I had both business and personal checking accounts at SunTrust. Don't really like the Great Big Giant Mega-Banks, as Clark Howard calls them, but they had several locations that were really convenient. Then, they started screwing things up in the way that only a huge (dis)organization can, and customer NO-service was useless.

I marched in, gave the teller a list of my account numbers, and told him to close all accounts and give me the balances in cash.

Branch manager comes out and says that she would like to take care of the problems. Nope, you had your chance, more than one, I'm not going to deal with this bank any more.

Took the cash, went across the driveway to BB&T bank, opened replacement accounts, and everything was fine. Then, a month later, the merger was announced. BB&T and SunTrust were going to form Truist.

The merger was finalized earlier this week and predictably, once SunTrust was in the picture again, the troubles began. Things like emails telling me that the business account was overdrawn, "backed up" by the account details on the website that correctly showed checks that I had written, but did not show deposits that I had made. The deposits were clearly shown on the iOS app, but not on the website.

Went to the branch, it was abandoned and locked up, with a notice that former BB&T customers should go across the driveway to the former SunTrust branch, which was now re-branded Truist. The drive-up lanes were backed up out to the street. Parked, went into the lobby which was overflowing with probably a hundred or more angry people. Nope, not going to wait there.

Back to my office, tried on-line. No email listed for Customer NO-Service, no functioning chat, no way to contact them. Click on "Make Appointment" and find no appointment slots available until the middle of next week.

Tomorrow morning's to-do list: first item, go across the street to Navy Federal Credit Union and open business and personal accounts, ask them to draft the SunTrust accounts, leaving $0.01 in each of the SunTrust accounts except for the personal account that gets my Social Security deposits. I'll leave a whole dollar in that one, until I can get the SS deposit switched over to Navy Federal.

The list of big banks that I have been screwed by:

• Bank of America
  
  
• Chase
  
  
• Wachovia
  
  
• Wells Fargo
  
  
• SunTrust
  
  
• Truist

Yeah, I'm a slow learner.

That sucks. I use a smaller local bank and a local credit union. I do not want for bigger.

BOHICA

Bend Over Here It Comes Again
.

I dumped my first bank for another. When, a number of years later, the second bank started acting like the first, I took the hint, switched to a CU, and never looked back.

I've been with that "same" CU, through two mergers & expansions, for... must be forty years, now?

Same credit union for more than 50 years.

Might be a more amenable solution?

^^^

Yep, same Credit Union since the 70s, all through my military career and since.

Moved to another state, and have an app that let's me "deposit" checks with my phone.

Pay all bills electronic funds or e-check.

I did have secondary banking for a couple of my businesses and had some issues with them.
(Credit Union would not allow seperate or more than one account)

Be careful leaving only a penny in each account.

Many banks have a minimum balance in order to not accrue fees.

I had a bank when I was first in the military in early 90's... I had $9... something left in it as I had transferred.

A few months later I bought a cake for a friends birthday... $7 something...

Well because I was in Alaska, and the bank was in Illinois, and it was the 90's it took time for check to go back and forth.

The $7 check dropped the balance below $5, that was not allowed, so it bounced, and was sent back to AK... Then there was a fee for the bounce of $20... Which dropped my balance to -$11....
Store where I bought cake, got check returned, and resubmitted....
Another -$20 and still no payment.

I had to pay $31 to close the account or they would continue to accrue fees for negative balance, and then pay for the stupid cake...

Cake cost me near $50, and it was not that good to begin with...

Check your account details to avoid any more issues for your own sake.

quote:

Be careful leaving only a penny in each account.

Many banks have a minimum balance in order to not accrue fees.

