I have been going to Biolife Plasma Services for years now and it has been a real life saver when I have bills due or am out of work or need some fast cash. Recently they have partnered with Chase Bank and instead of giving cash for donations the money is put into an account at Chase Bank. I have two major complaints.
First, I have to drive to a Chase bank to get my money after donating. Chase bank allows one transaction for free per donation and then it is $2.50 to get your money. Their screen is a touch screen selection style and if you are not really careful the wrong selection detects the touch, then you have to do it over and there you go... Now it is $2.50 for that do over. Also if you try to get money you think you know is in there by doing a balance inquiry... That is another "transaction" and you are charged for that. If there is no account activity over a period of months they charge you for that. Another complaint about Chase Bank is that you can only get money at the atm in multiples of $20. So if you have $50 in the bank you can only get $40. You cannot go into the bank and withdraw it and you cannot add money to that account yourself to bring it up to $20 so you can get your money. Also if you have $20 in there and try to get it and goof up on the sign-in screen, like put in the wrong pin or hit the wrong function touch button, and have to do it over... Chase takes out their $2.50 fee and you get a note saying you do not have that amount in your account. If that note confuses you so you do a balance inquiry then you get charged another transaction fee. I used to have an account at Chase Bank and closed it because Chase Bank caters to people who have money.By that I mean that if you only have small amounts in your accounts you are open to a lot of surprises and likely to not be able to get your money as it is drainned out in fees. I specifically asked about having an overdraft protection and they assured me that I had it. Shortly a check bounced and I asked how that happened. When a check bounces because it is even $1 over the amount in your account they draw out a minimum of $50 to cover it. So now I have NSF charge when I thought I was covered. I thought I was finished with them when I finally closed that account and now I HAVE to use them to get my money for Biolife. I DO NOT LIKE TO BE TOLD I HAVE TO USE THAT BANK!
Now for the stupidity of Biolife. I complained to a manager at Biolife and he said the company had to go with a bank that is nationwide because they have facilities nationwide and they wanted to keep it all in the same bank. (Lucky Chase Bank just think of the money they are making NATIONWIDE!) Whomever chose this bank was not thinking because the way Biolife pays is $20 for the first donation and $30 for the second. Now that adds up to $50 and Chase only lets you take out in multiples of $20 so you quite often have money that is yours that you cannot get to. That is not right... It is my money and I need it now. Why in the H& did Biolife go with a bank that does not let people take money out in multiples of $10? Someone, probably someone who makes enough money not to be frequenting Biolife or worrying about being down to their last $10, made a bad choice by not thinking about this. Biolife either needs to go to $20 per 1st donation and $40 for the second and keep it in multiples of $20 or change banks!!! Chase must have seen them coming and greeted them with a smile for sure. It was negligent of Chase not to have caught the possible customer service discrepency and pointed it out to Biolife instead of just greedily signing up the account knowing that customers were going to have problems. They work with money for Gosh sakes, can't they do the numbers! I think they just don't care and that it is another person who does not have to think of these things in his/her own life and does not have a clue to what the clientelle of Biolife is like and/or what desperate need some of us have for the few dollars we get for our "valuable' plasma. Talk about Blood Money, Chase and Biolife are out to get it, literally.
Lola
Bloomington, Indiana
U.S.A.
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