Bank of the West
Reviews and Complaints

I recently had a 35$ charge when I was at a positive balance on Friday and all of a sudden negative on Saturday after making a cash deposit on Saturday at an ATM machine. I called Monday they stated I was overdrawn Friday this happened to me again the following week so why am I getting charged when I make sure my account is at a positive balance the day it technically goes negative being Saturday NOT Friday!

On May 2, I paid my balance due of $172.39. I left for an extended overseas trip on 5/7/17. A charge of $13.66 hit my account after I had departed. By the time I returned, the $13 charge had become a $98 charge due to late fees. My card was closed, and I lost approximately 17, 000 reward points over a $13 charge that went unpaid. This is wrong and I don't care that the account is closed, as I rarely used it, but I do care about the reward points that took me years to accumulate. Many phone calls have given me no results and I'm very displeased, especially since I was an employee of Bank of the West for several years.

I am trying to get funds from my account with this newly opened branch in Culver City and this incompetent manager by the name of Chris Acuff (Senior Service Officer) is telling me I can only withdraw to the maximum $200 out of my paycheck. The reason he said is that it is showing that as pending. I went ahead and ask, How much is available? and he said all of it, then how can I not withdraw more than $200? and he went on saying your direct deposit could be reversed tomorrow. To add more to his incompetence, he suggested I should withdraw in the ATM, which obviously can withdraw more than $200. This damn manager just wasted my lunch time. I am afraid this branch will go to the nuts in case this senior service officer becomes a regular manager!

I have been an account holder of Bank of the west for almost five years now and I have been going to same branch since it is the one closest to my home. It's bank of the west branch in corner of farwell dr. And Mowry ave. it is right next to Denny's restaurant. They have a certain staff, female probably early 50's in age. She makes things harder for us everytime. She said we cannot be doing deposit as cash for our checks. But if we go to other bank tellers that works in the same branch, they are not saying anything like she was saying. They deposit our check as cash so we can easily use it. This set is important for us especially in our current financial state, that we needed the money immediately. The name of the staff is La Guardia, she is the one that making things harder for us. We even got penalized to one of our bills before because our money was not available because she would not let us deposit our check as cash.

This staff needs more training and better yet needs to learn to communicate well...

bank of the west in citrus heights ca is by far the worst bank I have ever banked in. I will be closing my account. people that work here are the most unprofessional people I have ever met rude talk down to you and find any way possible to make over draft fees apply to your account they pay what ever they want pick and choose what gets paid first not as they come in just in order to get over draft fees /. I would not refer anyone to this bank in citrus heights ever im in the auto industry and am a finance manager at a dealer ship in town and will never send any business to them horrible horrible bank!

Hi my name is Priscilla Christie and I am filing a compalint against Bank Of the West for not having access to my personal funds for over 48 hours due to a customer service error on 8/19/17 where my atm/ master card was canceled by a Monica in customer service after making a phone call to find out why I could not access my funds.
8/19/2017 went to gas station in sanjose, ca brought gas $20.00 @ 13:37 (used atm card) @13:39 tried to get money from atm in gas station print-out said invalid card, @ 1341 tried again to get $40.00 from same machine atm print out said invalid card, @13:43 after wiping my card I tried again to get $20.00 once again printout said invalid card. I went to the cashier and brought a water and another item used my card and it went through.
I went to a liquor store in campbell, ca and tried to use the atm at that location and my card was declined. immediately I called custoer service and soke to monica who informed me that my ard had been blocked becaused I was in a high crime area (not true) she unblocked my card verified all my information and I was able to use the card within minutes at the bofthewest atm in the stripmall of the liquor store Ithanked here for her help.
8/20/2017 around 13:48 or 13:50 I tried usng my atm card at a gas station in los gatos, ca. and my card was declined. I drove to santa cruz bankofthe west in capitola, ca put my card in the atm and this time the machine take my card and the print out said my card was not valid for me to contact my financial institution.
1st called customer service and spoke to a young man who said he did not understand what the problem was then placed me on hold for over 10min. I called back and spoke to angela in customer service she was very helpful. after reviewing my account with a manager they both agreed that monica canceled my account by accident for some unknown reason. Angela was going to send me my new card but I will take 27hour to arrive. I then spoke to Trisha the manager confirmed this was an error made by a lack of training by a new employee.
This mistake has created a hardship for me. I dont' have credit cards and my atm is the only source of money I have, and being a Nurse my hours at the hospital are from 5:30/6am -6:30pm so your bank is closed in the morning before I go to work and in the evening when I get off work.
Because your manager did not make sure monica was proplerly trained before she allowed her access to customers accounts I'm paying the price for financialy. I know people make mistakes but someone has to be held accountable for the customers inconvenience and hardship. I would like some type of retribution for this huge inconvience caused by a lack of training.

