Here is the back story: I started an "free" checking account with them when I was in college and working at Walmart. I stopped using the checking account I started when I moved from Bloomington, and transferred most of my funds leaving a small amount to have the account remain open in case I moved back to Bloomington, so the account went unused for a few months. I was told the account was free and had no minimum balance charges when I signed up.
Today, I get notice of receiving student loan funds via email and notice that the funds are being sent to the Woodforest account. I go to check the online banking for my account and find that my account username and password are no longer working. I called the bank's national headquarters to be informed that the account had been charged a yearly "fee" which left me overdrawn in my account. I received no phone call or notice of this overdraft, so the account was closed after 60 days because I did not contact them. I then told the (very rude!!!) rep on the phone that my college had made a deposit into the account, and asked if the funds would just bounce back since the account did not exist. The rep informed me that no, the bank would still accept the funds although the account no longer exists to collect the $10 that they weren't able to thieve from the checking account for their bogus fee, and that they would call me, but he would not give me a time frame in which to expect a call and given the fact that they did not call me about the overdraft, I am skeptical that any such effort to contact me will be made.
First off, the checking account, I was told was free when I signed on, which means either the people in the bank lied when I signed up, or they changed their policy without informing their customers, which is horrifically irresponsible of ANY financial institution. Secondly, to still accept funds for an account that has been closed and to dodge answering when the owner of the funds will actually get their funds back is incredibly shady not to mention illegal I am pretty sure to accept Federal Funds when you are not the intended recipient. I am now working with my university to see about getting the funds back through them, which sounds like it will be possible. If not, I might be out of my student loan funds. Third, to have very rude, hard-to-understand people working your customer service phone line is ridiculous. The man I spoke with kept repeating the same "rule/policy/whatever" over and over to me when I was trying to understand what was going on. He was not understanding, nor the least bit polite even when I started out the phone call in the politest manner possible (Admittedly, towards the end of the call I was beyond frustrated, but it took a while for me to get to that point). His tone was emotionless and monotone, and for a second I thought I might even be talking to a machine since I kept getting the same reply in such a flat tone!
I would strongly advise not banking with these people. After my experience, and reading all the other reports on here, I see that shady dealings appear to be somewhat standard with this bank. This behavior is something I would expect from a shady used car dealership, not a financial institution entrusted with millions of people's dollars.
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