Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is under attack by the rich banks CEOs; You must act to protect consumers everywhere

  CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY AND WORKPLACE

AlterNet / By Dave Johnson

6 Unbelievable Ways the Big Banks Are Scamming You

Five years since the crash, the big banks continue to screw over their customers.
June 19, 2013  |

It is going on five years since the financial crash and three years since President Obama signed the meager Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the big banks are still scamming and conning and ripping off their customers. What a huge surprise.

After the financial crash, we heard about a laundry list of abuses and frauds that ranged from small things, like hidden fees, to pushing minorities into subprime loans and then switching them into more expensive mortgages at signing time, to huge things like selling trillions of dollars in complicated CDO schemes and making bets on derivatives of derivatives without having the reserves to pay off what they owed when the bets went bad.

Of course, no one at the top was prosecuted and the banks were allowed to settle a host of charges (which meant that their shareholders, not the executives who made the decisions, paid the fines). The bad behavior gave these giants a competitive advantage, driving out what good companies there were. So the costly and destructive bad behavior, schemes, cons and scams continue.

1. Falsifying Paperwork, Blitzing, Lying About Payments to Force Homeowners Into Foreclosure

This week, ProPublica released a report detailing the shocking ways that Bank of America has been pushing homeowners into foreclosure. Employees lied about documentation and falsified paperwork to force families out of their homes when these customers thought they were getting a loan modification under the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). To make matters worse, the bank gave bonuses to employees who were able to reach monthly quotas of people they forced into foreclosure.

According to a lawsuit against Bank of America, the bank used “blitzing” twice a month to deny HAMP applications even when the homeowner had fully complied with the program’s requirements; it gave employees $500 bonuses each month they forced 10 or more homeowners into foreclosure; it intentionally ignored applications for 30 days, then declared them late and forced homeowners to reapply; it closed applications even when they knew the homeowner had met all criteria; and it canceled loan modifications because of “late payments” when the bank’s records shows that payments had been made on time.

Of course, as long as the government refuses to prosecute banks and bankers for violating laws, and instead negotiating “settlements”  that require bank shareholders to pay fines, bankers will see no reason to stop this kind of activity.

2. Bank Protection “Service” Puts Consumers at “Greater Risk Of Harm”

Last week  a report from the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that the big banks are still scamming their customers with ridiculous fees that are hugely profitable for the big banks.

Three years ago the government required banks to ask their customers if it is okay (this is called “opt-in”) before they charge them for “overdraft protection” service. CFRB has been studying how this is working out, and its report shows that customers who do not opt-in to this heavily marketed “protection” service pay much, much less in fees than those who do. In other words, agreeing to use the “protection” actually puts you at a much greater risk of incurring expenses than those who are not “protected.”

According to  a McClatchy News report on a call with CFPB director Richard Cordray to discuss the report, Cordray said, “What is marketed as overdraft protection can, in some instances, put consumers at greater risk of harm.”

How much risk? People who are “heavy overdrafters” but still opt out of this service save on average more than $900 a year. But it isn’t just heavy overdrafters who are saving. According to the CFPB report “… the reduction in fees for those who did not opt in was $347 greater, on average, than for those who did opt in.” People who opt in are also more likely to lose their bank accounts, with the bank “involuntarily” closing it.

Banks have made $32 billion from these fees. So maybe this isn’t about providing a “protection” to consumers at all. As  NPR puts it, “Overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees accounted for 61 percent of total consumer deposit account service charges in 2011 among the banks in the CFPB report.”

3. Transaction Ordering

Not only do customers who opt-in pay more for this “protection service,” but the banks are still scamming them by causing the overdrafts that generate these fees. The CFPB report says that some banks still use “transaction ordering” to cheat customers out of additional fees. These banks post checks or debit transactions from large to small to trigger these fees. In other words if you write several small checks (or make debit card transactions) and then a big one that overdraws your account, they credit the large one first so each of the smaller transactions causes its own fee to be charged, even though those transactions occurred before the account ran out of money.

From the report, “The earlier in a sequence that an account becomes negative, the more overdraft or NSF transactions may occur.”

4. Forced Arbitration

Another big-bank scam on consumers is “forced arbitration” clauses in bank account, credit card, mortgage and other financial-service agreements. Forced arbitration clauses – also called mandatory arbitration or binding arbitration – require you to give up your legal right to take a big bank to court if it cheats or harms you. And if you don’t agree (which requires reading the entire agreement) you can’t get the account.

They way this works is that instead of being able to pursue your legal rights, you have to take your complaint to an arbitrator, and then must accept the arbitrator’s decision. The catch is that the bank gets to pick the arbitrator, and the arbitrators naturally know they’ll never work in this town again if they ever rule against the banks. So there is an inherent conflict of interest working in favor of these companies.

How is that conflict of interest working out for us? A 2007 Public Citizen report revealed that arbitrators working for the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) had ruled against consumers 94 percent of the time.

In another blow to the big banks, the CFPB is beginning to take steps to reign in forced arbitration clauses in consumer financial contracts.

The five-year-old Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act authorizes the CFPB and the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate mandatory arbitration. The SEC is resisting implementing their part of this law, but the CFPB is conducting a survey to determine consumer awareness of forced arbitration clauses in credit card agreements.  On its blog, the CFPB said the study will “explore consumer awareness of dispute resolution terms in credit card agreements. The survey will gather information about consumers’ perceptions, preferences, and assumptions related to arbitration proceedings.”

5. Marketing Refinancing That Costs People

Thom Hartmann has exposed yet another banker scheme. This time banks are marketing a mortgage refinancing that promises annual savings of more than $4,000. But the scheme really just adds more than $37,000 to the cost of a loan.

