In 1999 my husband and I were looking for a way to invest a lottery winning. Wachovia (First Union at the time) was more than happy to help us plan out our lives. We received so much support in investment strategies and oppurtunities for our future. We were advised to invest all of the money with Wachovia and take loans out against the money. Sounds dumb now, however, Wachovia showed us how our investments would earn more than the interest on our loans. Even if the markets were to change (which they did) we were building a long term relationship with the bank and that would work in our favor.
Our brokers came and went and our porfolio dropped about $300,000 over a 3 year period. Of course, when we complained, we were told not to panic because the long term outcome would not be affected. Our last porfolio manager decided that we should not be in the stock market any more, he sold all of our stocks in one day and put our balance into a money market account earning less than one percent. We were perfect customers. They held our investments ransom. We were told that if we renewed our loans for another year, Wachovia would release our porfolio back into a higher yilding account. We didn't have a choice.
We renewed the loans, but Wachovia never released our portfolio. Wachovia lied by telling us they would do everything in their power to help us increase our portfolio. We kept paying on our loans at a point over prime while our investments were earning less than one percent. We were paying about $2000.00 a month in interest while we earned $180.00 in interest from our investments. Here is the kicker... When we complained too loudly, Wachovia closed our investment account, paid off what loans they could and gave us 10 days to pay them the balance of $250,000. Right now we are being sued by Wachovia for not being able to pay their Demand Note. I have made acomplaint web site. Thank you for lisemning!
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