Fifth Third Bank Consumer Reviews - Page 3

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- I opened my account over a month ago. They "hold" your deposits for TWO WEEKS before releasing the money into your account. This means they clear the money into their account, take a float of 2 weeks for interest gain, then TWO WEEKS later deposit the money into your account. This isn't a bank... it's a scam with drive up windows.

MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN -- Fifth Third Bank has caused us problems from the first day of our mortgage, & have continued to do so. I'm keeping this short as I'm saving my breath to take them to court. They have done many unethical things to us, & have caused serious problems with our credit & finances. We received an apology letter from them, but now that we have financial problems & credit problems, we need a lot more than a letter of apology!

MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN -- 5/3 has caused us problems from the first day of our mortgage, & have continued to do so. I'm keeping this short as I'm saving my breath to take them to court. They have done many unethical things to us, & have caused serious problems with our credit & finances. We received an apology letter from them, but now that we have financial problems & credit problems, we need a lot more than a letter of apology!

I have had problems getting bank records. The branch people seem decent but the customer service call center is horrible: inefficient, time consuming, and bureaucratic. I spent an hour with them on the phone and only got half the information I need.

BONITA SPRINGS, FLORIDA -- I Created the Password and they say it's incorrect. The website won't even accept my card number. I was terminated from my account. This is ridiculous.

I work at a used car dealership that has been in business for 29 years. A customer traded in his vehicle to us and it had a payoff at Fifth Third Bank. We wanted the title as soon as possible, and the customer had the 10 day payoff amount, so I sent a CASHIER'S CHECK overnight via UPS to their national headquarters at 5050 Kingsley Drive in Ohio 45263. I included a PRE-PAID return UPS envelope to send us the title back, along with a signed release form from the customer. UPS verified that they received the check on September 28th.

On October 3rd, I called the 800-972-3030 and waited on hold for 30 minutes before a hurried woman answered. She looked up the customer's information and told me she'd need to contact the title department and put me on hold for another 20 minutes. Then another woman answered and told me she refused to help me unless I had the customer's SSN or account number and that the woman before shouldn't have helped me at all.

I called the customer, got his SSN, and called Fifth Third back. I waited on hold another 20 minutes before I got through again. Once I gave the customer's SSN, I was told I was calling the wrong number and the wrong department. They gave me another number to call: 877-812-0490.

I called them and waited on hold for a brief 10 minutes before another woman answered, **. She told me it was their policy to hold the title for 10 business days before releasing it and that she couldn't tell me anything more unless I faxed her a signed authorization release from the customer. Lucky for me, I had one, and I faxed it right away. I called back and waited another 10 minutes before I reached ** again, who told she didn't actually get the fax I sent, it went somewhere else, and I would have to wait till tomorrow to call her to get any information.

WHY DOES IT TAKE TWO WEEKS (10 BUSINESS DAYS) TO PUT A TITLE IN A PRE-PAID ENVELOPE AND SEND IT TO THE MAIL ROOM? I work with banks, credit unions, and finance companies from across the county. I have never been so mistreated and witnessed such unprofessional and rude behavior in my life. Does Fifth Third just have a general policy of evil or what?

CINCINNATI, OHIO -- OK... So get to the LAST page in my car payment book. It says to call this number at 5th 3rd to get the final payment amount. I did. Payment was slightly lower than my monthly car payment. I send in that payment and assumed BINGO... Car is paid off. Fast forward 1 1/2 months and I get a letter in the mail saying I owe almost $1100 for the final payment and it's due in two weeks or I will get charged extra late fees!

What a bunch of BULL! Why is the final payment OVER TWICE what the normal monthly payment is? Why did THEIR AUTOMATED SYSTEM give me the amount it did, then want more later? It's a bunch of **. I called them to try to sort it out. Big surprise. They say say that I owe this $1100 and they have no record or proof that the other amount was given to me. And there is NOTHING they can do and that the amount owed. 5th 3rd SUCKS!

If you have a car payment with them and you're near your final payment... Call the automated number they give you. AND RECORD THE CALL! Otherwise they will pull the same BS with you as they did me. I WILL NEVER EVER EVER DO ANY BUSINESS WITH THEM EVER AGAIN! I will steer EVERYONE I KNOW AWAY FROM THEM!

And I LOVE the fact that this P. Brian Moore whose name is on this crap letter can not be gotten a hold of. No email address anywhere. No one will connect you to him. EVERYONE STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM 5TH 3RD BANK NO MATER WHY! DO NOT get a Credit Card from them. Don't do a car loan with them. Do not get a house loan with them. Don't even get a checking or savings account with them. If this is how they treat someone who has ALWAYS paid their payment on time... Think how they treat others! 5th 3rd YOU SUCK **!

