit for about $5,500 for nearly two weeks. They only released the funds when I mentioned I was doing consulting work with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency–their Federal regulator–and that I was meeting with an assistant director that day.
Since my regular expected business deposits were going to be considerably larger than $5K, and they couldn’t promise that it wouldn’t happen again (in fact, they said, it probably would happen again), I immediately shut down the business account the day the check cleared.
I used to have 3 personal accounts and a business account with them. Now I have one personal account, but only because it’s a joint account. Otherwise I would drop it in a heartbeat.
Almost forgot–I noticed suspicious charges on my account one day. Turns out they were charges for renting a car in Vancouver, B.C. I had to point out to the WF rep that I had bought lunch at a NYC deli 2,000+ miles away within 15 minutes of this charge… Making it a physical impossibility for me to have made both charges. The rep finally reversed the charges (days later), but not before explaining to me how sophisticated their fraud detection algorithms are. Seems I found a “law of physics loophole” in their algorithms. Meanwhile they’ve stopped charges and sent fraud alerts when I’ve tried to buy $50 worth of groceries at the store 6 blocks from my house.
I like you am very sick with Wells Fargo and all of the big banks. I noticed the stories here about Wells Fargo and ATM debit purchase and withdrawal limits. Everyone here needs to understand that these limits are in place to protect no one but the damn bank from bank runs! A lot of banks in America are running on fumes still. The bailouts 10 years ago did not shore them up. When the next financial debt deflationary crash occurs Wells Fargo, Chase, Citibank all the big banks will declare bank holidays and no one will have access to cash! When we deposit money in a bank it is simply an IOU that the bank owes us money. Keeping cash in our mattress seems like a better choice at this point as interest rates are nothing!
The excuse that the limits are there for our protection is total bullshit.
Seriously embarrassing! All of this is dead truth. I just thought indidnaomething wrong when I would be at a restaurant and go to pay my tab and it would decline… when I’m on a first date and I have to walk outside with embarrassment becuase it appears I’m a broke joke… the sad thing is I work late hours and never have the time to make it to a bank and I’m aure I’m not alone here but my rent isn’t less than 300 dollars and I pay with cash… yes cash lol and this bank doesn’t allow me to withdraw any more than that… in 24 hours… after reading all of the posts above it truly confirms that just to save the headache it seems a credit union would be my best choice. Once I can find time to pull out the rest since bankers hours don’t match mine… ha just save yourself the headache now and get away not to mention the fees and bullshit they have costed me… money in a mattress is a much better option at this point.
Follow up on my previous post. I went back to the branch since Lawrence Burke NEVER called me back concerning my 10.00 service fee. Of course, he seemed pretty much uninterested in helping me at all, so the branch manager came over.Amy was AMAZING and actually was interested in helping me after all the horrible experiences I’ve encountered. And to my surprise, she gladly refunded the 10.00 fee, and this was done easily, even though Lawrence acted like it was too much trouble to help me out originally. She also credited me the 30.00 I had to pay for the wire transfer I shouldn’t have had to do. So, I am somewhat more pleased with them at this point, but time will tell. From my experience, it seems the bankers are only interested in you when they’re getting sales but when there are issues, the seem completely uninterested and like to pass you off to the 800# or tell you they will call you back and NEVER do. If you need anything done, don’t waste your time with the bankers, they are nothing but salesman and you will waste your time trying to get them to assist you with anything.
Glad you have received some satisfaction Angela! Small consolation for the inconvenience and frustration you have endured. Hopefully your experience will push them a little harder to make some needed changes to their customer service. Thanks for adding your story!
Thanks MacDawg! 🙂 I guess the best advice I can give is from my personal experience, never settle for poor customer service, or lack of it, be tenacious and demand the respect you deserve since we, as customers, are the reason they have a job. And, even though I was extremely frustrated, I was still very respectful but FIRM. And in the end, I think they got the point that it’s the little things that truly matter to the customers. Good luck to anyone else who has any problems, don’t take NO for an answer when you know they’re just giving you the run around, and fight for what you know is right.
Well damn…..This happened to me today.I didnt know about the limit either.I withdrew $1300 this morning and aso made a few purchases with the card throughout the dayTonight I went to get gas and BAM!..DECLINED!..I thought I was seeing things, so I walked into the gas station and tried the atm same thing.So I went home and googled some info and I found this blog.
