“Everyone still hates banks, apparently. Ok, that’s an exaggeration”
No, it’s not.
That was the latest blog entry on ConfirmIt’s Customer Feedback Stream. Statistics may be a measure of customer loyalty. But in banking, the percentage of customers who say they might or definitely will switch banks, is likely to be lower – much lower. Why? Because when customers say they’re going to or would like to switch, it doesn’t mean they can. And for those who say they definitely will not switch, a number of them may say that simply because they can’t. In both cases, they would just rather not because of the inconvenience switching entails.
Consider my experience as an example:
Last month, I took a cab home and paid with my TD Bank debit card. The first swipe didn’t go through. Not an uncommon occurrence, so I re-swiped. Nothing. Third time’s a charm, the cabbie got paid, and I went on my merry way. Three days later, I noticed three of the same cab fare charges on my online statement.
TD Bank acquired Commerce Bank last year. The transition did not go well for customers who found themselves without their direct deposit paychecks in their checking accounts until three days later. Still, I forgave. We all have glitches. TD Bank without question ensured that no debits bounced or declined, and any inadvertent fees associated were reversed.
Not so with the taxi charges. A 30-minute argument with an online customer service rep ensued. She argued that since the charge had three approval codes, they were valid. My point was how could three charges of the same amount within seconds of each other be valid? She insisted I had to go to the cab company and let them reverse the charges. And I said no, they were going to reverse the debits because they should not have approved two of the three charges. Their fault. Not the cab company’s. Not mine.
Two days ago, I made a purchase at a store and the same thing happened. The store needed to re-swipe my card. Thirty minutes later, two of the same charges appeared on my account. While I had a better experience this time around with a different CSR, the fact that the re-swipes appeared on my statement again was enough for me to want out of TD Bank.
There are other reasons for wanting out of TD Bank. They now have minimum balance requirements on both checking and savings accounts. And while I sometimes will dip below the minimum balance, there are other accounts I maintain with balances that more than make up for the short fall.
But here’s the catch. To switch banks, I would have to change my direct deposit, which typically takes two paychecks before it happens. That means in the interim, I get a paper paycheck, which means, I have to suspend all of my automatic bill payments, which means I have to write checks out, put them in envelopes, address the envelopes, lick stamps, and … you get the picture.
Do I want to switch banks? Damn right, I do. Will I? God, no! Too damn much trouble.
