The car loan people are nicer than the banks for sure. I too had credit cards cancelled (my iTunes Barclaycard, even!) and sales pitches from new banks. I finally went to a credit union, who treated me right. But we’re back at Bank of America now because the staff has a high degree of autonomy regarding cashing checks.

I had a car loan through Honda Financial and another through a higher-interest lender. Both cars got repossessed when I got behind on my payments (not at the same time, thankfully). But both lenders let me redeem my cars and get them out of the tow yard unscathed. So the car loan lenders are (or were?) a lot more lenient than the banks, probably because they would have a hard time selling it at auction. The recession works to this deadbeat’s advantage, clearly.

Unfortunately I think your experience with the large banks is all too common.

You are much more likely to get personal service from almost any credit union than from any large bank.

Some lf the smaller banks, for example, Viking Bank in Ballard, offer a more personal approach than the large national institutions.