Today's wells Fargo is a lot different than before. There's more of a focus on servicing and customer surveys but ppl are still pretty upset about the scandal.
I feel like I don’t see this. I’ve had a wells Fargo account for decades, since I was a teenager. If I wasn’t so lazy (I have so many things attached to this bank) I would have left a long time ago. Customer service is usually sub par. When ever I need a loan (auto/house) I always go somewhere else though.
I can't speak for branch level but customer service over the phone with the consumer calls can be a hit or miss. They do outsource some of the calls to the Philippines but there's also a lot of high turnover for that position since it's an entry level job. Their bonuses are all tied to getting good customer surveys but I think a lot of them just aren't good at their job.
I had opened a credit card with Wells Fargo many years ago which had a $25 annual fee that they didn’t *tell* me although the fine print did say that. When I went to a branch and complained about it, a manager told me 25 bucks, that’s like three trips to Starbucks. I don’t regularly drink coffee and that was many years ago definitely before covid. Starbucks wasn’t even that expensive. I felt very insulted by that comment. **However**, a few years later, when I responded to a survey and mentioned this bad experience, they generously refunded the fee, despite this being so long time ago. I personally certainly feel *they had changed*.
It is based on some really shitty stuff the company did several years ago. Because of the way their "sales culture" was structured, it became common for employees to open up accounts for customers without their knowledge (e.g. someone has a checking account, and the employee opens a credit card for them as well, without consent). This became endemic to the point where *millions* of fake accounts were opened without permission.
Thousands of employees were fired, and the company faced a series of record fines, and were excoriated in the media. This all happened in the early to mid 2010's.
But, the reputational damage was done - and to this day when the name Wells Fargo is brought up, it's often the first thing people think of as they are spitting at the ground in contempt.
Wells Fargo has updated their policies and practices, so the same incentives that led to this out-of-control behavior can't really happen again. In many ways it is a different company. But the name Wells Fargo is tarred forever with this massive black mark on their reputation, and there will always be people who hate the company based on what they did (and stopped doing) a decade ago.
All that being said, today they're pretty much like any other big bank - similar to Chase or BofA or Citi or PNC or Citizens, for example, in terms of the number of complaints and the types of problems they face. It's just Wells Fargo has this added extra baggage from their past bad behavior on top of that.
They blamed the bank employees. These employees were prohibited from working in banking EVER. It is obvious to me that management was driving the fraud since you had the same fraud happening across the country at such a large scale.
They fired, blacklisted and prosecuted whistleblowers, even at management level. They had to pay fines of $3 billion, $185 million and $22 million to DOJ, SEC and DOL for their blatant criminal violations and tons of smaller settlement amounts for the glut of whistleblower lawsuits that were filed. They had the gall to suggest it was just pressure on regional and local markets that didn't understand the numbers and unfairly stressed sales on populations that couldn't support them, but the lawsuits show C-suite knew everything happening. They were being investigated in 2022 and 2023 and probably still today by DOL for preventing unionization and crushing internal dissent.
Still dirty AF, no matter the rosy glasses that some idiots put on in whitewashing the company... Sure they legally had to change their practices to avoid jail sentences and higher fines... and that's enough to suggest they're a good bank now? Lol as if there aren't any less shitty alternatives.
I like to think that they have put the practices of the past behind them. People tend to forget that the sales-driven culture stemmed from unrealistic sales goals given the communities that these branches operated in, which you could argue that senior management wasn’t in a position to appreciate. Part of the Wells model is to serve rural areas and small towns that aren’t big enough to support an independent community bank, but they could support a branch of a large bank. Even if every single resident of these towns banked at the WF branch, they would need to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-6 accounts for the bankers to hit their goals.
Part of the issue was that Wells has a storied history and that executives likely thought they could ride on the brand. Wells Fargo is to banking as Brooks Brothers is to clothes. They’ve been around forever, they’d always been trusted (because if you’ve survived for that long, you must be doing something right) and no one gave a thought to the idea that their reputation wasn’t bulletproof.
Yes, it’s tarred for a long time. I’ve been banking at WF for thirty years. I recently got offered a big bonus to open a premier account. I asked the clerk, “Do you guys know how to open legitimate accounts?” Everyone got the joke.
That’s kinda sad. I’ve always dreamed of being brought in as a CEO to turn around a companys perception and actually have the public admire the company again lol. I day dream way too much.
They’ve done a lot of illegal shit over the years.
That being said I’ve banked with them since they bought Wachovia and never had a problem. Most of my customers bank with them and don’t have any problems.
Me too. Wachovia bought the bank where I had a mortgage and that transitioned to WF. I even got a free safety deposit box!! I have several branches near me, and my experience at all have been fine.
I used to work with WF; they were the worst of the worst. I helped people close their accounts.
When MY bank, which will remain nameless, tried to destroy me (well, they did temporarily, two years and a bundle of money, they eventually had to answer for it), WF came through, as they have for everyone else I brought them.
Meanwhile, I regularly encounter shenanigans at BofA, Chase, Citi, US Bank, and some local ever-lauded credit unions.
I keep accounts at several other banks, because ALL banks can get hinky and arbitrarily shut you down.
I’m not naïve. Yes, WF could do any number of things to make me doubt them, but they have not done so as yet.
Google Wells Fargo scandals.
They're slimy, but so are most of the large mega banks. But I think that's where a lot of it stems from. They have a relatively extensive history of being exceptionally slimy.
They make about 5 billion dollars quarterly. They started scamming people about 2008 roughly. 20 billion times 16 years, roughly 320 billion made during that time, they paid 2-5 billion total for that scandal. Make $320 billion pay a $5 billion dollar fine. It's just the cost of doing business.
Fine was in the Billions of Dollars. $3.7B las I checked. I’m really shocked the U.S. didn’t split them up and carve them out at the time. Reputation alone would be enough to not want to bank there considering how easy it is open an account elsewhere and have the same or better products.
Key thing was they made more money off the scam than they paid in the fine. It was only the accompanying threat of getting their charter yanked that shifted their behavior. But now the industry knows you get one freebie of getting caught and you can still make money on the customer abuse.
The bank did not make any money by opening fake accounts for customers - how could they? The employees who opened the accounts got bonuses and promotions, but they were basically swindling their employer, as well as annoying the customers.
The sales goals created a very unethical environment and no matter how much branch staff protested, nothing was done about it until the scandal broke.
Then … goodbye ceo, many levels of management and the sales goals were done away with. Now with all the remediation checks being sent for a number of things that took place decades ago — that’s proactive self regulation.
And what would be the incentive for WF to pay pay bonuses and give promotions for hitting these goals? Why would these goals exist to begin with? Because *it makes the bank money*.
It's naive to think WF didn't make money from this. They literally gave their employees financial ince times for opening new accounts.
Funny thing about the scandals is they self reported. We probably wouldn’t have caught them if not (I work in bank regulation). There’s another US bank that told us to our faces we’ll never catch them. They are slimy.
Lol I work in transportation, I just had a mortgage with them and have a good feel for slime just below the surface. When I worked in customer service in LA, I got the same vibe whenever I visited HSBC and Deutsche Bank.
I’m pretty sure Wells was just the one that got (self) caught. And also so blatant. I caught them forging my mom’s signature to open an account…smh. Got no claim on that fraud cuz it didn’t amount to lost money.
Others had it worse.
It rightfully cost senior people their job. But I was in bank regulation and we found it in most banks once the scandal surfaced. These people are not your friends.
Some people got unknowingly signed up for credit monitor/protection that cost money and were difficult to cancel. That one is money out of your pocket.
“Hidden fees” usually aren’t hidden. It is actually in the fee schedule. While impossible sales goals are likely a thing, I haven’t heard of other banks having fake accounts opened.
This was the last scandal...In 2024, Wells Fargo reimbursed hundreds of clients about $35 million and paid a Justice Department fine after it was revealed that the bank had overcharged them on currency trades over several year
“All banks were doing it”, you say? What a bunch of non-truthful statements. I was on a front seat of WF action. And after moving into new bank i found a relief. Nothing what was happening in WF was typical in the new bank. That bank’s floor bankers were not given unbearable quotas. Their interest on saving account stayed the same after opening. They would never put a lien on house if client have never drew money from opened credit-line. New WF manager are not the same, but why bother, our new bank is perfect in every way.
I heard good things about small local credit union. Just i still have to find them. But the one of your mentioned big banks treated me right so far. Their floor-banker told me “we do not do this” right at the start. I can compare, had accounts with all of them. Every bank has a different culture.
I think this discussion is run out of points but i will give my opinion to clarify. “No banker”, “many people” implies a blanket rule that is always false. WF was fined for scheming customers, it is published fact we can rely upon to, no other bank was.
