What Is The Worst Experience You’ve Ever Had With A Bank And How Did You Resolve It?

10 responses to “What Is The Worst Experience You’ve Ever Had With A Bank And How Did You Resolve It?”

1. 

   Tegzilla

   February 24, 2011

   The Greater charged me $10 to close an account. Probably standard practice, but it left a bad taste in my mouth! I remedied the situation by never going back.

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2. 

   Lasty

   February 24, 2011

   It once took 2.5 months to process a (small) loan application that was promised to me to take no more than 14 days. After the 2 months had passed they admitted to me that they had lost a portion the application paperwork somewhere in their internal mail, and wanted me to fill out the 30 pages of forms again.

   Naturally I was furious at this point, but never-the-less still needed the application to go through. As I was still talking to the branch representative, I kindly asked if I could have the contact number of the loans department so I could chase the matter up personally. their response was a standard customer phone service response of “no unfortunately that is an internal number and we cannot give it out”.
   I requested 5 different numbers so I could make an effort to get the loan processed and got the same response from the branch…. My response to them was “well clearly that means you are the customer face of the company, so **swearing and yelling** FIX IT. I will call you in half an hour”.

   A little irate at this point, I know, but I think my reaction was reasonable considering the patience I showed until this point.

   Finally the next day I called them every half hour requesting to speak to the branch manager (which I was denied) until I got off work that day and advised that I am coming in to the branch.

   I walked in to the branch and politely introduced myself to a teller, who once hearing my name had a very quickly falling facial expression and said “oh, you want to speak to the branch manager” indicating that everyone in the branch knew my name at this point 😉

   … My result… the branch manager shook my hand with a sheepish look on her face, sat me down in her office… asked me if I would like a coffee. She then walked out of the branch up to nearby cafe, purchased me my requested drink, and delivered it back to me… She then proceeded to fund me the money without completing the paperwork

   …. This caused me to have no interest charged over the 2 years it took me to bother paying the loan off (by their mistake… which I happily did not point out before closing the account)…

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3. 

   Jake D

   February 24, 2011

   I once convinced two separate banks to pay out “non-negotiable” cheques in cash on the spot by;
   1. providing ID to prove I was the recipient.
   2. proclaiming that I didn’t have a bank account.
   3. Refusing to open a bank account.
   4. Not leaving.

   In truth, of course I had a bank account at the time, just not with either of those banks, but I really needed the cash that day, not in three days time. I didn’t even get charged any ridiculous fees.

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4. 

   clint

   February 24, 2011

   greater again
   closed my account years ago (got married,changed banks etc) got hit with a $12 fee for doing so. A little pissed at the time but thats not the bad bit. Got mail from them 2 years later saying that there is a negative amount on my account and I need to pay it ($50). I visit the local branch. Takes a while to prove who I am since I got rid of my bank books/cards etc. Got the details which showed that my account was emptied 2 years ago, then the greater started adding fees from that day to a total of just over $50. I explained there must have been a mistake. They threatened legal action when the manager got involved. I said I’ll talk to the ACCC, then the mood changed dramatically and they apologised and cancelled my account, got another statement which I kept this time, and left completely stunned. Ive read and talked to a few people since then that it happens often but most people just pay the fee to get out of there. scary stuff.

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5. 

   Tracy

   February 24, 2011

   Bank charged me fees for setting up an facility twice (fees of a couple of grand for a complex requirement). They took the second set of fees from an account that was empty and I was about to close, so the account ran a negative balance. I made a couple of calls to try to fix it, but didn’t stress too much as I figured they knew about it, it was their error and they’d fix it eventually.

   But I was wrong! Eventually their collections department started calling asking when I would get the account back to a positive balance and telling me I was being charged interest on the overdrawn balance. The first couple of times I explained the situation and they promised to fix the problem, but of course never did. As time went by the calls from collections started coming in the evenings, and eventually on a Sunday afternoon when I was at a wedding!!!! So I hung up on the collections guy, and left very terse messages for my bank manager and his boss (cos of course they wouldn’t answer their phones on Sunday) that if the problem wasn’t fixed by midday the next day the next communication they had was going to be from my lawyer.

   Got a phone call from the managers boss at 8.30 the next morning, and the problem was fixed by 9am. I made it clear that I never wanted to deal with that particular branch manager again (this was the worst of a long string of mistakes in a particular deal), and haven’t. They have also sweetened a couple of subsequent deals to ensure I haven’t taken my business banking else where. Can’t say I love them, but put up with them as the devil you know…

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6. 

   Adam

   February 24, 2011

   Rather minor but still, ANZ left me waiting 45 minutes to close an account in an otherwise empty bank. Apparently the teller was unable to help me and I had to wait till a special operations manager was available. Kind of vindicated my decision to close the account.

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7. 

   warcroft

   February 24, 2011

   I had some car repairs done which came to a couple thousand dollars.
   I had arranged with the mechanics to withdraw X amount each week for a few weeks.
   One particular week they took out two weeks payment which pushed my credit card over the limit.
   I wasnt using my credit card at the time so I wasnt aware until I got a notice from the bank and called them to see why I was over the limit.
   The credit manager on the phone must have been in a bitch of a mood and was being rather nasty about it on the phone. I had arranged to pay it quickly and in two weeks I had cleared it off.
   But in the mean time, because I didnt like being spoken to the way she did, I wrote a letter of complaint.
   I thought that was all.

   Then, two months later when I was applying for other stuff (I had just moved state) I kept getting rejected on bad credit.
   I got a credit report and saw I had been blacklisted for the grand total of $14.07!

   I called the bank and spoke to some lady to ask why I had been blacklisted as an arrangement had been made. She tried to look up my account history and said there was no record of my account prior to the blacklisting date. Nothing.

   So, she puts the bank manager on who confirmed there was no record of my account before that date.
   I asked if he can remove the blacklisting and he said he was not going to.
   I said to him there was no record of my account, so doesnt that seem a bit suspicious?
   He said again, he can not remove my black listing.
   So I told him Im going to have to go to the Ombudsman and hung up.
   The next day he calls me and says he has looked at my situation and will remove my black listing immediately.

   But really, the fact the credit manager (Im guessing it was her because of the letter of complaint) was able to black list me because I complained and then delete my account records and history. . . wow, bit too much self inflated power there.

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8. 

   warcroft

   February 24, 2011

   Oh, and I have a loan with Westpac with 4c owing. Has been like that for almost three years now.
   I cant pay it off on line because the amount is too small and it wont let me do the transaction.
   Every month the amount gets adjusted and then readjusted to back 4c.
   I suppose I could call or go in and sort it out. I just find it amusing so I let it go, lol.

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9. 

   James

   February 27, 2011

   you weren’t listed for $14 as a payment default is an account of $100 or more that is 60 days or more overdue. For example, if you have a telephone bill of over $100, and it was due more than 60 days ago, it could be listed on your credit file as a payment default.

   proof http://www.mycreditfile.com.au/mcf/faq/

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10. 

    Michael

    May 23, 2011

    I paid off a credit card with ANZ that was on my credit file for 3 years, after i rang up anz numerous times the did not have any record of me paying it off. When i enquired as to why they had not contacted me if this was the case they said it was my responsibility. They also wanted the reciept from the teller from 2007 to show i had paid the final balance.

    After months of fighting they were able to locate the manual transaction. They still havent taken the note off my credit file and am still fighting.

    THIS IS A WARNING FOR ANYONE DARING TO USE ANZ. Hopeless customer service, long waiting queues for the phone and when you get someone they often dont make any sense.

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