CharterBank

When I attempted to use my debit card on a Saturday evening, it was declined. It was when I tried to make a withdrawal from a Charter One ATM about a half-hour later, I learned that my ATM card had been deactivated. When I phoned the ATM number, I learned that someone had made close to $2, 000 in fraudulent purchases from a software firm in Minnesota between 10 & 10:23 the night before - I had received no notification that someone had made these purchases. The bank said that they could do nothing to permit the purchases from being processed and that I had to file a fraud complaint with the software firm. Meanwhile, the bank charged $309 in insufficient funds fees against my account even though the software firm told me that they had refunded the amounts fraudulently charged to my ATM card on a Tuesday afternoon, four days after the fraudulent purchases were made.

Today, August 21, 2008 I received a notification dated August 18, 2008 that effective September 1, 2008 my account which happens to be a Certificate of Deposit that doesn't mature until October, will be charged a $30 fee for being an inactive account. The letter starts out by stating: Dear Customer, We want you to get the most out of your accounts with us... blah, blah, blah, therefore we are going to screw you over by charging you $30 because you haven't deposited any additional funds in your CD since you opened it...and you can't close out your account prior to this date without paying a penalty for early withdrawal. The letter goes on to state that even if the account becomes active again, they will still charge the fee. Also, this amounts to only a 10 day notification of a change in policy. What a crock of crap. I plan on filing complaints with the Federal Reserve Board as well as the State Attorney General. If this were a savings account or a checking account I maybe could understand the fee, but not on a CD account. I have many bank accounts with several different institutions and have never been treated like this.

The level of incompetence is astounding at Charter One! I applied for a credit card through the bank on May 3rd. By June 22nd, I still had not received the card. When I called to find out the location of the card. They said the card was sent to my old address (which I had notified Charter One of the new address every month since January and they still can't get it right). I asked if there was any activity on the card. The "rep" stated that there was NO activity. So, he reported the card lost and stated he would send out a new card to me in 7-10 days. The next day I tried to use my DEBIT card (which I use everyday). It was declined. I called the bank and the "rep" stated the card was reported lost on the 22nd. I asked the rep how this was possible since I was VERY specific in requesting my new CREDIT card to be reissued. He could not answer. So, they issued me a new card. It is now July 6th. When I called to find out where my DEBIT card was, the rep informed me they sent it to my OLD address AGAIN! Keep in mind, every month I receive my bank statements at the right address. Since then, I have canceled my CREDIT card (that I still had yet to receive) and in 2 weeks, after the sale of my new home is complete I will be closing my Checking Account. I will not spend the next 2 years trying to change my address again. I will try and find a bank that can tell the difference between a CREDIT card and a DEBIT card.

One ticked off, soon to be ex-Charter One customer!

I am a former employee of Charter One Bank in their business banking department. What a horrible place to work, poorly managed, poorly compensated, poorly trained; or well should I say not trained at all... Lets start from the beginning. This company portrayed this job to be everything that it wasn't. I originally took this job as a lender instead I ran around the city looking for checking accounts, not the most ideal thing to be doing especially for a college grad with 13 years experience in banking. Also as a business banker, knowing that I would have a territory of branches I expected to be somewhere near my home. OOPS I thought wrong, the closest I ever got to my home was 31 miles away. I kept hearing promise after promise about getting me closer to my house. Never Happened.

Secondly, this department is so poorly managed that the executives had no idea what was happening from region to region, and they were promoting people into management that first, had NO management experience, and secondly never finished college. This is how bad it got. There was a region-wide conference with business bankers and business banking executives in February. I was planning on going until my grandmother passed away the day before the conference. Upon calling my manager, who I thought would have been sympathetic, I was told and I quote 'IF THERE WAS A DAY THAT I NEEDED YOU TO BE THERE THIS WAS THE DAY.' My mouth dropped. I was even asked, oh can you goto the funeral then meet us in our meeting! I obviously stood my ground and said this is a family affair and I will not be disturbed. She could not make a decision on her own, she called her boss to ask him if it was alright if I attended the funeral of my grand mother. Unbelievable.

Lastly, there is such a lack of training in this job it is unbelievable. I spent maybe a day in training learning products, services, and computer systems. They expected me to be able to produce and function efficiently. Ya Right. I hit the road not knowing what the heck I was doing.

This is just bits and pieces of what goes on at Charter One Bank. I would never work for them again, nor would I ever suggest anyone to ever work there.