Bank Pekao SA
reviews and complaints

On 14th December 2022 I transferred a sum of money from my foreign account (GBP) at Bank Pekao SA in Poland to my Barclays account in London. There was no mention of transfer fees. When I checked my account a day later I noticed that Bank Pekao charged me £ 50 for the transaction! I find it shocking as it constitutes 19% of the transaction amount.

Having had no prior warning of the fees I fell the money was taken unlawfully and i would like to be reimbursed for the amount.

With this letter, we would like to inform you that on 27.05.2022 we mistakenly transferred 33297.06 EUR to USD IBAN account of your beneficiar “GSP Group SP. Zoo” instead of 33297.06 USD.

All explanations are reflected in the attached documents.

Please review the documents and let us know what steps we need to take in resolving this issue.

We really hope that you will give us the necessary support to settle this situation.

This bank is a joke. The employees are lazy. You cannot reach the bank to obtain access to your funds through any means except hours-long wait. The caretaker assigned to you doesn't pick up the phone, ever. If you request a different caretaker, the bank manager who apparently is tasked with that, also doesn't get back to you, ever.
They just take your money. I tried to get access to my bank now for 6 months.
There is no complaints system. I would imagine banks in Russia operating like that. Well, Poland is the same.
The only way to get service in actuality is to show up in person, wait a few hours in a line and then hope for the best. If you are ever not in the country, forget it. Close the account before you travel and open it with a reputable bank instead. I will be surprised if I ever gain access to my funds again. Pekao is a criminal organization.

I am a Polish citizen who travels a lot. I have had this bank account for many years. The bank has locked me out last year and prevented access to my funds since due to my SMS not working. My Polish cell phone expired when I was out of the country, they are still able to call me via a voice call which they did for additional verification - 1 of a 100 of them. I am left with no option to access my funds - I was told by a bank representative. I have called them 6 times so far and spent hours trying to regain access to my funds.
This bank takes security to a level that borders on obscene and results in frequent denial of service for customers. Customers live in constant fear of losing access to their accounts. It happened to me twice now. It happened to another person I know who banks there as well. Once the lock out occurs it is nearly impossible to restore access. I believe that the bank is benefiting from funds left behind in locked out accounts.
There are errors on their website that further that goal. Prior to me losing access to all my bank services, I used their online PIN recovery system. This system somehow failed 3 times to link my name and my PESEL, despite me having my National ID in my hands when I was typing it in.
Now, due to this error, I am unable to access my funds.
I believe this bank should be investigated for fraud.

It is a pandemic time and I don't understand how people can be so rude and heartless to each other.
Despite waking up at 6 am to make it at the branch at 8 am sharp, I had to wait an extra 2 hours in the freezing cold, I waited in the cold for two hours and was denied service because of some rule government put for the elderly. That I fully understand, what I don't understand is the fact why should someone, a professional, working in a bank, would treat a client, another human being in that way. When I'm a foreigner in this country, have no family or other resource for money here and access is denied from my bank.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Hope well, I open an account in your bank in 2014, I was your regular customer, due to my work in the Gulf, I went back and i never used my bank account whole a year, as I came back to Poland I tried to restore my account, even I paid fine fee but the Branch still not restore my account. Please allow me to restart my banking transection with your esteemed bank as I feel convenient to use Bank Pekao.

My name is Tamiz Ud Din Ahmad, Passport No. -----------
Account No. [protected] 6095 3170

Best Wishes
Tamiz Ud Din Ahmad

Last Wednesday December 12, 2018, I traveled to Warsaw from Ukraine. Last Thursday Dec 13, 2018, I visited your bank at Grzybowska 53/57, Warsaw Poland. After completing all required information, I was told that an investigation must be performed before approval of a bank account. I was told that because my surname is "Green", that I am a politician and needed to be investigated before your bank would consider allowing me to open a bank account at your bank. I am not a politician, I have never been a politician, I am not related to a politician and I don't know why your bank would think that.

On Friday Dec 14, 2018 I visited your bank four times just to be told my ability to open an account was denied. I was told you do not allow Americans living in Ukraine who are married to a Ukrainian citizen to open an account at your bank. This is discrimination! Your bank discriminates against Americans and Ukrainians. How is it possible that a bank in Poland is so unprofessional and does not follow international laws for discrimination? How is it possible bank employees don't speak English? In order for a bank employee to understand why I even traveled to Poland, they had to find an employee from another bank to translate in English. Slava was the bank employee who translated.

