I see that X.Com held to its promise overnight to slash all credit lines in half. If you haven't already, and you plan to keep your X.Com account, this would be a good time to clean out your accounts of all the money you can't afford to lose. Having more than ten dollars in an X.Com account is probably not a good idea until we know for sure the bank will survive the beating its probably going to take from all its infuriated customers. For the first time ever, it took me over an hour to access my account because X.Com's server was too busy. That leads me to believe that already things aren't too stable with them, and that people are probably closing their accounts in droves. I went ahead and withdrew $30 more from my account just to keep it at that $10 level. It took the ATM I went to a good ten minutes to access my account to verify funds. NOT GOOD! While 5% interest on a checking account is an excellent rate, it would be really naive to think it will keep most of X.Com's customers happy, and it doesn't take a genius to see that a majority have stayed with X.Com for the credit line and the 9.9% rate. Even though some people will still be happy with a $500 to $1000 credit line, the majority, who have been cut to $100 won't find it worth it to stay. The bottom line is that banks are businesses, and businesses simply can't afford to lose more than a few customers. I've never used my credit line with X.Com and most likely never will. However, I've seen banks go belly-up over much less than what X.Com is going to go through. Although all money in the X.Com checking accounts is insured by FDIC, the feds are extremely slow in reimbursing people. The process could take weeks, months, or even years. Investment monies are NOT insured, so if you're keeping an excess amount invested there, you are taking an even bigger risk. Whatever you do, don't risk losing any more money than you can live without for at least 6 months. Get it out of X.Com ASAP and put it someplace safe until the mess is over or X.com ceases to exist. Direct deposits to X.Com are not a good idea right now! Protect thyself!
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C I have never had a problem with them and i do all my banking with x.com and my local branch and always do electronic banking and credit card deposits with them. I'm really sorry that you had a problem with them but most banks do not give overdraft protection on any account unless you have a certain amount of money in them and pay a fee each month for this premium service. They even give back atm charges back.
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C I have been reading a lot from you, Doris, and truely I thought you had in mind the best interest of the people who cannot open any bank account at all. I am glad that you also do business with your local branch, but let me tell you that this is not a luxury offered to me ( chexsystem )... It is with advices like yours, very definitive, that people loose their confidence, don't give the benefit of the doubt, act fast and without thinking. What do you want through your message ???? Destroy the only bank that gives me the opportunity to have a bank account ??? I don't care about overdraft protection, in fact, I don't even use it... I know better now, I have learned from my mistake. Let's just treat X.com for what it is : a starting bank, that offered in good faith an overdraft protection they can't afford anymore. And let's keep smiling because I still have a bank account, and that helps.
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C Well, they did reduce the credit limit to $500. I still was able to access the account promptly. I do not think this is as bad as it is made out to be. Just my opinion. I am not keeping a lot of money in this account, but I am using it. It is just a game I am playing to see how much money I can make from nothing. I will continue to keep people posted on my progress. My account is doing nicely, even the S&P 500 fund is now making money. http://www.creditsense.com Doris K. wrote: ------------------------------- I see that X.Com held to its promise overnight to slash all credit lines in half. If you haven't already, and you plan to keep your X.Com account, this would be a good time to clean out your accounts of all the money you can't afford to lose. Having more than ten dollars in an X.Com account is probably not a good idea until we know for sure the bank will survive the beating its probably going to take from all its infuriated customers. For the first time ever, it took me over an hour to access my account because X.Com's server was too busy. That leads me to believe that already things aren't too stable with them, and that people are probably closing their accounts in droves. I went ahead and withdrew $30 more from my account just to keep it at that $10 level. It took the ATM I went to a good ten minutes to access my account to verify funds. NOT GOOD! While 5% interest on a checking account is an excellent rate, it would be really naive to think it will keep most of X.Com's custom....
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C I have never had a problem with X.Com, and I have every intention of keeping my account with them open. Despite the very minor inconvenience of having to wait a few minutes to access my account, I really like the X.Com concept a lot. It's been a godsend to so many people mostly because it caters to those of us who don't have an unlimited supply of money where most banks don't. My primary bank does not offer me overdraft protection, and I don't have a need for it either with them or with X.Com, so as far as I'm concerned, they can slash my credit line to zero, and I won't have any complaints with them. The 5% interest on checking is attractive to me. The reason for my above post isn't to degrade X.Com in any way, form, or fashion. Had you taken read it through, you would know that I simply believe that most of X.Com's customers have been attracted by the credit line and its low interest rate. My fear is now that it's gone, far too many customers will go with it, creating financial instability for the bank. When that happens, problems will most certainly arise for those of us who remain X.Com customers. If you don't see this as a very possible problem, I hope you are right. This is one case where I hope to be wrong, but based upon what I've read from so many X.Com customers since its creation, confidence is becoming more difficult to keep. I really like the positivity of Arie's last paragraph, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for all of us.
