If you didn't already know, every personal banker and teller has sales goals. I didn't know this before I got into banking. With sales goals comes fraud and misdirection. The higher the sales goals the more commonplace fraud will be. Your personal banker may be "misdirecting" you even now. I am writing this in hope that this may encourage you to really understand what type of accounts you have with your bank. I can't tell you how many times I have run into people that had no idea they had a line of credit or a completely separate checking account than the one they are used to using. Bankers do this in order to meet their sales goals. It is more common than you think. Please, be careful about what you are signing because no matter how good the banker is they can't do anything without your signature (unless they are willing to risk jail time). Just a few words of advice for the most common types of fraud:

1. Your bank can normally change your account type without giving you a new account number! A corrupt banker will say that they have to give you a new account number to give you a different account type, FALSE. They are only doing this because only a new account number will show for their sales goals.

2. Make sure you know exactly why they are asking you for your mother's maiden name! Many banks have to know your mother's maiden name in order to submit a loan or credit card application for you. I have heard of bankers asking for a customer's mother's maiden name in general conversation in order to put through an application for a credit card as soon as the customer walked out of the door.

3. In order to feel completely comfortable that you have a great banker (they are out there) next time you need to go to the bank, go to a branch that you haven't been to or don't usually go to. When you are there ask to see a list of all of your accounts and loans and check it thoroughly.

That is a pretty pessimistic view of bankers. Keep in mind there is an audit trail and if someone does something like open a line of credit without you knowing it there is a very good chance that person will be fired. Generally, the mothers maiden name is stored in the CIF (customer information file) as part of the authentication process required by the Patriot Act, so they generally do not need you to supply it.

depends on the bank, personally I try to avoid the big ones, like the bank wants to "know the customer" I like to "know the banker"

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