SINCERELY….pissed ooff
And just to add to my story, Wells Fargo said that I had no limit at all on writing checks, so I can write a check for 20000.00 and it will go through, but debit transactions have a daily limit. That makes no sense at all, barely anyone writes checks anymore anyways, and why would they not care about a limit on checks? It makes no sense at all.
And my grandparents have been with them for years. And someone stole their information and charged over 7000.00 to their credit card and WF not once called them to let them know or questioned the 200 or so online purchases by an elderly couple who’ve NEVER purchased anything online before. They’re not only useless when it comes to fixing their errors, but also unreliable when it comes to watching accounts for potential fraudulent activities.
I despise Wells Fargo with a passion. The employees may be friendly, but refusing to fix an error they did is still wrong, regardless of how “friendly” the employees are! I’ve had several issues with them, I’ll try to make this huge mess as short as possible.
I pay may car payment ONLINE every month and anyone with half a brain knows that if you pay online, it will only work if you have the funds available, but on April 14, I paid Capital One and received my usual confirmation number. But on 4/20, WF came back and declined my payment stating account closed! This was totally incorrect and even when I told my car company this,they still charged me tons of fees and said I need to call my bank and I do agree with them. So, I assumed that once I called WF, they would see their mistake and refund me the fees I had to pay due to their error, but I WAS WRONG! They apologized and just said I could wire the money for 30.00 but that was it. This is only the beginning of their shady business practices…
I then had over 2000.00 in my account, I attempted to pay a 1700.00 bill with my debit card, to my embarrassment, it was DECLINED. I went to the branch and even in person, they refused to allow my limit to be raised JUST ONCE even though I was in the bank, and didn’t even know I had a daily limit, stating it was for my protection! BULLS**T! So, again, they made an error and refused to help me out in any way. This is now STRIKE 2!
Then in March, I was laid off, and not even 2 weeks later, I was charged a fee of 10.00, which is wrong due to I have free checking. I met all the qualifications as well, even though I lost my job, I received unemployment through direct deposit, and I again, went into the branch and they agreed that this was incorrect but said I must call the 800#, and I did, but was told they cannot refund any fees and that I must go to my branch, even though I told them I’d already done this! So. I go back to branch and speak to Lawrence Burke, and he again refused to take the fee off and said he would get with manager and call me back, HE NEVER DID! And this is the 3rd time he’s brushed me off.
This is not even every thing they’ve done. Bottom line is that they may smile in your face, but they will NOT fix their mistakes, even when they acknowledge that they were wrong! To this day, that 10.00 fee is still on my account and they’ve done NOTHING to fix a single issue I’ve asked them too. They may smile in your face, but at this point I don’t care how nice they are, I am filing a complaint at their corporate office, as well as consulting an attorney. It may not be a huge amount of money lost, but it’s just the principle of it!
I’m disgusted with their horrible lack of customer service, especially when they admit they were wrong. I understand that we are all human, but to refuse to fix the problem is just bad business and shows customers just how little they care about them.
wow! We will be closing our wells Fargo accounts Saturday Morning.. My husband and I went to purchase gas DECLINED, i wasn’t even paying at the pump, the store was open however i had to pay thru a window.. I had the cashier run it again, DECLINED TWICE, okay so i tried Debit.. and guess what…. DECLINED.. I was only putting $10 in gas and i had a few hundred in there.. this was 1 in the morning, I didn’t have any cash on me.. I called The bank the next day and they told me they declined it because they werent sure if it was me. I told then asked why it was declined when i Tried debit. They said because it was declined twice before… I told them that they declined it for no reason, i had well over $10 in my bank… They had no answer for me expect they were uncertain if it was me using the card…
the following week (today) my husband tried to use his card to pay for fast food during his lunch break.. guess what happened.. DECLINED.. He didnt have any cash on him so he left his food… He is so p****. he called the bank and they said since he is having this problem he can open a Credit card and use that instead of his bank card.. My husband told them No and he wants to use his card right away to pay for food. The Representative said it should be working you have the funds. At this point my husband just hung up after being frustrated.. went to the ATM….. declined..
Thank you wells fargo..
And… another one bites the dust 🙂 So sorry to hear about your frustrations, but can’t say I’m surprised at all by it. The “solution” of opening a credit card to use is total BS and just underscores how out of touch WF is with their customers. Hang in there, you will find that not all financial institutions are as uninterested in their customers as WF is.