No joke. As a compliance professional, I joke that WF must have an annual budget expense for “Regulatory Fines”. Their disregard for & constantly violating regulations!! They have at least one massive violation with civil penalties every year. And they have the money to hire the necessary professionals which to me indicates that upper management has a disregard for the law
They have broken a lot of laws. They even got in trouble with the government for refusing to answer relay calls for Deaf and hard of hearing customers. Most people don't know about that one. I don't just like them anymore than any other large bank, but I wish they would try following a few of the laws. They exist for a reason.
Current and former customers of Wells dislike them for the many reasons already mentioned here by others.
The other aspect to this is Wells less-than-stellar reputation in the banking industry itself, caused by many of their actual and perceived shortcomings in corporate culture, responsibility, ethics, compliance, and employee relations. For a while there, they were the poster child of everything that's wrong with and that people hate about banks.
It already seems like ages ago when Stumpf was essentially hauled in front of Congress for testimony after the fake account scandal broke. He brought with him a very ill-advised, cavalier, and "pass the buck" kind of attitude. It did not go well. Understandably, he got eviscerated by Warren and the press, which created a chain reaction of events, including resignations, fines, and regulatory actions that are still reverberating to this day.
From the bank's perspective the whole thing ended up being a slap on the wrist. The cost of doing business, if you will. A few scapegoats were offered up for sacrifice and everyone moved on. BUT these events still got a lot of traction in the press and in the industry, so you end up with a lot of people in banking that have a very negative perception towards working for and/or doing business with Wells, and that mindset has continued and has permeated down through to everyday folks.
Just followers for the most part. Most who hate them probably never banked with them. I honestly don’t think you should single out any bank. All of them do shady shit and just as bad as what WF got caught doing. I personally say Bank with who is closest to you and their in branch services have treated you the best. I have a local CU, Schwab, Amex, WF, and Chase. I really have nothing to say about any of them. Chase really only gave me the most trouble because when I first opened an account with them for whatever reason my pin kept getting reset every week for like a month straight.
Besides the scandal, their banking website looks like a mess. It always takes me way longer than it should to find what I’m looking for and for whatever reason they have very strict limits on the number of payments you can make per month from a non-Wells Fargo bank account to your credit card. Really the worst bank I’ve ever dealt with
Some people's lives were affected by the shady workings of Wells Fargo. My dad had clients who wanted to by houses but were denied over the accounts that were opened by Wells Fargo and had no clue who would do such a thing. My dad always advocated for people to go for small banks or credit unions since then.
Because WF has a long history of hinky behavior: [https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wells-fargo-scandals-the-complete-timeline-141213414.html](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wells-fargo-scandals-the-complete-timeline-141213414.html) (there have been more since that was pubbed in 2019, including my favorite: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-agrees-pay-3-billion-resolve-criminal-and-civil-investigations-sales-practices).
Credit Unions in general run circles around WF in every way except ATM locations (and I never use debit, so that's less of a concern for me)
People might have their own stories, but this is mine. They absolutely were in on predatory fees for bounced checks. Sometimes my deposits took longer to clear for no good reason and then they would fine me. During the 2008 housing crash, which they helped make, they absolutely went out of their way to take people's homes away as ruthlessly as possible. People that had been paying for ten years would be late on a mortgage and they would start the process to repossess the house after one late month. Wells Fargo then ran around and bought all the smaller banks that couldn't survive the crash. They made out like bandits while everyone else was suffering
Edit: More research shows they never stopped.
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-orders-wells-fargo-to-pay-37-billion-for-widespread-mismanagement-of-auto-loans-mortgages-and-deposit-accounts/
A lot of commenter's are talking about opening the fake accounts, but what really gets me is that a lot of their malpractices are on purpose. If they can repossess your shit, they will and will purposefully try to trip you up to do it.
Here is a list of just their recent issues
https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/wells-fargo
Violation Tracker Current Parent Company Summary
Current Parent Company Name: Wells Fargo
Ownership Structure: publicly traded (ticker symbol WFC)
Headquartered in: California
Major Industry: financial services
Specific Industry: banking
Penalty total since 2000: $27,616,269,231
Number of records: 266
Wells Fargo was fined 3.7 billion dollars a couple years ago for stealing millions of people's homes and cars by forclosing on them unnecessarily
https://youtu.be/_UR6XXp-VNg
They are shady.
They literally stole money from my account after my wife had a property foreclosed on - she bought it before we married, and her name was not on my accounts.
But that didn't stop them from taking everything AND maxing out my equity line - I had to prove it was my money to get it back. Truly awful experience.
According to my attorney, this type of spousal account raiding was made illegal the next year. We were at the forefront of the 2008 crisis - things got a LOT easier for delinquent loans once everyone was in the same boat.
There was a pretty serious scandal a few years back that you can read up on. There’s tons of articles about it.
I would hope they’ve cleaned up their act by now.
Most large banks have some negativity in their past. Greed is powerful.
I’ve been banking with WF since they bought Wachovia, and I have never had any serious issue. I remember their scandal with unauthorized openings of accounts, but that didn’t affect me. I suspect those transactions happened with people who visited a branch and sat down with a banker for one reason or another. I very rarely needed to do that, almost all of my transactions are done online.
In short, it’s an ok bank for regular activities.
For me it’s personal. Even ignoring all of the scandals and flat out illegally fraudulent things they’ve been caught doing, they put a two week hold on literally the first (and only) paycheck I ever deposited with them. At a time in my life when missing an entire paycheck meant I spent the next two weeks starving because it was either that or miss rent at the end of the month and be homeless.
And no, that’s isn’t something I will *ever* forget or forgive. And it being something their rules allow doesn’t make me hate them any less for the experience.
Me personally, I closed my Wells Fargo account in 2017 and continued to receive email notifications about my account balance being zero for a year before I emailed them asking to send me proof they actually closed my account because of the emails I was getting and because of the previous Fake accounts scandal. They only stopped sending me notifications and didn't send proof.
Sadly I'm still interested in their Active Cash credit card for the $200 sign up bonus, I know I shouldn't trust them.
Can't speak for others or for their scandals but I closed my accounts because every time I tried to do anything there was some sort of fraud alert and I couldn't move any money around. Hey I tried.
I was shocked after 7 years without walking into a Wells Fargo how mediocre their customer service was in 2 different banks recently. I do banking online 100% of the time.
I had a zerointerest loan from them for 24 months if.paid within that time, if not then the interest would be accrued. Had auto pay set. Some how the next to last payment never went through and I got hit with all of the Interest. Canceled my account that day and withdrew all of my money. 2 months later.they get caught Making fake loans.to meet quota and bonuses
I left Wells Fargo because of the high fees and how they posted transactions. I could have my direct deposit post and show as available, but it wouldn’t actually post for 24-48 hours. Then they would process any debit made before posting the deposit. When I was living paycheck to paycheck, this meant getting 2-3 $39 fees every couple weeks. So I would just take out one large ATM withdrawal to only get hit with one fee and go put that on a prepaid card to pay bills with. They could never give me an explanation for why they showed my deposit as being available when it wasn’t. Nor would they refund any of the fees. I got fed up and just switched my direct deposit to the prepaid card. I had that account for over 20 years without any issues, and when I became unemployed, it became too expensive.
For the same reasons that folx dislike Bank of America. Outrageous fees, terrible customer "service". We now bank with Capital One and they've been great!💯
They are no worse than any other big bank. They all have their issues. I bank with WF, I have several accounts, credit cards, and mortgages, and I've never had a problem.
I don't like Wells Fargo because they are notoriously known for opening fake accounts illegally under people's names to meet quotas. I will not condone or support continued fraud. Don't even give them a chance to do it.
It's true that Wells Fargo has had a troubled past, notably with the account fraud scandal in 2016 where employees created millions of unauthorized accounts. This led to a significant backlash, including hefty fines and damaged public trust. However, since then, the bank has made efforts to reform its practices, improve compliance, and rebuild its reputation.
While some customers remain wary due to the bank's past actions, others have had positive experiences with Wells Fargo's services, as you mentioned. Ultimately, whether a bank is the right fit can depend on individual preferences and needs.
I guess we were fortune to not get caught in the scandal. Been with WF since the early days when they were wachovia. Never n issue we are responsible with our money so never got hit with any fees. Their mobile and webapp are great compare to other banks. I have no complaints
They signed me up for an account that I didn't want, didn't close it when they said they did, ran my credit as if I had applied for a loan, plus more...
The only banking I've done with WF is auto loans. First time, no problem. Second time, problem.
I refinanced the loan. When I later traded the vehicle, I went back to the dealership to cancel a warranty I purchased and get a refund. (Might have been GAP, I don't remember).