I have a registration issue and 1.5 years later they still can't get it resolved. It should have been done by myself but they lost the title when I requested it be sent to the local DMV office. They have no customer service skills and hide behind "bank policy".

The amount of (or lack of) effort put forth with outside vendors they could have purchased me a new trailer and save a lot of time and money. I have been faithful in maintaining payments for something I can't do anything with. I have filed a consumer complaint against the bank, after all said and done I expect compensation for all the money that I continue to pay the bank while they try and fix the issue. This for me is a significant amount of money.

The FTC or some other agency needs to get involved and investigate the banks questionable practices. Seems that they have more than just what is currently impacting me.

I think this is not a bank. And they do not speak English. And they dislike Asian People.

I felt sorry, that I have used this bank for over seventeen years.

I had a story that I have file complaint to the bank and no one is following it up.

And I was language abused and assaulted by the bank. I wish they closed down in the next 10 years.

On March 22, 2016, we enquired about setting up an account (free of service charges) that I require to receive checks from my renter. The staff at the bank told us that since my husband already has a joint account with his mom in the same bank, setting up this signature checking account with my husband and my name on it will not incur any fees. After the first check deposit, which the bank took quite a while to figure out the track of that check (which created a distrust between my new tenant and me), the renter decided to request his bank to send to another of my bank. I had no problems after switching to another bank. Since my rent check does not go to the bank of the west, I did not give much thought to the signature checking account, afterall, I did not think I will earn any interest from that account! In January 2017, I was doing my routine bank statements verification of my assets and tax forms, and realized that I did not receive any paper statements from Bank of the west for this account. I checked online and notice the service fee of $30 charged to this account, every month, beginning May 2016. So far $270 has been charged. I called the bank to see if they could reverse the charges. The answer I get was that they could reverse just one month (it is now end of Jan 2017 and I did not see that being done). The staff also told me that I should have checked my account online earlier and that since the account has to have the same names (my husband and my mother-in-law's), that is why a fee is charged. But this is exactly the misinformation I was given, which lead me to think that I am getting a free checking account since my husband's name is on it! After the first call, the staff let me know that she will speak with her bank manager and after checking back with her a few times, the reply was that they are still checking. The next service charge will be Feb 6 and so I have decided that the bank is not going to reverse the charges. I will close the account and I will write to all the complaint boards and reviews. I felt scammed! Albeit a $270 lesson, but I am not going away without submitting my complaints to everyone that I know. This is all because we were mislead by the staff about this free checking account!

Don't expect bank of the west to cover your back. Because they won't. I had several fraud transactions that I didnt catch the first 60 days of it happening. They were 1 a month from someone in china. I didn't think anything of it because there are stores on the internet in china that I more than likely have made a purchase. Later I notice there was about 2 a month and they were all the same $ amount but different cents. That was about 6 months worth of fraud that I didn't think any thing of. But as soon as it did click in my mind I filled out the forms to report these transactions. Well they didnt credit my account with any of the amounts not even the ones reported in 60 days. I didn't expect them to cover the ones before that because they were over 60 days. Really I shouldn't have wrote them down at all. Because they used the fact that if I would of notice that in the first 60 days the rest could of been prevented. I had to get a new card 2 times because it happened again. So prevention didn't happen in the 60 days when they new of them. They should of covered me. But instead they blamed it me and didnt pay any. I fax the info over July 25th. I started wondering about the case. I called several times but no one would talk to me. Finally Sept. 1st a girl at the bank decided to check for me. At first they said that I needed to fill out the form again because I left out where I put the pin # and who had access to my account. Which was a lie. The girl that called for me said we would fill out another form but she needed to see the first form so we could copy the transactions. They sent a blank form instead. Finally someone got on the phone and the girl gave me the phone. The girl that was on the phone was very rude and didn't want to hear any thing I had to say. After she got through telling me they weren't going to pay for any of it she more or less hung up on me. She was done. This was case #[protected] with the card ending in 1058. I feel bad enough for all the money I lost from fraud before I notice. But to not get what I should have in the 60 days time frame instead I get blamed for it along other excuses not to say again but the run around all together. If it wasn't finally for the lady in my bank I would still be trying to find out what happen. And still not know. If any one can fix this I gave my case I.D. # above. Any other info u need to see please let me know