Basically, the mailer focuses on lowering monthly mortgage payments, while neglecting to mention that the borrower would end up paying a higher overall interest rate, and would be adding 10 more years to the overall length of their loan. Hartmann  writes,

Back in November of 2012, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sent warning letters to around a dozen of America’s largest mortgage lenders and brokers, advising them to “clean up” potentially misleading advertisements, especially those targeting veterans and older Americans.

At the time of the CFPB’s announcement, CFPB director Richard Cordray said that, “Misrepresentations in mortgage products can deprive consumers of important information while making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.”

And, as we also know, deceptive mortgage advertisements like this can cause consumers to bite off more than they can chew, ultimately leading to a nationwide financial meltdown.

6. Banks Trying To Kill the CFPB

Over the years, scam after scam is exposed, and nothing has been done about it. But there is a new cop on the beat, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB’s job is to police the big banks, and protect financial consumers. Of course the big banks are trying to head this agency off at the pass.

The Republican Party and its conservative infrastructure have basically been contracted by Wall Street’s big banks to obstruct and even kill this agency. Senate Republicans have been blocking the confirmation and are still trying to obstruct the nominee to head up the agency. Republicans have been filibustering the nomination of Richard Cordray to be its director and even vowing to filibuster to keep any nominee from being confirmed to head the agency. President Obama finally  made a recess appointment of Cordray in January 2012. But this recess appointment runs out at the end of the year with no end to Republican obstruction in sight.

Republicans are also  trying to defund the agency. Republicans and the (billionaire, Wall Street, oil and tobacco-financed) conservative movement have also launched a propaganda campaign against the agency. Recently, at the Senate Republican Policy Committee website, “CFPB: Unaccountable and Unrestrained,” claims, “A recent action by the CFPB to monitor consumer credit cards and the spending habits of millions of Americans is raising new concerns in a government suffering from a trust deficit.” In an example of how the right’s echo machine works, the Heritage Foundation echoes this attack, alleging that CFPB gathering data for reports like this one is an example of government “surveillance” on consumers, “amassing an Orwell-worthy database on all manner of spending, including … overdrafts …”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren – the person most credited with the creation of the CFPB – spoke at a Senate hearing on the CFPB last March on the role of the CFPB and Republican obstruction of the agency:

“I see nothing here but a filibuster threat against Director Cordray as an attempt to weaken the consumer agency,” Warren said. “I think the delay in getting him confirmed is bad for consumers, it’s bad for small banks, bad for credit unions, for anyone trying to offer an honest product in an honest market.”

“The American people deserve a Congress that worries less about helping big banks,” she added, “and more about helping regular people who have been cheated on mortgages, on credit cards, on student loans and on credit reports.”

Don’t expect much to change until we have a government that is willing to take on these financial giants. As long as we keep seeing “settlements” with these giants instead of prosecutions, and as long as we allow big money to buy influence over our government, nothing will change.

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But the banks’ CEOs have huge incomes and the power that comes with being super rich. The rich banks and corporations run  the USA and form all of the policies. Citizens must speak up and vote appropriately.

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Solving Customer’s Problems Should Be of the Foremost Importance…. METABANK abused us while we were their customer

Customer Service Solves Problems To Create Loyal Clients

but NOT SO at METABANK

Make it easy for frustrated customers to contact you, get problems solved. You’ll create loyal clients.

In the past 30 days, I canceled service with three companies I’ve used for years.

Customer service was the reason. It was that bad.

 

But I kept my business with another company even though its actual service keeps messing up. That business’ customer service is that good.

Customer-service representatives are everywhere. Anyone with a phone, TV, computer, coffee maker, credit card or insurance; or who buys subscription services or makeup from shady companies advertising on TV has dealings with them.

And let’s not forget about business-to-business customer-service reps. [This is part of how METABANK performs their scam.]

Their numbers are growing by the minute. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the profession will expand 15.5% through 2020.

Call centers alone had almost 23,000 vacant jobs, more than a third listed in the past week, according to CallCenterCrossing, which calls itself the largest collection of call-center jobs. The company cites the health care law, holiday season and general economic expansion as the chief reasons for a rise in call-center hiring.

As long as companies offer things to buy and services to use, folks will need help.

[Customers have over a period of many years now indicated that METABANK and its affiliates, including the Network Branded Bank Card Association, fail when it comes to customer service. We, as former METABANK customers/clients believe, based on our own personal experience using METABANK et al., that METABANK by design treats their customers in an abusive manner. We have been scammed and lied to. We have been treated in an inhumane manner.

METABANK does not offer any kind of model that should be used as a guideline by any other entity…. METABANK relies on numbers and the population is growing rapidly.

METABANK relies on getting partner corporate entities to market their prepaid bank card  a relationship which is in fact one that will increase the rate of decline of that partner company. At first the partner company will experience an initial  spurt that may appear to be great and fabulous; this is the honeymoon, but it is a marriage that is doomed by design. METABANK only wants their partner companies’ list of customers whom METABANK will use for their own financial gain.

In establishing this partnership, METABANK promises to take care of all the collections for their partner. Collections is the dirtiest of dirty work so the partner company is happy to hand over this part of the operation to METABANK. METABANK, as we former customers have found, has an abusive customer service system by design.

When METABANK’s customer serivice representatives basically went through a list of standard lies they had been handed to use for all situation; the lies serve to blame the customer for the problems the customer had encountered using METABANK. However, by design, METABANK created a prepaid bank card which customers load with cash money, and then METABANK limits and controls when and even if a customer will be able to have access to their own money…. This scheme is predatory. It is based upon false and misleading promises.

METABANK is by design immoral. Only consumers can speak up to warn others so that METABANK can be stopped from doing this great scam on the people.]

Companies claim to know how important these front-line jobs are. They say they strive for a “customer-first mindset,” “transparency and accountability,” “positive customer relationships” and “consistent and efficient delivery of superior customer service.”

