My rating is solely based on their card's acceptance at Apple Pay terminals, which is horrible…read more Other than that, the customer service is great, they seem to be a forward-thinking bank, and they have all these rewards for faithful users of their debit or credit cards. There seem to be enough locations around town to meet most needs.
The deal breaker for me, and why I am changing banks, is because they have too many data tags required for their cards and therefore are declined at about 3 out of 5 Apple Pay terminals. This is solely anecdotal, as obviously, I cannot have access to several terminals and conduct a scientific data sample. All I know is where I have never had a problem before with my previous bank's card with Apple Pay, I continuously have problems with my Vantage West card being declined. When I contacted my point man at Vantage West, he explained that it is due to the "extra security" that the additional data tags Vantage West requires for Apple Pay that is causing the card to be declined. Unless the merchant sends all the data tags that VW requires, VW will decline the transaction. So when that happens, I pull out the card for which Apple Pay uses and complete the transaction.
OK, I can understand wanting to keep things secure. However, Apple Pay is already secure, it requires my fingerprint, for crying out loud, to work on my iPhone. Like I said, I never had a problem with my previous bank's card and now I have problems at least 3 out of 5 businesses. And I think that is a little conservative, it may be even more.
You may think "a three-star review just because of Apple Pay?" Well, let me put it this way, if all things are equal, why not have a card that will be accepted at all the Apple Pay terminals? I switched to Chase Bank, and have not had any problems at all. I even purposely went to businesses where my VW Apple Pay was declined and it was accepted. A major point of selected a bank is for convenience. For me, this is inconvenient, especially when I can choose a bank that is just as good, only better because of Apple Pay.
Well, you can bank here and if you don't have Apple Pay (I wonder if Android Pay is any different for them.) then no worries--it will be a four- or five-star experience for you.
Note: At this location, there are no tellers, just ATM machines inside where you do all your transactions. There are service reps, however, if you want to do things other than monetary transactions, such as opening and closing an account, loans, etc.
5* = A top favorite. Mind-blowing good. I will definitely return and I will go out of my way to go here. Worth every dime of my money.
4* = Outstanding. Tucson-top-tier. Some elements not quite as good as it gets, but it still is worthy of my regular business.
3* = Good experience. I might do repeat business if it is convenient, the only option, the only one in its category, or on a whim, but would not be among the first thing to come to mind. Would definitely recommend you trying it to get your own take on it.
2* = Not so good. Would not recommend at all. Waste of money.
1* = How are they still in business? Stay away at all costs!