Fifth Third Bank

Horrible Bill Pay service.
Sent rent check via Bill Pay through Fifth Third. It’s been 8 days since it was supposedly mailed out. Supposed to be delivered on 6/​13, here it is ⁶⁄₁₄ 8pm and nothing. Fifth Third Customer service was very rude and just kept stating it’s not their issue and blamed the USPS. No tracking number, nothing.
I could have drove to the state it was mailed to and back by now 3 times.
I was warned to avoid this bank. Shame on me.
Thanks Fifth Third. Glad you are not my primary bank.

This bank establishment is unethical. You need to babysit every transaction to make sure loan payments are paid toward the correct account. Also, when we first acquired the loan from 5/​3, the bill said we could pay between the 1^st and 16^th of the month. What they really mean is payments must be on or before the first of every month. They waived the late fee, but 10 years later they’re trying to collect on «late» fee (s).
I have discussed ⁵⁄₃ ethics with another bank establishment and they’ve mentioned they’ve heard this from other people. I do not recommend doing business with fifth third. Avoid them if you can. I even closed my child’s bank account there and will never do business with them.

I received a gift card for $ 100 when I made a musical instrument purchase. I checked the account and found a balance of $ 0. I could not remember using the card. When I tried to find out what the last transaction was through the online automated system, I was told that information wasn’t available… so I tried online… unaccessible…so I emailed the bank and they said «call customer service»…which I did, what a joke. In addition from sounding like the call went to India, the «customer service» rep couldn’t tell me anything, other than my balance was $ 0. He «couldn’t see any of that information on his computer screen». What kind of customer service is this? I gave all the security information necessary and he still «couldn’t access that information». I AM SO GLAD I DON’T HAVE ANY OF MY PERSONAL BANKING ACCOUNTS AT THIS BANK. If they can’t handle a simple gift card, how would they be able to handle anything else? PUBLIC BEWARE! BRING YOUR BANKING NEEDS SOMEWHERE ELSE!

Just received mail notice that they inadvertently filed a bankruptcy report on me! My accounts have been closed over 3 years! They say they’re sorry for any inconvenience. What does this mean for my car insurance?!?
Target makes the news but we all should be very concerned about all these errors that don’t make the news, and how many don’t we even know about.
They have always been had major screw ups and having worked for them for a couple of years I figured it must be something in the Cincinnati water making them dumb.

I wanted to buy my previous car straight up, but wound up financing through Fifth Third Bank in order to get a $ 1000 discount. In a nutshell, I should have paid cash and not taken the discount. It was way too much of a hassle to deal with them.
Shortly after buying the car, Fifth Third sent me 2 payment booklets and wrote in the enclosed letter that this was the only contact or material I’d be getting in the course of the loan. If I needed anything else I’d have to call up. There was no online account management at all. If I needed to change my phone number, check a payment, or just inquire about the account history, I’d have to sit on hold and wait for an operator (which turned out to be 15 – 30 minutes a shot, easily). I guess this isn’t the end of the world, but these days, when all of your accounts are managed online, it’s a bit of a pain.
The worst part of my experience with them was getting the lien release which took weeks. This was a problem because I wanted to trade the car in for something new.
The day I made the last payment, I called up to ask about it and they told me I’d get the letter within 10 business days. Two weeks later after not getting anything, I called up, sat on hold for 20 minutes, and finally asked that they fax the dealer directly so I could proceed with my car purchase. They said it wasn’t a problem but that it would take 3 – 4 business days to send the fax. How slow are these people? A fax takes 5 minutes tops to send. Three to 4 business days? Jesus.
Unfortunately, I had no recourse but to sit and wait. Three days later I got a call from the dealership in which they told me the bank faxed over an incomplete letter. It didn’t have my name, the car make or model, and was unsigned. Sigh. Once again I had to waste time on the phone to explain the issue and get the correct letter faxed over. This also took 3 business days to send.
In the end, everything worked out fine but I was in purgatory for quite a while there, where I had paid off the car, but technically didn’t have full ownership of it. The result was lost time and a lot of hassle. That really sucked. Aside from not financing a car again, I would probably not use Fifth Third Bank either.

