WaMu: Should I jump ship?

[jtvang125]

I know that they're FDIC insured but my concern is how long will it take to get access to my funds again if they happen to go belly up or get bought out.

If I should jump ship a CU would probably be the best choice but I don't think I qualify for any CU membership. Given that what other banks should I go with?

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: jtvang125
I know that they're FDIC insured but my concern is how long will it take to get access to my funds again if they happen to go belly up or get bought out.

If I should jump ship a CU would probably be the best choice but I don't think I qualify for any CU membership. Given that what other banks should I go with?

At many CU's, all you have to do is live in a certain area as a membership requirement sometimes.

Im with WaMu and not too worried about it.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31

Originally posted by: jtvang125
I know that they're FDIC insured but my concern is how long will it take to get access to my funds again if they happen to go belly up or get bought out.

If I should jump ship a CU would probably be the best choice but I don't think I qualify for any CU membership. Given that what other banks should I go with?

At many CU's, all you have to do is live in a certain area as a membership requirement sometimes.

Im with WaMu and not too worried about it.

this. and that.

 

[Special K]

With every other bank that has failed so far this year, the FDIC shut the bank down on a Friday and funds were available by no later than the following Monday, IIRC.

 

[compuwiz1]

Golden 1 credit union

There is a drop down to see if you live in an eligible county.

 

[kranky]

There won't be any delay in getting to your money. I assune you have less than $100,000 there.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: kranky
There won't be any delay in getting to your money. I assune you have less than $100,000 there.

this

 

[jpeyton]

I'd jump ship regardless, just on principle alone.

No point in doing your banking with a company that's going under.

 

[GeneValgene]

i thinking of buying wamu stock...you think it's a good buy right now?

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: Ocguy31

Originally posted by: jtvang125
I know that they're FDIC insured but my concern is how long will it take to get access to my funds again if they happen to go belly up or get bought out.

If I should jump ship a CU would probably be the best choice but I don't think I qualify for any CU membership. Given that what other banks should I go with?

At many CU's, all you have to do is live in a certain area as a membership requirement sometimes.

Im with WaMu and not too worried about it.

this. and that.

Fail. OP take your money out it'll be a pain in the ass to withdraw when FDIC takes over.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: GeneValgene
i thinking of buying wamu stock...you think it's a good buy right now?

double fail.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
I'd jump ship regardless, just on principle alone.

No point in doing your banking with a company that's going under.

I'll be pretty sad. I banked with bofa + wells fargo as well and I like WaMu the best.

 

[jpeyton]

WaMu and Lehman are both sinking ships.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: jpeyton
I'd jump ship regardless, just on principle alone.

No point in doing your banking with a company that's going under.

I'll be pretty sad. I banked with bofa + wells fargo as well and I like WaMu the best.

Same here. Anybody want to recommend other banks?

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: jpeyton
I'd jump ship regardless, just on principle alone.

No point in doing your banking with a company that's going under.

I'll be pretty sad. I banked with bofa + wells fargo as well and I like WaMu the best.

Same here. Anybody want to recommend other banks?

I've banked with WF for 10 years. I hate them but they have the strongest balance sheet of the big banks out there. US Bank is pretty solid too if you're looking for a mid sized bank.

WF actually treats you pretty well if you have >$25k. But their rates are shit (both on savings and loans).

 

[sciencewhiz]

Originally posted by: JS80
Fail. OP take your money out it'll be a pain in the ass to withdraw when FDIC takes over.

As other people said, you might not have access to the money for a few days, but otherwise you'll be able to withdraw it as usual. In many cases, they have let CDs stay at the same interest rates (WaMu has great rates right now).

If everyone withdraws, you guarantee failure.

 

[NFS4]

If they go under, how would that affect my WAMU credit card (my only account with them).

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: NFS4
If they go under, how would that affect my WAMU credit card (my only account with them).

It would just be sold off to another bank or financial institution. They would hold any debt and you would be paying them instead of WaMu.

 

[JTsyo]

Originally posted by: kranky
There won't be any delay in getting to your money. I assune you have less than $100,000 there.

Is the 100K a hard limit or is it just there for safety? I would think that they would cover over 100K unless a lot of banks were going under. Ever heard of people losing funds over the 100K mark when a bank closes?

 

[Chrono]

how's ingdirect looking? should I stay? I think I'm just going to dump all my funds into ingdirect if that's the case.

 

[Kyteland]

Originally posted by: JTsyo

Originally posted by: kranky
There won't be any delay in getting to your money. I assune you have less than $100,000 there.

Is the 100K a hard limit or is it just there for safety? I would think that they would cover over 100K unless a lot of banks were going under. Ever heard of people losing funds over the 100K mark when a bank closes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fdic

The government will not insure anything over $100,000.

You would be stupid to have over $100,000 in a personal bank account right now. Everything under that limit is guaranteed by the FDIC. If you have more than that, the difference is paid out from the assets remaining to the bank. Given that the bank is failing, you probably are only going to get a fraction of that difference back.

Of course people have lost money over the FDIC limit. In the recent IndyMac failure there are a lot of cases where people only got a fraction of their account back because they were foolish enough to have >$100,000 in the account. If you have that much money you should have it spread out in multiple accounts in multiple banks so that the entire balance is FDIC insured. If you have so much money that it's impractical to do this then you probably shouldn't be getting your advice from the internet. Hire a professional.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz

Originally posted by: JS80
Fail. OP take your money out it'll be a pain in the ass to withdraw when FDIC takes over.

As other people said, you might not have access to the money for a few days, but otherwise you'll be able to withdraw it as usual. In many cases, they have let CDs stay at the same interest rates (WaMu has great rates right now).

If everyone withdraws, you guarantee failure.

Opening new accounts, new checks, changing payment info, billpay, changing direct deposit, etc, it's a pain in the ass to do on the fly might as well do it now.

"If everyone withdraws, you guarantee failure" is not a good excuse for keeping your money at a not so sound institution. Tell that to the IndyMac depositors.

 

[CPA]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing, though I've been a longtime customer with WAMU. I'm thinking about going to Chase because they have a promotion where you get $125 for opening a checking account with direct deposit.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: Special K
With every other bank that has failed so far this year, the FDIC shut the bank down on a Friday and funds were available by no later than the following Monday, IIRC.

Only 11 banks have been shut down this year. That's the same as in 2002 and noone was panicking then.

List of closed banks.

 

[PhaZe]

How do you know if a bank is in bad shape?