NOTE: This review pertains to the facilities at The Pines in Urbana and the main bank on University Ave. I am astonished at all the negative reviews for Busey Bank. I do not "have tons of money" and I am not involved in the "exciting world of investiment banking" but have always been treated well at Busey. All my banking is done there. I have been steered right in all my business -- refinancing, IRA, loans, whatever. Was just in for retirement financial advice at the main branch and met with two very helpful, courteous, and personable young people (Daly and Adam) who set my mind at ease and followed up on our meeting. For years I have worked with a delightful woman (Marsha) at The Pines who has been helpful, efficient, pleasant, and friendly. It is always a pleasure to do business with her and she manages to remember my name no matter how long between contacts. In the decades of business with Busey, I have never been treated with anything but professionalism and courtesy. Online banking intimidated me but Busey's online banking has been easy to use. I would not hesitate to recommend Busey to any newcomer to C-U or to anyone looking to change their bank home. read more

They told me 15 times they would stop charging me analyst fee.. my balance was in a range that most banks don't charge those stupid fees... still charging it. Been going on for months. Closing my account there this week! Stay away this bank is nothing but crooks! read more

They really just dont care about customers. ATM doesnt disperse money and its "oh well, file a dispute and maybe in 10 days we will give you your money". I even recorded a video of it malfunctioning!!! read more

This complaint involves the Champaign branch and a second Illinois branch. I am a snowbird and I spend a great deal of time in Florida. I am presently in Florida and recently had the Busey bank flag me for possible fraud. I explained that the debit card purchases were valid and there was no fraud. The bank rep told me that there was indeed fraud stating I provided information that was not verifiable. She then provided the fraud department with incorrect information. The next day I provided documentation that my information was correct. She acknowledged that my information may be valid and would get back to me. After a period of no response I contacted the Champaign branch (central office) and repeated my claim. I was informed that I had changed my story. They repeated the concerns and locked my online account. I provided a viable solution to their concerns and stated I only wanted access to my on line account to pay bills. The Busey bank's position was that it was my problem not theirs. I explained my actions along with those of Busey to a person employed by a different bank who was acquainted with banking procedures who stated Busey banks blocking my account was excessive. I once again stated I wanted access to my online accounts. I did inform the bank rep that the action were excessive and that by following my remedies as suggested by the bank rep of a different bank would solve there concerns. I was told that the bank was concerned about elder abuse and the online block would not change. The conversation continued and I pressed the Busey bank how the bank could demonstrate any weakest in my arguments until the bank rep hung up. Shortly thereafter I was informed by a different branch rep that my accounts had been closed and that Busey no longer wants my account (one account was opened in 1997). My only conclusion is that the Busey bank didn't like their "authority" challenged and it was easier to close the account then to have to defend position that the account would only be opened when Busey bank decided it. I am aware of an example where an online account was locked up for a period of two months. This was not going to happen to me and that's why I put up the fight. BUSEY BANK CUSTOMERS BEWARE THEY CAN BLOCK ACCESS TO YOUR ACCOUNTS AND IF YOU ARE ANY DISTANCE FROM A BRANCH THE REOPENNING OF THE ACCOUNTS IS TOTALLY DEPENDENT UPON THE WHIMS OF BUSEY BANK. It is a blessing that I have been sent the money in my accounts rather than deal with me. read more

Were not honest when trying to get me to use their 3rd party merchant services and pos system for business. EXTREMELY difficult to get ahold of Busey rep, and when I did, would get the run around. Busey would not get back to me when they said they would on multiple occasions. Lost money because of this and no response or accountability on Busey's end. read more

Poor customer service, theft of money, disrespect of customers, deceptive practices and racism. I had to take a white friend to the bank with me to set up an account for a fund raiser although I was a customer. My friend couldn't understand what was happening. Years later, my account had some fraudulent transactions. Busey charged me for the stop payment fees. In addition, when I requested that the account be closed. It has been one full week and the account is still open. In addition they support the genocide in Gaza. I noticed that my troubles began around the time of the current attack on Palestine. I'm uncertain if my name or my hijab made me a target, but here we are. If you want to support an oppressive, disrespectful bank, put your money there. I have moved my money and will be closing all accounts and having my family members move their money as well. read more

This institution does not care about the customer or their employees. Steer clear of banking or working here. Call volumes are 40 to 50 in the queue the majority of the time. The wait time on the phone easily exceeds 45 minutes & the CSR's hands are tied to help with issues. Escalations are too numerous to count & are handled extremely poorly by either transferring call to an escalation line, or sending to an email to get handled at a later time. Management is poor, employee is micromanaged into becoming a brainless cyborg. Environment is extremely stressful & many employees leave before having a complete mental breakdown. read more

Each month, my account is charged $25 by a fraudulent web-based merchant. Busey has claimed to have blocked this charge for me for months. Each time I call, they promise to have rectified the problem; yet, every month, the charge appears again. As we never keep money in this account, it is continually overdrafted. I am currently in the process of closing the account and will never, ever use Busey again. I will pour my heart out in protest if anyone I know even *considers* getting an account there. I should not be bleeding money in bank fees due to the bank's own incompetency. Don't use Busey unless you want to spend money monthly on excessive, erroneous fees. read more