i too am now a victim of this banks unethics. I was suggested to activate overage protection, while on a call with a rep after it was determined that a disputed transaction resolution could not be reached that day. I told her since this is a bank issue, I WOULD NOT subject myself to additional fees. This rep stated, oh, you will not be subject to ANY fees, and I became gladdened, and then proceeded with acceptance of this i was «eligible» for. She conferenced in the terms and conditions to be accepted, and confirmed it was activated after i had done this. I asked do i go to the atm, or can i use the card… she stated i could use either.
I have had my first deposit go in today, and noticed it is not covering only purchases, but overdraft fees… over $ 1200 in overdraft fees. Of course, they are blaming me for this… stating they mailed out a subsequent letter… I saw the letter but it did not reference my call stating i would receive no fees, so i thought this was a confirmation letter of overage protection!!!
theyre not willing to reverse these fees so essentially theyre telling me, «we gotcha!». The grief this has caused me has me up right now, 3am, with a travel arrangement for this weeknd unable to prepare for. they have basically stolen my money! I have filed a complaint with consumer financial, after 5 hours on the phone with these $#@!. tomorrow this will be sent to a lawyer, or, i may even take them to court myself and pay myself a lawyer fee, as well as for my time, and for this unreasonable injust. I agree. this bank is worst than a thief, while being a muse as a professional, financial institutions.
I have a total of 5 active checking and savings accounts first started many years ago, so i generally complete transfers from those other accounts to avoid overdraft fees. this is the only account today with such totals. never any request or credits hacing been needed on any of these accounts. theyre all funded with electronic deposits frequently, so i was robbed of consideration of alternate options to avoid overdraft fees, by being advised there were no fees. I WOULD HAVE DONE TRANSFERS, instead of using a card with fees for $ 8 and $ 9 transactions. just a flat out lie.
rep told me, youre usually fiscally responsible… u have no fees n the past. this is a slap in my face since she can state this as if i am ‘no longer fiscally responsible”… only after having asked all the right questions, while speaking with their representative that suggested overdraft coverage with no fees… but WAS CHARGED over $ 1200 for this. lunacy!

Actual people at the branch locations — 3 stars. Online banking and the support thereof — negative 1,000 stars. And yes, the overall customer service stinks too. They actually used to have a pretty basic but stable online bill pay system — I used it for years. Now their newer system fails, fails, fails and not only have they not fixed it but they don’t even bother to respond to complaints and appeals for help. I am kind of stuck as a customer at the moment — too many automatic payments, mortgage payments, and deposits set up to switch banks overnight but if you are a person considering fifth third run in the opposite direction just as fast as you can…

They need to check how they treat their customers. I bank with them for home and business. They just lost my account after they over drafted my account 4 times in a week. None were my fault. Sorry ⁵⁄₃ but I will never recommend them.

Fifth Third Bank is the fastest growing bank and I never had a problem with the company, however I do agree that they have to work more with customer service on training

I thought I would add my one star to the chorus of complaints about Fifth Third. We chose to work with them because they were the only lender nationwide that was able to work with our case.
(We had a loan with TBW which went out of business and our new lender doesn’t process refinance — 53 allows you to refinance and reinstate MI)
BIG. MISTAKE. Totally incompetent and wasted my time. Our rep would go 2 – 3 days between each contact, not responding to emails or calls, when she knew it was a fairly urgent case. She never had any answers or seemed to have made any progress.
They hit one very small speedbump in the classification of our property and they gave up. But the worst part is they never notified me! They just stopped picking up. Whaattt? So you just took me $ 250 and that was good enough for you?
After I finally got ahold of someone they told me the issue (which wasn’t even an issue, since if that really was a legit issue we never would have been able to get a loan in the first place). They didn’t even apologize or try harder they said they would have someone «look into it». LIES.
Did I mention we were supposed to be getting SPECIAL TREATMENT since a family member of mine refers them lots of business…
Anyway. It was a huge waste of time and MONEY and I am STILL waiting to hear back on them «looking in to it» (2 months later). I would do everything you can to avoid using them, you have been warned. Best wishes!

Our mortgage broker set us up with 5^th/​3^rd at a great rate so I am not complaining. Ok screw it I am complaining.
Basically all I’ve ever received from them was a payment coupon book on day 1 — something that I would have considered using until about 1994.
Their internet presence for mortgage customers is totally non-​existent. You are not given a login or any means to get one. There is no way to pay them directly online without either getting a 5^th/​3^rd checking acct with them (no thanks!) or signing up for something called BillPayer2000. No I did not make that up. It was kindly explained to me via a prompt email from customer support — hence the two stars.
I ended up setting it up through my Wachovia bill pay. When the tax or insurance bill increases I will now have to remember to change the payment.
There is no way to check your mortgage balance except by phone. They do not cooperate with Yodlee Moneycenter or other data aggregators.
Basically the mortgage holders they picked up through refinancing boom are treated as personae non gratae. I fear for the day they forget pay my property taxes because I probably won’t be alerted to it until a sheriff comes to the door.

