Friday, July 2, 2010

But it's our money!

So we have car we would like to buy for the family.  It is a private sale so we can't swipe a credit card and pay for it.  We have gotten the Auto Advance from Jay's work so the money for the car is sitting in my bank account. 
And there it sits.
We have no way to get to it.  We tried to do a wire transfer.
  Sorry, the amount is too big to transfer without first showing ID.  Well, I understand that you are out of the country.  However our policy says that we need to see ID.  No, I cannot split it into smaller amounts to get around that rule.  We care about our customers and we understand that you are upset.  No, we cannot do it over the phone, over the internet or by fax.  You must show ID. 
So we asked how we could close the account.
You must come to the bank and sign some paperwork.  No you cannot do it by fax or over the phone.  Closing the account must be done in person. 
GRRRRR
The man actually recommended that we withdrawl money from the ATM in order to add up to the $20,000 for the car.  Okay, can we raise the daily limit of withdrawl?  Yes, he raised it to the maximum amount of $500 per day!  So Jay asked if he was actually suggesting that we spend the next 40 days withdrawing $500 a day.  Well, yeah, he was. 
That's not going to work.  We're supposed to pay this guy in the coming week. 
Yes, we can just let the car go and find something else.  However, we'll still have the same problem unless we purchase at a dealership.  We can't afford to go through a dealer here.  Though I'm sure that we'd still have a problem trying to pay for $20,000 with a debit card.
SunTrust Bank sucks.  If we switched to Bank of America, we could do a wire transfer over the internet.

2 comments:

  1. that is so flippin crazy. how could you have seen this coming? This is ridiculous! start withdrawing the money today and put it into a new bank until you've emptied that account. otherwise that money won't be any use to you for a few years right? lame!

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  2. You need to go over the head of whoever you talked to originally.

    Find somebody in the corporate head office. Go above that. Contact bloggers who deal with bankers, and contact the better business bureau. I think the federal trade commission will also take complaints.

    Sure it might accomplish nothing, but they really don't like getting dinged by the better business bureau or the FTC.

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