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National City said to be looking for a buyer

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Started 4 years ago by The Hegemo
Latest reply from gramarye

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The Hegemo
Delusions of Grandview
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National City Corp., the once-mighty Northeast Ohio icon that employs 7,800 people in this nine-county region, said today that it's looking at "strategic alternatives" that could include the sale of the bank.
The stunning announcement comes two weeks after talk that the bank, with $140 billion in assets, is shopping for a buyer.
While National City would not elaborate, financial analyst Richard Bove of Punk, Ziegel & Co. in New York said strategic alternatives is "a code word for 'it's up for sale.' "
Short of an outright sale of the entire bank, National City could restructure itself by selling certain businesses, or it could sell a stake in the company to a large domestic or foreign bank, said Graeme Deans, a partner in the financial services consulting practice at A.T. Kearney Inc. in Toronto.
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I do my banking with National City, and now I'm debating if I want to go ahead and shop for another bank now. I know it's extremely unlikely I'd lose my money; I'm more concerned about just winding up with a bank not of my choice and with policies/fees/locations/etc that don't suit me. On the other hand, changing all of my direct bill payments, direct deposit, etc would be a massive pain. Any other National City customers out there? What are your plans?

Posted 4 years ago #
Matthew
Hilltop
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I went through this with Bank One into Chase. I was in college and transferring money from a loan acct each month with Bank One. Then one day they started putting 12 day holds on my transfers saying it was Chase policy. I promptly left. Good luck with National City.

Posted 4 years ago #
joev
Merion Village
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The Hegemo wrote
What are your plans?
I would wait and see how it settles out before changing all that stuff.

Posted 4 years ago #
holt
NW German Village
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The Hegemo wrote
I do my banking with National City, and now I'm debating if I want to go ahead and shop for another bank now. I know it's extremely unlikely I'd lose my money; I'm more concerned about just winding up with a bank not of my choice and with policies/fees/locations/etc that don't suit me. On the other hand, changing all of my direct bill payments, direct deposit, etc would be a massive pain. Any other National City customers out there? What are your plans?
If you have money in a savings, checking or CD's, your money up to $100K is guaranteed by the FDIC. No need to sweat losing it.
I also went through the Bank One ---> Chase conversion. There were a few policy changes I didnt catch... but for the most part it was a seamless move for me. If someone buys NC, they may just acquire it and not change it over anyway. Alot of smaller banks are owned by larger region banks from other areas. I would wait it out... and if it does sell and the changeover is not good for you... change banks.

Posted 4 years ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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The Hegemo wrote
National City Corp., the once-mighty Northeast Ohio icon that employs 7,800 people in this nine-county region, said today that it's looking at "strategic alternatives" that could include the sale of the bank.
The stunning announcement comes two weeks after talk that the bank, with $140 billion in assets, is shopping for a buyer.
While National City would not elaborate, financial analyst Richard Bove of Punk, Ziegel & Co. in New York said strategic alternatives is "a code word for 'it's up for sale.' "
I do my banking with National City, and now I'm debating if I want to go ahead and shop for another bank now. I know it's extremely unlikely I'd lose my money; I'm more concerned about just winding up with a bank not of my choice and with policies/fees/locations/etc that don't suit me. On the other hand, changing all of my direct bill payments, direct deposit, etc would be a massive pain. Any other National City customers out there? What are your plans?
If you're just talking about retail banking, it's not just "unlikely" you'd lose your deposits, it's impossible (up to $100,000) because of the FDIC. As far as winding up with a bank not of your choice, you've got all the time in the world to think and act on this, and moving now would probably be highly premature. After all, they haven't even found an interested buyer yet, much less one willing to make a bid. Then the bid would have to go through shareholder votes and all the SEC's requirements; I'm pretty sure National City is publicly held. Only then can they close on the deal. You've got time to wait. Without at least knowing the buyer, you have no way of knowing what retail banking shops near you might close (because of redundancy) or not.
Admittedly, I'm looking at this from the other side; I bank with Huntington, and their bigger problems may lie on the side of buying (Sky Bank), not selling. However, I know a couple of people who banked with BankOne before it sold to J.P. Morgan Chase, and I never heard them complain about the transition. (Didn't ask directly, though.)
My advice: don't actually think about moving your money until they actually announce a change you don't like, not just when the possibility is floating out there but might not come to pass unless many more stars line up against you. Save yourself some needless worrying.
EDIT: I typed that before Matthew said that about the hold policies. Well then. If they pull crap like that on you, don't hesitate to leave. Retail banking is one of the easiest industries to get up and change providers in, even if you use online bill pay and a bunch of other services that take a little bit of time to set up.