Both my wife and I went to the bank. My wife understands a great deal of the Polish language. She was able to help translate as well. She also confirmed what they had told us. The security department flagged my application because they first thought I was a politician. The bank branch Bank Pekao SA located at Grzybowska 53/57 Warsaw, Poland and is the main branch of this financial institution. The reason why I traveled to Warsaw to open a bank account is because the bank personnel instructed me too! I need a bank that is approved by the U.S. Government to accept Social Security deposits. The correspondence with bank personnel confirmed in writing that there would be no problem in opening a bank account at Bank Pekao SA in Warsaw Poland. However, some in their security department decided to ignore the banks policies and decline my ability to open an account.

To confirm what the personnel at the main branch told us, we went to another branch of the Bank Pekao SA in Warsaw. We explained what had happened when we attempted to open an account and were told no. This bank manager spoke perfect English. We had no problem communicating with him. He was able to speak with an individual in the Bank Pekao SA security department. He was able to confirm that our ability to open an account had been denied because I am American and my wife is Ukrainian. This is discrimination. This bank discriminates and it is simply shocking. This manager told us that he was shocked and had never heard of this before. He told us that there are many Americans with bank accounts at Bank Pekao SA. The manager told us that they security personnel did not have any knowledge of doing any transactions with the United States Social Security Department.

Before visiting the second bank, we went to the U.S. American Embassy in Warsaw. I met with Embassy personnel and explained what had happened. They were shocked. The Embassy personnel told me that they have dozens of Americans married to Ukrainians who live in Ukraine and receive Social Security payments monthly. In fact, before traveling to Poland, I was instructed to contact Bank Pekao SA to open a bank account. When I contacted the Bank Pekao SA in Warsaw, Poland, I was informed that they are approved by the American Government to accept payments. I was told they would be happy to open a bank account for this purpose. I was directed to a web page on their web site to download the document for this purpose.

I am a legal resident of Ukraine and the Bank Pekao SA does business with Ukrainians everyday. They even offer a handbook in Ukrainian to make the banking with their bank understandable. The handbook can be found at https://www.pekao.com.pl/binsource/f/64/22/5/bin_P1K0ea59494737f603b264225, BINFILE, EN, 1, 0, 0/Przewodnik_Pekao24_UK.PDF

Here is the original email letter sent to bank personnel at Bank Pekao SA.

On Thu, Mar 15, 2018 at 2:02 PM, Bank Pekao SA wrote:
>
> Hello. I am an American citizen living with my Ukrainian wife in Mykolaiv Ukraine. I am retired. I receive Social security benefits by by paper check. I cannot deposit my funds in my bank account in Ukraine. Is it possible to open a bank account at your bank, obtain a debit card and have my Social Security funds electronically deposited into your bank while I live in Ukraine? Thank you for your help. W. Green
> Dear Sir
> We kindly inform, that you can open account in our Bank.
> In our offer we have Konto PrzeKorzystne. If you have income in minimal amount 500 PLN and you make once in a mounth purchase with debit card, you don't pay anny fee: for this account and debit card.
> We also have an account Eurokonto Walutowe in USD, EUR, CHF or GBP.
> Required documents for opening account are: Polish national identity card or foreign passport (or if you are citizen of the European Union a valid document confirming his identity and citizenship and entitling them to enter the territory of Polish Republic) and / or resident card that contains a permit to settle, possibly separate permit to settle, Polish passport along with another document containing the address (for information).
We have also electronic banking, we called it: Pekao24 services. It can be started to the specified accounts of Eurokonto.
> Signing of agreement take place at the Branch Bank. You will receive a customer number and PIN will be set up by phone or will be sent by SMS message. You will also select the method of authorize at the Branch.
> When you have a customer number and PIN, you can log in all the sites Pekao24. During first logon in PekaoInternet you should make password to this site.
> More information about electronic banking You can find on our website:
> http://www.pekao.com.pl/vip/electronic_banking/Pekao24/?s, main, language=EN
> If you are interested our offer we invite you to the one of our Branch.
> A current list of branches is available on the Bank's website: https://www.pekao.com.pl/placowki_bankomaty
> Sincerely Yours
> Katarzyna Pawlak
> Bank Pekao S.A.

As you can see, the bank assured me that they could open a bank account. I gave the bank personnel all of the required information to open an account. They never told me about discrimination at their bank. The trip to Poland cost me $2, 000USD. Why does Bank Pekao SA in Warsaw Poland act so unprofessionally? Clearly, they do not educate their employees properly. They are poorly trained.