Colonial Bank is a dud! I have had accounts with this bank for many years and have always had problems with them. Lately, this has been getting worse.
I electronically transfer funds from a bank in another country with no problems, but as soon as I deposit a check the trouble starts.
They usually hold the checks for 5 to 8 days, but now they are holding a check for 15 days! I received a letter today telling me that they cannot verify the check with the paying bank and that there is reasonable cause to doubt collectability.
I wrote the check that I depostited on my account with Met Life. This is a large insurance company and I have been writing checks, and depositing them in a Colonial Bank, for the past year. The money is from the life insurance of my dead husband. I have had holds put on these deposits every time I put one into Colonial, they don't seem to know that Met Life is a very large company, not something I dreamed up to put on home-made checks!!!
Now, I put in a check for $8,794.25, which is all that remained in the Met Life account. I need the money, now, to pay my bills. I have heard from people who are supposed to know, that a bank likes to hold the money as long as possible so that they, not you, get interest on it. I don't know if this is true, but the banks do like to make their money, as much as possible. The days of their giving away toasters, etc. When you open an account are long gone. Nowadays, we are made to feel that we are damned lucky that they will even open an account for us!
I called the customer service number and a woman there, who had no idea about the bank policies, checked on my problem and told me that the money would be available on the 12th of February, which is a 15 day hold. She had no idea why the hold was so long, or why there was a hold, and couldn't have cared less.By her tone of voice, the customer service rep. Seemed to think I was an idiot and a nuisance and that I should be happy that I would be getting my money at all. I bet if it was her money she would be throwing a bit fit!!!
I tried to leave a message at the Colonial Bank on North Tennessee Avenue in Lakeland, Fl., where I deposited the check, but the bank doesn't accept messages! They have probably got so many messages from annoyed customers that they no longer have an answering machine.
I must say one thing in defense of Colonial Bank, they do have one good branch. It is in Apollo Beach, Fl. And the people there who have been very helpful to me over other checks that have been held for days and days are Mary Ann and the Mgr., Bonnie. But this is the only good Colonial Bank I have run into and I have gone to several of them.
Since one bank can do a good job, why can't the others? Is it poor management? My husband, who was retired Air Force, always said that doo-doo runs downhill, and he was right.
So, my advice is to avoid the Colonial Bank, at least until it modernises it's banking practices and comes out of the horse and buggy era!
0 comments