banking fee's in pinellas county?? (Tampa, Oldsmar: vs, residential, resident)

[Mar1lyn27]

Originally Posted by Tootsfromscotland

okay thanks guys....will tell Citibank to shove it where the sun don't shine!!

Toots, I am a long standing (30yrs) Citibank customer from when I lived in NY.
I don't have a citibank nearby so I switched to Bank of America.
Never did I have to keep a minimum balance at Citibank.
I'm surprised and I hope this is not the way all banks will go.

Have you tried to discuss this with the branch manager, or with corporate?

[algia]

Eventually we will return to cash only if these a-holes dont stop spending the money WE earn! and have the right to whatever we want with!

I have Bank of America and stopped that overdraft protection crap too.

IF you have direct deposit there are no fees with BOFA for a checking account. They also have a minimum savings where the balance is $300.

$25k is a joke! theft!

Originally Posted by jmking

Maybe this has something to do with it..
Bank of America warns of new fees after financial reforms

[Tootsfromscotland]

Originally Posted by Mar1lyn27

Toots, I am a long standing (30yrs) Citibank customer from when I lived in NY.
I don't have a citibank nearby so I switched to Bank of America.
Never did I have to keep a minimum balance at Citibank.
I'm surprised and I hope this is not the way all banks will go.

Have you tried to discuss this with the branch manager, or with corporate?

Hi Mar1lyn

I was liasing with someone from customer services Citibank directly yes. I was given their details from my recruiter. They have a "special deal" whereby they can set up an account for foreign health care professionals who are moving to the US and it was sold to me (by Citibank) that this was a really good thing as it would 1) save me the hassle of having to set up banking once I move to FL ie one less thing for me to worry about 2) I could transfer money over into my US account , again, prior to departure from UK and 3) they would waive all monthly fee's/minimum balance requirements as..and I quote..."most banks will now charge these".
So I thought "hey that sounds just the ticket".

I therefore went to the US embassy here in Scotland to get my ID notarized, (at a cost of $50 for a stamp and signature!..pffft! ) , filled out application forms blah blah blah...and I was waiting for the final go ahead from Citibank.
They then said they needed some info from my recruiter so that they could be set up in a "partnership/sponsership" agreement and this needed to be done before they could waive all the fee's associated with a bank account with them. But a couple of days ago, they said they had been unable to set up my recruiter onto their system (Something about codes!) , which meant that I would need to accept their regular terms which would be as follows: " There is a $25,000 minimum balance requirement. If the assignee falls below $25,000, there is a $25.00 monthly fee. If the client falls below $6,000 there is an additional fee of $9.50. Wire transfer fees are standard at ($30.00 international/$18.75 domestic if done online or $40.00 international and $25.00 if done by Citifax)."

OUTRAGEOUS!! And it gave me a wee heart attack, thinking about all the monthly fee's that banks might charge!...so I was quite glad to hear from you guys that this is actually NOT the norm. Im happy enough to just set up an account once my feet hit Florida soil

My friend from the forum here thinks the fee's might be because Im not yet a US resident. Or perhaps it's maybe because they are trying to take advantage of foreigners ignorance!!...because they DID tell me that all banks charge monthly maintenance fee's etc.

[Pragmaticus]

Originally Posted by Tootsfromscotland

Hi Mar1lyn

I was liasing with someone from customer services Citibank directly yes. I was given their details from my recruiter. They have a "special deal" whereby they can set up an account for foreign health care professionals who are moving to the US and it was sold to me (by Citibank) that this was a really good thing as it would 1) save me the hassle of having to set up banking once I move to FL ie one less thing for me to worry about 2) I could transfer money over into my US account , again, prior to departure from UK and 3) they would waive all monthly fee's/minimum balance requirements as..and I quote..."most banks will now charge these".
So I thought "hey that sounds just the ticket".