We've been a customer for years. Today Busey decided their $39 million first quarter profit for 2022 wasn't enough, so they decided to impose a fee to small business owners for balances under $1500 average daily balances. We had our 16yr old daughter open her first checking account with Busey. They will be losing all of our business. Hope their greed burns them read more

If I could give a ZERO star, I would. Chris Manick should not be employed there and his service and attitude are pathetic. Worst decision I've ever made to work with them on a SBA loan. Finally pulled the plug after 10 weeks of their BS. Run away from them and find another lender! After we mutually agreed to depart ways, they scrambled to cash our checks and not refund the SBA $2500 even though they did not process our loan! Scum bags!!! read more

What a terrible bank! 1) Customer service is not open after 2pm on Saturdays or all day Sunday (no emergency number). Lost your debit/credit card on Saturday night? Hard luck, you must wait until 9am on Monday morning to cancel. 2) Online banking has NEVER worked for me. Despite trying to sign up several times, including in person at the branch. 3) There are many places in Chicago where your debit/credit card might not work. Your card will be denied (as if you didn't have funds in the account). Apparently it's due to some internal issue, beyond customer control. There's no way to know if your card will work until you try. 4) Wire transfers (incoming) are expensive, get ready to be hit with a HUGE surcharge. read more

Busey Bank is for you if you Have tons of money Are ready for the exciting world of INVESTMENT BANKING!!! Are interested in a mortgage Otherwise, prepare for the dark world of NSF-whoring, where your checks are held for days at a time, while meanwhile, they are attempting to bounce every single one of your checks that they possibly can in hopes that you do not have the time to argue with them. Fortunately for me, I made time to argue! I also made time to find a new bank. On a positive note, their customer service is very friendly. read more

A despicable institution that actually chose to further burden Americans during a pandemic! I acquired a Busey credit card last year. I was still in the interest free period earlier in the lockdown. My balance was the lowest it had been since I got the card (a little over $100), and if I just made min payments it would be cleared before the interest free period ended. Well Busey decided that during an economic crisis was a good time to DOUBLE my min payment. How does that make sense? read more

Busey Bank - fees and more fees. I have been with Busey bank since 1996 and have a mortgage with them. There customer service has declined over the years. They merged with another bank and it seems to make them too large to remember what customer service is really like. As others mentioned, no customer service available 24/7! We have had about 4 debit cards in the last 2 years because Busey continues to be hacked. They just sent us new cards and we later found out it was because of they lack of security. When my wife and I got married we spend over 90 minutes setting up accounts at the Springfield and Country Fair, Champaign branch to later find that none of it went thru as the personal banker was new and didn't know what he was doing. We had to go back (to another branch) and do it all again! Recently we have occurred service fees because for about 5 minutes on one day our checking or Money market accounts fell below the minimum daily limit. $15 for a service fee! We had like $5000 between the accounts. They refunded the fee after I called and complained - not until I spoke to 3 people on the phone and it took me nearly 30 minutes! I recently closed our Money Market account as they just decreased the interest rate by half and never told us. When I went to the Windsor and Duncan branch, I asked Joel Martain (personal banker) why I should back at Busey when Ally Bank has no minimum daily balances, no fees, and 24 hour customer service. He could not give me an answer and didn't care that he lost a customer when I closed the account. What poor customer service! So we are transitioning to Ally Bank. I called them on a Sunday and waited on hold for about 30 seconds and had my issue resolved in under 10 minutes. Wow! Busey Bank cannot delivery. BEWARE! read more

Removing all possible stars. I am currently having a mini-crisis because both my and my husband's Busey debit cards are getting declined despite that fact that there are plenty of available funds in our account, as confirmed by their online banking system. This is not the first time this has happened. Because of the holiday weekend, it will be 3 days until we can talk to customer service to figure out what the f is going on and get the problem fixed, so we are basically without cash until then. We will be getting a new bank on Tuesday. read more