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C i like the account and think that the use it or lose it was a way for the bank to earn more lending power with the federal reserve. they were founded by a small bank which does not have a lot of fund throught the federal reserve. they chose use it or lose it to intise people to use there loc's and by them having more money out to customers the fed will in turn lent them more. that is the way it works and they will all and all have more flow with that and the interest they will earn. i like the account as well and have had no problem with the my act. access or other wise. sorry to hear that other have. i have waited about 10 min for a person on the phone. he did research for me and called me bace i mean RIGHT BACK. they email and respond to my emails promptly. I think that every one just need to give the bank room to grow. it was overdraft protections not just a loan so look at it that way. who in the hell would want to over draft there accounts several thousand dollars anyway. not saying i would not have loved to have that much. Thanks and this is just my two cents. I think they will be ok. they have a lot of backers.
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C Before the slashing, I withdrew my money, borrowed the credit line limit of $2000 to pay off a higher interest card, and am gambling a total of $12 they don't run into serious trouble soon. X.com seems pretty incompetent and erratic and their "guess what we might do next" attitude just isn't fun anymore.
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C It is great that X.Com offered you an account where others wouldn't. In fact that was one of the attractions it had when it initially opened and "seemed" to approve everybody regardless of past credit history. Then the beancounters took over and instituted the policies of their big brother and partner Deluxe (owner of CheckSystems). Individuals who had accounts set up for months found themselves booted with their funds frozen till doomsday. They even cancelled those that had CheckSystems accounts that were 4 years old!! Yes, you were fortunate cause it could have so easily been yourself then you would be on the outside crying on this site. If there is one thing we should have learned by now on this site that if there are enough complaints about a company then you better damn well not feel secure because "it hasn't happened to me"..... yet. This policy is out and out bullshit, I've never heard any other bank, brick and mortar or online acting in this manner, once they give you an account its yours until you screw up. Plain and simple. Besides, I believe you could've gotten an account at G&L Bank (they truly desire new customers and are accepting all but the worst credit risks), Key Bank has also been mentioned favorably for easy access.
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C Yes, that's one thing I learned the hard way - if a lot of complaints appear on this board, there is indeed a problem. I ignored the evidence posted here concerning Cross Country because I hadn't been burned by them in 18 months. CCB eventually got around to me, however, and I was screwed as predicted. So when I see some smoke and hear alarm bells here, I tend to pay attention. It doesn't mean there's a raging inferno, but it does mean I should wonder just why there seem to be so many burn victims around.
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C You could get an account with Wingspan Bank who offers overdraft protection if you qualify along with ATM reimbursement and pays intrest on checking. Something to think about. And they are backed by very large Brick and Morter banks. They are very professional and I have been with them since August and had no problems.
RE: An online bank backed by & Professionalism and good service that seems to be the key with what the majority of persons want and demand who become very conservative when it involves a sizeable amount of their money. Here's a partial quote from a very recent article from Bankrate.com "Bricks and clicks banks - those with a strong online presence will win the competition over internet-only institutions. Its just worth it for me to sacrifice those high interest rates for good service thats where I need it" For a guy like me whose always favored the new, the original, the underdog over stodgy conservative businesses its sad to see such a public failure as X.Com whose founder Elon Musk whose still dreaming about ruling the online banking scene and hasn't realized all the flash in the world isn't gonna save you when you can't get your basic service right.
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C I can't complain about X.com. They are not my primary bank yet they seem to be a good deal even with their growing pains. As for the credit line, I used it before they reduced it and mine remains the same. I will pay it back over next few months and see what happens. If anything, what better way to build a good reputation than to borrow and pay back. I am not on chex systems so as others have said this is just an experiment. Time will tell!
RE: Better Clean Out Those X.C Regarding Doris' comments. All the time we've been complaining about chexsystems she has always been the one to say ohh.... give them time. Almost making it look like only the losers and criminals were having provle,s with x.com. I'm glad to see that such a small problem like server down for one hour has caused her to reconsider this bank's stability. Doris imagine if you had your account with over $1900.00 frozen for 3 weeks and incurred over $300.00 in charges for bounced checks because of them (they did pay the charges afterall) and for 3 straight payrolls had them ose your direct deposit for 5-8 days at a time????? Well now I guess it's not only the criminals and losers having trouble now, is it???? I still have my account and they have not decreased my credit line (yet) but although I'm on chexsystems I have an account with TD Waterhouse (awesome bank) and a local account tgat I'll do most of my business with for now. Like Doris K. Just $10.00 to keep the account oen is all I have in there.