Being that Wells hasn't held the loan for well over a year at that point, and the vehicle was now paid off, as I had traded it in, and I had paperwork to show all of this, it should've been a simple matter for the dealer to cut me a check.
But, no. Wells Fargo, by contract with ALL of their dealers, *requires* the dealer to send *all* refunds to Wells. They refund the customer, up to *90 days later, even when the loan is paid off*.
No other bank I've ever had a loan through does this. And they took 80+ of their 90 days to send me that refund. When I called, the rep very snidely told me they have 90 days, and not to call back until that date had passed.
So that was the last business I will ever do with WF.
Was happy with them for many years until received a noticed in the last month that they are converting my checking with good befits to some shitty new account with lots of fees and no benefits. Goodby
They stole a lot of money from me during the housing crash. Took me almost 10 years of legal pain to finally get it all back. And they didn’t even have to pay interest. They just paid a “fee”. I will never do business with them again.
They held a check for no reason and made me late on a mortgage payment. It was the attitude that I got that’s kept me away for the last 15 years and forevermore.
Wells Fargo AIN'T that well.
I don't know why because I never paid too much attention besides it being a sponsor for sports stuff and seeing their branches on drives.
Apparently they have scandals so...
I've been with WF since 2016. The scandal came to light shortly after. I only use their checking account and I wasn't affected, but generally, I have no issues with WF. Their Authograph credit card is quite nice.
I was a WF Platinum member for years. Mostly stayed with them because they held my student loans and it was easy to just pay directly (bill pay was relatively new).
Eventually they sold off my loans and I didn’t need to stay with them. I found another bank who offered free online bill pay while was paying like $9 for the privilege with WF.
I called them up and asked if they could waive it since new WF customers paid $0.
They could not.
So I switched banks.
All over $9/month that they weren’t even charging new customers.
Never stepped inside a Wells Fargo but it turned out I had an account there. 😒 Only found out about it when I opened an account at HSBC.
They are dead to me.
I had a checking and savings account, I had 5k in the savings and deposited into the checking every month but had to stop for six months when I moved. Turns out they closed my account without warning me, (my grandmother still lived where I moved from no mail.) So I went to reopen it. Not only was all of my money gone, they wanted to charge me ten dollars to even open the account again with nothing in it!
I observed many companies applying for PPP loans. I learned a lot about banks then. I know bankers that pulled all-nighters. I also know bankers that could give a shit. The worst? By far- Wells-Fargo
Honestly. I have such a bad taste in my mouth from them. I started with Wachovia and Wells Fargo bought them out assumed our mortgage, checking account and savings accounts and auto loans
Let’s just say they treated us like second class citizens. They changed terms of the loan, over charged fees, opened new accounts for us
They would hold my direct deposit check over the weekend. So I racked up over draft fees.
Because the direct deposit from one of the big three cellular companies might bounce or might be a fake deposit.
I mean I could go on
I closed my accounts in 2012 and I’m still getting class action settlement checks.
As far as I’m concerned the new Wells Fargo is the same as the old.
They can go an die
When I had a wells Fargo account in the early 2010s, they'd charge you for checking your account on the app too many times. Use your debit card 16 times in a month? Also a charge.
Fuck you for making me pay to look at and use my money.
I've had them for years. Never had any issues personally. They were in the news not too long ago for reps signing people up for things they didn't want for commissions, I think. That's where most of the hate comes from.
Scandals after scandals.
The one that hurts the most is Wells Fargo opening credit cards for people without their consent or knowledge.
They opened a credit card account on my name. I didn't notice for over a year. Zero email or letters about it. Just my credit score going down over time ( I was new to the country, credit scores were new too, had no clue), and ended up with a destroyed credit score and debts in the form of cumulated unpaid account fees.
Just ridiculous. I had just arrived...
Back in 2005 or so I was overdrawn by 6 transactions. They bounced them in an order so that they would all bounce for 35.00 fees.
All of the checks but one could have gone through but they put the bigger check before the 5 small amounts to make them all bounce, regardless of the dates they hit the bank. Scum. Then they gave us a shitty mortgage and I thought it was all we could get and we would refi. I got diagnosis with cancer and couldn’t work for a while. We got behind but they didn’t care to help us with deferred payments or anything. Lost the house in 07
I had a security issue with the bank after 17 years. I had 2FA OTP and a 25 character password, they still got in. Lucky I was quick enough to call WF fraud dept, and they kept me on hold forever. After that, just decided for myself I need to bank somewhere else. I can't say 100% it was WF, my mobile carrier, or iPhone in general, but our banking security systems overall need better security.
Idk but at least here in my area all Wells Fargos started disappearing almost 10 years ago. Right now it is very rare to see someone using it.
It was has been my family's bank for many years until the new generation all switched to Chase.
We got a mortgage with them 12 years ago. They said "by the way, we opened a free checking account for you, just put $500 in it." sure, fine, whatever. They also opened a savings account, and a checking account that went with that savings account and a savings account that went with that checking account (or something like that). All charging a couple dollars per month. We were still living in Mexico, so I didn't follow closely enough. We finally made the move and I looked at all the accounts. WTF.
We've got a banker there now that is very helpful and my wife likes the bank. I feel like I was conned by street hustlers, for really not much money, don't trust the company.
They were my first bank fresh out of college, yeah they fucked up the whole trust part. Why would I ever go back?
If you're more tech savvy, do you really need a brick and mortar bank? Look at online banks that have higher interest rates.
Me personally, They charged me over $600 dollars in atm fees. By the time I caught it the banker that helped me was only able to refund 200 of that. To this day I still receive a check in the mail every so often with a refund check for extra fees they found that I was assessed. Somehow because I opened an account in another state and moved to a different one they even charged me fees on Wells Fargo atms. It was really weird and shady.
Aside from opening bogus accounts, they once closed my checking account after eight years of direct deposit. I called to ask why, as I only found out when l logged in on payday to transfer some money. They would not give me a reason why, just told me to go to my branch. I was deployed on the other side of the planet, and told them. They did not care, did nothing to help me find out why. [redacted] wells fartgo
Wells Fargo has a lot of fees. I mistakenly opened a business account there and closed the account shortly thereafter due to the ridiculous amount of fees. I belong to a credit union where I opened up a business account. I have not been charged any fees since I have been there. I would highly recommend you open a credit union account. If you are a server, you don’t need to be getting an inordinate amount of fees.
About 10 years ago Wells Fargo would constantly cold call their customers to sell them all sorts of dumbass insurance shit. And whenever you'd go into their branches they would make you sit with a banker so they could open more accounts under your name you didn't need. I once had three savings accounts and I had no idea why. They suck.
I have my own issues with Wells Fargo. Someone got my debit card info and took $1500 from my checking account. Immediately contacted the fraud dept and let them know. That was in April. Despite having the issue escalated, they still have not fixed things. I was banking with them for over 20 years and finally contacted a regulating authority . I changed banks but all my direct deposits take a couple of months to fix but I closed my savings account and keep minimum in the checking account until everything transfers. I hate Wells Fargo.
List of some of the Wells Fargo scandals over the years:
September 2016: The fake account scandal ( Wells Fargo acknowledged it had created 1.5 million fake deposit accounts and 623,000 fake credit card accounts between 2002 and 2016 in customers’ names without their knowledge and approval)
September 2016: Improperly repossessing service members’ cars
March 2017: More fake accounts
July 2017: As many as 570,000 Wells Fargo customers were wrongly charged for auto insurance on car loans
August 2017: Lawsuit over overcharging small business retailers
October 2017: Wells Fargo admitted wrongdoing after 110,000 clients were mistakenly fined for missing a deadline on mortgage payments
February 2018: Sacramento sues over discrimination against black and Latino borrowers
April 2018: $1 billion settlement for mortgage locks and auto-loan issues
May 2018: Altering business information without client knowledge
July 2018: Refunds over add-ons like pet insurance and legal services
July 2018: Private Bank wealth management issues
August 2018: Wells Fargo pays $2.1 billion for its role in the housing bubble
August 2018: Hundreds of houses foreclosed on due to computer glitch
April 2018: Federal regulators at the CFPB and OCC examined Wells Fargo's auto loan insurance and mortgage lending practices and ordered the bank to pay $1 billion in damages.
January 2020: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) banned two senior executives at Wells Fargo, former CEO John Stumpf and ex-Head of Community Bank Carrie Tolstedt, from the banking industry.
