How are people feeling about their banks?

[harry123]

Just an open ended question. I feel comfortable with my financial institutions but the IndyMac story did make me think twice. It also has made me think about brokerage accounts. Anyone else thinking about that?

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't add this link. This is the article that sends shivers down your spine:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-indymac16-2008jul16,0,5489094.story

[Muttocracy]

1. I am glad my loans and small amount of money are with local banks and

I hope TIAA-CREF knows what it's doing with my retirement account.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Small local banks may be in the most danger. TIAA-CREF will be just fine.

[Muttocracy]

8. My local banks are pretty conservative in terms of mortgages and such

and the housing bubble wasn't as big here, so I'm hoping they can weather it. Both of my local/regional banks and another one have been gradually expanding in the area - buying up Bank of America branches even!

Glad to hear someone who knows more than me trusts TIAA-CREF :)

[emilyg]

2. A little nervous.

edit: brokerage firm.

[fasttense]

3. Nervous. I checked on both our banks today to see how they were insured. n/t

[samplegirl]

4. I don't trust any of them anymore.

[Hydra]

5. I'm confident

That if the banks I have money in fail, the Gov't will bail them out. "Too large to be allowed to fail."

[sinkingfeeling]

6. I have no problems with my banks or brokers. Only those willing to panic are taking their money out

and stuffing it in the their sock drawers.

[RainDog]

14. It's not stupid to take your money out if you are close to retirement

To put most money into guaranteed funds for a while until the market volatility subsides, because those ppl do not have another 30 years to dollar avg. their stock losses.

Personally, I think the stock exchange is going to devalue by another 20% before Bush is gone. That's my version of a vote of no confidence in either Bush or the markets at this time. The mortgage mess is going to play out around the world b/c of the financial institutions in Europe, for instance, that bought those repackaged investments.

When Bush is gone I think the markets will get better - but only if Obama wins - because the entire world wants Obama to win this election (okay, the Saudis don't, but otherwise...) and when he wins, the entire world will once again have some belief that the U.S. isn't trying to commit hari kari and take the rest of them with.

I'm a single mom and since the market is already over priced, so so many say, why shouldn't it have a big correction? Why should I stay in for that when I face no penalties for moving funds elsewhere?

Maybe it's better for some people to take some money out of stocks and buy a house when they've been devalued quite a bit and it's a buyer's market. Surely there should be some sort of good in this for those who didn't live beyond their means and didn't take mtgs with balloon paymts or buy with nothing down or base their decision on the size of the ARM teaser rate.

In other words, I don't think I should have to sink with that ship when I never bought a ticket.

[sinkingfeeling]

15. The OP is talking about confidence in banks not the stock market. Where are you going to 'put' the

money in a guaranteed fund if not a bank or a bond? My money's been out of the stock market for over a year and is sitting in an interest-bearing account at the brokerage.

Edited

[RainDog]

19. oops - I went seriously "off topic" I wasn't talking about banks.

I was saying that I think banks (depends on which one, of course) are okay... that in response to the stock market remark ... so I was talking about my "no confidence" in the current stock mkt's direction. I use a credit union that seems to be responsible.

so my remarks were about those nearing retirement, etc. (not me) who wouldn't be stupid if they still wanted to take their profits at this moment if they are as bearish as I am about the market.

so, no, I'm not advocating buying gold of silver and burying it in the yard or anything of the sort.

[Epiphany4z]

9. a necessary evil

don't get me started....I knew the banks where in trouble when they started selectively putting through my debit card charges in order to maximize the over draft fees.

I know everyone thinks its not there fault when they overdraft...but I will own up to a math mistake when i make it....but it should have me one over draft charge not 4 or more.

[Muttocracy]

11. yep, funny how they have the staff and computer power to do that and not other things. nt

[grasswire]

18. that practice is piracy

It should be outlawed. The rearranging of the chronology of debits and credits goes on continually, even changing days after something actually occurred. It's insane. A person would have to print out their online banking record several times a day to actually preserve the order of items.

[Muttocracy]

10. from the link in your profile, you seem to think things are crashing already? nt

[Megahurtz]

12. WTF?

Missing money from their Bank accounts? Who's guilty of taking the money here, the Bank or the Feds?

I don't trust any of them.

[Turbineguy]

13. There are banks

to borrow from and banks to make deposits to.

[Auggie]

16. I asked that question to a branch manager at Wells Fargo today

He said customers were freaking out.

Then I heard Wells Fargo reported higher than expected earnings this morning. When it comes to money people go apeshit.

[Saintgermane]

17. Comments from a Banker about FDIC Insurance

**edited to fix typo in subject line**

A troubling comment in the middle of the article, about a teller informing a customer to add family to an account to make more of the deposit available....

It is TRUE that you can protect additional deposits by naming those deposits in trust to certain immediate family members. This is called account titling, and is most easily established by naming a beneficiary in the event of your death, called a "Pay on Death" trust.

Most banks will have brochures, or you can view the requirements and titling mechanics here:

http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/insuringdeposits/

However, I am aware of no provision that would permit a customer to establish a pay-on-death beneficiary after the bank has gone into conservatorship, as indicated by the customer in the story, to obtain protection retroactively.

Generally, you are protected up to 100,000 per customer, per bank. Anything over that, and you should seek protection by either ensuring yourself of the soundness of the bank (and I don't mean asking your teller how things are at the bank - I mean learning to read key indicators of bank performance, available here: http://www4.fdic.gov/IDASP/main.asp), or by diversifying.

You should also be wary, especially in times like these, of banks paying above-market rates for deposits. This is an possible indicator the bank is facing a liquidity crisis, and is seeking to raise deposits to avoid becoming insolvent. I see many older people 'chasing rates' with large sums of money; some of them offered by banks recently identified as at risk.

By law, I cannot tell them this. I can simply tell them how solid our bank is (and we are), and encourage them to stay with us.

My best advice, if you have large sums at this point in history, is to visit with a reputable investment advisor, diversify your holdings among several banks in the short term (no more than 100k per bank), hunker down, and wait out the storm.

Now is not the time to attempt to maximize return by piling large sums into CD's at one bank,unless you are very certain of the underlying, fundamental strength of the depository. And a strong bank will usually be offering lower rates, because they aren't in need of the cash, and can afford to lose some.

[harry123]

20. people are reducing exposure over $100,000

A lot of people are definitely concerned about their bank

See the report here:

http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/07/its-fdic-so-who-gives-damn.html

[AnneD]

21. My Credit Union....

is doing just fine. It is the only place I would be putting my money these days.

[CountAllVotes]

22. I bank at a credit union too

I got lucky. My payoff for my pension came due and I grabbed it while I could get it and I got 6.25% for 5 years on a CD on this money. It is paying nicely to my satisfaction and all of this money is insured of course. :)

[AnneD]

23. Sweet......

:thumbsup:

[wishlist]

24. I have had to change around some accounts this week to be fully insured

I didn't fully understand the FDIC rules, and was shocked to find out that I and my spouse had exceeded the FDIC limits at two different banks, leaving us vulnerable. Fortunately though one CD just matured this week and we had a liquid money market at another bank so we could shift funds to a new CD at a third bank to be fully insured.

We are both recently retired with very low pensions and these life savings are the bulk of our assets, since we had exclusively used CD's instead of the riskier stock market in recent years not realizing that our banks could fail and we could lose savings. We also have no children to add as beneficiaries and found out that unlike naming children or parents as beneficiaries, listing our neices and nephews as beneficiaries doesn't provide extra FDIC insurance coverage on our accounts.