Just How Do Banks Make Money?
A trip to several establishments makes it
clear: They don't want you to give them your money. Not easily,
though.
I saw a promotion the other day for American
Express travel cards; buy one and they send you a $25 gift card. The commercial
mentioned this deal was available at Citibank. The teller said, "We don't have
it at this branch, yet." Then, the customer service person looked at me like I
was out of my mind. Then when he found out it WAS a current promotion, he seemed
to want me to purchase something even though he had no details. Then, after ten
minutes ransacking the bank, he found me a brochure, which turned out to be
something that had no information about the purchasing, but how to use the card
once you bought it.
I have a CD coming
due soon at a local bank. I asked for current CD rates, and they only had one
photocopy of the rates and wouldn't make me a copy. The nice teller wrote
everything out for me longhand on a
post-it.
Up the avenue, at North Fork,
they gave me a printout without a hassle. At Commerce Bank, they wanted me to
either copy it off of a bulletin board or wait 20 minutes to see a customer
service secret service agent, just to get a
printout.
So, when I went home, I
checked out the current rates for two online banking establishments, and the
rates were easy to find and to set up. Which is probably how I am going to
re-invest my matured CD money.
Why is
it so difficult to get someone in person to TAKE YOUR MONEY... at a
BANK!
Posted: Sat
- October 22, 2005 at 12:23 AM