OHIO -- Fifth Third Bank is robbing people. My daughter's boyfriend deposited a check to pay the bills on Friday and was told it was deposited. He asked if it was okay to write checks on the weekend and the teller said sure. The next week on Wednesday he found out that the check he deposited didn't go in until late Monday and he had several overdrafts which were accumulating. By the time he found out his whole paycheck went for overdraft fees. It was over $200.00 and he needed the money to go for his rent. He went to Fifth Third Bank and begged them to please drop some of the fees and they said no.

In fact if you don't get money in there right away another $200.00 will be charged to your account by the end of the week so he had to borrow some money from his parents to keep from going bankrupt this month. This is a young kid with very little money who by the way doesn't bounce checks all the time and works very hard for his money. I don't understand why a check isn't deposited right away and if it isn't why that isn't indicated on the deposit slip.

No other banks that I have ever dealt with are like this. Of course the answer is simple I bet... so they can rack up fees on poor people and make all kinds of money. This is so unethical. Now the poor kid is trying to close out his account and go to another bank but they told him it costs $50.00 to close his account. What a bunch of crap!!!

I hate this bank. I dealt with them many years ago and they said I made 1/2 a car payment which I would never do. I always paid the whole payment on time. They sent the information to a collector and I had to get it off my record. The information was completely wrong. I have no idea where they got their information but they would not fix it on our credit report. I dropped Fifth Third years ago and now it makes me sad to hear they are still just as unethical as ever if not worse. It makes me mad because no one will do anything about this bank and all the unfair things they do.

I work for a large national financial institution, so I know a little bit about banking. I was reading reviews and made my way over to this Fifth Third page. It is amusing how all of these reviews are about people that have overdrawn their account and are angry they are being charged fees. All banks that I know of charge overdraft fees, even credit unions. I have relationships with 6 banks (3 of which I have checking accounts with), and if I were to overdraft my account or "Cut it too close" on the dates, I would expect an overdraft charge.

Some of the other reviews are about the "Grace period". First off, the grace period is something that is granted to you by the financial institution. I have been in the recovery side of the business, and for example, they can technically repo your car the day after your due date even though you are in your "Grace period".

I know that people only go online and vent when something is wrong, and never when they are happy or content with something. But it seems that the majority of the reviewers are people who obviously don't handle their money well or run into financial hardships and blame the bank. I personally make sure that there is money in the account prior to writing a check or making a payment online.

Another fun fact for you people that enjoy the grace period. Just about every auto loan is a simple interest loan, every day that you are in your grace period, you are going to owe additional interest at the end of your term. Granted, in most cases it is a small amount, but I have reviewed accounts in which someone was a month late for all 72 months so they received both a late fee and additional interest.

This person had a $10K auto loan and after the 72 months. Had an additional $4000 to pay the loan off because of the additional interest and penalties on top of the interest charged. All in all, I just wish people would spend more time keeping their books as opposed to jumping online and blaming all of these banks for their problems.

BRADENTON, FLORIDA -- This bank is possibly intentionally using archaic methods that result in additional late fees. This could be financially advantageous to them so they have little motivation to improve. When I got this impression dealing with their car loan to me, I decided simply to pay off the remaining $2,445.00 balance on the loan. I sent in the check but after 8 days they called to say I hadn't made a payment and claimed I was past due. At this point I became alarmed and eager to be done with their poor service and aggravation over possibly trumped up late fees.

I ended up making a payoff by a ACH funds transfer over the phone, and of course, had to pay a penalty and funds transfer charge. The resulting payment was $2,527.18 which posted to my checking account at my regular bank on 2/12/2009. The next day (2/13/2009), the check I mailed in posted to my account for the original payoff amount of $2,445.83

I noticed the overpayment two days later when I checked online my regular checking account statement. I called 5th 3rd Bank promptly and let them know they had debited my account twice for a sizable sum. It took a long time over the phone even to get them to agree there might be a problem and they asked me to provide documentation. I offered to send it and they then referred the matter to a supervisor who said that the first payment may have closed the account so the second payment had no place to go.

I was told the matter would clear up if I was just patient and that within 10 working days, I should receive the overpaid money back in my account. So far this has not happened 14 working days after I notified them and they said the solution was in progress. So I asked, at what point should I become concerned. I am also planning to write a complaint but am only now learning who, what agencies to address. I still haven't received my overpayment money, although I received the title to the car a few days ago.