Comments on: Can I lose all my money in Wamu checking account due to the banking crisis? Which other bank do you recommend?

By: Kris

Kris — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

No. Everything is fine. Continue to bank at WaMu if you like. Eventually Chase will be taking over all area branch locations, online banking, etc…

By: Smartass

Smartass — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

Everybody here will say "don’t worry, you’re FDIC insured"

THINK AGAIN
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&refer=home&sid=amZxIbcjZISU

Wiring to a foreign country may be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. So be careful, you can just cash out and hide it under your mattress, or buy some gold bricks.

By: BigBashBro

BigBashBro — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

Everyone is talking about the FDIC and that our money is safe? But the question is . . . can we get our money tomorrow? Who knows how long it will take for the the government to pay each and every depositor his/her money back? What happens if I want to withdraw all my money tomorrow and take it to another bank?

By: Judy

Judy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

Splitting up money in one bank (even different branches), under one name, does not avoid the $100K FDIC limit – the limit is for the total amount in ALL accounts under one name in one bank. If you have over $100K, it would have to be in different banks, or under different names.

By: Religious Student

Religious Student — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

As long as you bank in with an FDIC account then your money is safe (up to 100,000).

If you wire your money, the IRS and other government agencies may flag you for trying to sponsor terrorists or tax evasion. (all depends on the amount of money you wire)

By: 7S282

7S282 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

They are FDIC insured so unless you have exceeded the limits of insurance I wouldn’t worry about it. They have an insurance calculator that you can use to double check on it the link is listed below. You can have more than $100,000 in deposits in a bank and still be insured. For example ira’s are FDIC insured up to $250,000. Say if you had an a cd for just a $100,000 and just your name was on it. You would only have a 100k of FDIC insurance on it. But if you had 6 beneficiaries on it you could have that cd be $600k and still have it insured. It all depends on how those accounts are titled. Oh and as far as the guy saying wamu can’t fail… Guess again.. To be perfectly honest I would seriously look at going with a community bank. A lot of these banks that are having these issues got involved with these mortgage backed securities and subprime lending and now are having issues with them. A lot of community banks never got involved with the whole risky subprime/mortgage backs so they are alot more stable than these insititutions that thought they were too big to fail..

By: Icarus

Icarus — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

If you have less than $100,000 in your account you are not at risk because your account is insured up to $100,000 by the FDIC. If you have more than $100,000 in your account, split up your deposits among several accounts so that you will have no balance in excess of $100,000. Each account is insured by the FDIC for up to $100,000.

By: Varun M

Varun M — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

If you have anything less than $100,000, you don’t have to worry since you are covered with FDIC policies. But, if you have more than that amount, you should put that money in another account or maybe in a new account.
Go for something like JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citizens Bank, or Bank of America.

By: mccleary97502

mccleary97502 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

If you are uncomfortable with Wa Mu, then switch to B of A. I read in the paper they are buying up the banks that are failing, so they must be solvent.

By: geturpopcrnready

geturpopcrnready — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:18:08 +0000

Ok, i work at Wamu and what some of these people have said are true but some of the information is incorrect. Miachel R is partly correct with the FDIC insurance but there is more to 100,000 FDIC insurcance. Your money at Wamu, even in the situation we are in, is ok. They only thing that would happen if one of the banks started bidding on wamu and we got bought out the only thing that would change is the name of the bank. You accounts would not change at all. Wamu itself can NOT fail we have over 182 Billion dollars in deposit and of 50 Billion in liquidity. And FDIC has over 450 Billion dollars ready if something like that did happen. But believe me because we have that large of deposit base and that much in liquidity, there is no way it can fail…we can merge but we can not fail as a bank. Now the whole FDIC thing, yes FDIC insures 100,000 PER OWNERSHIP. Its not all about how much money you have in the bank its all about ownership. For example let say i have an account that is a single owner and it has 200,000 in it. Ok, im over FDIC because a SINGLE OWER has over 100,000 in ONE account. But lets say i add my girlfriend as a CO-Owner. That ONE account that has 200,000 in but now has 2 OWNERS, is now insured by FDIC. Because on that one account FDIC insures me for 100k and my girlfriend 100k. So because we both now own that account they insure all of the 200k. Hope i helped