According to Wells Fargo, My Name is Business Customer

I chuckled when I received my replacement business debit card in the mail yesterday. Although I never had any problems with my account, and I’ve always received mail from Wells Fargo addressed properly, at some point, someone in the bank decided the name of the owner of my business accounts is “Business Customer.” As Wells Fargo is continuing to update their branding following their purchase of Wachovia, the bank wants to get new cards and documents in the hands of its customers. I know that large banks sometimes see their customers as nothing but numbers, but not much can be considered less personal than the bank referring to one of its patrons as “Business Customer.”

My Wachovia Visa Business Check Card would have been replaced with a Wells Fargo Visa Business Platinum Debit Card if it weren’t for this strange error. The “Platinum” moniker sounds fancy, but as far as I can tell, there are no features on this card beyond what I had previously, including a debit card form of a “zero liability” policy.

Rather than activating the card listing me as “Business Customer,” I called Wells Fargo’s customer service to have a new card with the correct name shipped to me. Besides waiting on hold for a business representative while my cell phone battery approached its daily little death — I could really use a new phone — the resolution was easy and I should have a new card in about a week. My old Wachovia debit card, which displayed only my business name, not my own name, on its face, will continue to work.

I am a customer of Wells Fargo for almost all of my business banking. Almost all business checks I send are initiated through Wells Fargo’s bill payment website, so I hardly use paper checks. I have not yet found a good Wells Fargo product that offers competitive interest rates for business savings. Most of my business cash is deposited at ING Direct, in a business savings account. I am looking for other options, though; if Vanguard were to offer a free cash management account for businesses with less than a total of $1,000,000 deposited or invested, I’d most likely move everything there to consolidate all business accounts at one location.

Photo: Tony Webster