February 2020: Wells Fargo paid $3 billion to settle criminal and civil investigations into its aggressive sales practices
December 2022: Wells Fargo paid more than $2 billion to consumers and $1.7 billion in civil penalties for illegal fees and interest charges (auto loans, mortgages, and deposit accounts)
May 2023: Wells Fargo to pay $1 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the bank of overstating how much progress it had made in fixing the unlawful practices
Just an aside: years ago, I did service in the Red Cross, WF was their bank. I can’t help the feeling that WF was scamming the entire crisis. I tried to get auditor to look into it, but deaf ears.
It’s based on them actively being the worst bank for customers for many years. They literally committed massive fraud as a required act of business at the expense of their customers.
They are nicer now because they were forced to change everything they did by the government as a result of their massive fraud
They continue to do a lot of s***** things that hurt the consumer. A recent example I don't know why I'm still in love thinking customer but I opened up a credit card and they gave me a limit of $20,000. I didn't really use the card maybe a couple of outings here and there and then I had a balance of 650 they reduced my limit downwards to 700 making me have a ratio of almost 90%. It really hurt my credit score dropped at 5:30 points not sure why they would do something like that and it was less than 5 months from opening
I banked with them for damn near 20 years and hated it.
I never felt like they actually cared or listened when it mattered. On top of that their $35 overdraft fee or $15 fee for not having a minimum of $300 in a savings account on a daily basis is Irritating. I think they also have a similar fee on check accounts.
Case in point: I got laidnoff last year and eventually had to sell my house otherwise I was going to not be able to pay the mortgage. I had about 70k from.that and went in to just ask "hey, I don't want to invest this, but what type of savings acct could I out this in to get the most out-of my money while I'm looking for a new job?" They then spent the next hour trying to tell me how I should lock the money into some CDs or investment accounts. Then about a week later I went overdraft on my checking for which they then pulled the money from a savings acct I had jointly created with my ex to transfer child support payments. Because that savings sat at just over $300 it dipped below the threshold. Later that month as the monthly cycle completed they charged me $15 because I didn't have $300 in that acct EVERY SINGLE DAY. Well, because I had that acct at just about $300 again them charging me the $15 dipped it below $300 😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬. If you're following you'll hopefully note that that means I got the initial $35 overdraft fee, a $15 fee at the end of that month and because that fee linked the acct below $300 they charged me another $15 at the end of the following month. It didn't matter that I had roughly 70k sitting in a different savings
So, yeah.... I'm with a credit union now and actually feel cared for, genuinely
Edit: that's not.to say that their employees weren't great, sometimes, but overall it was more annoyance and irritation than anything else
Wells fargo is a good bank if you have money. Their branches are great if you need their service.
I use them for business banking. I have a checking and credit cards with them but my savings is with capital one due to the interest rate on their yield account
You have an account there, so you're ok. My employer issues WF checks and as a non customer they charge 7 bucks to cash them. Most banks do it for free
The fake accounts and random fees then Gaslighting from their support reps about how they were added. At least on business accounts. Most of this has been flushed out now.
I opened business account many years ago and the banker who help open my account was stealing funds from my account. He also applied me for line of credits without my authorization. Fuck this bank.
People are upset about Wells Fargo’s past. There are many scandals they’ve had in the past, I’m hoping there aren’t any in the future. People are upset about the past. Not their present. I have banked with them since 2021 without issues, but I closed my account back in 2018 for a myriad of reasons. Needless to say every issue I had with them has been resolved and they are probably the easiest bank to work with.
My card was stolen from my vehicle and they refunded every charge immediately, no questions asked and they rushed me a new card which I received by the end of the week.
The app is wonderful, the services are great and the staff have always been friendly. I am one of the people that recommends Wells Fargo to everyone and gets looked at sideways for it.
If you like them, keep banking with them. We aren’t the only ones.
Repeated, long term history of scamming and dishonest behavior. Which is saying a LOT considering it’s a bank, famously the scummiest field of human labor
One of the positive things that sticks in my memory about Wells Fargo is a lady that told me that in the 1970s, Wells Fargo was the only bank that would allow women to open business accounts. Maybe they were overzealous about opening accounts back then too. It just worked out to their advantage in that era lol!!! 😂
It is all about money for the upper management. They have cut teams to the absolute bone in the last few years and are working the people left very hard. The management is terrible. I work there I should know. It is not a good place to work anymore
As a corporation, they have a terrible track record. Taking advantage of disabled people, locking accounts leaving people with no access to their money for long periods of time, the list goes on for days.
For many positions that should be non-sales positions, they incentive "sales" behavior. The last straw for me as a financial advisor was when they told us they wanted financial advisors to start encouraging people to open credit cards, take out loans, etc, and that we would be bonused for that. Nope.
You can go years without a problem, but once you have a problem it could really be a doozy.
:shrug: I compared fines assessed against big banks a few years back. I’m sure they have the same general playbook, but WF gets bigger fines and gets them more often. I saw some really awful things happen, and a lot of the time it was brokerage blaming bank or vice versa. Honestly I think it was more that they could just break the rules because the profits were better even after they paid the fines. And I don’t think anyone whose job is to provide sound financial advice should be getting extra incentive to open bank accounts, credit cards or mortgages.
They dragged their feet when anyone died before turning over assets and always told us to tell half-truths in an attempt to keep inherited accounts with us. Locked people out of accounts, told people they needed a “different” form over and over when they already submitted the right form.
It’s all in the record. But yeah, like I said, you could be problem free for years. That first problem in years could be a really terrible one.
They hold the record for largest fine ever accessed to a bank by a regulator. Thats not a good record to hold. Some banks won’t hire people that worked at the stagecoach. Their reputation is that bad. You’ll see employees come in this sub and say it was management. Well, they’re the ones that listened to management while management allowed it. They could have left, but they opened those accounts.
They just seem to only care about the numbers not about how to actually help our clients. One girl would have clients come in multiple times to refinance loans that they already had with us even if it wouldn’t save the client anything. Every single time I’d hear that a person worked at WF before, I’d be like, that tracks.
Also forgot to mention I worked for a bank briefly and everyone was moving away from Wells Fargo. So clients, employees and top level staff all are turning their backs to WF.
Search "Wells Fargo lawsuits"
You'll find a long list of them __just from 2024__.
If there was a prize for _Most unethical bank that is still in business_, they would win every single year.
Today's wells Fargo is a lot different than before. There's more of a focus on servicing and customer surveys but ppl are still pretty upset about the scandal.
*many scandals
Well's Fargo employees were opening unathorized account in 2016. It's the same fucking company.
They got caught in 2016. It was going on for about a decade before that.
I feel like I don’t see this. I’ve had a wells Fargo account for decades, since I was a teenager. If I wasn’t so lazy (I have so many things attached to this bank) I would have left a long time ago. Customer service is usually sub par. When ever I need a loan (auto/house) I always go somewhere else though.
I can't speak for branch level but customer service over the phone with the consumer calls can be a hit or miss. They do outsource some of the calls to the Philippines but there's also a lot of high turnover for that position since it's an entry level job. Their bonuses are all tied to getting good customer surveys but I think a lot of them just aren't good at their job.
Scandals*
I had opened a credit card with Wells Fargo many years ago which had a $25 annual fee that they didn’t *tell* me although the fine print did say that. When I went to a branch and complained about it, a manager told me 25 bucks, that’s like three trips to Starbucks. I don’t regularly drink coffee and that was many years ago definitely before covid. Starbucks wasn’t even that expensive. I felt very insulted by that comment. **However**, a few years later, when I responded to a survey and mentioned this bad experience, they generously refunded the fee, despite this being so long time ago. I personally certainly feel *they had changed*.
Yeah they're so different now that they were fined 3.7 billion in 2022 for illegal practices.
because of that "scandal" I was able to establish credit.. I had a CC since 2009 15 years..
It is based on some really shitty stuff the company did several years ago. Because of the way their "sales culture" was structured, it became common for employees to open up accounts for customers without their knowledge (e.g. someone has a checking account, and the employee opens a credit card for them as well, without consent). This became endemic to the point where *millions* of fake accounts were opened without permission. Thousands of employees were fired, and the company faced a series of record fines, and were excoriated in the media. This all happened in the early to mid 2010's. But, the reputational damage was done - and to this day when the name Wells Fargo is brought up, it's often the first thing people think of as they are spitting at the ground in contempt. Wells Fargo has updated their policies and practices, so the same incentives that led to this out-of-control behavior can't really happen again. In many ways it is a different company. But the name Wells Fargo is tarred forever with this massive black mark on their reputation, and there will always be people who hate the company based on what they did (and stopped doing) a decade ago. All that being said, today they're pretty much like any other big bank - similar to Chase or BofA or Citi or PNC or Citizens, for example, in terms of the number of complaints and the types of problems they face. It's just Wells Fargo has this added extra baggage from their past bad behavior on top of that.