This happened to me TODAY! I’m not surprised that this is one of the most popular posts on your blog. Wells Fargo is screwing all of us. I need to buy a computer for college, I certainly have enough money, and it’s a longstanding account. I have had an account with Wells Fargo because I inherited money through a Wachovia account. I’m about to close out this account and start a relationship with another bank where they don’t doubt my competence to spend my own money.
I am pulling all of our money out of Wells Fargo tomorrow morning. I tried to buy tickets for our family vacation to Disney World. To my shock, declined. Odd, seeing how I have more than enough money to cover the expenses. I called customer service. They said that the purchase was over my daily limit of 1500.00. They refused to raise it. They then told me I had to go in person to a branch. Which I did and guess what? The branch said that was not the case. They could not help us and they even called customer service to see if they could get our limit raised. They also told us to put it on a credit card, funny enough, they wanted us to open a Wells Fargo credit card and put our expenses on that card. So then I try and transfer the money to a separate account and do a split payment. Once again the charges are denied. I put my money in a bank, not with my parents. Its mine and my husbands hard earned money. If I wanted to spend every last dime of it in one day, that should be my choice to do so. I don’t know what is in it for Wells Fargo to act in such a way as to hold my money hostage, but it won’t fly with us any longer. Also, God forbid something happen while we were traveling and couldn’t put a particular amount on a credit card. What then?
It has been 2 years now since I first posted this blog entry. I still get about 10-20 hits A DAY on this post. For a blog like mine that rarely gets traffic at all for anything, that is astounding. It also has generated comments, something my other posts have not.
A few thoughts:
1. People are still very dissatisfied with Wells Fargo for a variety of reasons. This is obvious from the amount of traffic on this post, and on the various search terms used to find it.
2. Wells Fargo hasn’t improved. At best, they are being inconsistent. A couple of the comments indicated their issue was happily resolved and praise WF. But the overwhelming majority are negative experiences, and again, the traffic here indicates a lack of satisfaction and confidence in WF.
3. There are too many options for you to continue to play games with WF and let them dictate terms to you. While changing banks and moving your account seem to be a daunting task, it isn’t nearly as hard as you might think. And once you have done it, you will wonder why in the world you didn’t do it sooner.
I encourage you to leave a comment and share you experience, good or bad. There are plenty of others who come here looking for information and answers daily.
MacDawg
This happened to me and my wife today at Bob’s. My limit’s $1500, the purchase was $1518 and Wells Fargo refused to raise the limit even $20. So I transferred $1,000 to my other account and used two debit cards, but it was annoying and embarrassing.
I too had the same issue, where my atm limit was $310, and my daily purchases was $2000. One phone call is all it took, five mins representative comes back to the phone and my ATM Limit increased to $1010 and my daily purchase limit is $5000. Sorry you all had issues, but WF really takes care of it’s customers I’ve never once had a major problem.
Very glad things worked out for you! Maybe it will encourage some others who are having issues. Hopefully things have changed over the past 2 years since I dumped Wells Fargo, but something tells me your experience isn’t the norm. I get about 20 hits a day on this one webpage from people searching for answers to their Wells Fargo problems, and the comments have pretty consistently reflected the same issue I had. If things have changed, it is certainly about time. 🙂 I moved on and never looked back and I have never regretted my decision to leave WF. My experience sucked.
YEAH RIGHT!! Maybe for you. I’m dealing with this same issue over the phone and Wells Fargo REFUSES to raise the limit, although I have thousands in my account, cash. They don’t take care of their customers. They jack their customers around and hold their money hostage. The only other option? Bill payment that charges us–and that’s only if the company you are paying through allows it! Total crooks!
I have scheduled my holidays and wan confirming air ticket of $2292 at that day in morning I had a transaction of $1221 .It was the only ticket that I booked but its confirmation was declined due to WFG $1500 Limit which was shocking for me because they never told me about this they always told me online purchases are unlimited . So I have nearly loose my air ticket but at last after wasting my 5 hours I had to pay it from someone else credit card. I am really frustrated and was annoyed of this type of childish and immature rule by WFG !! Really upset
Getting worst .. I was declined a playstation 4 bundle and couple extra games today .. My total was 713.00 .. When I called the bank I was told that the limit was 500.00 debit and 310.00 ATM withdrawal .. The customer service rep told me to divide total between the two types of transaction debit and ATM and there was nothing she could do to change the daily limit
In the same situation myself with wells far now. I decided to make an impulse buy last week of a jet ski, end of the season, good savings and all that. Totalling just over 16k dollars. No problem I thought as I had more then enough money in the account to buy a few of them.
