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You don't work for Wells Fargo do you?? He he
The Wells Fargo customer service is pretty good once you get used to it.
Lots of teething problems at first. Here's a few small issues but no biggies really.
-They kept wanting my Social Security Number. Eventually my ITIN was recorded in its place.
-Also there is no restriction on the length of account numbers in the US so remembering them is impossible.
-Unlike Australian customer service they are trained to be robotic in their dealings with you. Very little personality and lots of upselling.
-They also have very little understanding of overseas customer requirements but are happy to find someone who does. BTW you will always be told to 'Have a nice day' despite having told them you're about to go to bed. It can be frustrating at times.
-The auto voice also asks you for your atm card pin which is foreign to us in Oz. We never tell anyone our atm pin, not even a recorded voice.
petejac1 wrote:In regards to the Wires with Wells Fargo/Wachovia, WF has a system called Direct Pay which seems to be cheaper then Wiring and easier, check out their website.Unfortunately for non US citizens Direct Pay appears to be available through Business Banking for which you need a Social Security Number.
Basically any transactions made through Business Banking require this form of ID.From the Business site you can’t pay even $50 to someone unless you first set them up in the WF Bill Pay system. This can also only be done with a social security number.
The solution is to have a Personal Checking Account. Then you can pay people reasonable amounts.Amounts over 50k need to be wired by phone using a special pin number which needs to be sent to you in Australia.
Apparently you call the number, enter the pin then speak to the representative. ( I only received my pin in the mail today, took 5 days) to get here.I’ll report back once I’ve tried the system…
Opening a US Account from Australia
HSBC Premier suffered from the rule changes in April 2011.
After switching to HSBC in March/April after we were told they were able to open a US account from Australia, we were suddenly told the rules had changed and we could no longer open an account from Australia for investment purposes unless we ‘owned a property in the US’. Further investigating discovered that we had to have ‘a US property which was our primary place of residence’ before HSBC USA would open an account for us to buy property.
What? Yes. We needed to live in the US permanently. But they didn’t want to say that in those words. We gave up and flew to the US and opened an account with Wachovia.Re: Wachovia-Wells Fargo Transition
Be warned. Wiring money from your own account in the US to another US account holder is not as easy as here. Particularly not during the ‘transition’ to Wells Fargo.
The Wachovia staff are under the pump and don’t really know what they’re doing anyway. Most days they’re in training. Processes have changed. We are still waiting for the wire transfer docs to be filed and our pin # returned to us. (over 1 month of stuffing around so far).
Patience is required!
My time saving tip? Ring Wells Fargo yourself, get the correct information then tell your ex Wachovia banker how it all works! (Yes at 11pm our ES time)