I had my purse stolen and several fraudulent purchases were made on my BOW debit card. I reported my card stolen almost immediately but the teller at my local branch shut down the wrong account. Now, over 2 weeks later I'm still waiting on my new card that isn't linked to the compromised account. As a "courtesy", BOW is sending me a new card rush delivery but I still won't receive it for 5 days according to customer service. I have bills that are due and it should not take upwards of 3 weeks to get this straightened out. What's more, they only now sent my afadavid after I checked on the status. The bank's hours are such that it's almost impossible to go in person to withdraw money. To add insult to injury, "Nasim" from customer service hung up on me when I tried to call to conplain. I went through a traumatic experience having my purse stolen, and BOW has responded with incompetence and petulant unprofessionalism and I truly feel like this bank has done nothing but made the incident even more of a stressful ordeal. Worst banking experience in my entire life. Let this be a cautionary tale to never entrust this company with your money

Southwest Airlines quadruple charged my account (total of $880) and they sent a hold release form to my branch on 84th & Giles in Omaha, NE. The branch told me yesterday there was no way they can actually remove the hold for me and to call the 800 number on the back of my card. I called the 800 number on the back of my card and they seemed confused as to why the branch couldn't have just done it. She then put me on hold for about 15 minutes and said they can't release the hold but the hold DOES expire at the end of day and promised I will have my funds released back to me by tomorrow. It is now tomorrow and my funds were never released back to me - in fact, now my account is overdrawn. And since BOTW likes to be different, none of their branches are open on a Saturday to even put money into my account. I called the 800 number again today and was told "sorry ma'am, we don't know why the lady on the phone yesterday would tell you that your hold expires at the end of night…it actually won't be released until Tuesday". I then asked to speak to a supervisor and this supervisor lady was EXTREMELY rude and has zero compassion to my situation. She said the only way that they can release my hold is if the merchant (Southwest) faxes them over a hold release form. I said they DID fax this over yesterday to the branch and the branch told me to call the 800 number. She said sorry but I can't do anything since the branch is closed today. ARE YOU KIDDING? I told her that I even have a copy of the hold release form that came straight from the merchant. I told her I could email it to her and she said they don't have the ability to receive email (yeah right). I hung up extremely frustrated and in tears. I was promised my funds would be back to me today and now I have to sit all Memorial Day weekend with my account being overdrawn? I can't even wait to dispute my overdraft fees! Shame on the 84th and Giles branch for not just taking care of this themselves and shame on the customer service people for providing me incorrect information and no willingness to help. I just got married last weekend and my husband and I were going to open a joint account here. After this experience, I will be closing my account and going to bank that actually cares about their customers.
UPDATE - Today is 5/31 (a BUSINESS day) and my situation is still not resolved. Nobody has reached out to contact me despite the fact that this has been going on since 5/27

