Reason #5364 to hate big banks

Reason #5364 to hate big banks: Wells Fargo is now charging customers for making deposits.

That's not a misprint. 

The blood sucking parasites bankers at Wells Fargo, America’s fourth-largest bank, have started charging some small business customers 30 cents for every $100 in cash they deposit in excess of $5000 a month.

It had always been my impression that banks considered it a good thing when customers deposited money.

Silly me.

I discovered this today while reviewing the October statement for my business checking account. For the first (and only) time in all the years I’ve had that account, I made a large cash deposit in October – money I withdrew from my personal Wells Fargo account to cover a bill that needed to be paid through the business.

I noticed on the statement, in addition to the monthly $15 fee Wells Fargo charges to maintain the account, a debit for something noted as a “Cash Deposit Fee.”

I called Wells Fargo’s 800 number and reached a customer service representative named Dixie. She informed me the Cash Deposit Fee is a charge that is now imposed on certain small business accounts including, apparently, mine, in any given month in which cash deposits exceed $5000.

I said that was crazy. Since when does a bank charge customers for making deposits? 

Dixie took care not to agree with me – our call was being recorded for training purposes after all –- and diplomatically replied she understood why I might be upset. It occurred to me as she was talking that any bank callous enough to charge customers for depositing money probably wouldn’t hesitate to waterboard any employee its phone monitors overheard agreeing with a customer who questioned its fees.

I told Dixie I write a blog and was going to write about Wells Fargo’s new fee. She put me on hold and, a minute later, came back on the line to report she had been able to reverse not only the $15 monthly fee but the Cash Deposit Fee as well. She cautioned, however, that if I deposit more than $5000 cash in any given month, I’ll incur the fee again.

This afternoon I went to my local Wells Fargo branch and asked to speak with an officer. “What is the rationale for this Cash Deposit Fee?" I asked. The banker couldn't answer the question but did say she’s powerless to do anything about it and that Citibank is charging a similar fee.

The Cash Deposit Fee is but one more example of how small businesses are getting the shaft thanks to the Ponzi scheme that is the American financial system. The Federal Reserve is creating money out of thin air, and lending it at zero percent interest to the big banks – Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, Chase, etc. – ostensibly so they can make loans to small businesses and individuals. But the banks, rather than lending the money they’re getting for free, are using it instead to buy US Government debt which requires less effort and administrative staff.

Our government, in turn, uses the money it gets for selling bonds to banks to pay interest on older bonds owned by investors in China, Japan and other countries. Small businesses, if they can get any money at all, are having to borrow it from small banks which don’t have it to lend because they have to now pay much more for FDIC insurance than they did pre-2008 in order to protect customer deposits at the mega-banks which will almost certainly fail one of these days because they are running on Monopoly money and everyone in Washington knows it but nobody will stop it because if they did, the jig would be up -- the American economy would go down the toilet and the Chinese Renminbi would become the world’s currency.

Did someone say small businesses could use some help? Who cares?

Well I do. I’ve run one for 33 years. My father ran one. His father ran one. Small business – not big business -- is the engine that powers America’s economy.

A small business that handles cash in its daily operations, such as a restaurant, supermarket or dry cleaner, is already operating on razor-thin margins. And how does Wells Fargo help that business?

By charging it for depositing money, the vast majority of which is already earmarked to pay vendors, employees, employee benefits, rent, utilities and, of course, income taxes.

I pointed out to the bank officer that I’ve banked with what is now Wells Fargo for 30 years. I opened an account at First Union in 1983. First Union became First Fidelity which became something I’ve forgotten which became Wachovia which is now Wells Fargo. I also happen to have a lot of cash – the proceeds from the sale of a house  – in the bank right now.

I told my Wells Fargo banker that as someone who believes in small business, I’m going to take every penny of it out within the next week. And I am. As soon as I can find a local bank that doesn’t charge for deposits of any type, I’m moving my money there.

And when I do? 

Wells Fargo can kiss my assets goodbye.

Not that they give a shit but if enough small business owners closed their accounts, maybe -- just maybe -- they would.