Catherine WintersSep 12, 2025
Jonathan Kamens 86 47
Six months ago I moved some of my retirement money into a CD at a local bank, #EasternBank, at 4.21%. That CD matured yesterday and I called today (during the "grace period") to find out what the rate was going to be for the new rollover CD.
They said that since I called and asked, they can roll it over into a new CD with the same rate if I want, but if I hadn't called it would have rolled over into a CD at 0.05%.
yhgtbfkmwts
#banking #darkPatterns #scam
Sep 11, 2025 at 2:42pmWeb
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Sep 11, 2025
"How are we supposed to know you want to earn a higher interest rate at zero cost to you if you don't call and tell us?"
Show threadSheldonSep 11, 2025
@jik all the ones we work with have a “new money only” policy for their best rates. When we talked to one of their advisors he groaned “yeah, you could simply move it out of your account and then move it right back in.”
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Sep 12, 2025
@sysop408 Yeah, I think that's probably what's going on here as well. It probably started out as promotional rates for new customers, but then they realized that it was a lot easier to just let existing customers call and opt back in at renewal time than to make them transfer their money out and back in just to get the promotional rate again.
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Sep 12, 2025
@sysop408 But, you know, even leaving that aside, a 0.05% rate for six figures put into a six-month CD is complete highway robbery. Just completely outrageous. Banks shouldn't even be allowed to offer rates that low for CDs.
Show threadMcNeelySep 11, 2025
@jik what in the actual fuck. Now there's a real insidious dark pattern 🤯
Show threadEdgarSep 11, 2025

@jik Well, sir, your “comics aggregator” has 100% of my interest at the moment.

Weird world where some people create and share wonderful things and other people scheme and grift for a few bucks

Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Sep 12, 2025
@Edgar Glad you find it useful. Most of my work on stuff like the aggregator started at "This will be useful to me" and progressed to "…in which case maybe it will be useful to others too," at which point, why not put it out there?
Show threadCheapPontoonSep 12, 2025
@jik
"0.05 percent? Oh cool so there's literally an early withdrawal penalty of PENNIES when I move it to a different bank."
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Sep 12, 2025
@CheapPontoon I mean, it's a six-figure chunk of the retirement money I've been saving for >30 years, so it'd be dollars, not pennies, but yeah.