The Banking Fiasco of 2007: The Netbank-Ing Direct Debacle

Let's pretend that because of the high cost of living in America, you had to make the monumental decision to move to a country where you could afford to live, like Mexico. Let's pretend that not only can you find cheap living here but the costs of treating your very expensive and incurable illness is really very affordable. You can buy the medicines you need out of pocket and see the doctor for about $3.00 per office call. Paradise? You betcha!

Then one day when trying to get some cash from the ATM with the only tie you've kept to America, an American bank account, you find your card doesn't work any longer. You have money but have absolutely no access to your funds. You amble from ATM to ATM in the little colonial Mexican town in which you live only to find the same thing: NO CASH.

Most Americans I know, and suspect more, have kept an American bank account open. This is probably a very safe thing to do since currently there is no such thing as insured savings or checking in Mexico as American banks with FDIC insurance. If a bank in Mexico folds, you are out of luck. So, smartly, you keep the bulk of your dough in an American bank and only withdraw what you need for your monthly living expenses.

Sensing a disaster of unknown proportions, you quickly make an international call to your American bank to find out why your ATM card won't cough up some cash. What you find, much to your surprise, is that your bank was shut down by the American Federal Government. Your bank was full of sneaky and conniving officials that got themselves into no end of trouble. Your bank is no more.

No worries, you reason! After all, there is the FDIC insurance and another bank, you learn, is taking over the accounts at your old bank.

Something nags the back of your brain, however. You got caught with your financial pants down in all of this, so to speak. You received no snail-mail or e-mail warning you of an impending disaster. You would later find online scores and scores of others in the same boat as yourself. But, more on that later.

So, you make some calls and are assured that your world hasn't fallen down on your head. You are told on the very expensive international long distance call that you need do nothing. You are reassured that the new bank, which I would love to now name but, what the hell-ING Direct of Delaware-is going to take over your now dead and buried bank account. You would get, they tell you, new everything. A Welcoming Packet with your named embossed across it is on its way.

But wait! You wait and pace while trying to stave off everyone who wants money. The electric company will soon turn off your lights, the telephone company will turn off your phone and your Mexican landlord wants the rent. In a panic you again call the bank in the States.

Now you are told you will not be granted an account because you live in another country. The ING Direct bank, a bank begun in another country other than America, not only refuses to grant you an account based on the fact you live in Mexico as your primary residence, but they will not wire money to you. In fact, you later learn they don't send or receive international wires to or from anywhere.

ING Direct makes promises to send you the balance you had in Netbank within 7-10 days. It is more than six weeks later and you are still waiting. In the meantime, you have money to which you have no access. You have many health problems, one of which is life threatening. Without the medications, you will die. Mexican friends rally around you and give you food and money for medicine. All the while, ING bank is hanging on to your money. You wonder, "What are they doing with it? Having a Christmas party?"

You begin looking into this matter and find some very interesting points.

Though ING Direct told you they would never in a million years give you an account because of your primary place of residence, they lied. You find two American expats living in the very same Mexican town as you who also had accounts with the defunct Netbank. ING not only granted these two moneyed ladies accounts with them, but also had on their banking records with Netbank that their primary place of residence is Mexico! ING allowed them to give a relative's address in America to meet the alleged Federal requirement to have on the account an American address as their place of residence.

ING not only would not permit me to do that, but also did not tell me that was even an option. In fact, the letter the customer service person told me was sent and to which I never responded arrived in the Mexican city where I live on December 29^th and was backdated November 16^th.

Isn't that special?

So, here you have ING Direct people telling you all manner of things. You are in fact told so much you can't keep track of it all or keep it straight. You keep getting the letters ING Direct claims they sent you more than six weeks after the fact. In the meantime, you are just out of luck. You have no way in God's name to access your money.

And, here's where it gets good

You have web sites that earn you several thousands of dollars a year. This money isn't frill money but survival money. You live on it. The websites are hosted with a company that wants its hosting fee. You can't pay it. You have (had) the money but ING Direct apparently doesn't understand the idea that the money belonged to you and not them. They have it and you don't. So, the websites, the moneymaking websites on which you depended to pay the rent are now gone. The Webmaster tore the sites down for lack of payment of the hosting fees.

Lovely, don't you think?

Here's where it stands now

You have to live off of the kindness of friends and even strangers. You've lost a major source of your income. ING Bank refuses to return the balance you had in Netbank when the Feds closed them. ING bank lied repeatedly about notifying you of the impending doom. They also lied saying that they notified you to change your address on your account to reflect an American address (something you could have done but you received the snail-mail six weeks after the letter was dated-and you have proof!) They allowed others Americans in Mexico to use a relative's address but refuse to allow you to do this.

What do you do now?

In three words: Class Action Lawsuit! You find a lawyer in the state of Delaware (the state where ING Direct is based to do their dirty work) and begin a class action against ING. I've found 57 others with stories even more horrible than mine that we are recruiting to jump on board.

The amazing thing is the degree to which ING and its employees will go with their deception. One of their customer service representatives had the gall to email me and tell me that I was notified of this whole mess and what to do. I did not get that letter until December 29^th. It arrived in Guanajuato Mexico's post office and time stamped-Thank-you Mexico for that little practice of yours! The letter was dated the 16^th of November. And, they've done this to the 57 other customers I've found they've also screwed.

So, you do what any red bloodied American would do: Sue!

It is the American way!