PNC Takes Over National City: An Inconsiderate Truth for Customers

Monday, October 19th, 2009 @ 10:28 am | We Think

Regular readers of this site are familiar with the items we publish from time to time as a public service providing information the consumer can use about banking. The following is another in the continuing series of banking updates:

National City Bank is finally manifesting the results of the merger announced last year with PNC Bank. All changes will be effective early in November 2009.

We’re not so sure this is a good idea. Right now our local National City Bank offers services and features we really like. This actual real life merger with PNC threatens to change all the things we like about National City and deprive us of the convenience of services we came to National City for in the first place.

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For example: we like the fact we currently have a personal savings account with National City with no monthly fee. Effective November 9, 2009 not only will our personal savings account become a PNC Bank personal savings account, there will be a monthly fee of $3 assessed. We’ll be closing that account on November 8th in anticipation the banking executives will on this point be keeping their promise to charge a monthly fee. We do not understand how the bankers have the temerity to charge us to keep a tiny portion of what we earn after we loaned them billions to stay afloat after they the experts blew all that money. We’ll be stashing the cash under the mattress or in a Mason jar in a secret spot in the backyard come November 8th.

Another subtle announcement included in the recently distributed “Dear Valued Customer” letter from Neil F. Hall, Executive Vice President, Retail Bank, PNC Bank, is on Friday November 6, 2009, at 3pm on that day, not only will online banking and mobile banking be unavailable until 8am Monday; telephone banking will be unavailable until 6am on Monday; and branches will be closing for the weekend at 4pm. Balance information by way of ATM will be unavailable over the weekend. Customers will, however, be able to use PNC Bank Check Cards and Banking Cards.

In other words you’ll not be able to deposit your check if you have a paper check instead of direct deposit; if you have direct deposit you will not be able to verify the funds are in the account because…. the information will be unavailable through the usual electronic means until Monday morning.

We question the intention of the decision makers who chose to shut down everything early; especially since we found Neil F. Hall, sits on the board of some organization that calls itself the Consumer Bankers Association. We realize the name has not a thing to do with consumers and is all about bankers!

We say it would be far more prudent to wait two hours to shut down all of these features at 6pm…even waiting until 8pm to close the branches and go offline with these services in order to affect the changes in the technology for all forms of banking, branch, telephone, online, ATM, mobile in order to inconvenience fewer customers.

It’s true no one who will be banking with your firm will be happy about being unable to access the information for their accounts; essentially conducting transactions for in the blind for an entire weekend.

At least by staying open a little later to accommodate your customers who still have jobs and receive paychecks you’ll be helping them get through the weekend as you prepare to do what you bankers do.

Is it asking too much for the PNC Bankers, James E. Rohr, Chief Executive Officer or Neil F. Hall, Executive Vice President, to reconsider the inconvenience you will cause for the National City customers ? Most of the customers, both current PNC and new from National City, are folks from whom you received a huge monetary bailout. How about cutting us a break fellas? We surely gave you and those of your ilk one helluva break.

If this request can not be honored we’ll just take our banking business to some other financial institution.. preferably a strong, small, local bank that has a real genuine interest in the community in which we live and conduct business. Or maybe we’ll start a bank of our own!

If you or your family, friends or business associates are National City customers who are soon to be PNC customers, and you agree with uswe would advise you to take your banking business to some other institution. We wonder if there are any left that sincerely care about the little banking customer?

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