Bank of the West Reviews

I am deeply concerned about the way Bank of the West operates with investment funds like Breckenridge Property Fund 2016, LLC in Texas. As a homeowner, I discovered after foreclosure that Bank of the West was involved in a warehouse line of credit tied to my property — something I was never informed about. Bank of the West and Breckenridge appear to be doing back-door deals with homeowners’ properties without disclosure, and then Breckenridge shows up to bid at foreclosure sales. This raises serious questions about whether these transactions are truly arm’s length sales or insider arrangements that strip families of their homes without transparency.

Our business has two commercial loans with Bank of the West which is now BMO. Customer service was bad with Bank of the West and continues to be bad with BMO. The company is fragmented and they are incapable of communicating with each other in a cohesive manner.

I have a BMO (Bank of the West) credit card, and have used it in many instances for purchase protection. I was recently scammed by a seller on ebay, who substituted a purchase with a cheap alternate. I tried to file a dispute with BMO, and was refused because that is not considered "fraud." Switch and bait and any other known criminal activity is ok with BMO, just as long as it does not fit their definition of fraud. The phone help, especially Tina Slocum, was dismissive and annoyed. She could care less. I sent all the info requested, and she shut down the case. The BMO master card will not offer you any protection. If you are using it for that reason, don't bother.

The bank tellers and the branch manager at Bank of the West in Arcadia, California cannot keep customers' confidentiality. They gossip and create major problems in companies and accounts holders. You cannot trust your personal information with them.

I paid OFF my card ($1,087.00) BEFORE the due date 0n 1 JUNE 2023 and they won't credit the card until 9 JUNE and the money was taken out of my account TODAY 2 JUNE 2023!!!! This is the same bank that was taken over by a US/CANADIAN bank after it folded!!!!

I went to the bank and closed my account. They said the account is closed and gave me a final check that would zero out the balance. A month later I got notice from Bank of the west charging me insufficient fund for trying to send money to my mortgage company and other creditors under banking online auto pay. Not to mention all creditors were charging me for sending money for sending them insufficient fund checks. Went to the Bank of the West, talk to the manager, asking them why they are still sending out checks on an account that was closed a month earlier. She told me they have corrected everything and I need to pay them $47 under overdraft protection. Again a month later I got a letter from creditors that Bank of the West was sending them check and rejecting it for insufficient fund. Now the creditors are charging me again for sending them check with insufficient fund.

I was charged a late fee for an additional payment that I made. Instead of reversing the late fee, they went and reversed the next payment I made & I still have not received the $$ back in my account. Nobody seems to know what happened and even though I can see all of the activity on the loan site, they swear there are no late fees and nobody can explain why they reversed my next payment and why it has taken over 2 weeks and I still don't have the money back in my account. I will NOT recommend this bank to anyone.

BOW this is the second chance I have given to earn my business and you have failed. I thought by now you would have worked out your very clunky HELOC process. Other companies are blowing you away. In 2016 I had the same experience of overkill and redundancy to the point I moved my entire mortgage away from you. After weeks in chaos I started over with Amerisave and was done in 6 days. For now you still hold my checking, savings accounts (4 in total) that I only keep because of my relationship with my personal banker. BUT I can't say I feel safe in your hands and I don't foresee that keeping me here much longer. Streamline your application process, know your customer, stick to timelines.

I received a mail from the Bank of the West for a balance transfer. I applied for the card and requested a balance transfer of $7200 on January 9. The money never came but the Bank of the West was withdrawing money from my account on February 9 and March 9, $225 and $218. When I called, the representative said they cannot refund money but will reissue a check. When I called the second time, they put me on hold for an hour. They stole my $443 and refuse to refund. If this is not a thief, I don't know what is.

I wanted to call ahead (day before). I purchase something that is more than my spending limit. Supervisor says I need to call the exact day to let them know. I said I will be too busy to call the day of so I wanted to call ahead. Supervisor says it's their policy that I need to call the day of the purchase. I said, "It's for a doctor's procedure and I won't have time to call tomorrow." I asked him to provide me that policy but he says he could not cause it's internal. How would people know it's their policy if they cannot even provide that policy to us. I'm just trying to use my own money. It's not their money! They are treating your money as if it's their money. Wth. All I needed was money for my doctor's procedure and now I'll have to find time tomorrow to call knowing I'm going to be very busy. Don't bank here. My other bank already approved my limit increased as of yesterday. I will likely pull all my money from this bank.