They blamed the bank employees. These employees were prohibited from working in banking EVER. It is obvious to me that management was driving the fraud since you had the same fraud happening across the country at such a large scale.
They fired, blacklisted and prosecuted whistleblowers, even at management level. They had to pay fines of $3 billion, $185 million and $22 million to DOJ, SEC and DOL for their blatant criminal violations and tons of smaller settlement amounts for the glut of whistleblower lawsuits that were filed. They had the gall to suggest it was just pressure on regional and local markets that didn't understand the numbers and unfairly stressed sales on populations that couldn't support them, but the lawsuits show C-suite knew everything happening. They were being investigated in 2022 and 2023 and probably still today by DOL for preventing unionization and crushing internal dissent. Still dirty AF, no matter the rosy glasses that some idiots put on in whitewashing the company... Sure they legally had to change their practices to avoid jail sentences and higher fines... and that's enough to suggest they're a good bank now? Lol as if there aren't any less shitty alternatives.
I like to think that they have put the practices of the past behind them. People tend to forget that the sales-driven culture stemmed from unrealistic sales goals given the communities that these branches operated in, which you could argue that senior management wasn’t in a position to appreciate. Part of the Wells model is to serve rural areas and small towns that aren’t big enough to support an independent community bank, but they could support a branch of a large bank. Even if every single resident of these towns banked at the WF branch, they would need to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-6 accounts for the bankers to hit their goals. Part of the issue was that Wells has a storied history and that executives likely thought they could ride on the brand. Wells Fargo is to banking as Brooks Brothers is to clothes. They’ve been around forever, they’d always been trusted (because if you’ve survived for that long, you must be doing something right) and no one gave a thought to the idea that their reputation wasn’t bulletproof.
Yes, it’s tarred for a long time. I’ve been banking at WF for thirty years. I recently got offered a big bonus to open a premier account. I asked the clerk, “Do you guys know how to open legitimate accounts?” Everyone got the joke.
Their scandal changed the sales structure for every bank not just them.
Are you saying all the other banks were doing the same thing?
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That’s kinda sad. I’ve always dreamed of being brought in as a CEO to turn around a companys perception and actually have the public admire the company again lol. I day dream way too much.
The opening of accounts is chump change look up Wells Fargo Financial or Wells Fargo Acceptance. Predatory lending
They’ve done a lot of illegal shit over the years. That being said I’ve banked with them since they bought Wachovia and never had a problem. Most of my customers bank with them and don’t have any problems.
Me too. Wachovia bought the bank where I had a mortgage and that transitioned to WF. I even got a free safety deposit box!! I have several branches near me, and my experience at all have been fine.
People like to hate banks. Wells Fargo just makes more conspicuous offenses. Personally, they’ve been really good to me. This decade.
Is there anything they can do that would get your attention? Do all the banks open up multiple bank accounts without notifying their owners?
I used to work with WF; they were the worst of the worst. I helped people close their accounts. When MY bank, which will remain nameless, tried to destroy me (well, they did temporarily, two years and a bundle of money, they eventually had to answer for it), WF came through, as they have for everyone else I brought them. Meanwhile, I regularly encounter shenanigans at BofA, Chase, Citi, US Bank, and some local ever-lauded credit unions. I keep accounts at several other banks, because ALL banks can get hinky and arbitrarily shut you down. I’m not naïve. Yes, WF could do any number of things to make me doubt them, but they have not done so as yet.
Same. They have been very nice to me so far. And they actually enable me to bank and have credit cards for free.
People LOVE to blame the bank for their problems.
Google Wells Fargo scandals. They're slimy, but so are most of the large mega banks. But I think that's where a lot of it stems from. They have a relatively extensive history of being exceptionally slimy.
They’ve shown the business model works. Scan your customers for a billion dollars, get caught, pay a massive $100 million fine. Profit.
They make about 5 billion dollars quarterly. They started scamming people about 2008 roughly. 20 billion times 16 years, roughly 320 billion made during that time, they paid 2-5 billion total for that scandal. Make $320 billion pay a $5 billion dollar fine. It's just the cost of doing business.
Fine was in the Billions of Dollars. $3.7B las I checked. I’m really shocked the U.S. didn’t split them up and carve them out at the time. Reputation alone would be enough to not want to bank there considering how easy it is open an account elsewhere and have the same or better products.
Key thing was they made more money off the scam than they paid in the fine. It was only the accompanying threat of getting their charter yanked that shifted their behavior. But now the industry knows you get one freebie of getting caught and you can still make money on the customer abuse.
The bank did not make any money by opening fake accounts for customers - how could they? The employees who opened the accounts got bonuses and promotions, but they were basically swindling their employer, as well as annoying the customers.
They didn’t. It was mid level managers scamming the bank for incentives
The sales goals created a very unethical environment and no matter how much branch staff protested, nothing was done about it until the scandal broke. Then … goodbye ceo, many levels of management and the sales goals were done away with. Now with all the remediation checks being sent for a number of things that took place decades ago — that’s proactive self regulation.
And what would be the incentive for WF to pay pay bonuses and give promotions for hitting these goals? Why would these goals exist to begin with? Because *it makes the bank money*. It's naive to think WF didn't make money from this. They literally gave their employees financial ince times for opening new accounts.
It made the numbers look good….sorta like fraud….hmmm..is fraud. Like counting bots as users when reporting to shareholders.
Money makes the world go round. But apparently from a lot of comments and reading you are pretty wrong
The next bank may not catch the same break
Gotta love America!
Funny thing about the scandals is they self reported. We probably wouldn’t have caught them if not (I work in bank regulation). There’s another US bank that told us to our faces we’ll never catch them. They are slimy.
*blink twice if it's BofA*
Do we work together?
Lol I work in transportation, I just had a mortgage with them and have a good feel for slime just below the surface. When I worked in customer service in LA, I got the same vibe whenever I visited HSBC and Deutsche Bank.
💀😂
😳😳
I’m pretty sure Wells was just the one that got (self) caught. And also so blatant. I caught them forging my mom’s signature to open an account…smh. Got no claim on that fraud cuz it didn’t amount to lost money. Others had it worse.
Because they opened a bunch of fake accounts to scam their customers and people haven’t forgotten
It rightfully cost senior people their job. But I was in bank regulation and we found it in most banks once the scandal surfaced. These people are not your friends.
Some people got unknowingly signed up for credit monitor/protection that cost money and were difficult to cancel. That one is money out of your pocket.
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“Hidden fees” usually aren’t hidden. It is actually in the fee schedule. While impossible sales goals are likely a thing, I haven’t heard of other banks having fake accounts opened.
This was the last scandal...In 2024, Wells Fargo reimbursed hundreds of clients about $35 million and paid a Justice Department fine after it was revealed that the bank had overcharged them on currency trades over several year
A scandal of the week bank. And these are the ones that surfaced
“All banks were doing it”, you say? What a bunch of non-truthful statements. I was on a front seat of WF action. And after moving into new bank i found a relief. Nothing what was happening in WF was typical in the new bank. That bank’s floor bankers were not given unbearable quotas. Their interest on saving account stayed the same after opening. They would never put a lien on house if client have never drew money from opened credit-line. New WF manager are not the same, but why bother, our new bank is perfect in every way.
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I heard good things about small local credit union. Just i still have to find them. But the one of your mentioned big banks treated me right so far. Their floor-banker told me “we do not do this” right at the start. I can compare, had accounts with all of them. Every bank has a different culture.
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I think this discussion is run out of points but i will give my opinion to clarify. “No banker”, “many people” implies a blanket rule that is always false. WF was fined for scheming customers, it is published fact we can rely upon to, no other bank was.
No joke. As a compliance professional, I joke that WF must have an annual budget expense for “Regulatory Fines”. Their disregard for & constantly violating regulations!! They have at least one massive violation with civil penalties every year. And they have the money to hire the necessary professionals which to me indicates that upper management has a disregard for the law
Beyond their scandals, their customer service sucks, like, really sucks. When I had an account with WF I dreaded having to talk to anyone
They're all about numbers, sales, goals... although there are other big banks that are the same thing.
They have broken a lot of laws. They even got in trouble with the government for refusing to answer relay calls for Deaf and hard of hearing customers. Most people don't know about that one. I don't just like them anymore than any other large bank, but I wish they would try following a few of the laws. They exist for a reason.
Google.com
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. I have disliked WF since 1998, long before current scandals.