Im an impulse buyer and I want it now kind of shopper. So, Im in the dealership dealing with a nice salesman, completing al the forms while his staff are assembling all that parts of the jetski onto the trailer so I can drive it away. Filling more forms in, His guys come through telling us its all ready to rock and roll.
Gets to payment time, swipe card and canceled. Its the kind of moment where your stomace drops and the sales man thinks he has wasted his time. I assured him I had the money and came to the conclusion that it must be a daily limit. So, calls wells fargo who tells me theres a limit for 1.5k on the card. I tell them what Im doing, where I am and confirm all the security questions needed to verify me. And still they can not raise the limit for this one purchase for my own security. What was I advised to do.. Go to the branch and withdraw the 16k cash and go back to the shop.
What the hell, its unsafe for me to swipe a piece of plastic in a shop buts its safe for me to walk around with 16k cash in my pocket. I had to do that in the end, the sales man took the 1,5k deposit, wheeled the jet ski back in and I went to the branch. To be then told I would have to wait to see if they had that much cash available.
What really ticked me off now is what happened tonight.
I work away from home quite a lot so the gf pays all the bills and takes care of all that stuff, I just give her money. We had a joint account as Im from the UK and had no credit to open my own account, recently I was able to do that and we closed the joint account. As well as being a impulse buyer, so is the gf and her having access to my money has caused a few riffs! So at the first chance of getting my own account I jumped at it.
Last week i sent her the rent money, no problem, then her car broke so I sent her some more money, then there was a bill due so I sent her some more money. Then there s payment due for our cruise due on friday so I try to send her some more money, or so I thought I would be able to. No No No, 2k in 30 days maximum, What the F is going on with this bank.
So now I have to go to the branch again, take the cash out an pay it into her account. How inconvenient is that.
If your reading this Mr/Miss wells fargo. Its MY money, I will choose how, when, why and how much I would like to spend. I bet your Million dollar wage a year isn’t restricted to a 1.5k a day spend limit.
I will be changing banks as soon as I can find a suitable one that has a location close to my home in Texas and work in Alabama,
Thank but no thanks wells fargo.
I am a non resident and my money is basically being held hostage. Their ridiculously low limits means it would take me years to get my own money out. It is akin to asking your parents for money. I am going to have to close my account. Recently I wanted to buy some stuff from China and was unable to send a few K when I have 60K in the bank account. Absolutely insane “bank”
Well It looks like I a the only person who had any luck dealing with the daily limit issue on my debit card.
The purchase that I was trying to make when my card was declined was for a nice mountain bike to the tune of $1900. The online retailer informed me that my card was declined, but being that I was making an online purchase and the retailer was located across the country, they said this sort of thing happens all the time, simply give your bank a call and let them know about the purchase and we’ll try the transaction again. Boy were they wrong. I called WF account services and the representative told me that she could in no way raise my daily spending limit for my debit card and that I needed to go into a branch and speak with a banker. So I did just that. I went down to my local branch and spoke with a banker. The banker there sat me down and I proceeded to tell her the problem. She asked to see my debit card and ID and 30 seconds later- BAM! Just like that she raised my limit from $1600 to $2000 without even blinking an eye! Now I’ve been a WF customer since 2002 and have had maybe a hand-full of overdrafts in that time , so maybe that had something to do with it, but I thought for sure that when I read this blog before I headed down to the bank, I was screwed and would be changing banks. I feel truly sorry for all of the other people who’ve not been so lucky, it really is a terrible feeling to not have access to your hard-earned cash.
Glad to hear of your good fortune Sean! Maybe things are changing at WF. I would like to think so and that they are being more responsive to their customers. Maybe your post will give others some hope!
Wells Fargo refused a $1.25 charge to my credit card because it was Apple. These Wells Fargo blokes are the same guys who begged me for a year to open a business VISA with them. I’m removing Wells Fargo’s VISA from my wallet and canceling the card. Worthless!
First, I am coming to the same conclusion… What ticks me off is that this has to have been recent with in the last two years… We buy airline tickets regularly for brining my step-son to us for summer and christmas. Over the last say 5 years or so, spending limits have not been an issue… and we have gone past $1500 at a time in one day.
