Whew!  Finally did it.  Niche.LA finally moved our business checking account from Wells Fargo to Southland Credit Union in Downtown LA.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while, but to be honest, I didn’t know of any credit unions that offer business checking accounts.  I’ve used First Entertainment and Vista Partners for my personal since I’ve been working in LA, so I’ve long favored credit unions over large banks, but neither offer business checking accounts to their members. Even Google searches came up empty.  I just assumed they didn’t exist for business checking.  But that’s why Facebook is better than Google, which just spits out links based on some mysterious algorithm.

Status Update: Is there a credit union alternative for small business checking accounts? It’s mortifying getting caught up in Occupy LA while making deposits for Niche.LA Video Art. I use CU for my personal accounts but they don’t offer business checking.

In less than 1 hour, I had 2 suggestions from friends with Downtown businesses for a credit union 3 blocks away that offers everything we need for a business account.  Southland.  No monthly fees and a $25 minimum in a savings account.

This isn’t a move just to go with the herd from Occupy LA though I admit to not wanting to be seen at the Wells Fargo atm machine.  Wells Fargo is a terrible bank.  True Story: They automatically enrolled me in a Rewards Program without asking and deducted $25 from my account.  When I called to opt out and get the fee back, they refused.  Multiple times.  With the same exact response as if they were reading from a script.  There is something extremely fishy about charging a fee for a service you opted out when first opening the account and then refusing to refund the fee.

Second Reason and the most baffling of all: I deposited a check from a trusted client, someone I’ve casked checks from plenty of times.  A few days later, I get a letter stating Wells Fargo could not locate the bank.  They deducted the amount of the check and charged me a $15 fee.  This is from a bank they’ve had no problems cashing checks from before.  When I called to ask what it meant they “could not locate the bank,” they even went so far as to suggest it was a bad check.  Here’s the catch: In the letter, Wells Fargo included a front-and-back photocopy of the same “check” from the bank they could not locate and asked me to deposit that as if the second time would be the charm.  I emailed the CEO and got a letter stating he could not do anything about it.  That’s how they do business, I guess.

Each time, I was able to get the fees refunded, but it was like pulling teeth.  Hours with customer service.  I know I’m a tough customer, but WF makes banking an unpleasant experience when it doesn’t need to be.  Small amounts, but I have to believe they do this on a scale of millions of customers.  At this point, I’d rather frequent a business that doesn’t continuously screw with my time and it’s looking like Southland might be our ticket.  Looking forward to hassle free banking.

Thanks Celia and Mitch for the suggestion!