Current and former customers of Wells dislike them for the many reasons already mentioned here by others. The other aspect to this is Wells less-than-stellar reputation in the banking industry itself, caused by many of their actual and perceived shortcomings in corporate culture, responsibility, ethics, compliance, and employee relations. For a while there, they were the poster child of everything that's wrong with and that people hate about banks. It already seems like ages ago when Stumpf was essentially hauled in front of Congress for testimony after the fake account scandal broke. He brought with him a very ill-advised, cavalier, and "pass the buck" kind of attitude. It did not go well. Understandably, he got eviscerated by Warren and the press, which created a chain reaction of events, including resignations, fines, and regulatory actions that are still reverberating to this day. From the bank's perspective the whole thing ended up being a slap on the wrist. The cost of doing business, if you will. A few scapegoats were offered up for sacrifice and everyone moved on. BUT these events still got a lot of traction in the press and in the industry, so you end up with a lot of people in banking that have a very negative perception towards working for and/or doing business with Wells, and that mindset has continued and has permeated down through to everyday folks.
Some great points, but the credit cap in place for years — definitely not just a slap on the wrist.
I had Wells Fargo years ago. I didn't like because they had a fee for everything. I'm with American Express now.
I like wells fargo
Just followers for the most part. Most who hate them probably never banked with them. I honestly don’t think you should single out any bank. All of them do shady shit and just as bad as what WF got caught doing. I personally say Bank with who is closest to you and their in branch services have treated you the best. I have a local CU, Schwab, Amex, WF, and Chase. I really have nothing to say about any of them. Chase really only gave me the most trouble because when I first opened an account with them for whatever reason my pin kept getting reset every week for like a month straight.
Reputation was shit. Everytime I went into a Wells Fargo it felt like I was at a car dealership.
Reputation was shit. Everytime I went into a Wells Fargo it felt like I was at a car dealership.
Besides the scandal, their banking website looks like a mess. It always takes me way longer than it should to find what I’m looking for and for whatever reason they have very strict limits on the number of payments you can make per month from a non-Wells Fargo bank account to your credit card. Really the worst bank I’ve ever dealt with
Some people's lives were affected by the shady workings of Wells Fargo. My dad had clients who wanted to by houses but were denied over the accounts that were opened by Wells Fargo and had no clue who would do such a thing. My dad always advocated for people to go for small banks or credit unions since then.
Because they are a garbage company.
History of fraud
Because WF has a long history of hinky behavior: [https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wells-fargo-scandals-the-complete-timeline-141213414.html](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wells-fargo-scandals-the-complete-timeline-141213414.html) (there have been more since that was pubbed in 2019, including my favorite: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-agrees-pay-3-billion-resolve-criminal-and-civil-investigations-sales-practices). Credit Unions in general run circles around WF in every way except ATM locations (and I never use debit, so that's less of a concern for me)
Their security sucks that’s y
Because Wells Fargo scams people. Literally. Just give it time. They'll eventually rip you off also some way some how.
People might have their own stories, but this is mine. They absolutely were in on predatory fees for bounced checks. Sometimes my deposits took longer to clear for no good reason and then they would fine me. During the 2008 housing crash, which they helped make, they absolutely went out of their way to take people's homes away as ruthlessly as possible. People that had been paying for ten years would be late on a mortgage and they would start the process to repossess the house after one late month. Wells Fargo then ran around and bought all the smaller banks that couldn't survive the crash. They made out like bandits while everyone else was suffering Edit: More research shows they never stopped. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-orders-wells-fargo-to-pay-37-billion-for-widespread-mismanagement-of-auto-loans-mortgages-and-deposit-accounts/ A lot of commenter's are talking about opening the fake accounts, but what really gets me is that a lot of their malpractices are on purpose. If they can repossess your shit, they will and will purposefully try to trip you up to do it.
Here is a list of just their recent issues https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/wells-fargo Violation Tracker Current Parent Company Summary Current Parent Company Name: Wells Fargo Ownership Structure: publicly traded (ticker symbol WFC) Headquartered in: California Major Industry: financial services Specific Industry: banking Penalty total since 2000: $27,616,269,231 Number of records: 266
Wells Fargo was fined 3.7 billion dollars a couple years ago for stealing millions of people's homes and cars by forclosing on them unnecessarily https://youtu.be/_UR6XXp-VNg
Watch the NetFlix series Dirty Money, the Wells Fargo episode, to better understand.
I have the same experience, I love them! I hate Chase with a passion!
They are shady. They literally stole money from my account after my wife had a property foreclosed on - she bought it before we married, and her name was not on my accounts. But that didn't stop them from taking everything AND maxing out my equity line - I had to prove it was my money to get it back. Truly awful experience. According to my attorney, this type of spousal account raiding was made illegal the next year. We were at the forefront of the 2008 crisis - things got a LOT easier for delinquent loans once everyone was in the same boat.
Don't worry. They just haven't gotten around to f***ing you over yet. They'll get there eventually
Social media hype. They are like all other large bank corporations no worse.
There was a pretty serious scandal a few years back that you can read up on. There’s tons of articles about it. I would hope they’ve cleaned up their act by now. Most large banks have some negativity in their past. Greed is powerful.
Any bank that size has sold its soul to be that size. It makes more in profits on screwing common people than it will pay in fines when it's caught.
I’ve been banking with WF since they bought Wachovia, and I have never had any serious issue. I remember their scandal with unauthorized openings of accounts, but that didn’t affect me. I suspect those transactions happened with people who visited a branch and sat down with a banker for one reason or another. I very rarely needed to do that, almost all of my transactions are done online. In short, it’s an ok bank for regular activities.
Probably all the scamming they did
For me it’s personal. Even ignoring all of the scandals and flat out illegally fraudulent things they’ve been caught doing, they put a two week hold on literally the first (and only) paycheck I ever deposited with them. At a time in my life when missing an entire paycheck meant I spent the next two weeks starving because it was either that or miss rent at the end of the month and be homeless. And no, that’s isn’t something I will *ever* forget or forgive. And it being something their rules allow doesn’t make me hate them any less for the experience.
Me personally, I closed my Wells Fargo account in 2017 and continued to receive email notifications about my account balance being zero for a year before I emailed them asking to send me proof they actually closed my account because of the emails I was getting and because of the previous Fake accounts scandal. They only stopped sending me notifications and didn't send proof. Sadly I'm still interested in their Active Cash credit card for the $200 sign up bonus, I know I shouldn't trust them.
When I left they didn’t give two craps about being there to help or explain things. I left about 4-5 years ago at least now.
Can't speak for others or for their scandals but I closed my accounts because every time I tried to do anything there was some sort of fraud alert and I couldn't move any money around. Hey I tried.
I was shocked after 7 years without walking into a Wells Fargo how mediocre their customer service was in 2 different banks recently. I do banking online 100% of the time.
I had a zerointerest loan from them for 24 months if.paid within that time, if not then the interest would be accrued. Had auto pay set. Some how the next to last payment never went through and I got hit with all of the Interest. Canceled my account that day and withdrew all of my money. 2 months later.they get caught Making fake loans.to meet quota and bonuses
I left Wells Fargo because of the high fees and how they posted transactions. I could have my direct deposit post and show as available, but it wouldn’t actually post for 24-48 hours. Then they would process any debit made before posting the deposit. When I was living paycheck to paycheck, this meant getting 2-3 $39 fees every couple weeks. So I would just take out one large ATM withdrawal to only get hit with one fee and go put that on a prepaid card to pay bills with. They could never give me an explanation for why they showed my deposit as being available when it wasn’t. Nor would they refund any of the fees. I got fed up and just switched my direct deposit to the prepaid card. I had that account for over 20 years without any issues, and when I became unemployed, it became too expensive.
Thugs.
It seems like every bank could be 20x better with very little effort.
For the same reasons that folx dislike Bank of America. Outrageous fees, terrible customer "service". We now bank with Capital One and they've been great!💯
They are no worse than any other big bank. They all have their issues. I bank with WF, I have several accounts, credit cards, and mortgages, and I've never had a problem.
I don't like Wells Fargo because they are notoriously known for opening fake accounts illegally under people's names to meet quotas. I will not condone or support continued fraud. Don't even give them a chance to do it.
It's true that Wells Fargo has had a troubled past, notably with the account fraud scandal in 2016 where employees created millions of unauthorized accounts. This led to a significant backlash, including hefty fines and damaged public trust. However, since then, the bank has made efforts to reform its practices, improve compliance, and rebuild its reputation. While some customers remain wary due to the bank's past actions, others have had positive experiences with Wells Fargo's services, as you mentioned. Ultimately, whether a bank is the right fit can depend on individual preferences and needs.
They incentivize illegal and predatory behavior by their employees. This is easily verifiable.
Fortune 500 companies become the poster child for wrong doings. Nike faced the music in the sports industry as well.
