image c/o johngaltfla.com

Hang on a sec. So, I did nothing to cause my card to be compromised, I now have no bank card and you’re telling me you want me to pay to get my bank card faster? And, this is why Bank of America sucks. When it comes right down to it, it’s all about the service you provide your customers and their service couldn’t be any worse. So, I ask to speak someone who can waive the fee. I get transferred to the supervisor. She apparently cannot waive the fee either and said I have to pay it. So I ask her if there is any person among the 200k+ employees at BofA who can waive the rush fee. She then tells me I need to speak with Customer Service (I thought I was talking to Customer Service all along) as they are the only ones who can waive the fee. I’ve now been on the phone for over 30 minutes and my board meeting is in an hour. After being transferred twice, I finally get the fee waived only to find out that “expedited” = 2-3 business days which still equates to almost a week given they can’t ship the card till tomorrow. The whole way around, this was a big bowl of fail. Oh and I get charged a monthly service fee for this amazing service too. Blech.

Big banks are like the computers that were built back in the 80s. Big, clunky, expensive, not user-friendly, not easy to adapt. The difference is that computers evolved into the sleeker, cheaper, easier to use laptops and tablets we use today. But the banks are still the same as they ever were except more expensive and even slower and less focused on the customer. It is amazing to me that the banking model has still not really evolved and there aren’t tons of choices for a new way to bank. When I Googled “bank of america sucks” I was faced with hundreds of entries of angry customers, including this one from John Galt who seems to second my emotion. (This key word phrase seems like a ripe Google Adwords campaign for ING Direct.) It made me wonder if BofA even listens to what people on the interwebs are saying? Seems like a big opportunity to connect with the people who buy your service but that requires expending time and resources and dollars to actually care.

So if I say to hell with big banks, where do I turn? From what I read, ING Direct seems to be the best option and Bob Griggs did a great write-up of the advantages (including great service and paper checks if you need them). It’s a pain in the ass to move your bank accounts but I am seriously considering doing it as I am sick of dealing with big banking and their complete inability to make it easy to be a customer.

Have you switched your bank account to an alternative to the big banks? Would love to hear your experience as I consider this move.

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Wait, this is the NASDAQ, right?

Here’s the scoop. The app is called NASDAQ Portfolio Manager and, according to TechCrunch, it’s pretty slick. In addition to providing all the real-time quotes and data you’d expect, it also has some pretty cool charting features and, IMHO, the most interesting part of the whole app is that it has a special view that integrates all the latest tweets about that stock, coming in from StockTwits. If you don’t know about StockTwits and you’re a Forex trader, you need to check it out. The service is organized in “streams” and they recently launched a Forex stream, where you can see all the latest Forex tweets. A Forex tweet is denoted with $Currency pair (i.e. $USDJPY), and what’s even cooler is that you can sort the Forex stream by pair. Say you’re only interested in tweets about USD/JPY, click on the pair and just see that stream. We use StockTwits with our @Currensee Twitter stream to connect with influential Forex traders from around the world.

I love that an institution like NASDAQ sees real value in social data. Their new app shows the innovation that comes when you blend the conversation of the crowd with traditional data. The world is moving to a place where “how we always did it” just doesn’t do it anymore. In the old days, if the chart said go long, I most likely would. But today, if the chart says go long while everyone on Twitter is going short, I just might reconsider my position. It doesn’t mean the crowd is right, it just means I have more information and more resources to help me make a much more informed decision. Nicely done, NASDAQ.

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I spent most of my career in the financial services industry. Back in the day, when I was working at one of the “big guys”, we were truly innovative. New products, new technologies, first to market on many fronts but then something changed. The big guys got big and when you get big, you get hung up in meetings, politics, reorgs, red tape, managing up, reforcasting budgets and, voila, all the big innovation gets pushed aside for making the numbers and keeping the beast steady as she goes.

When I took the leap into the land of startups I never imagined a financial services vertical for startups. I wondered what there was to innovate in a place so layered in compliance, risk, security and privacy hangups? Well, first I discovered Currensee, and was charmed and delighted by the innovation and technology in the space. Then, most recently, I came across Finovate.

For those of you who know TechCruch50 or DEMO, Finovate is the financial services equivalent. A Spring and Fall yearly event (NYC, Sept 29) that “showcases the best new financial and banking technology innovations from established leading companies and hot young startups.” The Finovate judges hand-pick the companies that get their 7 minutes of fame on stage to show (live demos only, no slideware) their latest and greatest to an audience filled with VCs, big financial services companies looking for ideas and other startups watching the competition.

After checking out several of the companies, I was pretty impressed. I loved Smarty Pig – simple, smart savings plans and accounts you can create with your family and friends. And, BrightScope – transparent information and ratings for your 401k plan. Then there’s my favorite, Bill Shrink – where Dave in Witchita found a cell phone provider that will save him $500 a year. Now, that’s smart.

The best news in reviewing all the Finovate finalists is that they are all in the same business – making life simpler and better. That’s where the big guys often miss the boat. When you connect to the real goal of the average investor it is, quite simply, to have a damn, good life. I am loving the fact that financial services startups are connecting to this reality, cooking up unique products and services and serving up a solid dose of innovation. We’re happy to share the financial services startup space with these exciting companies and putting Finovate on our horizon for 2010.

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Last week, TechCrunch reported that Intuit will acquire the free online personal finance service, Mint, for around $170 million. The deal, which should be announced in the next few days, puts Mint in a new league. As TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington described it, “This is a terrific exit for Mint, which first launched two years ago at TechCrunch50. Mint took the top prize at that event and has been growing fast ever since.” Growing fast, eh? Let’s talk about explosive growth. I’m talking gaining 3,000 new users a day and jumping from 600,000 to 850,000 users in a matter of months. The best part is that Intuit didn’t believe the numbers and sent Mint a threatening letter demanding an explanation for the user sign-up success.

I guess Intuit got the answers they wanted given today’s news. I can see exactly what they see in Mint. As Rob at Regular Geek points out, it was born in the glory days of Web 2.0 and comes without all the baggage of Web 1.0 software products. Where Quicken is desktop-like, heavy and complex to use, Mint uses light graphics and is focused on spending against a budget versus the dull and overwhelming focus on bill payment and tracking. They’ve done a lot of things right with the Mint product and have made personal finance accessible and and even fun for the average Joe.

This acquisition bodes well for those of us in the social trading and investing space. It shows that a serious player like Intuit finds tremendous value in the product and the users of an innovative Web 2.0 company. It proves that breaking the model of the way trading, investing and saving have always been done creates market opportunity, revenue opportunity and innovation opportunity. What a great way to start a Monday. Congrats to the Mint team on this exciting accomplishment.

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