Author Topic: getting special treatment form banks?  (Read 8092 times)

mohawkbrah

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getting special treatment form banks?
« on: July 01, 2016, 04:22:23 AM »
I have a question for the millionaire mustachians here, have you ever gotten special treatment from your bank becuase of your large portfolio, try and sell you anything. give you a nice cuppa?:P

I suppose they'd only know about it if you had your portfolio placed in their banks.

GrumpyPenguin

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2016, 05:32:15 AM »
I suppose they'd only know about it if you had your portfolio placed in their banks.

This is right.  My bank would not have a great idea of what my net worth is.  I don't mind, I prefer people have no idea how much I'm worth unless I tell them.

Giro

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2016, 06:51:06 AM »
I suppose they'd only know about it if you had your portfolio placed in their banks.

This is right.  My bank would not have a great idea of what my net worth is.  I don't mind, I prefer people have no idea how much I'm worth unless I tell them.

+1   

My bank has no idea because I don't invest with them. 

kina

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2016, 08:12:32 AM »
I suppose they'd only know about it if you had your portfolio placed in their banks.

This is right.  My bank would not have a great idea of what my net worth is.  I don't mind, I prefer people have no idea how much I'm worth unless I tell them.

+1   
Same here BUT if I am 'parking' a largish sum of money (for a very short period of time) they are suddenly very friendly and want to help me with it.

I decline their help.

My bank has no idea because I don't invest with them.

sonjak

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2016, 08:23:43 AM »
I'm not a millionaire but I used to work in a bank and I know we would regularly waive fees or give perks to people with higher balances.  It always pissed me off because I felt that the person who was making $7/hr needed it more than the rich person but I didn't get to choose.

GrumpyPenguin

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #5 on: July 01, 2016, 10:48:27 AM »
I'm not a millionaire but I used to work in a bank and I know we would regularly waive fees or give perks to people with higher balances.  It always pissed me off because I felt that the person who was making $7/hr needed it more than the rich person but I didn't get to choose.

I experience this as well.  If you keep a balance of about $10k in a Bank of America account, you qualify for a special account type that has pretty much no fees.  That's not terribly large if you keep an emergency fund type balance in there. It does make sense in that they actually profit a lot more off of you than someone who keeps $50 in their account.

onlykelsey

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2016, 10:59:22 AM »
I bank with a high net-worth bank (generally $10 million invested through the bank and up) that I get access to through my job.  It's sort of a pain because they're constantly pitching products thinking I'm worth 10 figures.

I don't think you should ever have enough in a bank to qualify for their programs. 

Hotstreak

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2016, 11:01:14 AM »
I'm not a millionaire but I used to work in a bank and I know we would regularly waive fees or give perks to people with higher balances.  It always pissed me off because I felt that the person who was making $7/hr needed it more than the rich person but I didn't get to choose.

I experience this as well.  If you keep a balance of about $10k in a Bank of America account, you qualify for a special account type that has pretty much no fees.  That's not terribly large if you keep an emergency fund type balance in there. It does make sense in that they actually profit a lot more off of you than someone who keeps $50 in their account.

It's not that they profit "more", it's that they might actually profit at all.  The $50 dollar account is almost guaranteed to lose them money every single month, just due to things like ATM operations, keeping branches open, mailing their statements at $1+ a pop, etc.

If you have a high income or large amount of investable assets, you may qualify for your bank's version of "Private Banking".  There will usually be a local person you specifically deal with that has more authority than a normal branch banker, your accounts will have less fees, you might get free checks, you might have access to custom loan programs that "regular" customers don't have access to.  There could be a number of other benefits, and the more money you have the more access you get.  Thresholds for qualifying will vary by institution and geographic area, but think $100-200k/year income and/or $1-2million investable assets.

As far as anything that might actually benefit you, they may take you to lunch or invite you to exclusive events with other customers of theirs who you can network with.  Don't expect them to bend over backwards for you if you don't actually do any business with them, though :).

BTDretire

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2016, 11:04:00 AM »
I'm not a millionaire but I used to work in a bank and I know we would regularly waive fees or give perks to people with higher balances.  It always pissed me off because I felt that the person who was making $7/hr needed it more than the rich person but I didn't get to choose.

