First Tennessee Bank Consumer Reviews

GREENEVILLE, TENNESSEE -- I made a $12,000 deposit @ 3:45 PM, Thurs., 1/20/11 into a First Tenn Bank personal account that I've held since '94. This deposit check was written on another personal checking account held at a solid Greeneville regional bank to pay a First Tennessee Visa Card payment due on 1/23/11. As always, I went online on the Fri. the 21st to pay my Visa payment via transfer but the money was 'not available', as though I had never made a deposit.

I called a lady that I've been doing business with for years at the E Branch First Tennessee Bank and her first question was, "Did you deposit that here or downtown and before 4?" Told her I happened to be downtown and knew it needed to be in by 4 PM to get into my account the next day so that is where I deposited it. She said, "May I call you back?" and I said okay. Waited a couple hours and called her. So she said because made the deposit downtown that I needed to talk to them, so she would transfer me. Also, informed me that $4,900 on HOLD til 1/24/11 and $7,000 on HOLD til 1/31/11.

The lady that answered the phone down at the Main Branch said the lady that actually PUT the HOLD on my deposit was at lunch and would be gone the FULL hour. She asked if she could help me so I told her my problem and she wanted to know if I had $12,000 more to pay off my Visa card!!!!!!! I was getting stressed at this point and asked, who has $12,000 extra just lying around?!!!! She stated, "don't scream at me" but was as though she wanted someone in the room with her to THINK I was screaming.

Then, she said that if I had brought a cashier's check from my other bank, there would not have been a HOLD in the first place. Now the bank whose check was on hold is right beside the bank holding it! I asked if there was somebody else to whom I could appeal and she said, "you can hold for the Main St Branch Mgr."

He gets on the phone, I explain my problem and also, that I've made these personal banking deposits before with no problems whatsoever at the E Branch on AJ Hwy. With no humanity, he stated that several years ago the federal govt changed the rules for HOLDS to be put on large deposits so that would include ALL large deposits. Told him I felt as if $12,000 intended for a bank Visa payment had been stolen from me. I had already been on the First Tennessee Bank website and to the Question: Why is a hold placed on large deposits? It answers: On a case-by-case basis, a hold may be placed on deposits more than $5,000 to verify funds.

You get the picture but by this time, my blood pressure was up and I knew that I needed to get off this phone and fix my own problem but for sure, stay away from this bank. So I said, "Thanks so much, God Bless you" to which he said, "uh-huh", and hung up. I then took just about all money out of my interest bearing account to pay my VISA Bill. This is not the first time that the main branch has rigidly refused to do what would be right for the customer on a 'case by case basis'.

TENNESSEE -- I have done business with First Tennessee Bank for over 20 years, mostly in commercial loans. In commercial lending you are set on a 5 year plan where they readjust your rate and start your amortization over. Out of the blue during a 5 year readjustment time period, they decide that after all the years of business and all of the interest I have paid them, they no longer want to redo the loan. In all the years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest I have paid them, they say they are done with me. I have never been late and never missed a payment.

They dragged their feet in letting me know anything about what their decision was until about 10 days after the maturity date expired. Then they charge me prime plus 8% until I could find another bank to take the loan. They also had a lawyer draw up papers wanting me to sign saying that I was delinquent in paying the balance and charged me over $800.00 in lawyer fees that they tacked onto the end of the payoff. I have heard of this happening to several other people also. They seem to be driving their good customers away.

I had no problem finding another bank to take my loan and will for sure NEVER do business with them again. It took me about 4 weeks to get the new loan in place after waiting on appraisals, title work, etc... which compounded the high interest. I have also made it a priority to get everybody I know to drop them which I have been successful in doing so. So far to date I have had 5 people close accounts with First TN after hearing my story.

The result has been pulled deposits from First Tn and closed accounts to the tune of over $30,000.00. They do not have anybody any longer local to handle Commercial loans and the people I have been dealing with on the phone and emails are very harsh.

I called for information about refinance rates and spoke with a representative of First Tennessee. He went over the terms with me on the phone and I gave him my credit card information. When I received the paperwork, I was dumbfounded: Closing costs were nearly 30% higher!

