In both cases, the issuing bank verifies upfront that sufficient funds exist. The only difference between cashier’s checks and certified checks is that the former are drawn from the bank’s own account, whereas the latter are drawn from the customer’s account. Wait, customers could avoid the wire transfer fee if they used a certified check but not if they used a cashier’s check? That makes little sense. “These options are laid out in the written payoff letter and include the option of paying by certified check to avoid a wire transfer fee.” “We clearly communicate options for sending payoff funds,” he told me. Yet the bank didn’t seem regretful about inflicting the same fee on possibly millions of other mortgage customers (Goyda was unable to provide a specific number). So Wells does waive wire transfer fees, it turns out. “We are reaching out to him and plan to refund the wire transfer fee,” he said. Tom Goyda, a Wells Fargo spokesperson, said the bank regretted not responding to Yelinek when he first raised these issues in August. “We’d accomplish it without the need for a wire transfer at all,” said Evan Lapiska, a U.S. Other banks may also charge fees for internal fund transfers, but I couldn’t find one of Wells’ stature that does so for mortgage payoffs. Pretty soon you’re looking at serious money. The true outrage is in the volume of fees. The outrage isn’t just in individual fees, although they’re sufficiently galling to most consumers. But making even a partial payment can restart the debt clock.Īnd that’s the key issue in any discussion of fee-based businesses. In California, you can’t be sued for consumer debt older than four years. “I wonder how many $30 fees they get for payoffs of those mortgages,” Yelinek said, echoing my own thoughts.Ĭolumn: Not all debt is collectable. Wells is currently servicing about 6.5 million mortgage loans. This presumably includes those $30 wire transfer charges that infuriated Yelinek. 30, Wells pocketed almost $4 billion in mortgage banking noninterest income, including $2.1 billion in “servicing fees, late charges and ancillary fees.” But its status as the country’s largest residential mortgage servicer gives it ample opportunity to exploit this captive market.
So Wells Fargo isn’t the only one muscling its customers. The banking industry as a whole took in $12.4 billion from overdraft fees alone last year, the vast majority of which were paid by lower-income people. The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found in a 2019 study that banks’ so-called noninterest income jumped by 25% from 2005 to 2018. We’re talking overdraft fees, wire transfer fees, credit card fees, insufficient funds fees, ATM fees and other charges that over the years have played an increasingly important role in keeping profit-hungry bank shareholders happy. Since deregulation in the 1980s, the entire banking industry has grown more reliant on reaching into people’s pockets with nickel-and-dime fees, as opposed to its traditional focus on loan interest. Wells may be particularly focused on fees, but it’s by no means alone.
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Visitors to the Trader Joe’s in Hollywood are being instructed to download a parking app to their phones. Column: There may be a steep privacy cost if you park at this Trader Joe’s