Being that we are Washington Mutual customers we are getting very very nervous!
We are thinking about changing our bank to Capitol One or Bank of America...
any thoughts, Rhodies?

Avoid Cap One. They are notorious for fine print and changing conditions on you without notice.

I'm an EX Cap One customer.

I'm thinking about going to Wells Fargo if the whole... You know, CEO change doesn't work out for Wamu.

My job does do direct deposit(which is nice, most food service jobs don't allow it) so I'd still be getting free banking.

If you have less than $100,000 in that bank you are insured and are 99.99% safe. If you have any investments through them (other than CDs or government insured bonds) I'd be worried.

However, if I were you, I'd think about moving my money. The people who will really suffer are the people who own shares of their bank stock. Same as with Lehman. Back in the 80s, people who had investment securities with some of these brokerage houses that went belly-up eventually got their investments back, but some were tied up for years.

Oh, good thing I only have credit cards and around $400 in the bank right now.

I'd recommend buying WAMU stock. It's a bargain right now. I'm a WAMU customer and I'm not panicking at all.

Go to a credit union. They operate under different rules than banks, and I don't think the credit union market is in quite as much trouble.

Thank you for the info....
is Bank of America better? We really don't know what to do....we have always been so happy with Wamu, but we are getting very very nervous!

I really wouldn't want to go back to BofA. I've seen some bad articles about them on consumerist.

Capital One and their flicking pop up ads.......

I like the idea of a Credit Union......not as greedy (risk taking) as Banks by nature of their bylaws..........

Join a credit union

No doubt-go to a credit union!

Stay far away from Capitol One as others have said. I too had nothing but problems in the past with them.

CNNMoney is reporting Credit Card Issuers Face Bigger Losses Than Expected.

"The deterioration in credit cards is accelerating faster than many had expected," said Christopher Wolfe, an analyst at Fitch and one of the authors of the report published Friday. "The message we are trying to deliver is that things are going to get worse before they get better. Thus far, credit card businesses have been profitable but that could change."

Fitch analysts are expecting an increase in prime charge-off rates - or losses from defaults on card payments as a percentage of loans outstanding - to at least 7% by the end of the year from 6.4% in May.

Particularly vulnerable, say analysts, are credit card issuers such as Washington Mutual, or WaMu, and Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) with higher subprime exposure, a category of high-risk borrowers with high delinquency who fueled the mortgage crisis.
http://www.24hgold.com/viewarticle.aspx?la...ishingyear=2008

Capital One Financial 2nd-qtr earnings fall to $452.9 million on rising loan-loss provision
http://www.newser.com/article/d91vr5ro2/ca...-provision.html

I will join the chorus on the "Join a Credit Union" crowd. As a child I had a CU account, was enticed to banks by gimmicks as an adult, but went back to the CU because of bad customer service from every bank I went to. I'm happy.

How To Find a Local Bank

http://solari.com/campaign/HowToFindLocalBank.htm


In 1995, a senior Clinton Administration official shared with me the Administration's targets for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage volumes in low- and moderate-income communities. We had recently reviewed the Administration’s plans to increase government mortgage guarantees — most of these mortgages would also be pooled and sold as securities to investors. Even in 1995, I could see that these plans would create unserviceable debt loads in communities struggling with the falling incomes expected from globalization. Homeowners would default on mortgages while losses on mortgage-backed securities would drain retirement savings from 401(k)s and pension plans. Taxpayers would ultimately be hit with a large bill . . . but insiders would make a bundle.

I looked at the official and said that the Administration was planning on issuing more mortgages than there were houses or residents. “Shut up, this is none of your business,” the official snapped back.

Recently, we have seen numerous press accounts of bank and hedge fund losses from sub-prime mortgages. Remarkably, these reports imply that the losses are the result of a market downturn or contracting credit cycle. But there has been no mention of the extraordinary profits that were generated or who reaped them. There is no mention of who is poised to make a fortune on the bubble collapse. Even the most sophisticated commentators of our day are describing this financial coup d'etat as the unintentional consequence of "market forces."
http://solari.com/news/announcements/08-07-07/

Bank of America is one of the best positioned to weather the inevitable wave of bank closings, mergers, etc. that will take place over the next few years, IMO; even with the takeovers of ML and Countrywide that they have taken on. One that I like at least as well, maybe better, is Wells Fargo. Stay away from Cap One. The next wave of bad paper to make its way through the financial sector is credit card debt, and they are not well positioned in this regard. I see them getting slapped in the market quite severely.

Please check with a professional financial adviser as he leaps out of a window to his death because of bad investments that he made in his own accounts (talk fast before he hits the ground).

I am not an expert in these fields, but these are my thoughts.

BANKS:

Bankrate.com has a link to check the financial security of banks and credit unions. It also has comparisons of interest rates that allow you to find the best rates in the nation, or best rates in your area (for convenience). The financial security is measured by opinions of other bankers, so the rating may not indicate the true strength of the bank.

I was a member of the recently failed IndyMac bank. It offered reasonable interest rates and I figured that I could get my money back through FDIC if it failed (I did). It failed, not because of bad investments, but because people heard of the low rating and took their money out (run on the bank).

I was thinking that it might be a better idea to convert dollars to Euros, and put the money in a bank in England. That way, you not only have the security of a bank and the interest rates of a bank, you can also take advantage of the exchange rate as the dollar is devalued relative to European currency. How stable is the Euro? Well, Europe has a tendency to have wars now and then, and the Euro might be devastated by that (or by a threat of that).

Another thing that you might consider is repos. Many people lost their land, and the land is dirt cheap now (in some areas). Maybe land prices will continue to drop for a while?

Thank you, one and all for your input!
We have some serious thinking to do!!

I agree, avoid Capital One. They have no credit limit, which means your credit score can be automaticlly f*ked up without you making a mistake.