Dickinson Financial - Academy Bank
Taking money, capitalizing on deposit interest after funds verfied cleared

I am sure this is banking practice with most banks so here we go... I made a pretty decent deposit roughly a week ago. I have two accounts; one with Academy Bank and another with Wells Fargo. I decided to put the deposit in Academy Bank because they offered to release the funds once the other financial institution verified the check cleared, on top of that they gave me a little bit up front as well.

I have been a big advocate of Academy Bank a subsidiary of Dickinson Financial Corporation until this day...

I called the bank who submitted the check this morning to verify if the funds have cleared or not, the rep was kind and said they cleared several days ago and everything was good to go, Academy now has the funds. Excited - I hurried down to my local Englewood Academy Bank... It was a bummer that my favorite assistant manager was not present so I had to explain the situation to another manager. Every seemed good, they said the would just need to call and verify with the issuing bank that the funds have cleared, everything was good!

The manager walked out and said there was one more step that need to happen, she needed to contact Katie Works (Kathryn Works) who is the Regional Manager for Academy Bank. About 5 mins later the bank manager returned with the news that they were unable to release the funds for another week, going back on the word and the entire reason I deposited the funds with Academy rather than WellsFargo would was more than happy to return funds by the next day.

I decided I would take the issue a step further. If it wasn't the end of the year it would not have been a big deal but because I have very specific tax liabilities that need to happen prior to the end of the year (within the week) it was important I had access to my cash. Anyway, I emailed Steve Ingham who is the bank President (singham@dfckc.com) who quickly replied that he was passing my concern down to Katie the regional manager. Wow. Did he not read my email? That was the entire reason I was escalating the issue to him!!!

To make a long story short Katie wrote me back and basically said it wasn't going to happen, I am out of luck. I really hate people that threaten their attorneys but this seems a bit fraudulent to me. The bank has the money, that has been verified, yet they still won't release the funds...

So... I sent it over to my attorney to investigate. Here is what comes to mind. Banks around the nation are sitting on YOURS and MY money, with some necessary and many unnecessary holds collecting GOBS and who knows but potentially millions of dollars collecting interest of our hard earned money. I understand holds and the reasoning behind them but when the money has been received it's time to let go and give it back the the rightful owner.

What a scam. Once my attorney gets back to me I will update the post. There might not be anything I can do, but then again, there might be.

Additional Company Info:
Additional Information on Dickson Financial (Just in case you need to know how to contact when the President can make things right.)

Chairman: Ann K. Dickinson [ adickinson@dfckc.com ]

CEO; President and CEO, Bank Midwest; Chairman, Armed Forces Bank, Armed Forces Bank of California, and Southern Commerce Bank:

Rick L. Smalley [ rsmalley@dfckc.com ]
President; SVP Bank Midwest; Director, Armed Forces Bank: Regional Banks & Thrifts

Dickinson Financial is the holding company for Bank Midwest, as well as a group of military banks: Armed Forces Bank, Armed Forces Bank of California, SunBank, Southern Commerce Bank, and Academy Bank. Bank Midwest operates about 70 branches in Kansas and Missouri. The military banking group operates from some 120 locations on or around military bases in about 20 states. The banks offer traditional deposit and lending products: savings, checking, money market, and retirement accounts; lines of credit; and CDs. The Dickinson family owns Dickinson Financial.

Company: Dickinson Financial - Academy Bank
Country: USA
State: Colorado
City: Colorado Springs
Address: 1 S Tejon St
Phone: 7194484380

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