I used to love my local bank. They've been my bank for over 20 years. They've been good to me. We've worked well together. Staff at my favorite branch were great, the branch manager (now retired) even giving me his home phone number at a rough point in my world and saying, "call me if you need me, regardless the topic." This bank has been my go-to. It's the bank where my savings accounts are, and they get to babysit a fair chunk of my money.

Lately, though, they're not as useful, not as personable. All my go-to staff members have retired. The newbies don't know me, and don't appear to care to know any of their customers.

Back in the day, the drive-through was open 7a-7p, six days a week. The lobby was a 9-5 operation (closed at 1pm for an hour lunch), and open on Saturdays from 9 to noon. I don't have to go to the bank often, but with those hours it was easy to make a visit. I could hit the drive-through (up until recently they didn't offer an ATM or debit card, and I was totally fine with that) before work or after work (because I work earlier than 9am and later than 5pm), or even take advantage of in-person service on a Saturday. It was great.

Then the WuFlu came on, and they cut back on lobby and drive-through hours. Now the drive-through is open 8:30am to 5pm during the week (til 6 on Friday) and only 9-noon on Saturday. Lobby hours? Good luck. They've only recently started allowing customers back in the building.

So this past weekend I took advantage of the "contact us" form on their web site. I asked, "Now that the Covid restrictions are loosening, is there a plan to get back to the great hours that used to be so beneficial, like 7am drive-through opening times?" The response? "Thank you for your message. As of right now [my bank] has not made any plans on returning to 7-7 Drive Thru hours."

I'm not sure what that means, really. Do I take that literally, and believe that they simply haven't made a plan, or that they've elected not to make a plan? Is that "we haven't decided yet," or "we're not going to?"

In either case, their usefulness to me has decreased mightily, and I'm very disappointed with that. This change from "the local bank whose local staff would bend over backward to help" to "the bank whose attitude is ambivalence at best" is very disheartening. It sounds cheesy, but they were more than just a business partner to "vthoky inc," they were a friend to vthoky... and now we've lost a friend.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: vthoky,

Closed an hour for lunch? I have never seen a bank close for lunch - never mind for an entire hour.

Thank you, Graniteguy, on checking again, it appears that I mis-remembered. They don't close for that hour as I had thought. (I'm almost certain they used to do that, though...)

I see now that for the two branches in my town, the hours are the same but lobby hours at one of them are by appointment only.

When I moved to the Yoop, I signed on with a small bank that had local roots here and in northern Wisconsin. It was called River Valley Bank. It recently changed hands and is now called:
Incredible Bank.
Its actually not all that incredible. After any transaction, the teller will say "have an incredible day"!

Omgosh, that would be annoying.

Not to mention the fact that I'd be expecting the staff there to be looking like the people in the Incredibles movie.

Interesting concept, a locally owned bank serving local people and businesses and managed by local people.

Maybe there is a business plan there.

I've been a member of my credit union for 48 years. Used to know everyone there, but that was a long time ago. Still friendly and helpful, but they don't seem ready to believe me when I give them my account number (only 3 digits). I have one of the large safe deposit boxes, and I doubt that the current group of kids working there would really want to see some of the antique guns I keep there.

Over the years I have served on the board several times. 302 of us started the credit union in a rented office space with two part-time employees, open for business 3 mornings per week. Now there are 14,000 members and almost as many different options for credit and debit cards. Just about 30 years since I helped in loading up and moving into a new building, used to have 5 other offices to rent out but all of them are now filled with CU offices and staff.

I do not have keys to the doors anymore. Haven't seen my coffee cup for a long time.

Maybe write a letter or email the BOD about things that have gone down hill.

I have been with my CU over 60 years and during that time lived all over the country.

Only recently, I had a problem opening another account. I brought this to the attention of the BOD and they assigned a person to take care of the problem.

quote:

Originally posted by LoboGunLeather:
Interesting concept, a locally owned bank serving local people and businesses and managed by local people.

Maybe there is a business plan there.

