The Berkshire Bank is headquartered in New York and is the 66th largest bank in the state of New York. It is also the 1,167th largest bank in the nation. It was established in 1989 and as of March of 2020, it had grown to 95 employees at 12 locations. The Berkshire Bank has an A health rating.
Great Place To Bank
Great place to bank.
Great people and customer service.
Outstanding Customer Service
On Feb. 1st I opened a CD and Power NOW Checking accounts at the Teaneck, NJ branch of The Berkshire Bank. The branch manager and staff treated me as if I were "visiting royalty," and convinced me that the bank truly wanted my accounts and that they were committed to the bank's motto of "putting your interests first." I got the 18-month CD special being offered at the time at a rate of 1.9% APY. The Power NOW Checking is the bank's reward checking with a qualifying rate of 2.5% APY, which is guaranteed until March 31, 2011. Note: the Power NOW Checking requires a minimum balance of $1500 to avoid monthly fee ($10); 6 debit card uses per month (either point-of-sale or PIN) totaling $100 per month to get qualifying rate; 50 debit card uses per month are free (additional uses will be charged $0.25 per debit); direct deposit is not required; balance cap is $25K; only one Power NOW Checking account per household; interest compounds daily. If all account terms are not met for 2 consecutive statement cycles, account will convert to NOW Checking account. Account earns the qualifying rate for the first 30 days without having to use the debit card in order to allow time for you to get the debit card in the mail. In fact, I received the debit card and the first 50 checks (which was offered to me "on the house") 10 days after opening the account. What has truly impressed me is the responsiveness of the branch since opening the account. The branch manager has called, without fail, every time he said he would. He even called to tell me the trial verification amounts when they posted to my account from Capital One and Charles Schwab. Furthermore, when I called the bank's main telephone number, I got a live person immediately! The only thing about the Berkshire Bank that is a bit behind the times is the enrollment process for online banking. You need to fill out a form at a branch (or print it and bring it to a branch), which will then take about 2 weeks to be processed, before you get a user ID and password to enroll for online banking. Many banks make it easier than this to enroll in online banking. Furthermore, although The Berkshire Bank can initiate ACH transfers (certainly a plus), that requires filling out another form to be processed, and providing a voided check for every external account to be linked (up to a maximum of three external accounts). This means, evidently, that only checking and money market checking accounts can be linked. Now that I have everything set up, I think I'll be very happy with The Berkshire Bank. I only hope that they keep the qualifying rate on the Power NOW Checking competitive after the expiration of the rate guarantee.
Berkshire Bank Stinks
They are horrible the app is trash the website is trash the people aren't bad but the stupid logo is trash I can't stand them don't waste your time on this bank and if you do read the fine print they kept putting fees on my account until it racked up to 800 dollars I'll say it again this bank is garbage oh and on they charge 4 dollars a month just to have a savings account
Worst Customer Service
I'm very frustrated with the customer service from my local branch and even the customer service phone line. I am a new customer with Berkshire and everything I have experienced so far has been nothing but inconvient and unreasonable. The rules that are held for new accounts are absolutely ridiculous. If I knew what I was getting myself into I wouldn't have opened accounts with this bank.
Data as of Q1 2020
Learn why bank health mattersHealth Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 27503 |
| Year Established | 1989 |
| Employees | 95 |
| Primary Regulator | FDIC |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 0.15% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 0.78% |
| Annual Interest Income | $6.1MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $666.4MM$700.0MM |
| Loans | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $328.8MM$369.0MM |
| Deposits | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $534.9MM$575.7MM |
| Equity Capital | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $122.9MM$117.7MM |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $7.3MM$7.3MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $465.00K$70.00K |
| Real Estate Owned | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $63.00K$0 |