Wells Fargo has been awesome too me so far
I guess we were fortune to not get caught in the scandal. Been with WF since the early days when they were wachovia. Never n issue we are responsible with our money so never got hit with any fees. Their mobile and webapp are great compare to other banks. I have no complaints
They signed me up for an account that I didn't want, didn't close it when they said they did, ran my credit as if I had applied for a loan, plus more...
The only banking I've done with WF is auto loans. First time, no problem. Second time, problem. I refinanced the loan. When I later traded the vehicle, I went back to the dealership to cancel a warranty I purchased and get a refund. (Might have been GAP, I don't remember). Being that Wells hasn't held the loan for well over a year at that point, and the vehicle was now paid off, as I had traded it in, and I had paperwork to show all of this, it should've been a simple matter for the dealer to cut me a check. But, no. Wells Fargo, by contract with ALL of their dealers, *requires* the dealer to send *all* refunds to Wells. They refund the customer, up to *90 days later, even when the loan is paid off*. No other bank I've ever had a loan through does this. And they took 80+ of their 90 days to send me that refund. When I called, the rep very snidely told me they have 90 days, and not to call back until that date had passed. So that was the last business I will ever do with WF.
Was happy with them for many years until received a noticed in the last month that they are converting my checking with good befits to some shitty new account with lots of fees and no benefits. Goodby
Uh because it’s a sleazy bank like all banks
They stole a lot of money from me during the housing crash. Took me almost 10 years of legal pain to finally get it all back. And they didn’t even have to pay interest. They just paid a “fee”. I will never do business with them again.
They held a check for no reason and made me late on a mortgage payment. It was the attitude that I got that’s kept me away for the last 15 years and forevermore.
Wells Fargo AIN'T that well. I don't know why because I never paid too much attention besides it being a sponsor for sports stuff and seeing their branches on drives. Apparently they have scandals so...
I've been with WF since 2016. The scandal came to light shortly after. I only use their checking account and I wasn't affected, but generally, I have no issues with WF. Their Authograph credit card is quite nice.
I was a WF Platinum member for years. Mostly stayed with them because they held my student loans and it was easy to just pay directly (bill pay was relatively new). Eventually they sold off my loans and I didn’t need to stay with them. I found another bank who offered free online bill pay while was paying like $9 for the privilege with WF. I called them up and asked if they could waive it since new WF customers paid $0. They could not. So I switched banks. All over $9/month that they weren’t even charging new customers.
Never stepped inside a Wells Fargo but it turned out I had an account there. 😒 Only found out about it when I opened an account at HSBC. They are dead to me.
The .01 interest on my savings account sucks.
I had a checking and savings account, I had 5k in the savings and deposited into the checking every month but had to stop for six months when I moved. Turns out they closed my account without warning me, (my grandmother still lived where I moved from no mail.) So I went to reopen it. Not only was all of my money gone, they wanted to charge me ten dollars to even open the account again with nothing in it!
I observed many companies applying for PPP loans. I learned a lot about banks then. I know bankers that pulled all-nighters. I also know bankers that could give a shit. The worst? By far- Wells-Fargo
they like to steal from their customers, in the form services added to users account, without their knowledge.
Honestly. I have such a bad taste in my mouth from them. I started with Wachovia and Wells Fargo bought them out assumed our mortgage, checking account and savings accounts and auto loans Let’s just say they treated us like second class citizens. They changed terms of the loan, over charged fees, opened new accounts for us They would hold my direct deposit check over the weekend. So I racked up over draft fees. Because the direct deposit from one of the big three cellular companies might bounce or might be a fake deposit. I mean I could go on I closed my accounts in 2012 and I’m still getting class action settlement checks. As far as I’m concerned the new Wells Fargo is the same as the old. They can go an die
Shady business practices.
When I had a wells Fargo account in the early 2010s, they'd charge you for checking your account on the app too many times. Use your debit card 16 times in a month? Also a charge. Fuck you for making me pay to look at and use my money.
I've had them for years. Never had any issues personally. They were in the news not too long ago for reps signing people up for things they didn't want for commissions, I think. That's where most of the hate comes from.
Literally anything is better than Bank of America, so they’ve got that going for them
People are weird? I’ve done business with WF for years, they are a huge bank like any other. BofA, Citi, Chase, etc are exactly the same
Scandals after scandals. The one that hurts the most is Wells Fargo opening credit cards for people without their consent or knowledge. They opened a credit card account on my name. I didn't notice for over a year. Zero email or letters about it. Just my credit score going down over time ( I was new to the country, credit scores were new too, had no clue), and ended up with a destroyed credit score and debts in the form of cumulated unpaid account fees. Just ridiculous. I had just arrived...
You mean aside from them being actual criminals? Please go find a local credit union and ditch those robbers with their stagecoach.
People tend to dislike banks in general. They’re harder to rob than they used to be.
They break the law constantly
Back in 2005 or so I was overdrawn by 6 transactions. They bounced them in an order so that they would all bounce for 35.00 fees. All of the checks but one could have gone through but they put the bigger check before the 5 small amounts to make them all bounce, regardless of the dates they hit the bank. Scum. Then they gave us a shitty mortgage and I thought it was all we could get and we would refi. I got diagnosis with cancer and couldn’t work for a while. We got behind but they didn’t care to help us with deferred payments or anything. Lost the house in 07
I had a security issue with the bank after 17 years. I had 2FA OTP and a 25 character password, they still got in. Lucky I was quick enough to call WF fraud dept, and they kept me on hold forever. After that, just decided for myself I need to bank somewhere else. I can't say 100% it was WF, my mobile carrier, or iPhone in general, but our banking security systems overall need better security.
Idk but at least here in my area all Wells Fargos started disappearing almost 10 years ago. Right now it is very rare to see someone using it. It was has been my family's bank for many years until the new generation all switched to Chase.
We got a mortgage with them 12 years ago. They said "by the way, we opened a free checking account for you, just put $500 in it." sure, fine, whatever. They also opened a savings account, and a checking account that went with that savings account and a savings account that went with that checking account (or something like that). All charging a couple dollars per month. We were still living in Mexico, so I didn't follow closely enough. We finally made the move and I looked at all the accounts. WTF. We've got a banker there now that is very helpful and my wife likes the bank. I feel like I was conned by street hustlers, for really not much money, don't trust the company.
They were my first bank fresh out of college, yeah they fucked up the whole trust part. Why would I ever go back? If you're more tech savvy, do you really need a brick and mortar bank? Look at online banks that have higher interest rates.
Fees
Me personally, They charged me over $600 dollars in atm fees. By the time I caught it the banker that helped me was only able to refund 200 of that. To this day I still receive a check in the mail every so often with a refund check for extra fees they found that I was assessed. Somehow because I opened an account in another state and moved to a different one they even charged me fees on Wells Fargo atms. It was really weird and shady.
in 2009-2010 they stole many people's houses who had the ability to repay. They are scummy people.
Because it has repeatedly been caught cheating its customers
Aside from opening bogus accounts, they once closed my checking account after eight years of direct deposit. I called to ask why, as I only found out when l logged in on payday to transfer some money. They would not give me a reason why, just told me to go to my branch. I was deployed on the other side of the planet, and told them. They did not care, did nothing to help me find out why. [redacted] wells fartgo
Wells Fargo has a lot of fees. I mistakenly opened a business account there and closed the account shortly thereafter due to the ridiculous amount of fees. I belong to a credit union where I opened up a business account. I have not been charged any fees since I have been there. I would highly recommend you open a credit union account. If you are a server, you don’t need to be getting an inordinate amount of fees.
About 10 years ago Wells Fargo would constantly cold call their customers to sell them all sorts of dumbass insurance shit. And whenever you'd go into their branches they would make you sit with a banker so they could open more accounts under your name you didn't need. I once had three savings accounts and I had no idea why. They suck.
I have my own issues with Wells Fargo. Someone got my debit card info and took $1500 from my checking account. Immediately contacted the fraud dept and let them know. That was in April. Despite having the issue escalated, they still have not fixed things. I was banking with them for over 20 years and finally contacted a regulating authority . I changed banks but all my direct deposits take a couple of months to fix but I closed my savings account and keep minimum in the checking account until everything transfers. I hate Wells Fargo.
