Anyone have horror stories about the bank they use(used)?

[timNms]

I have 2.

My wife stopped working when she started nursing school in Aug. 2002. By September, it was obvious that my salary wasn't quite enough to pay the bills each month, so we had to do some juggling. We'd pay the phone bill one month and the power bill the next. ended up paying for 2 months each time...but it was working until the bank messed it up!

I got paid the last working day of each month. By November, we started getting an overdraft notice or two. We'd gotten a couple from the phone company and the power company due to the bank's being slow to put the deposit on the books.
Fast forward to Dec, 2002. We got out of school around the 20th (not sure of the exact date. I deposited my check that afternoon. The phone bill had come a few days b4 and my wife had sent a check to cover it, believing that my deposit would be credited before the check cleared the bank. WRONG! The bank sent it back NSF. The phone co turned off the phone. My wife called the phone co and asked them to resend the check thru the bank and they said "Cash only", so she went to the bank and withdrew the money to pay the bill. Since Bellsouth has no office in our area anymore, she had to go to a grocery store and pay thru there. Now, get this. A few days later, we got an overdraft notice from the bank. We had several checks out that should have been covered, but the STUPID bank PAID the phone check! Here we were with NO money and it was almost Christmas. Our kids would have nothing for Christmas. Fortunately for us, my in-laws helped with that.
The sad thing was, we'd sent off the power bill also and it came back NSF.
We struggled thru the rest of Dec and made it thru Jan somehow. Our checking account was overdrawn. Thankfully, we got our w2's early from the school system and filed our taxes and got a quick refund. I made the deposit right at 4pm the day I got the refund. The teller had to call a number to verify the check. The next day, I got home and we had no power. My wife had gone to pay it and they woudln't accept a check (I don't blame them). So she went to the nearest cash machine and used the debit card. BUT it said we had no money in the bank. I got home at almost 4 pm. The bank closed at 4. I called them and asked why the deposit wasn't showing up. The lady said that the money was there, but wasn't going to show on the cash machine until the check cleared. She said my wife could have written a check and gotten it cashed. I asked her if they would stay open for about 10 more mins so that I could get a check cashed to pay teh light bill. She said NO, even after I had explained the situation to her!. We were in a panic. It was COLD and we had no electricity. My wife's parents just happened to have enough money to cash a check for us so that we could pay the bill. I was TOTALLY TICKED!

Needless to say, we DON"T use that bank anymore.

[coriolis]

sounds like a real mess, tim.
I don't have a horror story. we use a regional chain, and always go to the same branch. They know us well enough to allow us to do our banking without ID. We keep it simple and do a lot of things the old fashioned way. (pay cash) We follow their rules and don't ask for special favors (Can you cash this 3rd party check please, please, please)

Have'nt had any problems.

[Lindaloo]

Same here Ed. I have been banking with my local bank since I was 16. I can go there now and get a loan without collateral.

I had one problem once though. Two of my checks went into someone elses account. Bank error. The person whose account was inflated spent my money before it was found. Took them about 3 weeks to find my checks. And you know that person who spent my money KNEW they did not have that much money in their account. The theif was forced to repay with no charges. Made me angry.

[DaylilyDawn]

We banked at a local bank in our home town when we lived there. While banking there we were the victims of an embezzling teller.We noticed it when we got overdrawn notices for checks that should have been covered with no problem. Fortunately we had kept our deposit slip confirmation of deposit and showed it to the bank officers and police officers.They wanted to know what teller we had used . We told them we had gone thru the drive up windows but could tell them the teller's name. She was arrested and our money was returned and the bank covered the checks that had bounced due to the theft of the money. Needless to say we changed banks afterward.

[timNms]

The sad thing was, we'd been using that bank for years. Then it changed names. I'm not sure if the new "owners" didn't know what they were doing or what. But, needless to say, we left and are quite happy with the service we're getting now.

[blizzard]

We banked at a local bank in our home town when we lived there. While banking there we were the victims of an embezzling teller.We noticed it when we got overdrawn notices for checks that should have been covered with no problem. Fortunately we had kept our deposit slip confirmation of deposit and showed it to the bank officers and police officers.They wanted to know what teller we had used . We told them we had gone thru the drive up windows but could tell them the teller's name. She was arrested and our money was returned and the bank covered the checks that had bounced due to the theft of the money. Needless to say we changed banks afterward.

What gets me is that they actually think that they can get away with this...lol

I don't use a "Bank" except for my mortgage. I use a Credit Union, which I found more member friendly. Fees are lower and, not that it couldn't happen, we have had no problems with them.

[DaylilyDawn]

Blizzard we now bank at a credit union now, has been over 15 years . Have my Christmas club with them also.