So why don’t more customer-service reps deliver? Is it the company or the employees?

Likely both.

Workers tell me they want these jobs because they like people. Yet too many companies do everything they can to not let their people talk to us.

Finding contact information can be like a game of hide-and-seek.

Some refuse to talk to you. Take Twitter: [This isn’t a model anyone should follow!!!!!]

My account has had a problem for four months. I’ve obediently followed Twitter’s directions and sent in a dozen requests for help.

I’m still waiting for an answer.

On the other hand, companies such as crowdSPRING help businesses and creative talent find each other and make it easy for customers to communicate with them.

[This concept is an old one that worked. It worked very well. This is what we as consumers expect, but this is not at all what METABANK provides. METABANK uses this concept to catch consumers and their partner companies off guard so that METABANK can get their foot in the door. What META BANK does is an IMMORAL ACT.]

This company posts its phone number on every page of its site. No doubt this springs from the philosophy of co-founder Mike Samson who tells his reps that the spoken word is better than the written word, to say “please” and “thank you” and always end with “much obliged.”

 

People who get into customer service tell me they love to solve problems.

Yet “I can’t help you with that” are the last words that a lot of people hear from a customer-service rep.

  • Those workers either don’t know how to think like a problem solver or don’t think they have the authority to help.
  • Some customer-service reps are plain mean. The other day I asked a one that I could barely hear if she might speak a little louder.   She snapped, “No, I can’t scream.”
  • When you keep getting bad customer service, you wonder why companies keep sending surveys asking how your customer-service experience went.
  • I also often wonder why companies insist that customer-service reps speak canned faux caring phrases like “Have a nice day” after they’ve been mean and obstructive.

Chief Operating Officer Zach Cusimano of Bizness Apps, which makes mobile apps for companies, says his business doesn’t coach reps to use particular phrases.

Company officials do encourage them to “throw in some love” and foster more interactions by saying, “I’m happy to help,” “Please let me know if you have any other questions,” and “Looking forward to hearing from you again.”

[However, if these statements are nothing but empty words with no real response and no action behind them then they are useless. It is our strong impression as former METABANK customers that the CEOs of METABANK have created all of the guidelines, which include a list of rote excuses for why it is always the customers’ fault for any problems they may have encountered. METABANK creates the problems by which they get rich and then richer; METABANK breaks with every expectation that any person would normally expect.

METABANK creates all the rules and retains the right to change all of the rules without notice. This is bad, but on top of that METABANK takes customer’s money and keeps us/them from having access to their own money while using the NETWORK BRANDED PREPAID BANK CARD.

The NETWORK BRANDED PREPAID BANK CARD amounts to being an interest free loan from customers to a very rich bank. The whole concept has been reversed. Potential customers are mislead into taking on such a card by the partner company who is in effect being used as a “PATSY” in this dynamic triangle of abuse of the consumer.]

I contend that more people would like their customer-service jobs and customers would be happier if they did what Jesse Richardson does.

“We love our customers,” Richardson says. She is conscious community officer for Conscious Box, a subscription service for eco-friendly products.

Seriously.

If you want a satisfying career helping solve problems for people who are frustrated, confused and sometimes angry, care for them no matter what.

Find a great company that values them and you.

In the 25 years I’ve counseled people with their careers, most tell me one thing: I want to be of service to others. Here’s your chance.

[As former customers of METABANK we had expected this kind of treatment, but METABANK and the NETWORK BRANDED PREPAID CARD ASSOCIATION act in a predatory manner so that they abuse their customers, only to move onto the next  person so they can dupe that person. The huge size of our population is how METABANK has been able to get away with this kind of scam for as long as they have. Only you can stop this kind of a scam.]

Career consultant Andrea Kay is the author of This Is How To Get Your Next Job: An Inside Look at What Employers Really Want.

We Urge You Not To Invest in NASDAQ:CASH…..bankmeta

Meta Bank

MetaBank is one of the largest prepaid debit card issuers in the United States (more than 50% of the debit cards reviewed on GetDebit.com are issued by MetaBank). Through their premier Meta Payment Systems division, MetaBank services more than 500 prepaid card programs.

[Take Note of what you just read above:MetaBank services more than 500 prepaid card programs.

This is not an endorsement of METABANK or any of their affiliates.

We are consumers who were scammed while using MetaBank’s Prepaid Cards.

Above, please note that  METABANK is bragging about being the largest prepaid debit card issuer in the United States.

Bigger isn’t always better we have all learned in recent years!!!!]

MetaBank also serves as a traditional financial and lending institution providing a diverse product offering across several product lines including personal finance, commercial finance, mortgage services and agricultural services. MetaBank has 12 brick and mortar offices located in 4 distinct market areas. Offices include: Central and NW Iowa; Sioux Empire, South Dakota; and Brookings, South Dakota.

Meta’s subsidiary Meta Payment Systems (MPS) manages four business segments including: ATM Sponsorship, ACH Origination, Prepaid Debit Cards and other various Credit Products. The unique “Super Community” philosophy on banking has enabled MetaBank to realize continued growth, while in the same breath, keep its community banking roots. Inherent benefits to this mentality are streamlined efforts and rapid decision making at the local level and a more enhanced service package to the customer.

[Online banking has been problematic for many consumers. Customers feel abused and taken advantage of by Meta Bank/Meta Payment Systems. The prepaid card may say it was issued by Meta Bank, but Meta Payment System may then respond to your letters of inquiry so which are you actually dealing with?

Customers feel like they aren’t being heard, and METABANK isn’t listening to them nor is MetaBank actually addressing customers’ concerns and problems in any real way.   Customers complain that they have been passed from one customer service personnel to another and nothing ever gets satisfactorily resolved. The real issue is that MetaBank wishes to scam those others, the people they never see face to face.]