Today… I can’t tell you how pissed I got with the phone rep. Not only could they not do anything about it, but even when my husband verified over speaker phone his name and ssn… I had to call out his card info for him to repeat into the phone for her to discuss his card details on our same shared account. THAT IS Beyond stupid in my humble opinion.
I have am going to look in my are for banks that actually work. I do not have access to big banks where we live, so I will have to settle for something smaller, which may be better in the long run.
Thank you for this…
Thanks for writing this Blog, now I KNOW I am not a Crook, lol. They made me feel like I did not “deserve” to spend my own money. I tried buying a treadmill and got denied. Then tried to make other purchases for my kids school clothing and was denied at $500 for the day, (24 hour period), in purchases. Most people spend more than that when they decide to go shopping for the family or what not. I called WF and the banker said she too had a limit of $500 and could do nothing about it. My primary bank Navy Federal has a 3k limit for the day and will offer a 72 hour window to increase for particular purchases. I asked why $500 and not 3k; they explained that it was because they were protecting me against fraud. Well, I ask, Will the real thief please stand up!
Me too. All of it happened to me. I changed to Chase a month ago and not a single issue so far. Wells Fargo was a disaster.
Wow same here! I purchased a Mac Book air today at the mall and wanted to buy a few other things but my card was declined. The worse feeling in the worse is getting your card declined knowing you have the money for it but you can’t access it. I’m definitely getting another bank account this weekend so I can spend as much as I like.
It has been just over a year ago since I posted this blog entry and it has had over 800 views in that time. That might not seem like a lot for most blogs, but I rarely get visitors here 🙂 That tells me there is a lot of dissatisfaction with Wells Fargo out there and people are Googling for information. If you are here… you are probably disgusted as well. I encourage you to make a change and take control of your own money. Eff Wells Fargo and those horses they rode in on!
Thank You so much for this blog I am as or more frustrated as you were right now! My husband has Wells Fargo account personal and business accounts I myself bank with Chase but I was sure my husband knew what he was doing. I had not had any major issues with Wells Fargo until I was faced with having to use it today to make a car purchase. As you can imagine I had more than enough to cover the purchase of the vehicle and went to make a cash purchase using our debit card I realized we had a daily limit. Similar situation that happens to so many I figured all we had to do was call and get it straightened out we had been with them for awhile now and did not see and issue. We called only to be told the limit could not be increased to the amount in our account but was 1500 only! By the time we figured this out the bank was closed so we could not withdraw the funds to purchase having us to do the whole transaction the next day inconveniencing so. We absolutely be switching over to another institution business as well!
Just had the same thing happen to me. I have to move money to another account in order to complete a transaction. I have $5k in my bank and I can’t make a $2250 transaction any other way.
I just had this same experience with Wells Fargo today. I walked into the Apple store to purchase a brand new iMac. I’ve been saving up for 6 months and I was so excited to make my purchase today. Lo and behold, my card was declined because of the 1500 daily purchase limit. I called, spoke to three different people, went to the local branch, and nothing was done. I’m definitely going to look into closing my account and going with another bank. Have you heard of Simple? (www.simple.com) They have a 6000 daily limit and a 20000 monthly limit (although I can’t imagine ever needing that much)
I am dumping Wells Fargo for exactly the same reasons tomorrow morning. I called WF SIX times today to get blocks removed. Each time i was assured it would be removed. Each time it wasn’t. Tonight I took my son to dinner at a local restaurant and my $32 bill was declined. I have many thousands of dollars in the account. I was humiliated…for the last time. Hello Chase, I hope you are less incompetent and negligent than Wells Fargo.
Their* d’oh!
Weird. I was trying to purchase a bed totaling $2700 and was declined. However, when I called WF they raised the daily spending limit to $3000. This was 2 years ago, granted. Maybe they changed they’re policy?
100% agree with this. I have te same experience with the bank, total lamers
Thank you for this info. Although I already found out for myself today.. Tried booking a hotel room in Vegas. I live in Oregon and figured it was a security issue as it was only a $630 purchase! Well… After speaking with an incompetent customer service representative, I was told my daily debt limit was $500! I explained my situation and they would not allow the addition increase for $130. Unbelievable. Especially since I have over $3,000 in the bank. What if I had an emergency and had to take my pet to the vet? Seriously done with the BS Wells Fargo brings. I’m just glad I found out now, and not while I’m vacationing in Vegas. Could you imagine? What a nightmare! The money is there but you can’t spend it. The bank is full of crooks. End of story.