Banks Hiding the Most Fees
3. Capital One
>Online Disclosures: 5 of 9
>Information Available on Account Webpage: 3 of 9
>Information Unavailable Online or at Branch:1 of 9
>Revenue: $18.53 billion
Information about monthly fees and minimum deposits at Capital One (NYSE: COF) are readily accessible on an account holder’s webpage. But if customers want to find out about fees for nonsufficient funds, overdrafts and overdraft transfers, they will have to take a trip to the local branch. “The problem is it’s very hard to comparison shop between bank branches,” Weinstock said. Worse yet, information about the existence or the amount of the extended overdraft penalty fee is not available online or at a branch.
Capital One specializes in a number of retail banking businesses, particularly mortgages, credit cards and auto loans. Capital One significantly expanded its online banking business when it bought ING DIRECT, USA from a large Dutch financial-services firm in February. The buyout cost Capital One $9 billion and added approximately $80 billion to its deposit base.
2. BB&T
>Online Disclosures: 3 of 9
>Information Available on Account Webpage: 3 of 9
>Information Unavailable Online or at Branch: 0 of 9
>Revenue: $10 billion
Branch Banking and Trust, or BB&T as it is known to the public, stays true to its name — at least to the branch part. While all the disclosures measured are available somewhere, six would require a visit to a brick-and-mortar location — more than any other bank measured. In fact, none of the disclosures involving overdrafts are available online. The North Carolina-based bank is also one of only three banks — with PNC (NYSE: PNC) and SunTrust (NYSE: STI) — that does not have its posting order placed online.
BB&T (NYSE: BBT) specializes in wealth management, retirement planning, mortgages and insurance. It business and corporate banking operations are of only modest size compared to those of the large money center banks like Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and Citigroup. The firm does most of its business through approximately 1,800 financial centers in North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, Florida, Alabama, Indiana, Texas and Washington, D.C.
1. HSBC USA
>Online Disclosures: 3 of 9
>Information Available on Account Webpage: 2 of 9
>Data Unavailable Online or at Branch: 4 of 9
>Revenue: $94.80 billion (Entire HSBC)
Getting checking account information from HSBC (NYSE: HBC) is incredibly difficult. While all other banks have most or all of the information available online or at a branch, four of the nine disclosures are not available for customers at HSBC. Even the minimum amount required to open an account is nowhere to be found. “We don’t know if that means (the bank) doesn’t charge these fees or not,” Weinstock said. “But if they are free, let’s put that out there.” Two of the remaining five disclosures require a trip to the local branch, which is problematic because the London-based bank cut back on the number of branches in the United States last year.
HSBC’s U.S. operations are only a modest part of the parent corporation. Its largest divisions are in Mexico, Hong Kong and Europe. The company’s corporate financial operations do business with large global companies and governments. HSBC has among the largest bond and equity trading operations in the world.
Samuel Weigley
