Just bad experience after bad experience
It wasn't all their fault, & I'm even tempted to give it 2 stars for that reason - they are an actual institution & not a scam or anything like that, but they do suck at being a bank.
I got a mailer when I moved here less than a year ago, offering me $500 if I signed up for an account & set up my direct deposit through them. I had just moved, obviously, & my old bank doesn't have locations where I live now, so I figured, 'eh, why not, it's a "free" $500' - at least, I have to have my direct deposit somewhere, so it might at well be here, & there was a branch just a few minutes from my house.
There's a $25 monthly service fee on the account, which sounds crazy because it is, but it's waived as long as I have my direct deposit going into the account, so I figure it's not $25/mo *to me*, right?
When I would go to the local branch I would wait 15 minutes, 20 minutes once, with 1 person in front of me. Every time.
I once sat in a NWB drive-through for over half an hour, with 2 cars ahead of me. I *literally* would have driven away if I wasn't trapped behind those 2 cars & someone else hadn't pulled in behind me... THEN they took 20 minutes just for me at the window, without coming back to the speaker to tell me what was going on for over 10 minutes at one point.
I deposited money in their ATM because they emailed me that I had overdrawn my account (forgot it was on an account as the automatic payment method), but when I went inside they said that ATM deposits take a day (which makes so little sense... It's literally cash) so I would need to deposit the amount again Inside the branch so that my account wouldn't be overdrawn.
I wrote a check & between writing it & it being cashed I was charged for something, so the check wasn't going to clear, but they email me letting me know this, telling me if I go put money in the account, then everything will be fine, so I do... The next day they email telling me they didn't process the check, that I was being charged an NSF fee of $35, & that I was being charged a $35 overdraft fee for a different <$15 transaction that posted the same day.
It's my fault, but if they processed that transaction first, then the check, it wouldn't have been over-drafting the account. They processed the transactions in a way that made me incur the greatest amount of fees.
Called support, & they said they just "decide" to process the transaction or not but the $35 occurs either way. Either a $35 overdraft fee or a $35 NSF fee. When I told them I had opted out of overdraft they said that's just for the debit card, & since they were checks, they still "try to process them" - said they couldn't waive the fees even though it was my first time AND I had deposited the money before the check actually bounced.
The local branch shut (kind of unsurprising; there was only ever 1 person banking in there at a time, & it was a pretty big building despite being a "small branch" & only having 1-2 tellers).
Oh, $500 bonus for opening the account: I had to keep the account open for 3 billing cycles while getting the direct deposit (fair enough), so I call them 4 months later, like, hey, it's cool whenever you get around to it, but are you sending me $500?
They say, yeah, I see the coupon on your account here. It just has to be the complete billing cycle, & then 30 days after is when we actually send it, so it will be Dec. 14th (2022). Sweet, a little extra money for the family's Christmas presents will be great! Mind you I had kept the mailer up to this point but I figured since it was all set I could throw it away, so I did.
Dec 14th came & went, the last day to order stuff on Amazon to be delivered by Christmas came & went, the new year came & went, no $500. So I write into their secure message portal asking what's up - I figure having it in writing will be better since it's frankly getting kind of sus now. They reply that the promotion was only going until [date], & that I didn't open my account until a week after that…
I typed in the promo code when I made the account - it showed up as active, but more importantly, when I called early in Dec. You Said It Was On My Account And GAVE ME A DATE that I would receive it!
They have no record of that call.
We've been going back & forth since Jan. $25/mo fee since I stopped using them as my primary bank…
Yesterday they say they are sending my "complaint" to be reviewed and there is nothing more they can do to help. I was speechless. I thought I was requesting the $500. Apparently, they thought I was just spending my time complaining to them after waiting days, even weeks, for their replies.
I'm in the process of closing my accounts now.
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Edit: Credit where it’s due: they sent the $500. They sent it 6 months late, and without an acknowledgment of the mishandling of the entire situation. Oh and without interest. I wouldn’t expect it, but I just think they might have wanted (demanded) some late fees and interest if it were me owing them…
11 de maio de 2023
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