MetaBank’s “Money On The Move” platform is one of the many innovations [innovation or scam? For MetaBank former customers have found them to be one in the same]  created to enhance the customer experience.

[Why are customers still complaining then?]

There are four payment systems platforms:

Gift Card Platform

[Gift cards are often left with a certain amount of cash still on them…. Just give cash!!!! Avoid the middleman which is more often than not, META BANK. Why are you giving an interest free loan to Meta Bank???? Because that is really what you are doing along with most likely a small cash gift to METABANK too.  Think about this. Why give money to an unknown entity????]

  • Discover gift card purchase at bank
  • Electronic funds sent to Meta from bank [Direct access to your source of income.]
  • Gift card given to friend or family
  • Recipient spends at merchant [Not all merchants accept the prepaid card or consumers find that holds have been placed on the cards.]
  • Discover pays merchant and electronically moves money from Meta [How much control do you as a consumer have then over your own money assets?]

[This may actually be how Meta Bank categorizes what they do, but for consumers, many complain that they are shifted from phone MetaBank clerk to another one and their problem is discounted. Also customer service  clerks have lied to customers. It appears that the phone answerers have been given a list of reasons and ways to push the blame back off onto the consumer for a product that was never designed to actually meet the needs of the consumer.]

Rebate Card Platform

  • Product bought at merchant/rebate form filled out
  • Rebate processor electronically sends funds to MetaBank to hold
  • Meta sends Rebate MasterCard to customer in mail
  • Customer spends funds on card
  • MasterCard takes money from Meta to pay merchant

[MetaBank markets heavily to cultivate partner companies who market their product for MetaBank. To get money off of the rebate card, a consumer has to send their personal information to an unknown entity. In this time period, this kind of requirement is upsetting and of great concern. ]

Travel Card Platform

  • Visa travel card purchased at bank

[What bank? Oh Meta Bank controls all of the transaction from start to finish… that was our experience.]

  • MetaBank holds funds until needed [We couldn’t access any of our money]

[Meta Bank simply held all of my money, and I had put a lot of money on that card. Their clerk had asked when I would be leaving and for how long  I would be gone before I re-loaded it. However, Meta Bank never re-loaded the card. Meta Bank simply held my cash money for one full month as an interest free loan to them. Something is backwards in the thinking and practices within Meta Bank.      

Travel cards are issued in twos. One is the re-loadable card and the other has immediate access to the money. Meta Bank said they had loaded the wrong card because my spouse gave them the wrong number. The other card was in a drawer at home; it had never been issued to my spouse but to a child. The only number that my spouse had was the one that  I had emailed to my spouse from an internet cafe. It was the right number; why was Meta Bank trying to push blame off onto others rather than fix the problem?

The card was supposed to have been re-loaded, but it wasn’t. Meta Bank complained that I had never phoned them back to say that the card didn’t work. 

 Meta Bank accepted my cash money for the card and never loaded the card. I had no cash money to spend while I was on what was supposed to have been the trip of a lifetime in Europe. I was basically living as a homeless person in Paris. How could I have phoned Meta Bank or even emailed them.

That same year another traveler also couldn’t get the Meta Bank Card to work; no place would accept the card although it had been sold as a travel card. Meta Bank told this well-educated person that he hadn’t used the card properly.

Meta Bank always gets another entity to sell their product for them. This fact removes Meta Bank from having direct contact with the customer.

The other fact is that customers may be buying prepaid cards from an entity where they have been doing business for years so the customer has a sense of security in using the product presented by a place they have known and been known for years. 

Meta Bank courts the partner entity’s CEOs so that the CEO of the known company actually believes that what Meta Bank is selling may be a reliable product. On the second or third page, consumers may read that Meta Bank reserves the right to change all of the rules at any time without notice to their customers.  

Meta Bank told me that they had no contact information on file for me, but  this is a complete and outright lie.

Why did Meta Bank feel the need to lie? 

It was this need to lie to me as their former customer rather than to try to resolve the problem that Meta Bank had created that drew my attention. Then after that on-line, I saw that many, many other customers had complained about almost the same identical problem.] 

  • Customer uses card for travel expenses

[If only we could!!! We couldn’t get the travel cards to work. We were left with out access to our own cash money when we needed it the most.  This made us vulnerable. 

METABANK’s internal practices and policies have caused their customers great pain repeatedly; Meta Bank lies. It didn’t just happen to one person; the same thing happened to many customers over and over again.  

The way that Meta Bank handled the problem once it was brought to their attention was OUTRAGEOUS, abusive and offensive.]

  • Merchants paid by Visa as funds taken from Meta

[We suspect that the European places where our acquaintance couldn’t get anyone to accept his card in payment have been scammed by Meta Bank on the other end of the transaction.]

[The four highlighted items for  Meta Bank prepaid cards fail to assure consumers that they will be treated properly, fairly and with dignity by Meta Bank as their customers. In reality, Meta Bank’s travel cards, speaking from our real lived experience using it indicates that the card is designed to fail customers. This problem is compounded by the fact that Meta Bank has lied to consumers for why they can’t get the META BANK product to work. Therefore, from our experience even the four points above are lies along with being false and misleading empty promises.]

Reloadable Card Platform

  • Consumer buys card at retail merchant store
  • Consumer direct deposits employer paycheck on MetaBank card
  • Consumer buys groceries, clothing, gasoline and other goods and services on card
  • Visa pays merchants/service providers and transfers money to cover from MetaBank

[I couldn’t get Meta Bank to re-load our cards. Oh, Meta Bank took my cash money and kept it from me when I needed it the most, but I had no access to my own cash money.]