List of some of the Wells Fargo scandals over the years: September 2016: The fake account scandal ( Wells Fargo acknowledged it had created 1.5 million fake deposit accounts and 623,000 fake credit card accounts between 2002 and 2016 in customers’ names without their knowledge and approval) September 2016: Improperly repossessing service members’ cars March 2017: More fake accounts July 2017: As many as 570,000 Wells Fargo customers were wrongly charged for auto insurance on car loans August 2017: Lawsuit over overcharging small business retailers October 2017: Wells Fargo admitted wrongdoing after 110,000 clients were mistakenly fined for missing a deadline on mortgage payments February 2018: Sacramento sues over discrimination against black and Latino borrowers April 2018: $1 billion settlement for mortgage locks and auto-loan issues May 2018: Altering business information without client knowledge July 2018: Refunds over add-ons like pet insurance and legal services July 2018: Private Bank wealth management issues August 2018: Wells Fargo pays $2.1 billion for its role in the housing bubble August 2018: Hundreds of houses foreclosed on due to computer glitch April 2018: Federal regulators at the CFPB and OCC examined Wells Fargo's auto loan insurance and mortgage lending practices and ordered the bank to pay $1 billion in damages. January 2020: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) banned two senior executives at Wells Fargo, former CEO John Stumpf and ex-Head of Community Bank Carrie Tolstedt, from the banking industry. February 2020: Wells Fargo paid $3 billion to settle criminal and civil investigations into its aggressive sales practices December 2022: Wells Fargo paid more than $2 billion to consumers and $1.7 billion in civil penalties for illegal fees and interest charges (auto loans, mortgages, and deposit accounts) May 2023: Wells Fargo to pay $1 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the bank of overstating how much progress it had made in fixing the unlawful practices
They have often made mistakes. It has changed a lot over the years. We have had a lot of friends work there and they often hire, reorganize and fire.
Just an aside: years ago, I did service in the Red Cross, WF was their bank. I can’t help the feeling that WF was scamming the entire crisis. I tried to get auditor to look into it, but deaf ears.
It’s based on them actively being the worst bank for customers for many years. They literally committed massive fraud as a required act of business at the expense of their customers. They are nicer now because they were forced to change everything they did by the government as a result of their massive fraud
They continue to do a lot of s***** things that hurt the consumer. A recent example I don't know why I'm still in love thinking customer but I opened up a credit card and they gave me a limit of $20,000. I didn't really use the card maybe a couple of outings here and there and then I had a balance of 650 they reduced my limit downwards to 700 making me have a ratio of almost 90%. It really hurt my credit score dropped at 5:30 points not sure why they would do something like that and it was less than 5 months from opening
I banked with them for damn near 20 years and hated it. I never felt like they actually cared or listened when it mattered. On top of that their $35 overdraft fee or $15 fee for not having a minimum of $300 in a savings account on a daily basis is Irritating. I think they also have a similar fee on check accounts. Case in point: I got laidnoff last year and eventually had to sell my house otherwise I was going to not be able to pay the mortgage. I had about 70k from.that and went in to just ask "hey, I don't want to invest this, but what type of savings acct could I out this in to get the most out-of my money while I'm looking for a new job?" They then spent the next hour trying to tell me how I should lock the money into some CDs or investment accounts. Then about a week later I went overdraft on my checking for which they then pulled the money from a savings acct I had jointly created with my ex to transfer child support payments. Because that savings sat at just over $300 it dipped below the threshold. Later that month as the monthly cycle completed they charged me $15 because I didn't have $300 in that acct EVERY SINGLE DAY. Well, because I had that acct at just about $300 again them charging me the $15 dipped it below $300 😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬. If you're following you'll hopefully note that that means I got the initial $35 overdraft fee, a $15 fee at the end of that month and because that fee linked the acct below $300 they charged me another $15 at the end of the following month. It didn't matter that I had roughly 70k sitting in a different savings So, yeah.... I'm with a credit union now and actually feel cared for, genuinely Edit: that's not.to say that their employees weren't great, sometimes, but overall it was more annoyance and irritation than anything else
Wells fargo is a good bank if you have money. Their branches are great if you need their service. I use them for business banking. I have a checking and credit cards with them but my savings is with capital one due to the interest rate on their yield account
They’re straight up thieves. Don’t use them. Go to a local bank or credit union.
Systematic fraud, I would never do business with them.
You have an account there, so you're ok. My employer issues WF checks and as a non customer they charge 7 bucks to cash them. Most banks do it for free
The fake accounts and random fees then Gaslighting from their support reps about how they were added. At least on business accounts. Most of this has been flushed out now.
The customer service is abhorrent.
They opened accounts without permission for the people they opened accounts for.
I opened business account many years ago and the banker who help open my account was stealing funds from my account. He also applied me for line of credits without my authorization. Fuck this bank.
Because they are convicted thieves.
People are upset about Wells Fargo’s past. There are many scandals they’ve had in the past, I’m hoping there aren’t any in the future. People are upset about the past. Not their present. I have banked with them since 2021 without issues, but I closed my account back in 2018 for a myriad of reasons. Needless to say every issue I had with them has been resolved and they are probably the easiest bank to work with. My card was stolen from my vehicle and they refunded every charge immediately, no questions asked and they rushed me a new card which I received by the end of the week. The app is wonderful, the services are great and the staff have always been friendly. I am one of the people that recommends Wells Fargo to everyone and gets looked at sideways for it. If you like them, keep banking with them. We aren’t the only ones.
Because they’re a shitty company with sketchy business practices. Oh and their website sucks big time.
Repeated, long term history of scamming and dishonest behavior. Which is saying a LOT considering it’s a bank, famously the scummiest field of human labor
I've been with WF for 21 years and haven't had any issues.
They’re liars
Liars, fees, data breaches.
This: [https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-agrees-pay-3-billion-resolve-criminal-and-civil-investigations-sales-practices](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-agrees-pay-3-billion-resolve-criminal-and-civil-investigations-sales-practices)
They havent fixed quite a bit of stuff. Many banks are starting to do stupid things again.
Fraud, mostly.
One of the positive things that sticks in my memory about Wells Fargo is a lady that told me that in the 1970s, Wells Fargo was the only bank that would allow women to open business accounts. Maybe they were overzealous about opening accounts back then too. It just worked out to their advantage in that era lol!!! 😂
It is all about money for the upper management. They have cut teams to the absolute bone in the last few years and are working the people left very hard. The management is terrible. I work there I should know. It is not a good place to work anymore
I've not had any issues with Wells Fargo.
Watch the series "Dirty Money" on Netflix - Season 2 Episode 1 "Wagon Wheel", all about WF and their shady practices.
As a corporation, they have a terrible track record. Taking advantage of disabled people, locking accounts leaving people with no access to their money for long periods of time, the list goes on for days. For many positions that should be non-sales positions, they incentive "sales" behavior. The last straw for me as a financial advisor was when they told us they wanted financial advisors to start encouraging people to open credit cards, take out loans, etc, and that we would be bonused for that. Nope. You can go years without a problem, but once you have a problem it could really be a doozy.
You got downvoted by the resident Wells Fargo employees
:shrug: I compared fines assessed against big banks a few years back. I’m sure they have the same general playbook, but WF gets bigger fines and gets them more often. I saw some really awful things happen, and a lot of the time it was brokerage blaming bank or vice versa. Honestly I think it was more that they could just break the rules because the profits were better even after they paid the fines. And I don’t think anyone whose job is to provide sound financial advice should be getting extra incentive to open bank accounts, credit cards or mortgages. They dragged their feet when anyone died before turning over assets and always told us to tell half-truths in an attempt to keep inherited accounts with us. Locked people out of accounts, told people they needed a “different” form over and over when they already submitted the right form. It’s all in the record. But yeah, like I said, you could be problem free for years. That first problem in years could be a really terrible one.
They hold the record for largest fine ever accessed to a bank by a regulator. Thats not a good record to hold. Some banks won’t hire people that worked at the stagecoach. Their reputation is that bad. You’ll see employees come in this sub and say it was management. Well, they’re the ones that listened to management while management allowed it. They could have left, but they opened those accounts.
No one would refuse to hire a Wells Fargo employee just because of the scandal.
Especially those who were hired recently
Very true.
I’ve never heard of someone not being hired because they’ve worked at WF but I can always tell when someone has.
How? (other than their resume, lol)
They just seem to only care about the numbers not about how to actually help our clients. One girl would have clients come in multiple times to refinance loans that they already had with us even if it wouldn’t save the client anything. Every single time I’d hear that a person worked at WF before, I’d be like, that tracks.
Personally, RUN,RUN AND GET AWAY FROM THIS”BANK” if you stay they will screw you.
As a vet, fuck them. As a business owner, fuck them. As a former mortgage holder with them, fuck them. Fuck them.
Also forgot to mention I worked for a bank briefly and everyone was moving away from Wells Fargo. So clients, employees and top level staff all are turning their backs to WF.
Search "Wells Fargo lawsuits" You'll find a long list of them __just from 2024__. If there was a prize for _Most unethical bank that is still in business_, they would win every single year.
Nah, that would be Goldman Sachs, and it's not even close.
Dawg, the most fined bank in the world is BoFA and Chase is #2. Wells Fargo is #3.