This! Fifth Third Bank did the same to me a few years ago. I was going to close the accounts & Wells Fargo by mistake sent a $20 charge to Fifth Third. Wells Fargo refunded the $20 but I had to pay the overdraft fee to Fifth Third before I could close the account.

quote:

Navy Federal Credit Union

Do it

I just opened an account because of a credit card offer, they gave me 10.9% and 0% for a year on balance transfers. Taking full advantage of that, closed out a few cards that were charging close to 20%

Yeah, we ditched BOA years ago when they were gonna ding us for using their atms. Went to NC state credit union (still have an account there) and when we moved to TX we opened an account at PNC. We haven’t had any issues with them(yet)

The company I worked for and retired from operates a Credit Union . I can walk in the door and say " I need to see Charlotte " . I tell her what I need and she makes it happen . Problem ? Call Charlotte . Fixed . That's the way to do business .

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

an app that let's me "deposit" checks with my phone.

And that, right there, is one of the major problems. I deposited a check by phone. This had always worked just fine with BB&T, but after the merger with SunTrust to form Truist, that deposit showed up on the deposit history in the app, but did not show up on the bank's website, and resulted in the alleged overdraft.

So, about three or four days later, it all got magically straightened out.

Then yesterday I attempted another remote deposit. Everything went well until the final step, which produced an error message: "We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later.". I did try again, many times, at intervals, but "later" never worked.

That was when I made the decision to fire them and go across the street to Navy Federal Credit Union. Haven't left the office yet to do that, but it is on today's list.

quote:

Originally posted by Dreamerx4:

Be careful leaving only a penny in each account.

Many banks have a minimum balance in order to not accrue fees.

If they want fees from me, they can pound sand. I will attend to their demands using just as much care as they have used to handle my accounts correctly.

BB&T screwed me harder than any other bank I’ve used. Went to get some cash from the ATM one morning and my money was gone. Went inside and told the teller what the problem was. “We can research the issue but it can take up to 3 business days and there will be a charge of $75.”

I was about to go nuclear. I walked into the manager’s office, told her I’d be back at 4pm, they’d better have my damn money and no I would NOT pay them to find it. When I went back that afternoon they’d magically found my money. No explanation, no apology, just “we found it.” Told them to close the account and give me every penny. First the manager gave me a few bullshit reasons why it would be a bad idea, then they claimed they could only give me a check. I told that snotty bitch to put the cash in my hand immediately or call the cops. Got my money and told that bitch to kiss my entire ass.

Mike: I've been with PNC since Jun 1978. Thats the account they set up for us as cadets at USCGA. They've been pretty good, only pain was I had to visit a branch in PA a couple of years ago to open up a savings account, which had a promotional interest rate that they couldn't seem able to set up online. That was a pain, but I eventually got it done on a layover in Philly.

Vtail: I've also got checking and savings with USAA for just about as long. No problems with them.

Been with Regions bank for local checking and savings since at least 1998 and they have been pretty good so far.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:...
That was when I made the decision to fire them and go across the street to Navy Federal Credit Union....

No matter if I have ever had an issue, the CU has never given me any grief on resolution.

Never had to ask to speak to a manager, if the person working with me could not get it fixed, they asked me to wait while they put on the Karen Hat.

Not so with banks, every one of them had something that caused me to dust my feet out the door, and never look back.

I think you will be happy with NFCU.

Is there any reason you must use Suntrust/BBT or whatever they're calling themselves, or any "'big' bank," for that matter? I dumped, coincidentally, Suntrust (yes, I had issues with them) for a local credit union in 2019. They are in a way like Cheers in that everybody knows my name. And I got a Visa credit card through them that has generous cash back and a $6900 limit.

I've been with Chase for around 18 years at this point and they bend over backwards to make me happy.

Never had a problem in the world with them and they're pretty Big.

It's probably a function of the Management at a particular branch that makes it good or bad.

quote:

It's probably a function of the Management at a particular branch that makes it good or bad.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exactly. The silly policies and mistakes can be corrected if there is a decent branch manager. It is their job to grow deposits. I got my CPA from my branch manager.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

I got my CPA from my branch manager.

I did not know that branch managers could award CPA certification. I learn something new every day.