That's the way I used to feel about the senior citizen discount!
"Hey he's had 40 years to save his money, give the discount to the young people trying to get ahead."
Now that I'm a senior, not so much. :-)

mjs111

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2016, 05:01:17 PM »
I'm not a millionaire but I used to work in a bank and I know we would regularly waive fees or give perks to people with higher balances.  It always pissed me off because I felt that the person who was making $7/hr needed it more than the rich person but I didn't get to choose.

I experience this as well.  If you keep a balance of about $10k in a Bank of America account, you qualify for a special account type that has pretty much no fees.  That's not terribly large if you keep an emergency fund type balance in there. It does make sense in that they actually profit a lot more off of you than someone who keeps $50 in their account.

It's not that they profit "more", it's that they might actually profit at all.  The $50 dollar account is almost guaranteed to lose them money every single month, just due to things like ATM operations, keeping branches open, mailing their statements at $1+ a pop, etc.

If you have a high income or large amount of investable assets, you may qualify for your bank's version of "Private Banking".  There will usually be a local person you specifically deal with that has more authority than a normal branch banker, your accounts will have less fees, you might get free checks, you might have access to custom loan programs that "regular" customers don't have access to.  There could be a number of other benefits, and the more money you have the more access you get.  Thresholds for qualifying will vary by institution and geographic area, but think $100-200k/year income and/or $1-2million investable assets.

As far as anything that might actually benefit you, they may take you to lunch or invite you to exclusive events with other customers of theirs who you can network with.  Don't expect them to bend over backwards for you if you don't actually do any business with them, though :).

Yep, an account has to have at least a few hundred dollars in it for a big bank to break even on the overhead of servicing the account.

more detail:
http://www.mybanktracker.com/news/2011/12/13/banks-losing-money-service-checking-account/

MoneyCat

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2016, 08:43:34 PM »
I get special treatment from Vanguard. They only charge me 0.05% in fees. Makes me feel like a rock star.

Curbside Prophet

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2016, 09:20:08 PM »
I'm not a millionaire but I used to work in a bank and I know we would regularly waive fees or give perks to people with higher balances.  It always pissed me off because I felt that the person who was making $7/hr needed it more than the rich person but I didn't get to choose.

I experience this as well.  If you keep a balance of about $10k in a Bank of America account, you qualify for a special account type that has pretty much no fees.  That's not terribly large if you keep an emergency fund type balance in there. It does make sense in that they actually profit a lot more off of you than someone who keeps $50 in their account.

It's not that they profit "more", it's that they might actually profit at all.  The $50 dollar account is almost guaranteed to lose them money every single month, just due to things like ATM operations, keeping branches open, mailing their statements at $1+ a pop, etc.

If you have a high income or large amount of investable assets, you may qualify for your bank's version of "Private Banking".  There will usually be a local person you specifically deal with that has more authority than a normal branch banker, your accounts will have less fees, you might get free checks, you might have access to custom loan programs that "regular" customers don't have access to.  There could be a number of other benefits, and the more money you have the more access you get.  Thresholds for qualifying will vary by institution and geographic area, but think $100-200k/year income and/or $1-2million investable assets.

As far as anything that might actually benefit you, they may take you to lunch or invite you to exclusive events with other customers of theirs who you can network with.  Don't expect them to bend over backwards for you if you don't actually do any business with them, though :).

Pretty much this. 

I will also add that if you are a person of influence in a bigger company (President, CFO, COO, etc.) you're likely to get perks as well even if you don't have a tremendous amount w/ the bank as an individual.  Of course this is because your company likely has credit needs and you are a key decision maker.

redbird

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2016, 09:34:43 PM »
No, but most of my investments are through Vanguard.

I in fact feel like a second class citizen in a way, trying to buy a house while FIRE and no active job income coming in. I just started trying to deal with banks for a mortgage today and getting the "you're not standard, so we don't know how to deal with you" issues that comes with FIRE. That's a discussion for another topic, and has already been discussed in other threads anyway, thing. :)

Prairie Stash

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2016, 07:48:44 PM »
My bank answers calls in priority sequence. If you have lots of money you don't get put on hold.

seattlecyclone

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #14 on: July 03, 2016, 08:08:47 PM »
I get special treatment from Vanguard. They only charge me 0.05% in fees. Makes me feel like a rock star.

Right on. Now if you had $5 million to invest, they would only charge you 0.04%! How about that?

Playing with Fire UK

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #15 on: July 04, 2016, 05:10:35 AM »
I have a special number to call so that I bypass the robot and speak straight to a person.