On September 9th or 10th, 2015 I wrote a check for my quarterly taxes to the IRS and made up a bank deposit of approx. $2, 200 in cash because I'd been putting money aside for that purpose. It was a blazing hot day in California hot day in California and I had my dog in the car and couldn't walk into the bank. I drove through the post office drive through to mail my payment and double checked that I put the tax check envelope into the mailbox just to be sure I didn't put my deposit into the mailbox. Then I drove directly to the front of Bank of the West about four blocks away and put my deposit into the night drop in an envelope with the words, "Bank of the West Deposit" on the envelope with my name. I didn't think to make a copy of my deposit slip because I've never had a problem with Bank of the West and my deposit slips don't have carbons. Last night I went to online banking and was aghast at the revelation that the deposit had never been recorded. I called the bank this morning and a woman who was barely civil said she would have someone check the night drops on those days when they had time and someone would call me back. I asked her if there was any way to see if the bank was over on one of those two days and she said the bank doesn't do balances like that. She called me back and said she'd checked those two days night drops and there hadn't been a deposit for that amount put into the night drop. It could have been $2, 100. or $2, 200. or something similar because the tax bill was $2, 070 and I wanted to put more than the exact amount but, since I didn't make a copy of the deposit slip, I can't be sure of the exact amount. If you look at my long business and personal relationship with Bank of the West you will see that I'm an exemplary customer. I've always done everything by the book and haven't had a problem. I know I made that deposit. Just because I can't prove it I'm out of a lot of money and that makes me mad because someone took my cash on the inside of the bank. Whomever took it knew I wouldn't be able to prove it. I would switch banks but I have grandchildren linked to my account and it would disrupt their banking if I did. I'm writing this on the outside chance that someone higher up will believe me and that, if someone else reports losing cash from the night drop box it will become apparent I'm not lying. This is very distressing and the agent I dealt with at the bank was less than helpful. Maybe she has more money and it isn't of consequence to her or maybe she knows it's my word against the banks so she just doesn't care.

Today my card was blocked, without notice to me, for the third time in ten months due to "the card being compromised." When I called the bank today I was told that I would have to wait fourteen days for another card. I pointed out that I cannot wait that long, again, to pay my bills, etc. I was told "deal with it. The card comes when it comes." The rep was rude and unhelpful and, despite being assured that I would be notified if my card was to be blocked again, they did not do so. I will now not be able to buy groceries, pay my bills, etc for at least two weeks.

I found out recently that someone stole my credit/debit card number and decided to "borrow" $800 from my checking account to shop somewhere on the east coast. This is the first time it happened to me. Bank of the West didn't either catch this or notify me... I found out myself that same day hours after a deposit. Called a representative... he told me "sorry we didn't see this sooner" and said he would send an affidavit for me to fill out, along with a new credit/debit card (he stated he automatically cancelled my card which was good) and my bank statement. No later than five days. Five days later I have an empty mailbox and still... empty pockets. Can I take action if they refuse to return my stolen money? What can I do now? And not only that but they told me they de-activated my card on the day I found out... but the fraudulent charge appeared with other charges on that card the next day? Seriously?
I hope anyone who is considering using this bank please look elsewhere! You'll be dealing with a nightmare.

Bank of The West needs to be pressured with Imminent (BK) Threats or Mediation Law and Procedures.
They are basically a giant collection agency. They purchase the distressed mortgage at Extreme Discounts from various key players in the sub-prime arena. They collect aggressively on this paper. They do not play by the rules and need to be pressed hard.

We have completed successful loan restructuring cases with Bank of The West. They are all long run and brutal battles.

Feel free to visit our website for further details on avoiding a Pending Sale Date.
www.freshstart-mortgagesolutions.com or www.freshstart-legalnetwork.com
You may also call 1.877.297.7011

Good Luck Homeowners.

I received a refund check from my auto insurance Cie Geico $26.57 I endorsed it and I deposited at ATM Bank of the West (lets name it BoW) Santa Terera branch on 8/31/11 just before I left for Vietnam where I’ll stay up to May/2012.

My BoW account ending …9045 name Tam Leminh and Marie Tran was credited with 26.57.
But on 9/6/2011 BoW debited my account of this same amount, saying (by Email) that Geico bank did not pay the check.
My Email to Geico, answer : check was clear.

Then BoW and Geico just keep playing ping pong with each other, many emails back and forth…
In the meamtime I still don;t have my $26.57.

My complain is: I made a deposit of a legitimate check and I am expecting my account credited with $26.57!

What do you think bank of the west fee!
I wrote a check to pay bill, I got insufficent fund they chargee $26. I agree that charge. Because in that time
I have some authorize withdraw.
Then they charge $5 for every day because my checking
Ballance $ -115, during that time I can not access on line either, it took 7 day to received a letter from the bank. Therefore, I got charged every day $5
Then I have to go the bank deposite some cash in to my checking at noon, they still charged my $5 fee at the same day.
Bank of the west they already have my email and my phone #, what is that for bank of the west does.
Why they don't call or email to notice me that error.
Is that the way bank of the west make money.