I therefore went to the US embassy here in Scotland to get my ID notarized, (at a cost of $50 for a stamp and signature!..pffft! ) , filled out application forms blah blah blah...and I was waiting for the final go ahead from Citibank.
They then said they needed some info from my recruiter so that they could be set up in a "partnership/sponsership" agreement and this needed to be done before they could waive all the fee's associated with a bank account with them. But a couple of days ago, they said they had been unable to set up my recruiter onto their system (Something about codes!) , which meant that I would need to accept their regular terms which would be as follows: " There is a $25,000 minimum balance requirement. If the assignee falls below $25,000, there is a $25.00 monthly fee. If the client falls below $6,000 there is an additional fee of $9.50. Wire transfer fees are standard at ($30.00 international/$18.75 domestic if done online or $40.00 international and $25.00 if done by Citifax)."

OUTRAGEOUS!! And it gave me a wee heart attack, thinking about all the monthly fee's that banks might charge!...so I was quite glad to hear from you guys that this is actually NOT the norm. Im happy enough to just set up an account once my feet hit Florida soil

My friend from the forum here thinks the fee's might be because Im not yet a US resident. Or perhaps it's maybe because they are trying to take advantage of foreigners ignorance!!...because they DID tell me that all banks charge monthly maintenance fee's etc.

Couple of points

1) There is maintenance fee if you don't have a direct deposit to the accont.

2) The level of the account they are opening may not be just regular one but with some previlege. That you have to check and compare apple to apple. For example Bank of America offered us an account that comes with free Checks (paper check as much as we wanted) any time we want, no fee for over draft, money order and soon if we maintained 10K or so balance on that account (don't remember now the exact amount). So, check the specific account that you are being offered.

Good luck

[cheerbaby112]

Originally Posted by MeInDenudinFL

Couple of points

1) There is maintenance fee if you don't have a direct deposit to the accont.

2) The level of the account they are opening may not be just regular one but with some previlege. That you have to check and compare apple to apple. For example Bank of America offered us an account that comes with free Checks (paper check as much as we wanted) any time we want, no fee for over draft, money order and soon if we maintained 10K or so balance on that account (don't remember now the exact amount). So, check the specific account that you are being offered.

Good luck

Ive never had a Maintenance fee ever. I have HSBC and Chase.

[Pragmaticus]

Originally Posted by cheerbaby112

Ive never had a Maintenance fee ever. I have HSBC and Chase.

Do you make at least one direct deposit to the account or not?

[cheerbaby112]

Originally Posted by MeInDenudinFL

Do you make at least one direct deposit to the account or not?

No job here havent had one since I moved to florida, so no. All of my accounts have less than $500.00 and even one only has $11.00. The only extreme money I have is in a trust that I cant touch till im 25.

[Tootsfromscotland]

I made it clear to Citibank that I was only needing a regular checking account...somewhere to have my salary paid into, pay my bills out of it..and somewhere to transfer some funds from my UK account to US to pay my rental deposit/have some money available to buy a car etc rather than having to travel with cash...They knew I wasn't after anything fancy at this stage with privilidges etc. It was purely just to have the convenience of having a basic account open before I leave UK. But hey ho!.it wasn't to be! Will just need to sort out an account once over there

[Johan1983]

I am not a US citizen, but i needed a US adress. (even if it were not mine) so i dont belive that they treat citizens and no citizens so diffrent?

However, at bank of america, i had to have about 700 dollar in my account at all time, if not, i would get that fee.
And that sum is not so hard to maintain.


On my second trip to Florida, they asked me if i am a student. I said yes because i am a student in my home country so i did not even have to have that sum in my account.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by Tootsfromscotland

I made it clear to Citibank that I was only needing a regular checking account...somewhere to have my salary paid into, pay my bills out of it..and somewhere to transfer some funds from my UK account to US to pay my rental deposit/have some money available to buy a car etc rather than having to travel with cash...They knew I wasn't after anything fancy at this stage with privilidges etc. It was purely just to have the convenience of having a basic account open before I leave UK. But hey ho!.it wasn't to be! Will just need to sort out an account once over there

Hi Toots!

I think what is happening is that you're getting a different story because you're not a resident yet. Since 9/11 the U.S. banking industry has made it much more difficult to open an account from overseas and as a result you have the higher minimum balance threshold. Once you're here you'll have better success I think. I too would also recommend Chase as I've had the best experience with them in terms of relocation and opening an account.