Posted 4 years ago #
dru
IV
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gramarye wrote However, I know a couple of people who banked with BankOne before it sold to J.P. Morgan Chase, and I never heard them complain about the transition.
Although it took a couple of years for it to finally sink in, I loathe Chase. They have started to nickle and dime for things you took for granted with B1. Their interest rates are also horrible, both for interest bearing accounts and for loans. One has to begin to wonder about your bank when one realizes all of your major financial obligations (mortgage, car loans, etc...) are at different institutions because your own bank always offers you the absolute worst rates and terms. It finally hit rock bottom with some atrocious customer service related to over 5k in fraudulent transactions while abroad.
Of course all of my bill paying etc.. routes through Chase. So it is a tough call to disentangle our finances. But one of my major goals this summer is to research new banks and move everything. I am looking into some of the non brick-and-mortar accounts - HSBC, Schwab, etc... - so if anyone has any recommedations, I am accepting input.

Posted 4 years ago #
dredd

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Regardless of what happens, you won't lose your money and any buyout will take YEARS to complete. I have worked at NCC and Key. Ncc is a great bank lead by good people, I'm sad to see it having problems. Just another blow to the Cleveland economy. Our government needs to step up soon or the mortgage crisis is going to destroy us all. Anyhow, I still have my NCC checking/savings account and don't plan on changing.

Posted 4 years ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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Getting set up with online bill pay is pretty easy. Don't let that stop you. You can set it up however you want, too: I have some where "online bill pay" is really just a recurring charge to my debit card, some where the bill is charged to my credit card and I just pay that off every month (this is the best way to do it IMO because you rack up crazy rewards points!), and some with real electronic funds transfer (what banks usually mean when they say online bill pay).
My school loans are actually paid through Bank of America, which is a huge operation but doesn't have branches in the Midwest, yet. (Actually, given the buying spree of distressed financial institutions they've been on lately, it wouldn't even surprised me if they looked at putting a bid on National City ... would given them an instant Midwest footprint, and BoA is loaded.) As far as funds transfer go, I know they're easy: I get next-business-day funds transfers up to $2000 for free to or from the bank. I transfer funds from Huntington (where my salary is directly deposited) to Bank of America every month and pay my school loans from BoA because I get an interest rate reduction. No fees on any of those transfers. (Ironically, I *would* incur a fee if I initiated the transfer through Huntington ... that's a new policy of theirs, and one I'm not so happy about ... but for some reason I don't get charged that fee if I initiate the transfer through BoA.) I wouldn't mind seeing them out here in the Midwest.
Bottom line: don't let the prospect of "disentangling your finances" slow you down. If they're nickel-and-diming you, screw 'em. There are a bazillion ways to start paying bills through a different bank, most of which take very little time to set up.
Huntington overall has been pretty solid for me; I've been with them since 2000. If this were 2006, I'd still be giving you a rock solid endorsement for them. I still like them, and I'm not actively shopping around for different options, but I'll admit my endorsement of them is less enthusiastic than it was. A-/B+ instead of an A. Before that, I was with a local central Ohio bank called Park National, based out of Newark in Licking County. It was OK but nothing to write home about. Park, Huntington, and BoA are the only three I've ever used, so any other recommendation I'd give you would be secondhand.

Posted 4 years ago #