Bank of the West worst customer, my account was overdraft on 01/24. I have money Zelle to Bank of the West to cover overdraft. At 3:11pm bank charge me $35 saying cutoff time was 3pm so money post next day. After calling to complain Bank of the West charge me another $35 for overdraft on 01/25 for the overdraft charges, try getting in touch with CEO Nandita Bakhshi in SA but no phone number to contact headquarters. I contact the Better Business to further investigate.

Have called their customer support line multiple and their hold time is more than an hour. I went into one of their branches, but denied service and told to return another day because they were too busy. I called their headquarters and this rude female picked up the phone and refused to provide her name saying she can't give it out. I was told to call another number. I spoke with a male who also had an attitude. He said he'll have someone from their management team give me a call. This is unacceptable. I can't believe this bank operates this way. It's a shame they operate this way.

I have been a client of this bank since 2017, I have an auto loan with them. I had never had a problem until now. I make a payment every month, I have a couple of years making the payment online. Earlier this month, when I was about to make a payment online, my account said I had no payment due and that my next payment had to be done by 1/19/2023. I thought it was weird, since I didn't made a payment since November. It was like a week before Christmas so I decided to call Customer Service to verify this was true. Their representative confirmed it was true and had told me that my next payment was due in January. I asked why was that if I didn't make a payment in December and the Customer Service told me that I must of made a payment for more than the amount due before and that was probably why I didn't have to make one.

On November 28, 2022 I went in to a Bank of the West branch to deposit a Required Minimum Distribution Inherited IRA check into my savings account with less cash back. It is drafted in my name including “beneficiary” and my late brother’s name. I have done this every year since my brother's passing in 2011 and had never experienced any issues or refusal. But this time, the teller pointed out the fact that it was drafted as such, she needed approval from management. So, I was agreeable and she went to seek approval from a supervisor. Unfortunately, she came back and told me that the supervisor had refused to authorize it.

Worst bank to work with! DO NOT FINANCE WITH THEM! We paid off a loan held by Bank of the West for a boat purchased. Have been requesting paperwork for over 90 days to get the US Coast Guard documentation deleted from the vessel. Bank of the West has not complied with our request after weekly phone calls, emails and faxes. It should not take over 90 days to fill out 1 piece of paper! Completely unacceptable banking practices.

After being a customer for 1.5 years, I received an obscure document stating that I was under investigation and not explaining the reasons. Some questions were really suspicious without context, others did not make any sense. Upon completion of the document, the money disappeared from my accounts, and I was refused the service with no explanation. The employees were rude and the management was unresponsive. I felt insulted and humiliated. I will never trust this bank again with my finances. I have reported them to FDIC.

I have dealt with Bank of the West for 3 years now. I make my husband’s loan payment for a camper he purchased while on the road. They won’t set up automatic draft for the payments and reaching someone to make a payment is a nightmare! If you reach a human, they say it’s a different department and transfer to someone who doesn’t answer and returns your call a week later so you can’t get paid off because of the late fees they add. It operates like there are only 2 employees who don’t communicate with each other at all!! Do NOT use this bank for anything!

Date: 10/12/2022 We have been business customer of this bank for over 35 years, and we have multiple accounts with high figures. We are a small business we international and national sales. Out of all accounts, one checking account is used to interact with the outside and the rest are either strictly CC accounts or saving. On 9/16/2022, the bank put a hold on our main checking account due to fraudulent deposit, and this happened when I and another person on the accounts are out of town. This caused a huge disruption to our payments to our vendors and services; since we were locked out of the account and unable to access the online banking to make payments. Some of our vendors and service providers put us on prepayment.

7 weeks since they accepted our check to pay off our motorhome loan and no title. We have called 7 times and are still waiting. I have financed over 20 vehicles in my life and have NEVER had this much trouble getting a title and the best is they will only send a release and I need to pay to do title work in PA. DO NOT USE THIS BANK for any reason unless you want the runaround and get no resolve to problems and weeks to waste.

Worst bank ever! The customer service is very hard to reach and they need a week to answer a simple message. My debit is going to expire very soon and I didn’t get a new one. I contacted them several times but they lied to me. They told my new debit card will arrive the first week of the month and a week after it was the 10th and now they don’t even know if I’m going to received my card before the old one expire. I told them that this card is link to bills and that I would not be able to pay because of their incompetence. I don’t even have a credit card 'cause they forget to send me a new one. I keep asking them when I should get my new card and the answer is, "We don’t know…"