I had several checking accounts, a mortgage, and two home equity loans with Busey over the course of the last 18 years. For the first twelve or so of those years, I was very happy with Busey. When they created their online banking system, however, things started getting worse and worse. The online system, when it worked, was very convenient. But then they started "improving" the interface, which to Busey apparently means filling it up with fancy graphical junk and reducing the amount of information visible. For several years, I could only use the interface if I used Microsoft's notoriously risky and security-poor Internet Explorer browser. I could not use Opera or Firefox unless I used some old out-of-date version that was also a security risk because it was so old. When I complained to their IT people about this, I was told to just use IE. Recently, they once again added more "features" to the interface. These are strictly graphics-oriented features that have no functionality whatsoever. You have to go and find the button that gives you the old interface if you want to see things like, say, the balance available in your account. For me the last straw was when they started charging me for NOT using their Bill Pay service. That's right, if I did NOT have them pay any bills for a month, they charged me $5. I sent a message (through their Contact Us interface) telling them that I was not interested in using Bill Pay any longer if they were going to charge me when I didn't use it. I asked them to please remove Bill Pay from all my accounts. I got back a message that was not a message. It was another HTML-loaded bunch of graphics telling me I had to push a button in the email to go and read my message on a "secure server." I followed the instructions and was sent to a Microsoft Exchange Server, and the page would not load. So I sent another message to "Customer Service" saying I could not read the message and could they just send me a text message like everyone else in the world does. I got back another HTML-loaded email with another button to push to see their reply. I tried the button with the same result. Did I mention that I use to have to always use IE to use their website? It turns out that you cannot get to this Highly Secure Exchange Server unless you are using IE. So I tried again, this time with IE, and was then taken to a page where I had to enter my name and select a new password, which I did, and then ... nothing. No message. I pressed the button in the email again, went to the server where I was supposed to be able to get my highly secure message, and ... I was prompted to enter my name and select a new password. You cannot go around Customer Service to get real customer service. They control the information gates, so you are SOL if you want any help. I have now opened accounts at another bank and am closing all my Busey accounts as soon as the last check clears. I would let Busey's leaders know about all this if only I could get to any of them. The only email contact information on the website goes through, you guessed it, Customer "Service". Busey has apparently either hired a bunch of morons to design their customer interface, or has a bunch of morons in charge telling the designers to make the interface the glitz-happy f**k fest that it has now become. BUT IT IS MIGHTY SECURE!!! read more

If you get a mortgage here, watch your account closely. We had mortgage insurance (PMI) that was to stop when the loan was paid down below 80% loan to value ratio. They still took the fee even after the ratio was below the 80%. When I questioned it, they claimed I had to request the cancellation of the fee in writing. I did and they still have not stopped the fee nor refunded the fee taken in error. read more

really quiet and slow compared to other branches. People are helpful and resolve my card problem the same day and got me refunded

Busey has now found a way to not only use your money for free, but charge you, too. I have (read had soon) a Money Market account with over $25000.00 just setting there and earning less than a tenth of a percent interest. (And they're borrowing money free from the feds, too!) Now they're charging a $5 fee monthly for a "dormant account", which wipes out the earned interest. New rule: if you don't annually have some activity (deposits and withdrawals) it kicks in. It doesen't make sense that they would use your money and then charge you for it, so I went to my personal banker and bitched AND HE OFFERED TO REFUND HALF of the charges. I told him that was just plain wrong and I'm bailing out of BUSEY. And I did. The sad thing is that I really question whether they notice or will even care. What's happend to customer care? read more

This is the place to go if you are looking to get nickeled and dimed. I don't think I have been to a bank with a worse fee structure. Everything has a fee. We have quite a few accounts (4 to be exact) and a number of people we initially referred there. The only reason I have given the bank a 2 (vs a 1) is because the staff are friendly. There is no authority to waive fees. Expertise on accounts is average, but it all comes back to the partnership model. These accounts have actually cost us money in terms of value. There are A LOT better banks out there for you to get the most value from a bank. Do your research before you look into opening accounts at Busey! Business account structure and fees are extremely high, with personal accounts a little better. read more

Negative 5 stars. I have never had such a horibble, money hungry banking experience. They charge you for even looking at your money (so it seems). I have dealt with nice people at the bank but their charges and policies are horrible. I don't even know where to start. Go ANYWHERE else. read more

If i could give less than one star I would. Overcharged my mother for checks for years, took over a month and a half to close her account after she died and then charged her processing fees on top of that!!! Worst bank ever!!! read more

This is quite possibly the worst bank in the world. I changed my account from a joint checking to a single checking and they bounced everything for 3 weeks -- even though I had more than enough to cover the expenses. They then tried to hit me with huge overdraft fees! Most of their tellers on campus can hardly speak english and they keep you waiting to talk to a 'personal banker'. I waited as two other people -- both asian were taken back before me. Funny thing is, if you start acting strange and walking around from office to office and they seem to make time for you. Do yourself a favor............go to Chase Bank because this one sucks!! read more

On-Line Banking sucks as well as their automated system! Always problems.....have to switch banks!!

Banks like Busey are exactly the ones the Obama administration wants to target for exorbitant fees. They called it the "Opt-in" program (without even defining what it was for customers!), as if it were a good thing, something new they had thought of for their precious clients. They did not inform anyone that this was required of them by the federal gov't. for their exorbitant check return fees. With this loophole (and duped customers) they managed to hang on to these scams, but the Obama admin. is on to them-they are following the 'law' but not the intent. Oh-we should thank them for their community work and being so nice to the few while ripping us off. Even their own employees cannot explain how it is that 'money' goes in an account, and yet NSF funds keep popping up! I am going elsewhere asap!!! I would give them -10 stars if I could!! Oh! and if your Busey card doesn't work, know that you won't get an answer until you ask! Several times their data center in Chicago has been broken into-which is why Michigan ave. shops refuse it-if you do get cash out of an ATM because of this-YOU have to call THEM to get the charges reversed. read more