Farmers & Merchants Bank

Great Staff, Mistake Prone

Growing up in a small town, my mom and stepdad always used the local bank. What do you do when you grow up and need a bank? Usually use the one your parents do. For the first two or three years everything always went smoothly and then all of the sudden, a slew of mistakes started happening. Not little mistakes, either.

The first mistake (which I'm sure happens relatively often, although it has NEVER happened to me since I switched banks) is I received too much money back from cashing a check. Of course, I always count the cash the tellers give me, so I was already on my way back to the bank to return the extra money when they called me and informed me I'd need to return to the bank.

The second was more costly. To both my mother and I. I did not have a deposit slip with me and needed to deposit some money for my loan that was automatically coming out of the checking account. I gave her my name and she pulled my account information and made me up a deposit slip. Two weeks later when I checked my account, it was negative for the amount of the loan and I received a letter informing me the loan had not been paid and I now owed a late fee. I went back to the bank (strangley) at the same time as my mother who was trying to figure out why her account had an extra $250 in it. Lo and behold, the teller two weeks back had deposited my money into my mothers' account. We don't even have the same last name, so I don't really understand how it was possible at all.

The third mistake was a constant occurrence. I would deposit a check (with a deposit slip), requesting a small amount (usually $50) back in cash. I would NEVER get it in cash, they would just deposit the whole thing. Almost every single time.

The fourth and final straw was I had overdrawn my account and received a letter stating after five days, I would be charged a late fee for every day after five days that my account was negative. On the third day, I went into the bank and asked the teller how much it was overdrawn. It ended up being around $15 that I was negative. I handed her a $20 and she assured me it was covered and I was good. Not until a month later, did I receive a second letter saying it was overdrawn. Somehow, I hadn't been negative $15 that day and my $20 didn't cover it, so it went an entire month charging me late fees until I was about $250 in the hole. I had to go back in and explain what had happened and they refunded all the charges, but that was it. Last chance and I was done.

Like the title states, great people, nice people, but way too many mistakes for me to stay.