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Don't bank on it

Abstract:
For those of you who were shocked to learn of the sudden departure of the AJDrexelBank and all of its ATMs, do not feel uninformed or out of the loop. There was little to no warning to the campus at large when the only University-related bank disappeared faster than Lehman Brothers....

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John

posted 7/26/10 @ 10:14 AM EST

The reason why the current ATMs on Drexel's campus use dial-up is because of the desire to save money. ATMs have two methods to connect to their host bank - leased line or an old-fashioned dial-up POTS connection. Leased lines are exactly what they sound like - a direct connection rented by a company or consumer from a provider. Obviously, this can be expensive, so if the foot traffic around an ATM isn't high enough, the bank in charge of it will opt for the slower but cheaper dial-up connection.

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Editorial Board

posted 7/26/10 @ 10:02 PM EST

Originally posted by
John
The reason why the current ATMs on Drexel's campus use dial-up is because of the desire to save money. ATMs have two methods to connect to their host bank - leased line or an old-fashioned dial-up POTS connection. Leased lines are exactly what they sound like - a direct connection rented by a company or consumer from a provider. Obviously, this can be expensive, so if the foot traffic around an ATM isn't high enough, the bank in charge of it will opt for the slower but cheaper dial-up connection.

Touché, never would have thought of that. We'd love to have a science & technology fact-checker on staff. Interested?

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Jason

posted 7/26/10 @ 1:14 PM EST

It would be nice if the Triangle could get a few facts about AJ Drexel correct before publishing.

First, Drexel Burnham Lambert was not founded by AJ Drexel, in fact the Drexel family has very little to do with that bank. Drexel and Company (which is the bank founded by AJ Drexel's father) and later AJ sold the "Drexel and Company" name to an institution that eventually became DBL.

Most people here would be surprised to find out that the business founded by AJ Drexel is very much still in business... you see AJ partnered with this guy by the name of J. Pierpont Morgan... to form Drexel, Morgan and Company... that company went on to save the United States from fiscal ruin.. but that is another story.... So the MOST appropriate bank to operate on the Drexel campus would be JP Morgan Chase.

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Editorial Board

posted 7/26/10 @ 9:40 PM EST

Originally posted by
Jason
It would be nice if the Triangle could get a few facts about AJ Drexel correct before publishing.

First, Drexel Burnham Lambert was not founded by AJ Drexel, in fact the Drexel family has very little to do with that bank. Drexel and Company (which is the bank founded by AJ Drexel's father) and later AJ sold the "Drexel and Company" name to an institution that eventually became DBL.

Most people here would be surprised to find out that the business founded by AJ Drexel is very much still in business... you see AJ partnered with this guy by the name of J. Pierpont Morgan... to form Drexel, Morgan and Company... that company went on to save the United States from fiscal ruin.. but that is another story.... So the MOST appropriate bank to operate on the Drexel campus would be JP Morgan Chase.

Thank you for pointing out the obvious omission which we would like to mend, though we respectfully disagree with your conclusion. Given the closest consumer Chase branch is Trenton, bringing JP Morgan Chase to campus wouldn't be the best option in our opinion given one of the biggest complaints with AJDrexelBank is the lack of ATMs in the city at large.

Additionally, we did not state that AJ Drexel founded DBL or intend to infer that the family had anything to do with the 20th century institution's demise. Still, Drexel & Co. was the forerunner to DBL and the combined number of years that Francis and AJ Drexel worked with the company before he sold it was longer than the amount of time AJ Drexel was partnered with JP Morgan.

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Tyler

posted 8/02/10 @ 6:31 PM EST

Originally posted by
Jason

...
First, Drexel Burnham Lambert was not founded by AJ Drexel, in fact the Drexel family has very little to do with that bank. Drexel and Company (which is the bank founded by AJ Drexel's father)

The Glass–Steagall Act in 1933 forced banks to separate into invest banking and commercial/retail banking companies. Drexel Morgan changed its name to JP Morgan & Co after AJ's death (minus the Philadelphia branch for a little). The name Drexel disappeared until a few former partners of JP Morgan formed an investment banking firm in 1940 and bought the rights to the Drexel name.

Drexel Morgan did mostly commercial banking, not banking for students, so it's not like there is any proper "heir". Today's JPMorgan Chase is actually Chemical Bank, which bought Chase Manhattan Bank in 1996, took its name, and then bought JPMorgan in 2000 (made possible because of the repeal of Glass-Steagull).

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ft

posted 7/26/10 @ 5:06 PM EST

TD Bank is a nightmare! They overdrafted me when I had money in the account! I closed my account and they sent the sheriff looking for me saying I overdrafted when the account closed! I with Citizens Bank now. No headaches, very green and my money stays put.

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Marc Blumberg

posted 7/26/10 @ 6:21 PM EST

Did you know that before AJDrexelBank came to campus, we used to have surcharge-free ATMs? The concept was that AJDrexelBank would be yet another revenue source for the university. Check out The Triangle from the early fall of 2000 and you will see the articles.

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