It saves to talk to your banker

Received in the mail, an announcement from Wells Fargo which, you may recall, took over Wachovia and, at the speed of a bank bailout, announced new fees: 

“Effective August 6, 2012 you will be charged $5 monthly for online ($7 for print) accounts unless you maintain a $1,500 minimum balance or have direct deposits totaling more than $500 monthly.”  Yada, yada, yada.

I marched right in my Wells Fargo branch (where I keep a healthy balance of $100 for convenience to work) and said “please close my account,” to which Mr. Manager took exception and said “Hold it there, partner.  Lemme see what I can do to save this here account.  I ain’t in the business to lose business.” 

And with a click of his magic mouse, voila!  No fee!

You have to be prepared to, as they say in the business, walk.   As in, walk with swagger. As in, walk out.  And talk the talk, too.  And make sure you’ve got another bank account, and you don’t need their silly old account anyway.

Which reminds me, the only reason I stopped in Wachovia in the first place was during the hustlin' and bustlin' days of several years ago, it ran an ad in the Washington City Paper offering $100 to anyone opening an account.  I did and it did, and, in the meantime, it found two CDs I had stashed away in another state, another life, and forgotten about. Talk about a nice surprise!  I love you, Wachovia, and where did you go?

It pays to talk to your banker.  With swagger.