I've been a member of WTCO for 40+ years, I highly recommend them. They've always treated me with professionalism and courtesy.

I was a loyal customer of the Washington Trust Company for about 24 years. I had my house mortgage, commercial property mortgage, business line of credit, business checking account, personal checking account, and savings accounts for all 5 members of my family. They seemed to treat me fairly and I was happy with them and very familiar with the people there. They understood my business enough to know that large cash withdrawals were an ongoing event in order to conduct my business. My issue with them started about 7 years ago. One of their vice presidents is also a state senator. He is very well liked in the community, and generally runs unopposed at election time winning his seat back. One year a young gentleman decided to run against him in the general election. This young man had stopped at my house while out trying to garner votes. My wife met him and agreed that some new blood in the senate might be a good idea. After their talk my wife agreed to allow him to put his small poster on our front lawn. Within a week my commercial loan officer at the bank called me into his office and asked me why I had the senators opponents poster on my front lawn. It took me a few seconds for my head to stop spinning at which point I said that this is the United States of America and citizens are allowed to vote for whoever they choose. After winning the general election in November, I guess there was still some blood boiling at the bank and the senators office. By using and abusing his power as the Compliance Officer of the bank, the senator submitted the name of my company at a meeting of local and federal authorities. These meetings to my understanding are comprised of local and state police, homeland security, DEA, FBI, and others including the senator. Three days before Christmas a local police Lieutenant and an officer from the DEA came to visit me at my shop. They were told by (somebody) at the Washington Trust Company that I had taken an extremely large sum of cash (roughly 4 million dollars) out of the bank in January of the previous year. I invited the 2 investigators to go over my bank records and they were satisfied that this never happened. I was fairly calm during the whole ordeal. The police lieutenant who knew me as a local businessperson was actually kind of embarrassed but explained to me that they had to follow through on any complaint or misinformation, especially when considering the source. The DEA agent however was just the opposite and acted like I was a criminal. I was never upset during the time they spent with me but as soon as they left I realized what a great injustice had been done to me. This abuse of power perpetrated by The Washington Trust Company and their senator compliance officer has stayed with me ever since. It has instilled in me a mistrust for people who have the opportunity to misuse the power bestowed upon them. I left the Washington Trust Company about 5 months later. After my 24 years as a customer, I was never asked why I was leaving because they knew what had transpired. They gave up about $36,000.00 in interest they were making from me yearly and it meant nothing to them. The senators bruised ego was more important. Home town bank? Sorry, no soul here. read more