I called and spoke with a representative and was transferred to a Mr. **. I canceled my loan refinance and then the rip-off began. I was so surprised at the abject rudeness and blatant out and out lies that Mr. ** spewed, that I was prompted to call my brother to ask what I should do. He directed me to his mortgage person who advised me that I could pay points and get a much better loan. Huh. I ASKED First Tenn about this, and they said I could NOT do that to my advantage!

Further, they never advised me that I could have the settlement at a settlement office of MY choice! (because that would have saved me money, too!). The more I found out, the more leery I became of doing business with First Tennessee via their representatives at something called "mortgagefamily.com"! (this year, I see, that address is pointing to yet another domain: "www.mortgageloanstatus.com"). Mr. **'s threat that they had a tape of the conversation, was met by my plea, "Please LISTEN to it, then!"

Despite this, they charged my credit card and my credit card company asked me to file paperwork that would charge them with fraud. I took my mortgage and went elsewhere after being with First Tennessee for over ten years. I have not received credit for the $500 that First Tennessee took from me and I have done nothing but tell everyone who will listen about this whole event. It's been over two years, but hey - I have plenty of time to spend.

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE -- The First Tennessee Bank is a thief. Paid off a home equity loan in a refinance to build two buildings at 11E Mini Storage. Ended up overpaying due to payments in the mail when closeout was done by other bank. Took me 76 days and 6-8 phone calls to get my money. Of course, they didn't pay me any interest or late fee for their tardiness. The office of the President of FT told me today, that the delay was just the way their system works. Tough luck. Run, don't walk to get your business to another bank so those crooks don't get you too. I bank at First Bank and Trust, who is great.

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE -- This company is the most horrible place to work in the city much less the most horrible place to bank. It continues to do 'creative posting' so that their customers incur the most about of NSF and overdraft fees. They have this hidden 'courtesy limit' which allows their customers to go overdrawn using their check card specifically designed to created more fees to the bank. On top of that we have been drilled to say "We cannot refund any fees unless it is a bank error". How ridiculous. I can no longer work for a company that I have no confidence in and goes against everything I believe.

Tried to set up my online banking enrollment. Three phone calls and over an hour of my time later, was transferred to a "technician" who informed me that the website everyone else in customer service told me to go to was the wrong website. Then when filling out the information, was told that selecting "no" for "would you like online bill pay" will result in an error screen and that I can't select that (which no one else in customer service seemed to realize).

Terrible education of the employees (re: understanding the company, websites, etc.), horrible website, and rather rude reps who make you do the same thing 3-4 times, all the while when you are trying to explain technology and how to do their job to them. Total waste of time. Only bank here because my corporate HSA requires it.

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE -- I used to have a home equity line of credit with First Horizon/First Tennessee. I refinanced it in 2006. Something happened in the refinancing, and First Horizon claimed to not get the payoff check from the other bank for 2-3 weeks. This resulted in a $200 dispute between First Horizon and me for extra interest. First Horizon continues to try to negatively affect my credit report. Even though the disputed $200 payment goes back to 2006 and has now been paid, I have been told by other banks that First Horizon is noting on my credit report that this was "foreclose", which never happened, and that there is a late payment on my credit report within the last few months.

I have also been told that First Horizon is showing 4 ninety day late payments, which also never happened. I have contacted First Horizon to get this cleared up, and they refuse to do anything. So, because of a negative report about a disputed payment 4 years ago, First Horizon is still negatively affecting my credit. It is impossible to remove negative credit information, even if it's inaccurate.

TENNESSEE -- If you want to give away your hard earned money then bank with First Tennessee Bank. Their computer is set to hold all transactions when your balance gets low. In the event you overdraw 5 cents they post all the transactions from before you were overdrawn and hit you with numerous $30.00 charges for transactions that were covered when the transaction occurred. It is their policy to rip people off and tell you how profitable they are. I would be profitable too if I could steal hard working folks' money as they do. I checked with 2 other banks who knew of this scam they pull on people. So if you are smart you will steer clear of this bank unless you want to make yourself sick.

FARRAGUT, TENNESSEE -- After 11 years using the same branch (and they never seemed to know my name or even that they'd ever seen me before), I went in to make a fairly sizable withdrawal. Got a lecture from the teller that they could run out of money and I needed to give them some notice before withdrawing! Is this woman insane?? It's MY money!!! Hate this bank and no longer use them.