After much battling with the customer service on the phone and via internet, I’m closing my ⁵⁄₃ account.
I opened a checking account when I arrived in town just because there were so many of them!
So one day, I was attempting to make a bill payment but their online banking system kept giving me errors and unable to process messages. I checked my pending bill payments and it was clear/​nada/​nothing. I decided that I’d try again another day.
Another day came and my account was in overdraft. It turns out that some of the bill payments that returned as errors went through! I incurred about $ 100 in overdraft fees just because I didn’t realize my account was in overdraft until they called me! I tried to explain to them on the phone but all they did was submit a «claim» and someone will get back to me.
A week went by and no one from ⁵⁄₃ contacted me so submitted a message through online banking. After 4 messages back and forth, they once blamed me, twice ignored my request to waive the fees and finally the fourth time I got 25 $ back.
Do not bank at ⁵⁄₃! I’ve never been on overdraft or have had such a horrible banking experience before ⁵⁄₃ (and I should know since I use to work at them).

I hate complaining, so think of this more as negative feedback. This is all about Fifth Third Bank. I have only had an account with them for 10 months, but have had nothing but problems. Overdraft fees, returned transactions, not setting up my overdraft protection correctly, poor customer service, and bottom line robbing me of my own money.
The last straw came this morning when I checked my balance online. I had been charged a $ 33 overdraft fee for what I know is no good reason. They robbed me of $ 33. How did this happen? Well, I had gone negative by $ 6.40, so I transferred money from my savings to my checking account to cover the overdraft. The bank said that it posted at 9pm, and I should have transferred it by 7pm to avoid the overdraft fee. Mind you, I transferred it on the same day as the negative balance occurred. Secondly, I was transferring from my account to my account — not through the teller, not through the ATM, not from some outside deposit. I moved my money from one of my accounts to another one of my accounts. Still they posted my $ 15 credit, followed by a $ 33 overdraft fee. I talked to two people over the phone with no one providing me good customer service, telling me that there was nothing that they would (not could) do to reverse the fee, and telling me basically, it’s my problem to deal with. I told them that my other bank would have never charged me for this, and all they could throw back in my face was their «guidelines», which must include stealing money from customers.
This wasn’t the only problem I’ve had with them. Last month, they returned two online payments I made to two different credit card companies. They charged me $ 66 overdraft fees, when I was supposed to be signed up for the overdraft protection. After arguing with them, they admitted that they didn’t set up the overdraft protection correctly, set it up, and reversed the fees. However, when I told them that by returning the two transactions, I was charged $ 84 by my creditors for return fees and late fees, they again told me it wasn’t their problem, and that it was on me to pay those charges — — EVEN THOUGH THOSE CHARGES WERE INCURRED BECAUSE OF THIS BANK’S ERRORS!!!
I agree with other complaints out there (just Google «Fifth Third Bank Sucks» and you’ll get plenty of complaints like mine.) Fifth Third Bank will post all of your withdrawals FIRST, AND THEN YOUR DEPOSIT! This means that they’ll charge you an overdraft fee for each of those items, or worse return payments, and then post your deposit. They are robbing their customers of hard earned money — — money that they earn by working a day-​to-​day job. All of those fees put together could be used for families who need to feed their children, buy gas, pay for medical bills… much better things than making this bank richer — — a bank that doesn’t even give a damn about who they’re stealing from.
I’m closing my children’s savings accounts, my money market account, and my checking account. No more direct deposits from me!

Wow, for as much as Fifth Third sucks, I am surprised that someone hasn’t reviewed them on here already. What can I say except, Fifth Third Bank sucks. I used to have a big problem with overdraft fees, but for over a year now I have had no overdrafts, then I received one a month ago. I looked at my transactions, I had gotten paid, let’s say, 06÷01÷07, purchases were made that same day and guess what, every single thing I did that day, no matter that my paycheck was deposited 05÷31÷07 at midnight and the purchases were made after 5pm on 06÷01÷07, they processed every purchase AND THEN processed by deposit. They never used to do that, I could safely go out after work on a payday and buy myself dinner and go to the grocery but now, BUT NOW I can’t because of these jerks at Fifth Third. If you haven’t started banking with Fifth Third don’t even start because once you have a problem with overdrafts you won’t be able to get in to any other bank. The best bet would be to STAY AWAY from this horrible institution. I can’t wait for the day that Fifth Third is bought out by someone else. They’re a horrible bank with poor customer service and just as bad of an employer. I used to work for them and when I interviewed out, every person I met said, «I am surprised you lasted 9 months with them, I wouldn’t have.» EVERY TIME. I have found that Fifth Third has a horrible reputation, even with the people that still bank with them or are forced to still bank with them. If you don’t need them, don’t use them. Period.