Like so many other organizations: the more they grow, the less customer-focused they become. I started with this bank some 30 years ago because the big banks were so concentrated on growth and big fancy buildings that their customer service seemed like an afterthought. This bank had a couple of very modest buildings and was staffed by "regular people," rather than the stuffy suit-and-tie crowd.

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
Maybe write a letter or email the BOD about things that have gone down hill.

I have been with my CU over 60 years and during that time lived all over the country.

I did send a message back last night, essentially asking for clarification -- essentially, "does your response mean you don't yet have a plan, or that your plan is to not resume the convenient hours?" We'll see what comes of it.

My credit union is rapidly overtaking my bank for the title of "vthoky's preferred financial partner." As before with my bank, everyone at my CU knows me when I walk in, greets with a smile, and knows how to help. A phone call gets me right to the person I need, and I can get an email response within a couple of hours. There are no Saturday hours at all, but I can usually adjust to make that work.

The response means, "We saved a shit ton of money by cutting staff when we cut hours, and have no plan to return to our previous levels of service." I'd say find a new bank, but they're all pretty much like that now.

That's about what I'm expecting, unfortunately.

LGS used to be 9 to 9, COVID hours are 9 to 7 don't think they are going back.

By the time I'm done working for the day, dinner, it's 7pm, haven't been back but maybe two times in the last year.

I’m afraid cutting hours and staff are the SOP of the banking world and everything is going online.
I have an account with BBT (now Truist) just so that I can do the occasional in person thing that we all need occasionally.

A couple of years ago I wanted to get a new Jeep Gladiator and asked them about their 36 month rates and I think it was around 4%. I had been getting a few emails from PenFed Credit Union and through their online portal could give me 1.9% so I opened an account with them and went for it…Fast forward to a month or so ago and we find ourselves buying a house so once again I stop in the see the local branch (which I had been dealing with for over 20 years) and got a rate of just under 3% with one point…Check with Penfed online and got 2.125% with 1/4 point.

We should close next week…

Well don’t switch to USAA. They are sucking huge right now. Just spent 5 hours and 2 days to fix a simple issue. Simple like my wife purchased something, they flagged it as potential fraud, we called and said, “nope it was us and we want to purchase this” and they couldn’t unflag it. For two days.

I've got Chase Bank and so far it's pretty easy to get to see someone there.

They call me from time to time to ask if I want to have a sit down with my "personal banker".

I always tell them no.

quote:

They call me from time to time to ask if I want to have a sit down with my "personal banker".

Tell them "Sure. Let's have lunch. You're buying."

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
I’m afraid cutting hours and staff are the SOP of the banking world and everything is going online.
I have an account with BBT (now Truist) just so that I can do the occasional in person thing that we all need occasionally.

Eddie, you nailed it.

I got a phone call this morning from the manager at my local branch. How nice! That's the sort of thing I'm used to!

We talked for a good 10 minutes or so, and it's that exactly -- now that this bank has some online services, people are soaking that up and not using the extended-hours drive-through so much. She said that the other branches had started cutting that back pre-cooties, and that the three branches in my little area are among the last ones to take part.

She did make sure I knew that though the branches 'round here don't have walk-up ATMs yet, the cards issued are part of the Moneypass network. What that means is that I can do an ATM cash-grab at Sheetz (among other locations) with no fees, and the branches all do have the night-drop boxes for after-hours deposits. So there's that.

Ms. Manager did understand that a lot of us just can't get to the bank during "normal business hours," and even admitted that she'd had to hit the ATM over the weekend, having forgotten to get cash during the week.

I did get over to the branch at lunchtime today (needed to take care of more business than an ATM could handle) and I met Ms. Manager. (She's new to this branch, though she's been working for the bank for almost as long as I've been banking there.) We had another good chat while I was there.

The summary: I'm still not enthused that they're cutting back services. The business head on me is capable, however, of seeing the sense in their decision. And I'll give Ms. Manager and the local branch "double extra bonus points" for making the phone call this morning -- and actively inviting me to stop by and visit when I could -- instead of just tossing out another email.