Until there's an issue, you don't really know how good or how bad your bank's customer service is... Well, I got to find out how bad FSB's customer service is first hand. For a relatively small bank that wants you to believe it's a local bank, it's amazing how much they ACT like a big, impersonal corporate bank.
My first wife died with a few hundred dollars in an account. I was supposed to have been added to the account, but when I went to the bank they told me I wasn't. I showed them the death certificate and they told me that unless I had papers signed by a judge, I couldn't access the account. I explained that there would not be any probate as this was the only property at issue and it wasn't worth getting a lawyer and judge involved for such a small amount. They let me know there was nothing they could do. (The state let me know that it was up to the bank to decide what to do in these circumstances and that the bank certainly could have given me the money.)
I then asked what they would do with the account and they told me that it would go in to a hold status and, if there was no activity in five years, it would be considered abandoned and go to the state. I asked if they would continue to take their fees every month for the next five years and was told no - while it was in that status, there would be no fees.
Well, I continued to get statements for the account every quarter and there were fees taken out every month. I called each quarter for about the first year and tried to explain things to them. They "couldn't help me". I simply asked them that, if they were going to bleed the account dry with fees before turning it over, then don't wait - just take the money in one big fee and be done with it. I was told that they would never do that to a customer. (They simply couldn't contemplate that that's exactly what they were doing!)
I continued to call once a year for the next four years and got the same runaround, confusion as to what should have happened, and sob story that they'd like to help but couldn't. After five years passed (the time to consider it abandoned), the account still had about $100 in it, yet it was not turned over to the state. I called and was told that "I'm sure it will be turned over soon." I just called again (it's now been a total of seven years) and was told that the account was turned over to the state this past fall with $6.03 in it!
Exactly what I asked them about in the beginning has now happened... They bled the account dry with fees and then turned it over to the state when it was empty (almost 2 years after the deadline!).
I will never bank with FSB. You should never bank with FSB. The people in the branches are nice enough, but they are puppets and have no freedom to actually help customers. This bank wants you to believe it is a local bank and they care about their customers, but they are run like any big, corporate bank - they just don't have any of the perks that you can get with an actual big bank!!! read more