 [Therefore, we strongly urge any potential investors to seriously re-consider whether it is appropriate for them to invest in bankmeta.com or NASDAQ:CASH]

About MetaBank
Stock Symbol: NASDAQ:CASH
Website: http://www.bankmeta.com
Corporate Headquarters: Storm Lake, Iowa
Address: 121 East 5th Street, Storm Lake, IA, 50588-2339

On one of the links of the Meta Bank Website, we found the following which further highlights the fact that Meta Bank fails to address customers clearly expressed concerns with the METABANK PREPAID CARD. 

METABANK once again is talking down to customers as if we are an inconvenience but necessary source of income.

Prepaid Debit Card > Debit Card News > Prepaid Exaggerations

Prepaid Exaggerations

Dec 20, 2011 — As a larger and larger percentage of the population enters the prepaid debit card market, there are exaggerations and untruths perpetuated nationwide.

[Why would people speak out against a card that has failed to meet their needs!!!!? Oh yeah, the answer is obvious.]

When using any financial tool, there are methods that can financially benefit cardholders, while others that can be quite detrimental to the pocketbook.

[ None of us have found any merits to using a prepaid bank card now that we have given it a try. METABANK has created a prepaid bank card that they can manipulate internally so that they make even more than what the ordinary interest free loan would have given to them. Many, many former customers have complained about METABANK’s customer service over a period of many years.]

Below are a few prepaid card fallacies that we have outlined for you:

[fallacy is defined as 

fal·la·cy  noun.    plural. fal·la·cies

1. A false notion.

(Meta Bank is about to present statements which are fallacies because MetaBank uses their prepaid bank card to scam their customers so that METABANK can get access to even more money for themselves.)

2. A statement or an argument based on a false or invalid inference.

(Meta Bank is the master of inference that they use to hook in customers; this is how Meta Bank is able to hook in customers and what makes Meta Bank’s practices predatory.)
3. Incorrectness of reasoning or belief; erroneousness.

(We have wondered about the WHY that drives METABANK’s actions and practices. The need to win seems to factor in to the equation, but the practices of MetaBank are indicative of a very sick thought process. The need to lie to their own customer base is symptomatic of a very sick way of thinking.)
4. The quality of being deceptive.

(Meta Bank created the concept of Prepaid Bank Cards and then proceeded to push the very limits of the concept so that they abuse their own customers. This is very sick.]

Prepaid cards can solve all of your budgeting problems

– It’s true that cards like the KLS Prepaid Visa RushCard can be used as a tool to HELP you manage your money and most cards will just be declined if you try to spend past the amount loaded on the card. Still, financial responsibility comes with each person’s ability to plan, budget, save and control spending accordingly. There is no financial instrument that can solve all of your financial challenges for you. [KLS? Rush Card? … all METABANK products?]

 [Quite to the contrary, elsewhere on METABANK’s own pages, METABANK does say that by using their prepaid debit card and having it attached to the customer’s salary or government payments… then if they use the card often, they may be able to improve their credit history…. This has actually over a period of years been one of METABANK’s biggest selling points for their product…. I have seen it in print and complained about this marketing ploy frequently on this blog. METABANK may believe that they are glossing over this potential when they mention it in their publicity made to look like a page of bank information. However, the fact that it is clearly posted on METABANK’s websites and that it hasn’t been removed is a problem.] 

Prepaid cards have outrageous fees – While there are some prepaid cards that can accrue rather high fees, there are those like the Western Union MoneyWise MasterCard that have extremely competitive fees, not only with other prepaid cards, but traditional banks and check cashing services as well. Fee structures vary from card to card, so cardholders need to read the terms and conditions to determine most advantageous usage.

[In reading the terms listed above, we can see contradictions in what METABANK says. The word “outrageous” for example. Outrageous means: 

out·ra·geous

 

: very bad or wrong in a way that causes anger : too bad to be accepted or allowed

: very strange or unusual : surprising or shocking

Full Definition of OUTRAGEOUS

1  a :  exceeding the limits of what is usual   b  :  not conventional or matter-of-fact :  fantastic
2  :  violent, unrestrained
3  a :  going beyond all standards of what is right or decent<an outrageous disregard of human rights>
b :  deficient in propriety or good taste <outrageouslanguage> <outrageous manners>

Meta Bank takes their customer’s CASH MONEY UPFRONT so it is unthinkable that while METABANK gets what is basically an interest free loan from the customer and while Meta Bank limits what the customer can spend that they would also charge their customer any fee at all or even consider charging their customers a fee for using the META BANK PREPAID CARD. Because Meta Bank gets an interest free loan from their customers, charging a fee from that same customer for giving META BANK an interest free loan. META BANK has all of their customer’s  cash money upfront. According to the dictionary definition of what outrageous means then METABANK’s charging of any fee so that METABANK can get an interest free loan for their own benefit and use is in fact outrageous.

Check cashing fees????   People who struggle financially and who therefore have no bank account are often charged check cashing fees by banks.

METABANK takes an interest free loan when a customer puts money on a prepaid card. The mere thought that MetaBank would charge people who give them full control of their own cash money is more than outrageous; it is immoral. Rather than handing over their cash money to Meta Bank and giving up control of their own cash money, customers would be better served by paying in cash directly.

Prepaid cards will help you improve your credit score – This has been one of the biggest exaggerations of prepaid cards out there. The READYdebit Visa does provide a free “ScoreTracker” that allows you to track your credit score, credit attributes and debt over time. While that is a great feature, the three main credit bureaus do not recognize ANY prepaid card usage and user’s FICO scores will not be affected one way or the other.

Prepaid cards will help you improve your credit score” is what META BANK has actually posted on their own webpages over a period of years. It is therefore an exaggeration that METABANK makes regarding their own product. It would therefore appear that METABANK is far more dedicated to obfuscating their practices and policies than to providing a genuine service to customers…. Many METABANK customers have indicated that METABANK customer representatives have lied to them. This is the report of more than one former METABANK customer. In the statement above we see an example of the twisted thought patterns behind the actions we, as Meta Bank customers, have encountered. It wasn’t just one person, but many people who encountered the same problem with METABANK’s customer service.

