Washington Mutual On line Banking, also known as WaMu is neither a credit union nor a mutual company. Instead, it is a savings and loan association in the United States and considered as the largest. The company carries the slogan “The Friend of the Family” in line with its vision of being the bank for the ordinary people. They maintain the aim of making banking an easy task for both business and non-business consumers particularly those in the middle scale. More than fifty years since its emergence as a sole survivor in a bout of mergers, this financial institution joined the market for online banking service and trade. In line with this and its technological development as a service provider, WaMu added a new tag line to its marketing campaign: “The WaMu way”.
Aside from the usual online banking features, Washington Mutual also offers a rewards credit card that earns incentive points for its users. As far as security measures are concerned, this service provider has it on record as belonging to the top three banks that excel in a test of a bank’s ability to detect, avert and settle ID Theft. In fact WaMu prides itself in taking a proactive measures by adding an authentication solution to ID Theft attempts. This authentication measure involves the analysis of online log-ins and behind the scene transactions to detect potential risks; if a potential risk situation arises further authentication will be required before the customer is allowed to proceed with the transaction process.
However in spite of these moves, Washington Mutual On line Banking is still experiencing a lot of set backs. Just recently, computer malfunction for several days rendered customers’ accounts totally inaccessible, As a result, the most in demand task of online bill payments could not be met. Naturally, this elicited a lot grumblings since it was taking WaMu too long to resolve the problem. On the premise that the malfunction was brought about by a move to add new features in its electronic banking system, customers contend that they could have been pre-notified.
On top of this, Washington Mutual On line Banking has been receiving a lot of criticism on blogs, reviews and editorials regarding verified complaints of double charging on overdrafts, switching accounts from “have-over draft” protection to “without-over draft protection” and mostly complaints about rudeness or inaction to assist customers. In fact an angry customer even went as far as walking in to a WaMu branch and urged customers to pull out their money because the bank is in a serious financial crisis.
There maybe some truth to this though, since Washington Mutual On line Banking has stated in its recent report that it shall be cutting down its expenses by $1 billion come 2009, due to the negative results of its operation. Wa Mu reported a loss of $3.33 billion from April to June 2008 alone.
