Bank of the West

I have been at this bank since 1978. I have seen it go from Lloyds to Sanwa to Bank of the West. I have never had thoughts or desires of leaving this bank. They have served me well and most of the people know me when they see me. I use to use the drive-​thru all the time in the 80’s when I had kids but now with technology the way it is I rarely go inside anymore. They have served me well over the decades.

BOTW has poor fraud protection, I’ve have problem with my card declining and having to pay cash only to find out that the transaction was posted to my account, so I paid twice, actually had a fraudulent activity on my account and the way BOTW handle it was awful and unprofessionals, i don’t understand how I’m out of town and my card is decline, but then I had unknown transaction in another state by unauthorized user and it goes through??? I will be closing this account, I have not been happy with this bank since I open the account about a year ago… Two many bad incidents to write about…

I have banked here for years, over 20 actually. I used the Hayward Branch before the Castro Valley one was opened. Jazmir at the Hayward Branch has been a constant and wonderful to work with. It’s nice when there is stability in staff and you know the person you have built a relationship with will be there instead of rapid turnover. I have been using the CV branch mainly now and Joey and Geraldine are great. Joey is always friendly and Geraldine has been incredible helping with our accounts, my daughters accounts, refinancing our house, etc. There are a few other tellers that I like too but I don’t know their names.

Walked in to ask about opeing a bank account. I’d just sold a house and I wasn’t sure what to do with the money, but I knew I didn’t want to place it in my current bank because I’d be over the FIDC limit. A banker named Anna told me I needed $ 250,000 to open an account with «wealth management». Supposedly I could get all kinds of extra perks for opening an account with her but I was really not interested. I’ve been presented Wealth Services before at my other bank and was very unhappy. I wanted the simple banking I’ve always had — the kind where you walk in and talk to your tellers and maybe see a banker for the more complicated things, like getting a loan or opening an IRA or doing investments. I was turned off by this Anna Leon person, and it didn’t seem like she was going to let me do anything other than her Wealth Management account, so I left. I’d heard such great things about this bank, but I guess they’ve changed.

ATM is always broken or out of money, only has one machine. Tonight couldn’t even make a deposit. Annoying, this happens constantly.

Great friendly staff, always answers any questions or concerns too. Just a bit busy and there is usually a line.

I love the BOTW CV branch staff!
Susan, Ruth, Adrian, Felicia, Christina, Denisse have always been so helpful!

Best bank around. Period. Will be banking with them indefinitely. You get great personal help when there are any issues and there are never any crazy fees they try to pile on. We have banked with other institutions and Bank of the West is, by far, the best. The Castro Valley branch is exceptional.

This is in regards to ALL Bank of the west corporations! I have been with Bank Of the West before it was Bank of the west. It was Sanwa prior and something else I can’t remember. Long story short!
The last 2 years they have implemented some fee charges that are out of control and should be illegal!!!
Before… if you over-drafted…and they payed it for you… they called it a FAVOR. So you buy a bottle of water for $ 1.99 and they charge you $ 28.00 in over draft fee! Ok… so We are responsible for knowing our balance. But you sometimes we loose sight of it.
So I could deal with that and asked them «Don’t do me that FAVOR»! If I don’t have the money… decline the transaction! So they did that for me.
Now if you over draft… because they are BACK to doing you that favor! It’s solely for them to make their money! So they now charge you $ 5.00 a DAY until you pay the amount you are over drafted. And it seems there is no cap on this!
So I over drafted for 15.00 and I had to pay… ready…173.00. Because this was not my main account. I was not checking the activity as much. So I payed… reluctantly after complaining about how this could be legal.
How can your fees be so much more! It is a SCAM! And again… IS THAT LEGAL??? So now I have one account open there because my daughter is a joint account holder and her account is for direct deposit for her bills only and I just got a notice that she is being charged $ 140.00 for what… I don’t know! She overdrew 26.00 5 days ago, so according to the banks $ 5.00 a day SCAM it should only be $ 25.00 at this point!
Well Bank of the West. I encounter minimum of 35 people a day that I have their undivided attention 6 days a week! So I will share my experiences with them about the SCAM you have going on. It’s amazing what word of mouth can do… along with this great new thing called Unilocal!
And no offence to Sue… who is a friend and branch manager… or the other workers. It just so happens that you are employed by a Corporation that runs a scam! The people are great… most of them. But the POLICY is… well you read my thoughts on it!!!

I got a phone call today from the Senior VP of Bank of the West. It seems there were some system issues the day we opened our non profit account and we are A OK for a debit card! Fantastic. I got tremendous customer service from Bank of the West. They really do value their customers! Now that this mix up has been corrected I look forward to a wonderful and long relationship with Bank of the West!
THANKS!