Prepaid cards are ONLY for people with bad credit – A great many people with challenged credit do take advantage of prepaid cards so as not to live beyond their means. There is a significant amount of the population that use prepaid cards to save money on fees (bank, check cashing, overdraft, etc.), protect their identity or even enroll in programs like the BillMyParents Spend Smart MasterCard to assist their children in the art of financial management.

[The parents of college students, the college students themselves and others who appear to come from many socio-economic income brackets have equally complained about the poor and improper customer service that they have encountered at METABANK.]

Prepaid cards can only be loaded at retail stores – Green Dot MoneyPaks found at many retail stores are a very popular method for loading money on prepaid cards like the Mango MasterCard. Now, a large variety of prepaid debit cards can be purchased online and shipped directly to your home address in a matter of days. Mango actually delivers you a “Virtual” card the instant you are approved online for immediate purchasing transactions.

[Meta Bank gets retail stores to sell their prepaid cards. Some banks also sell the MetaBank Prepaid Cards. Other commercial enterprises have also sold the METABANK PREPAID CARD. It has become obvious that METABANK courts partner companies’ CEOs to get them to sell the MetaBank Prepaid Card card for them. It appears that METABANK is constantly looking for partner companies to market their product. METABANK needs partner companies and those companies’ customer list. This makes the above statement seem to be trivial and irrelevant.]

[Does the card work or will you be asked to give cash money up-front and then find you can’t access your own cash money? This is major customer complaint by former Meta Bank customer, including us. It is the abuse of the contract for the monetary gain by Meta Bank at the expense of the customer that irks us. The fact that Meta Bank retains the right to change the rules at any time without giving any notice to their customers is also immoral.]

[The anonymous on-line sale of the prepaid bank cards seems to be part of METABANK’s strategy. Meta Bank sells their product to a faceless public whom they treat as if they were completely devoid of humanity. Such treatment and abuse of customers by METABANK is immoral.]

These are few of the larger myths surrounding prepaid products that might have a little basis in truth, but not much. There are online information sources available to assist you in choosing the best prepaid card for you. Just take some time to investigate.

[As former MetaBank customers who were scammed, lied to and then abused by METABANK all that we can do is try to warn other consumers so that what happened to us never happens to another person…… This is a moral issue for the benefit of humanity because MetaBank failed us in the way that they treated not just one person, but many people in the past. Once the problem was brought to the attention of MetaBank, their customer service personnel consistently tried to push the blame for the problem back off onto the customer. This would indicate that the problems found within METABANK are by design and planned to fail the customers because no effort has ever been made to correct any of the reported problems for their customers on the part of Meta Bank.]

[Myths? This is a very curious take on the years and years of scams that METABANK has pushed off onto an unsuspecting public……  Is this just another form of publicity at which Meta Bank has shown itself to be masterful over and over again, just before their highly developed skill of being a collections agency via the Prepaid Bank Cards over which they manage 500.]

[If MetaBank hadn’t scammed us, lied to us and abused us, there wouldn’t have been any need to even create this blog site.

Bank reforms and far better banking regulations that are independently enforced are needed.

Meta Bank hasn’t acted as a friend to even their own customers. Metabank’s practices are counterintuitive so they have made a lot of money very fast almost as if no one was paying attention.

Those people who have been taken advantage of, lied to and abused by METABANK remember how they were treated. We want to protect other consumers.

Please do not  invest or encourage METABANK to continue to abuse consumers.]

Payment Solution or Bigger Problems for Your Company Using Meta Payment Systems

Overview of Meta Payment Systems (MetaBank)

Meta Payment Systems is more than a bank; we are an innovative payments provider.

[You may never have seen anything like this before, but Meta Bank will infiltrate your company. Meta Bank wants access to your customer base. Meta Bank will them put in place their same old scam.]

Meta enables partners to grow their businesses and build more profitable customer relationships by creating, delivering and sponsoring payment solutions that bring money to LIFE.

[Payment Solutions means that Meta Bank will create situations that scam your customer base. Briefly, you will make more money, but your customer base will begin to fall away after years of being faithful customers. Meta Bank will abuse your customer base so badly that they will never trust you again.]

Whether it is prepaid, debit, credit, ATM sponsorship or agent bank products, Meta’s flexible, scalable payment solutions are backed by industry leadership and unmatched expertise.

[Meta Bank gets your customer list. They require cash upfront, but then they abuse your long standing customers. In the long run, you will lose all of your old customers, but this will happen within a few years or less far sooner than the natural attrition rate. Meta Bank needs access to your customer list. Meta Bank needs you and will use you as part of their scheme.]

Meta offers payment options to help you increase your speed-to-market, reach untapped segments and build customer loyalty.

[When Meta Bank speaks of Customer Loyalty, they are not speaking of anything positive. Meta Bank will create an indebtedness situation for your customers whom they will continue to scam for as long as they can  get away with it. Your current customers will resent how poorly they will be treated. No body likes to be scammed and lied to, but Meta Payment Systems will also be lying to you, making you believe that they have something to offer you. In reality, Meta Payments Systems just needs access to your customers and they will do this will misleading promises and by courting the CEOs of your company just to get you to sell their product for them. Meta Payments Systems will manage the product they offer from top to bottom; they just need your customer base and list of names.]

And top to bottom, we dedicate more resources over the life of your program to make it as easy as possible for you to manage your business successfully.

[ Meta Bank will take away all of your own control over the product they will get you to promote for them. They will give you a cut while making a financial killing for themselves. Your customers will complain to you and you will be lied to by Meta Bank as they court the CEOs of your company. Meta Bank needs access to your existing list of customers, but they will fully control the product they offer so you will not at first perceive their to be a problem with what Meta Bank is doing.]

