The Notorious Banker

According to an article in the WSJ and Gizmodo, Goldman Sachs, the humongous Mega-Bank, wants out of the Apple Card and Apple Savings business. Facing tough earnings this week, a lot of people who are familiar with GS expect them to try to offload them to another bank, likely AmEx.

In this podcast, I will talk about how I predicted that Apple Card would succeed like the GS and Apple CEOs said it would in changing how we use c...

Mike Lindell, the loud, creepy guy who owns MyPillow and is known for his 2020 Election crusade or misadventures, wherever you come from, had his AmEX credit line slashed from $1 Million to $100,000. He cites politics as the reason American Express did it. As I have mentioned in many podcasts before, it's NEVER about politics, because banks want to make money with you. It is however something where if the line he was referring ...

Trying something different today. I am doing a podcast about something I would do a column on.

The Starbucks near my house, inside a grocery store has not been open during the hours you would expect a coffee shop to be open lately. I am assuming it was staff going back to school and not being able to do morning shift. Last few times I have gone to that store, a homemade sign was taped to the door (I hate homemade signs btw) i...

My grandpa passed on July 16th, and what I can help with, I have helped from afar in Las Cruces, NM, 150 miles away, with my mom handling the bulk of the issues.

But she calls me out of the blue the other day and tells me that First Financial Credit Union who holds my grandpa's car note is demanding immediate payment without allowing his estate to go through probate.

Also, Melloy Nissan told my mom to take the car int...

I lost my Grandpa Candy last Sunday. He was 85. While of course we prep for the end always, it is never easy when it gets here. In this podcast, I share a couple personal stories about the day he passed, and the day after, which saw some interesting things at a local bank in Socorro NM where my cousins work and the bank felt a little...off.

Plus I also talk about the sales pitches of being a funeral arranger, and how it is som...

I am back from a hiatus!

Thanks for everyone who asked me, "James... Where's your podcast?"

Been busy and working through some writer's block issues, but I am here to talk about things I love...Like arguing about shitty customer service.

First, we will talk about how a local CU near my house ripped out the Drive-Up mechanisms, installed full-service ATMs in its place, and became everything those small bank clients...

Hello All!

Back from my book sabbatical to talk about 2 topics (While Under the Weather)

I discuss my thoughts on the Louisville Bank Shooting and things that triggered me about how and when it happened, plus discussing how big bank policy would have never let that man in the door after getting rid of him.

Plus, I talk about turning 40 years old today. HOLY CRAP! I explain what I feel about life as I turn this magical number. It...

Crazy Breaking News:

 Silicon Valley Bank, a bank with hundreds of billions of assets, went into FDIC Receivership today, after a run on the bank starting yesterday, led by Peter Thiel and his VC Buddies. This left this bank reeling and the feds to come in midday (normally wait until end of business) and take over this bank. People's money will be available in 3 days, but needless to say this is a huge fall for this bank....

Back from a mini-sabbatical as I write my NMSU Basketball book to get it out ASAP.

I discuss Bank of America's role in Don Van Natta's AWESOME story about the turmoil with the Washington Commanders team and the beef minority owners had with the main owner, Dan Snyder. At the center is a $55 Million Loan that Snyder took out with the NFL's backing without informing his partners, which is leading to an even bigger beef, and also...

 As a lot of you know, I have been on sabbatical from my podcast and social media availability because I'm  currently writing a book about NMSU Men's Basketball and a couple other things. Plasma donations are part of my supplemental income, and I have become a huge advocate for the process since I started donating 20 years ago. Recently, changes in center policy have caused the equipment to screen individuals of their vit...

First off.

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The Biden Admin. has proposed capping CC Late Fees to $8 per missed payment from as much as $41. It is in an effort to reduce or eliminate "Junk Fees". Big banks and their lobbying arms claim that lowering the fee will encourage more late payments and cause people bad credit. ...

First and foremost:

Subscribe to my new Substack called "Consumer Beast"
I will discuss bank issues in longform there, plus I will also rant about customer service issues in other fields!

Now, let's get to the business at hand. Wednesday, January 18th, Bank of America had a major outage with Zelle, causing transfers that happened the previous four days to reverse, leading to negative balances and missing money. 

It wa...

Happy 2023!

We lead with the story of Dion Rabouin, an awesome WSJ reporter who was in Phoenix with family over the holidays when he decided to do work on a story about low interest rates on savings accounts at big banks. The Chase bank he went to on 12038 N 32nd St in Phoenix asked him what he was doing. He told him. They said nothing. They called their corporate security and then they called the cops where an overzealous idi...

 Big news in the world of banking today. Wells Fargo, who set aside $2 Billion last quarter to cover any potential penalties that the CFPB would impose on them, got hit with 2x that amount, $3.7 Billion for those violations in a stunning news release by CFPB

Read CFPB Release Here.

Denying mortgage modifications, charging surprise overdraft fees, and illegally repossessing vehicles are just the tip of the iceberg with Wel...

Thanks for listening.

I start the podcast off with a book update, and another book idea that has popped up.

Next, I discuss how Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, has a lot of buzz that he may be the next Treasury Sec. if Janet Yellen leaves. Charles Gasparino with the scoop tweet on 12-9. I discuss how mind blowing that is, how of course Joe Biden's former nickname "Senator from MBNA" comes into play, an why I think he wouldn...

This came out of left field today.

According to David Benoit and AnnaMaria Andriotis of the WSJ,  Zelle is purportedly creating a "playbook" for banks and themselves to have systems to refund victims of Zelle fraud, particularly the "me to me" scam that has been going on for years.

In this emergency podcast, I will tell you everything that is wrong with this supposed thing Zelle is doing. I don't believe them for one seco...

Sorry about the long layoff... I was sick with COVID :(

In today's episode, I discuss how since Elon took over, it has been impossible to do my "The Notorious Banker" work because of people trolling Elon, BofA for lending Elon and a bunch of pointless convos. It seems hard to get a couple of simple things completed, especially when it comes to helping people.

Then, I briefly talk about Wells Fargo offering a short-term lo...

I briefly talk about Elon Musk and Twitter just in the sense of how it impacts me and my project. Note: It won't and it can't.

I then talk about interest rates. As we all know, it's really expensive to buy a house now simply on interest rate hikes alone. I think it's bad, and it is only going to get worse. That being said, the American public always discusses these things collectively as a whole without addressing the issue in thei...