Compass Bank: Three Strikes, You're Out!
Written: Jul 18 '02 (Updated Jul 18 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Their basic checking account is pretty much free
Cons: As I told the lady when I closed my account, too many to list
The Bottom Line: Avoid this bank like the plague.
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| jenninca's Full Review: Compass Bank - Alabama |
When I was looking to open a bank in Dallas, I had been living there for about a month. Until that point, I had been using the debit card from my bank in Columbus for everything. The problem was that the account was running out of money and I couldn't deposit anything since the bank didn't have a branch in Texas. I had two months' worth of paychecks and a $500 check with which to open my new account.
I chose Compass Bank because they promised a "totally free" checking account, and besides, you got a free backpack when you opened an account. I showed up at the bank on a Friday after school, and the fun began.
Strike 1
I should have gotten a clue that this wouldn't be a good bank for me when I saw the hours - they closed at 4:00 every weekday except Friday. Hmm, this would make it difficult for me to visit the branch as the earliest I could leave school was 3:50 and I work 30 minutes from the bank. However, I was at the desperation point. I needed access to money, now. So I sat down and waited to be helped. And waited. And waited. There were several of us in the waiting area, and we got confused about who was there first. There was no way to sign in, so it was up to us to keep track.
I finally got to see someone after nearly an hour. Unfortunately, she didn't speak very good English. Maybe that's why I thought I was hearing things when she explained all sorts of fun stuff to me. The checking account may be free, but the debit card was not. I was required to have a Texas driver's license to open an account. (She did relent on this when I explained that I could not get a driver's license until I had a checking account, as I did not have money for the license until then. I just had to show her the license within 30 days. Oops, I never did. :) ) But my favorite was that there was a five business-day hold on the checks since they couldn't verify my identity without my license. I pointed out that the address on my Ohio license matched the address on the paychecks I was depositing. She noticed that - and changed the five-day waiting period to a nine-day one since the checks were from out of state!
I never did get the free backpack.
Strike 2
One of my initial deposits was a $500 check from the place that has my mutual funds. There was a story behind this check. I had requested one to help cover my apartment set-up expenses. I waited three weeks and no check arrived in the mail. The company was contacted, a stop payment was placed, and a new check was issued. I got both checks in the mail within a day of each other, and I managed to mix up which one was which. This means that I deposited the one with the stop payment order by mistake when I opened my account in August.
When I got back from celebrating Christmas with my family, there was a hand-addressed envelope from Compass Bank waiting for me. It contained the stop-payment check, along with a notice that my savings account balance was below zero. I had received a non-cashable check fee and a below minimum balance fee.
Did you catch that? I deposited the check in August, and they didn't decide to let me know that it didn't clear until January. They could hang on to that interest money and charge lots of fees until then.
Strike 3
I was making preliminary plans to switch banks by this point, but I wanted to make sure I did my research this time. Therefore, I kept my Compass Bank account open all through the school year. However, they were doing my darndest not to let me use it. All through the winter and spring, I kept trying to use their ATMs to deposit my paychecks and get cash (since, of course, I couldn't visit their branch due to their 4:00 closing time). But I kept getting thwarted in my venture. The close-by ATM was down. The further-away ATM was out of envelopes. The close ATM couldn't accept deposits at this time. The far ATM couldn't give cash at this time. I kid you not, I kept my February paycheck for an entire month without depositing it because every single time I tried, I couldn't. The same thing happened with my April paycheck, which finally ended up going into my account at the new bank at the end of May. I got my cash through cash back at Wal-Mart, had to make some credit card payments late, and almost had to borrow money from my boyfriend to pay rent, all because I couldn't deposit my money.
Strike 4 - Yeah, so this isn't baseball
This free stuff wasn't working out to be so free. My savings account got charged a fee every three months like clockwork. Never the same reason. Sometimes it was their fault, like for not letting me know about the check above. Sometimes it was because the account was below the minimum balance for a whole day out of the three-month period. Incidentally, I never could figure out what the minimum balance was. The interest rate on my savings kept going down, too - from 1.25% to 0.99% to 0.74% to a whopping 0.49%. Plus, I couldn't even add money to the account because it wasn't hooked to my debit card (there was a monthly fee for that) and I could never get in to the branch. After an entire year of earning interest, I ended up with less money than I started out with.
Strike 5
I finally got my act together and opened checking and savings accounts at a nearby credit union at the end of May. I opened them with the April and May paychecks Compass had never allowed me to deposit. I wanted to close my Compass accounts, but wouldn't be able to because I would not receive my new debit card before I went on vacation. So I went to Compass, transferred my ever-shrinking savings account balance to my checking account, and closed the savings account. While I was there, someone came in and complained, "Your ATM is out again!" I kid you not.
A month later, I got a savings account statement. I closed the account on June 3. However, on June 28, there was a deposit of $1.44 interest (gotta love that 0.49% interest rate), and on June 30, I was assessed a $9.00 below-minimum-balance fee on a CLOSED ACCOUNT. I assumed that the person who closed the account actually just transferred the money.
You're Outta Here!
Today I went in to the branch to close everything once and for all. You can bet that the first thing I did was protest the $9.00 charge. It turns out that the account was closed. The interest deposit opened it back up again. This means that, yes, I was under the minimum balance and was assessed a fee. Does anyone else see anything flawed with this logic? No one at Compass did. I questioned them, and they thought it was just fine to charge customers fees on accounts that the customer closed. I did get the fees taken off, but wasn't able to close the account today because it had "pending activity." Arghhh! How much do you want to bet that in three months my account will be forced back open again for a one cent interest payment on my one-day balance of $1.44, only to be charged $9.00 for being under the minimum balance?
It takes a lot for me to bash something, especially an entire company. I'm a very understanding person who can usually see other people's viewpoints and good intentions, even if things don't come out right. However, I've given Compass Bank every chance I could give it and then some. They just don't seem to get it. A bank should be open when people have a chance of getting there (even 5:00 would help) and should have ATMs that work at least most of the time. It shouldn't reopen closed accounts. It shouldn't do most of the things that Compass does. Don't let them touch your money. Please.
Recommended:
No
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jenninca
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Member: Cindy
Location: Dallas, TX
Reviews written: 184
Trusted by: 293 members
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