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Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - 3:05 PM
Bank Of Fayetteville Closing My Account
The Bank of Fayetteville (0 stars) - DetailsI received notice via US mail that BOF will close my account effective July 25th. Reason stated is "narrowing focus to local customer base". It's currently at 1% for up to $10K.
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3. Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - 5:25 PM
Reside CA and received same notice.
Since Sep 2011, they have had security issues and concerns with out-of-state account holder debit card usage. They suddenly blocked signature-based transacting - when I called, they apologized saying they thought they notified me. They explained there was unusually high fraud in certain other states like CA. A month later Oct 2011, "Shazam" (their card mgt co.) called me to verify pin-based purchases (from Costco). Online purchasing was ok, but general "brick 'n mortar" businesses (gas stations, grocery & drug stores, etc.) where it's easy to swipe/use a card fraudulantly would be authorized for pin-based only. They said the block gets lifted when fraud levels go down. It never got lifted, so I assume it's still high.
They've posted a "Fraud Alert! We are receiving reports of phishing being sent from what appears to be a NetTeller email address customer_service@cm.netteller.com with the subject notice of NetTeller Watch Notice..." etc.
So the account closings don't surprise me, if perhaps they suspect too many security problems may be tied to their out-of-state customers, which are harder to monitor. They're attributing the closings to focusing on being "a locally owned community bank", which is in line with their personality. Their staff is very one-on-one in service.
Rate & cap drops meant minimizing accounts anyway. Initially, this was about the only rca with a 50k cap back in late 2010, which went to 25k by 01/2011, though they gave the option to spilt into 2 rca's. 09/2011 the rate dropped to 2%, then 03/2012 the cap dropped to 15k. At 1% to 10k, most out-of-state accounts probably closed voluntarily, since those were the ones typically targeting rates. The bank is likely just scooting out the rest, who probably moved most of their balances out already. I had hoped they would be one that eventually came back up. Oh well.
Since Sep 2011, they have had security issues and concerns with out-of-state account holder debit card usage. They suddenly blocked signature-based transacting - when I called, they apologized saying they thought they notified me. They explained there was unusually high fraud in certain other states like CA. A month later Oct 2011, "Shazam" (their card mgt co.) called me to verify pin-based purchases (from Costco). Online purchasing was ok, but general "brick 'n mortar" businesses (gas stations, grocery & drug stores, etc.) where it's easy to swipe/use a card fraudulantly would be authorized for pin-based only. They said the block gets lifted when fraud levels go down. It never got lifted, so I assume it's still high.
They've posted a "Fraud Alert! We are receiving reports of phishing being sent from what appears to be a NetTeller email address customer_service@cm.netteller.com with the subject notice of NetTeller Watch Notice..." etc.
So the account closings don't surprise me, if perhaps they suspect too many security problems may be tied to their out-of-state customers, which are harder to monitor. They're attributing the closings to focusing on being "a locally owned community bank", which is in line with their personality. Their staff is very one-on-one in service.
Rate & cap drops meant minimizing accounts anyway. Initially, this was about the only rca with a 50k cap back in late 2010, which went to 25k by 01/2011, though they gave the option to spilt into 2 rca's. 09/2011 the rate dropped to 2%, then 03/2012 the cap dropped to 15k. At 1% to 10k, most out-of-state accounts probably closed voluntarily, since those were the ones typically targeting rates. The bank is likely just scooting out the rest, who probably moved most of their balances out already. I had hoped they would be one that eventually came back up. Oh well.
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4. Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - 10:31 PM
Another brain fart ... it should read 1% for up to $15K.
I all but emptied the account in Dec 2010 when they dropped both cap and rate to where I found better returns elsewhere. I kept it open because I knew they did not accept new accounts from outside of AR. I figured $30 would keep it open in case the return would increase again.
I all but emptied the account in Dec 2010 when they dropped both cap and rate to where I found better returns elsewhere. I kept it open because I knew they did not accept new accounts from outside of AR. I figured $30 would keep it open in case the return would increase again.
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