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Wells Fargo Click-Through Thuggery

I had a nasty shock when I logged onto my on-line bank account.  I was there to check my account activity to verify my balance and arrival of a funds transfer.

{tags: Wells Fargo trustworthiness online banking orcmid}

Agree Or Else

What I encountered instead were two EULA-like statements and a mandatory click-through before I could access my account on-line.

The first statement was a single page E-Sign Consent document.  It constituted my consent to receive all information in electronic form.  The wording suggested to me that I would no longer receive paper statements. 

Taking the option to decline resulted in a warning that I could be denied on-line services and reverted to whatever there was before.  I have always had an on-line account, starting at the end of 1999, so I have no idea what would happen.    I did not confirm that I was declining and chose to agree.

The second statement presented the Wells Fargo On-Line Access agreement.  I could decline its provisions and be left in the same state as before, or I could claim that I’ve read and accepted the conditions of that agreement.  The text of the agreement is 69k, has 11, 000 words, and occupies 22 pages when viewed in Microsoft Word.  I obviously clicked through without reading the thing.  I saved the text file to disk by pasting it into Windows Notepad.

Since I would apparently be denied access if I did not accept both agreements, I did so without any clue what the consequences of agreement are.  My account appeared as normal and I was able to confirm that the expected funds transfer had been credited.  I also saw that my use of an ATM machine in British Columbia during Northern Voices cost me $5.00 each time. 

Checking it Out

I read the lengthy agreement off line.  It seems to be focused services that I either don’t use (brokerage, on-line bill pay) or didn’t even know about (e-mail alerts about account activity).  The only portion of interest to me is the availability of statements in PDF and viewable/downloadable on-line. 

When I went back on-line and explored my account preferences, it appears that I am still set up to receive paper statements and there isn’t anything that changes for me. 

Why the Bullying?

 I can’t comprehend why forcing click-through under the threat of loss of services is considered an useful way to promote addition of new account features.  It seemed to me, until I had a chance to look everything over, that this was a way to force me to agree to receiving my statements on-line.  Now I’m not sure what it was.  Badly done for sure. 

I should receive a paper statement any day now.  It will be interesting to see what may accompany that information.   

I’m making a list of the automatic deposits that I have into this account, as well as those services (PayPal and MSN Radio come to mind) that are paid from this account.  Apart from needing to provide some overlap and having to pay a monthly fee when the automatic deposits go elsewhere, I think I can manage to switch over the account and then close it.  Then I’ll have several months before I have to move my safety-deposit box.  I’d thought about this before.  It’s time to act.

---

[update 2006-02-15-22:28 Well, there’s one consequence so far.  I just received an e-mail welcoming me to the on-line bill payment feature.  In fact, I have not opted into on-line bill payment.  I tried it once and I gave it up as cumbersome.  I also don’t want to maintain the minimum balance that it takes to have on-line bill payment be free.  I have this ominous sense that all I’ve accomplished is arrange to have my e-mail inbox filled with friendly offers.]

[update 2006-02-19-11:39 I received a second version of the “welcome to on-line bill payment” e-mail before life quieted down.  My paper statement is the same as always and I see no indication that there’s anything different happening with my on-line banking account.  I also see in a 2006-02-17 San Francisco Chronicle article by David Lazarus (thanks to Scott Loftesness) that this scary forced click-through is happening to thousands of us.  I thought maybe it was me, especially because of the lame “our records show that we failed to obtain this agreement from you” that I was presented for an account that was set up in 1999 and has been in continuous use since.  I love how the Wells Fargo folk dismiss their scaring the pajamas off us while claiming to be providing us a service.  The last time I checked, they are playing with my money and this level of cluelessness is no reassurance.]

posted by orcmid at 2/15/2006 09:51:32 PM