Electronic Fund Transfer Errors Settlement If you suspect that an error has been made in an electronic transfer of funds, call your bank immediately. The law requires that you make the call within 60 days, but the sooner you give notice the easier it will be to correct any error. Unless the bank asks you […]

EFT Customer?s Rights Like anything else, electronic fund transfers are subject to error. A malfunction in a computer or a mistake by a programmer could, for example, transfer $1,000 from your account to the account of your utility company when in fact your bill was $100. If you lose your automatic teller card and it […]

Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT) By now, most depositors have some familiarity with the machines in bank lobbies that enable customers to make withdrawals from, or deposits to, savings and checking accounts without the aid of a human teller. But such machines are only one aspect of electronic fund transfers. An increasing number of other transactions […]

Supplemental Bank Services Review Most banks offer depositors, and in some cases non-depositors as well, a variety of convenience services. Here are some typical examples and their relative costs. Safe-deposit boxes. Millions of consumers find these boxes, which are locked and kept in bank vaults, useful for the safekeeping of stock and bond certificates, valuable […]

How US Banks Treat Their Customers’ Privacy? Although information about your bank accounts and transactions is usually a matter between your banker and yourself, there can be exceptions. State laws vary on bank-account privacy. In some states banks are allowed to reveal to merchants whether a customer has sufficient funds to cover a large check […]

Whean dealing with a bank, the first step is to try to establish yourself in its mind as a valued, or at least potentially valuable, customer, and to do it on a business like basis. It is important to get this impression across at the start. Never, never start a relationship with a bank by […]

Some people search out a bank about as seriously as they look around for a mailbox or trash can: the nearest one is fine. But it really is not wise to be overly swayed by convenience. It’s always helpful to have a bank branch reasonably handy to your home or place of business, but what […]

In looking around for the financial institution that best serves your purposes — assuming there is more than one commercial bank, savings institution or credit union to choose from where you live — first determine what you really want to use it for: savings, checking, a credit card, online banking, a personal loan or home […]

Part Two Increasingly, banks and other financial service companies are merging and maneuvering toward regional networks and “one-stop shopping” for all a consumer’s financial needs, with the result that old distinctions among financial institutions are becoming blurred. In addition to different kinds of checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, loans, credit […]

Part One? Scarcely a decade ago, banking was still a relatively cut-and-dried business. Except for your convenience, it didn’t make much difference which bank you dealt with: interest rates, loans and other services were pretty much the same. All that has changed. Today, thanks to continuing government deregulation and superheated competition among all sorts of […]