Key Facts for Meta Payment Systems (MetaBank)

Major Clients:Confidential

Year Founded:1954

Full Time Employees:Above 100

Revenue:Over $100 million

Core Service Areas:

Merchant Cash Advance, Automated Clearing House (ACH) Software [Meta Payments Systems/Meta Bank is not a bank. It is a collections agency.]

Key People at Meta Payment Systems (MetaBank)

Company Representative

Brad Hanson

Meta Bank Executive

NOTE: Time has shown over and over again that corporate partners of Meta Bank are used to provide a customer base from which Meta Bank can grow richer and richer. Meta Bank has provided  horrible customer service for years. They were taken to court over an internal CD fraud. Where were the bank supervisors and the bank examiners when this kind of fraud happened? We believe that the problem actually began in the highest levels of Meta Bank/Meta Payment Solutions. Partner Companies are used by Meta Bank to get access to your faithful customers with whom you have worked a long time to establish a rapport and build your reputation. Meta Bank needs your good reputation in your community to be able to sell their inferior service. Partner Companies are urged to avoid using Meta Payment Systems/ Meta Bank/Meta Payment Solutions, Inc.

Meta Bank Scammed Me….. What does misery look like? Visuals ? ! ?

 

Have you ever considered about adding a little bit more than just your articles?
I mean, what you say is important and all. But think of if you added some great images or
videos to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and videos, this site could certainly be one of the very best in its niche.
Awesome blog!

Thanks for the positive input.

Images of dollar signs with a negative in front of them?

Not sure of the best way to find and post photos to show the greed and corruption that I personally experienced by using META BANK’s prepaid card.

What does misery look like?

Picture in your mind the family that is living from pay check to pay check.

What does their home look like?

What solutions appear before them that offer false promises? Why do these false promises appear like a possible and real solution? [Look carefully at Meta Bank/bankmeta.com’s home pages]

What if a trusted local business where you have been doing business for years offers you a prepaid card which their employees have found to be really good? But for you as a consumer, Meta Bank most likely using different numbers on the cards that are sold or given to employees as bonuses by their CEOs can’t believe that you as the consumer have had problems with the card they sold you because it works so well for them…. Meta Bank gets innocent employees, clerks to push their product for them and then the scam begins…. Only a full Hollywood movie could do this whole issue full justice, but most people prefer movies with lots of action and for their diversion most movie viewers want to avoid seeing the doom and gloom that is their hopeless life situation.

Hollywood movie writers may need to become involved, but it will take money and sponsors to pay to get such a movie filmed. Often products are shown in the movie…..

Visuals???? What kind of visuals would convey the message of misery and suffering in a way that would help the consumer and put an end to the misery they are enduring because of greedy banks like META BANK?

Suggestions???

Netspend, Turbo Tax, and METABANK fail consumers

Bank Card Tax Refunds Fail Consumers

Consumers need clear and succinct information about all of the implications that exist for them regarding the use of PREPAID BANK CARDS by METABANK

The real problem is that the banks, especially METABANK the creator of NETSPEND and the partner of TURBOTAX, have created all the rules regarding how their product is applied….

What is most offensive is that METABANK and banks that operate using METABANK’s practices have retained the right to change all the rules at any time. This is hidden in the pages and pages of fine print that follow the parts of the agreement that have been designed, targeted to attract consumers.

If consumers actually had or understood fully the terms they were actually agreeing to, consumers wouldn’t opt into the products offered by METABANK, NETSPEND a subdivision of METABANK, banks that operate using METABANK’s practices, and any of their corporate partners such as TURBOTAX.

Read the recent online post to learn more about how PREPAID BANK CARDS are used to scam consumers. Consumers report the following problems

 

PROBLEM WITH NETSPEND CARDS THAT YOUR TAXES ARE DEPOSITED TO.

Recently myself and a few others have filed for our taxes via Turbo Tax which was great but at the end prior to submitting your taxes to the IRS you are ask to sign up for a Pre-paid card to have your taxes deposited on.

This is done if you don’t have a bank account.

Recently my friend received her taxes back on that card she has been waiting desperately to receive her funds in order to pay her bill.

Now that her funds were put on the NetSpend card they are refusing to let her withdraw funds she was told to make multiple withdraws in which she had to pay 6 withdraw fees in the amount of $3.00 each plus she is charged for each withdraw from NetSpend.

When she called and asked if she could go to a bank to withdraw funds from her card they replied with no.

She then asks if she could transfer the money from her NetSpend card to her other card that doesn’t have fee’s they refused.

They replied she could only transfer funds from one NetSpend card to anotherNetSpend card.

I even called because I was making to sign up for NetSpend myself to receive my taxes to pay my bill and they told me there is a charge to ask questions about funds, deposits, transactions.

 

This is very frustrating because we worked hard for our money and deserve it.

(This was also my major complaint as a former customer of METABANK. Bank reforms are needed that actually protect consumers. Banks seem to be self-regulating at this time and taking advantage of the chaos that seems to be present in our US Senate and US House of Representatives. Consumers must demand laws that protect us because METABANK and any bank that operates using the same or similar practices are creating misery for consumers. On the other hand if consumers all wrote to all of the proper authorities, we may be able to get the proper controls in place that actually protect us in this downturned economy. The writer of this complaint has been placed in a seriously dangerous economic  situation due to the practices of our banking system. If you think that this can’t happen to you, please think again. You are being studied and you will be marketed to, targeted at your achilles tendon by these banks. Trust us when we tell you that the CEOs of METABANK are making over $700,000.00 in income per year while they are abusing the most vulnerable people. There is absolutely nothing fair nor noble in what banks like METABANK are doing. Hardworking people are being bilked for every penny they have earned through their own labor by banks like METABANK.)

I face eviction, even losing my job if I am not able to withdraw my hard earned money.

