The 9-state Sovereign Bank system — with ATMs and branches in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island — is trapped in the mid-1990s with the inability to update one’s email address online.
Could someone kindly explain to me the rationale for enabling me to log in to a secure system to pay bills online, but denying me the ability to change my email address?
I don’t get it.
When I think back to 1999 when my financial transactions were 100% online with an interest-bearing checking account at NetBank and a credit card through NextCard, when I never needed to pick up a phone to call an agent (let alone visit a branch, for there were none), maybe I’m asking too much from Sovereign.
After all, it’s only a decade later.
So, while I drive to my nearest branch (because I can only imagine the spelling errors that could happen with a phone call as I spell my preferred email address), I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter.
When will banks get with the times, pun intended, and use its staff for more priority-driven activities?
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Sovereign Bank does not have my email address. Any email I get from a bank; I’m suspicious it might be fraud. Now I will go to website for everything I can, but I assume if the bank has something important for me, they are not going to rely on email.
I don’t see ANY purpose for the branches–in 20 years, I’ve been inside a bank only a handful of times. Usually, I am not around when they are open and I use the ATM for everything. For loans, I do it all by phone, fax, and mailing signed documents back and forth. Real estate closings are done at the attorney or title company’s office.
Perhaps my relationship with banks will change once the wheelbarrels of greenbacks start rolling in from my consulting business and I am required to physically deposit the bounty.
Dave Atkins´s last blog post..Social Media for Economic Development
…and they don’t allow people like me with Sovereign mortgages to access information about the loan online!!! What’s up with that? Frustrating. If it were easy/cost-effective for us to re-fi, we would have done so long ago.
Andrew Krzmarzick´s last blog post..Open-Government.us – Caring About Sharing
Use a credit union or USAA if eligible!
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BetterBanking/BankFeesAreMoreOutrageousThanEver.aspx
Dave: I enter bank branches frequently, albeit to trade in $20 bills for rolls of quarters to do laundry in my basement. There’s no other way to get bulk coins, until ATMs are re-designed to withdraw coins. I suppose supermarkets could trade coins for cash. Also, for international travel, how else can you get traveler’s checks and trade foreign currency?
Andy: Be thankful your mortgage isn’t like my old car loan, at the time with a federal credit union that was zero online other than a few web pages.
Scott: I’m thinking of opening a credit union account locally, as one is across the street and invests in the community. I also like their concept of withdrawing money at SUM ATMs.
Kristi: Online chat? What bank?
Sean: Welcome, nice to see you here! INC Direct? I know a guy who heads up one of their branches, if interested. They’re a green bank, right?
My bank is pretty good. They even have customer service chat available now, which means I get to bypass the customer service line. That always makes me happy. We can also change our information, although that part is still a bit funky because you have to change your address individually with each account, instead of having an update all accounts option.
~ Kristi
Kikolani | Poetry, Photography, Blogging Tips´s last blog post..Thursday Things
I am going to close my Sovereign Account come the new year and go with an INC Direct checking account. Not only does Sovereign not allow you to change your personal information on-line, they still don’t let account holders download monthly statements as opposed to receiving paper ones monthly. SB is the only account I have these days that still doesn’t give customers the option to go fully paperless. Not only is is inconvenient, but it is also not green.
My bank does everything online except wire transfers. Those are only in person, and you need to see a specialist not just a teller (think longer wait). And for some bizarre reason they can’t even enter it into their system after 5p EST, which is 2 or 3 here in AZ, so I have to be at their branch by 1pm, to allow an hour so that it’s done by 2pm. It’s a big, sophisticated bank, so I figure wire transfers must just be so rare that they’re at the bottom of their IT priority list.
In the meantime, I found another company whose whole business is doing foreign exchange wire transfers. Now I can wire to my heart’s content, from my own computer, anywhere in the world, to anywhere else in the world, at 2am, no matter what time zone I’m in. Ahhh… (-:
Deanna Keahey´s last blog post..So there we were.. power lounging at White Bay
You would think in these rough times that the banks would do everything they could to keep you – not irritate you!
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