We went to RBC Centura, believing it to be a "hometown" style bank where we could get better service than some of those bigger banks. We moved our checking accounts there, and already having a home-equity line of credit with them, we went back to increase the limit because we are renovating a historic home in downtown Orlando. When we began the process, we had plenty of time (6 weeks) before we needed the money to give to our contractor.
We were told it would be done within 2 weeks. We submitted the request for 100% of the current property value and were assured that based on the numbers and credit scores there would not be any problem. Days turned into weeks, and after EIGHT weeks the loan was finally approved BUT for only 95% LTV, which left us $20,000 short of what we needed. During the time our loan was in process, the bank's policy changed to only go as high as 95%. This explains why it took so long!
We had several bank employees appeal to the decision-maker (located in NC — so much for "hometown") that we should be grandfathered in, but nothing was done. Unfortunately however, during these days of ups and downs, we did receive a phone call from our lender stating that we WERE approved for the full amount and to go ahead, so we did.in the end we were left scrambling for money by draining our savings and taking cash advances (with those extremely high fees). There wasn't time to go to another bank to try to refinance the equity loan, we were completely screwed.
For several weeks their website still reflected they would allow up to 100% LTV. It wasn't until I made a nasty call to the mortgage department after another 2 weeks that it was finally changed.
In the mean time, after switching my checking account to RBC, I have been using my checkcard and the web banking to keep track of purchases on a daily basis. Two weeks ago, while still in the shortfall of this debacle, my checking account was depleted after my mortgage payment came out.instead of rejecting my checkcard at the terminal when funds were not available, they allowed it to go through. And another, and another, and another. Because I check my account online at least every other day, if not everyday, I rely on this information to alert me if there is a problem, like a forgotten transaction, and I need to transfer funds (because unlike most banks, RBC doesn't have an auto-transfer functionality, or so I was told.) Not only did RBC charge me an over-draft fee ($32) for each item they allowed to go through, but also some "reentry fee" ($6) for each item. They KNOWINGLY allowed transactions to occur on an account with a negative balance, with the sole purpose of collecting those outrageous fees.
When I went to the bank to explain the situation, the only person working in the downtown branch was a young kid who had been there for two months, by the name of Justin. He listened to my story and agreed with me that what happened was wrong. He said he didn't have the authority to reverse the fees but he would go check with "someone". He left the room for less than 5 seconds and came back with a big cheesy smile that nope, they didn't make an error so they weren't removing the fees. He also said that he personally doesn't rely on web banking and that I should use the phone service to check my account. Even as I check my account today, it is still not reflecting some of the transactions that occured 3 business days ago. This is not helpful, and actually is deceitful.
While at the branch yesterday, I learned that several people have left the bank in the past few weeks, including all of the people we dealt with when trying to secure the equity line. This is a big red flag as well.
I believe that people need to know that doing business with RBC Centura will be painful at best, and will probably cost you a LOT of money. I am not finished with my fight for what is right.
Carie
orlando, Florida
U.S.A.
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