Not one time did I read on Turbo Tax that we would be denied withdrawing our money or even transferring it to another card?

 

This is virtually robbery and we need your help.

I am one step away from losing everything.

How can people do this to another person?

 ( We have been wondering this too!!! How can METABANK,banks like METABANK, NETSPEND and TURBOTAX do this to hardworking  human beings…. American Citizens, you must do more than complain online.)

Response by zr700

  • 3 months ago ( i.e. March 1, 2013)
  • NetSpend doesn’t have a list of ATM’s that they are partnered with that has free withdrawls?

  Response by nextonever

  • 3 months ago ( i.e. March 1, 2013)

That’s my point their virtually robbing you of your money and denying you withdrawing your entire refund.

Every time you withdraw you have the atm fee plus NetSpends fee.

All atms  were I live will only allow you to withdraw $300 with a fee of $3.00 plus the added the cards fee.

You can’t go to a bank to get a cash advance on your card either.

( This is true!!! To get the money off of a prepaid card of some sort that is promoted as a gimmick to get you to opt in to this form of a refund, the bank issuing the prepaid card must do a direct deposit, i.e. that issuing bank has access to all of your very personal financial data…. This makes all of us very vulnerable to unscrupulous banking systems that have time and time again proven themselves to be PREDATORY by their very design.)

Other pre-paid cards allow you to.

( Not necessarily true. There are no laws in place to protect consumers and the banks no longer operate in the traditional sense that we have known banks to be protectors of consumers’ assets on behalf of the consumer.)

Next if you call NetSpend they will charge you .50 Cents for every question you ask about you funds.

(This has been one of our complaints. However, we were told that this had been resolved. Apparently, we were told this prematurely…. Consumers must speak up in important places to people who can change laws so that the laws actually protect us as consumers!!!!!!!)

(Please note that METABANK and the NETWORK BRANDED PREPAID CARD ASSOCIATION in 2009 paid lobbyists in DC more than any other entity in the country or the world, even more than health provider insurance companies paid to lobbyists, to get these prepaid cards on the open market. These prepaid cards are an interest free loan to the bank and awful for consumers. Consumers must contact their elected officials and lobby for themselves because we have been grossly abused for years and years.)

The laws governing banking at this time are inadequate to be able to protect consumers properly….. if you vote, you must also contact your elected officials

Tag Cards; Yet another gimmick

This blog was set up after I had been scammed by METABANK when using their prepaid card.
I cannot advise anyone to use any form of a prepaid card.
The services you ask about are not within my focus area.

Prepaid Cards basically give an interest free loan to a large corporate entity.
After getting full control of my money, METABANK wouldn’t allow me access to my own money when I needed this the most.

METABANK lied to me about why I couldn’t get access to my own money and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to push the blame for what happened to me back off onto to me. The reality is that the very design of the METABANK PREPAID CARD was established to give METABANK full access and control of my cash money.

All of the METABANK PREPAID CARDS require cash money so they can be loaded or re-loaded.
Then METABANK begins to use various lies for why their customers can’t access their own cash money.

My advice has been that consumers should also only do business using cash money.
Do not hand over control of your money to an anonymous bank like METABANK
I cannot advise anyone to enter into a preformatted contract with a bank
that retains the right to change all of the rules without prior notice to the consumer.

Given the horrible customer service that I encountered personally and which I observed personally happening to another person, one who is extremely well educated, who was told that the METABANK PREPAID CARD didn’t work because he hadn’t used it properly. I saw that no merchants would accept his METABANK CARD. This gave me the impression that the PREPAID CARD by design is faulty and seriously working against consumer’s better interests.

http://www.tagpassiton.com/about/the-card.html

I am not familiar with the term “Tag Card” so I did an online search for “Tag Card”
I cannot advise anyone to use such a product because it gives control of your money to a third party.
Why not make a cash donation directly to the agency you wish to support?

The “Tag Card” information page says that they aren’t in it for the money just to serve non-profits, but you are still giving the money to a third party, a total stranger.

“The TAG! card is an incentive to discover a new way of spending – to make shopping better for you and to make a positive difference in your community. It’s simple to use, comes with a free and handy key-fob and will save you a fortune. Guard it with your life.”

The gimmick and the enticement is that you will save money by putting some money upfront. This upfront money will become totally out of your control.

“TAG! is a community loyalty movement. That’s a real thing, although we definitely had to make it up first.” The term customer loyalty and here “community loyalty” is also another gimmick. The consumer is being encouraged to buy more from a specific vendor over other vendors because of this promise for special benefits and price reductions for the consumer. Still, cash money is handed over to an anonymous entity and therefore taken out of your control.

The term “loyalty” is a marketing term to get merchants to opt in. The term “Loyalty” doesn’t imply better service or better products for consumers.

If you want to support your local community. Go to those places and spend cash money there. Please know that many merchants have told me that for them to accept plastic cards that they must pay a fee. Meanwhile, you as the consumer also have fees attached to using those plastic cards.

Thank you for bringing this term to my attention.

By its very design, it appears to be yet another way to scam consumers.
I would be very cautious about entering into such a contract.
Keep full control of your own money. Do not hand over control of your money to a total stranger, which was METABANK in my case. METABANK has been running seminars and workshops for other banks to promote their concept. I have no idea how it is marketed in those seminars/workshops. I imagine that other banks and potential corporate entities are told that their sales will increase. In the long term, they will lose customers if they are treated the way METABANK operates which is like a loan shark, collections agency and not at all like a real bank. METABANK claims to be a “Thrift Bank”; this term should also be a cautionary term for consumers.

Are you an employee of METABANK or another agency like it?
The employees of METABANK and their affiliates are the ones who are used to push their scam. Only the highest ranking CEOs make a huge profit. Many of the METABANK employees live at or below the poverty level.