Unfortunately for the bank, I qualify for the 'Select' account because I use this account to move money in and out to meet other banks' paying in criteria; so it looks to an algorithm like I'm loaded but it's the same money moving backwards and forwards. Doesn't stop me drinking their free coffee though.

I'd also qualify for a lower mortgage rate, if they would give me a mortgage, but they won't because of non-standard things.

Cranky

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #16 on: July 04, 2016, 05:54:38 AM »
I haven't paid bank fees in ... forever.

We walk into the bank about once/year, and they remember our names, which I think is impressive.

pbkmaine

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #17 on: July 04, 2016, 06:31:40 AM »
We had a large transaction run through our bank, Bank of America, and they fell all over themselves trying to talk us into Merrill Lynch.  I had a little heart-to-heart with the branch manager and it stopped. I liked him so much that I go in and see him when I need anything out of the way and he takes care of it.

Paul der Krake

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #18 on: July 04, 2016, 07:02:26 AM »
Complaining about fees being waived for more affluent accounts is terribly misguided. The affluent accounts is what makes the whole banking thing possible in the first place. Like others have pointed out, the bank is most likely losing money on your account if you drain all your paycheck to bills and Vanguard every month. The elderly gentleman who comes in every Tuesday to check on his $50,000 CD is the one keeping the lights on. The least they can do is give him that free safe deposit box.

Besides, with the internet it's now ridiculously easy to find an institution with low or no balance requirements.

jim555

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #19 on: July 04, 2016, 08:14:27 AM »
I had a bank solicit me for "Private Client".  So they want $250,000 to start.  I am like so that is the top of FDIC insurance why would anyone go over the limit?  The guy didn't even give a good answer.  That was it for that meeting.

boognish

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #20 on: July 04, 2016, 01:15:17 PM »

randymarsh

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #21 on: July 04, 2016, 01:56:11 PM »
I had a bank solicit me for "Private Client".  So they want $250,000 to start.  I am like so that is the top of FDIC insurance why would anyone go over the limit?  The guy didn't even give a good answer.  That was it for that meeting.

Maybe not you situation, but I'm pretty sure "private banking" means investments as well. At least at the larger banks. Everyone in this thread is only talking about checking/savings but I don't think that's what private banking/private client/wealth management is.

JP Morgan's minimum for private banking is like 5 million. I assume most of that is invested.

cerat0n1a

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #22 on: July 04, 2016, 04:07:29 PM »
My bank has me on their list of high net worth customers and occasionally invite me to come visit for a very half-hearted attempt to sell me some of their "services." It usually becomes very obvious to them that I know more than their "advisor" though and so no easy pickings for them. So I don't think I've ever really had any special treatment.

In the days before cheap internet share dealing became a reality in the UK, I used the local branch of Charles Stanley for share dealing. This felt like a proper customer focused service. The dealers were a husband and wife team. If you phoned up, they recognised your voice & phone number and did the deal without the need for any passwords or authentication. On the rare occasions I had to visit (e.g. to drop in a physical share certificate), there was always a very attractive young lady (never the same one twice...) whose job appeared to be to make a drink for visitors, smile and generally look decorative. That at least felt to the twenty-something me like a form of special treatment.

Drifterrider

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #23 on: July 05, 2016, 12:18:47 PM »
You will always get treated better by those for whom you generate revenue.

JLR

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Re: getting special treatment form banks?
« Reply #24 on: July 05, 2016, 07:41:22 PM »
The best special treatment I've gotten from a bank was one day when my husband and I walked into the local branch for some of our accounts and asked for a $10 000 loan. We had no paperwork with us and had to have it done immediately as we were leaving town that afternoon (the loan was to pay for renovations on the property we were selling in that town). The loan officer/branch manager joked that she hoped we were telling the truth about our securities etc (all of our investments were with other banks. They could only see our income coming into their accounts and the money going out to those other banks), but she processed the loan immediately on our word. We paid it back two weeks later once we had sorted our investments to cover it.

The only other "special treatment" I have gotten was being asked every time I visited the branch what I planned to do with the large amount of cash sitting in my account. I'm assuming they wanted to sell me some expensive "investment advice". Our tax agent tried to do the same thing. I ended up moving our cash to online banks and now just get a call each year asking if we want a home loan.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!