M and T Bank Consumer Reviews - Page 3

MARYLAND -- So I had NSF fees in the past and I had not until recently been paying attention as to why. I always paid them thinking it was my fault. So this last week I paid attention and watched my account like a hawk. There was a charge in my account that was larger than I expected, but I made several small payments before that large one showed up on my account the next day the large payment was placed on my account late at night. So I figured I was going to have one non sufficient funds fee. I had 8.

What M&T bank does (unlike other banks that actually treat the customer right) is they placed the largest payment 1st, so all the other ones show up as if they were made in the negative when they were done the other way around. When I called about this, the manager told me that it did not matter what time the orders were placed, that it was the policy of the bank to place the large transactions first. Of course that benefits them because since they are paying all the other transactions that went through first anyway they charge you 37 bucks for each one of them. The manager on the phone refused to credit any of those fees.

So I have put a complaint with the BBB. See where that goes. The fact is that they target fees so they can make most of the money from the low income folk, and that's why the new law that regulates fees was passed. Once that kicks in this August, the large item would have been denied so that I would have to arrange with that company what happened with the payment. So the timing does matter, of course the manager did not care.

I think we should all write our federal elected officials and request an investigation into the fees that are charged by M&T Bank. Here's why, this is a $79 Billion dollar resource for banks, which means only one thing, they are making money, ridiculous money off of the consumers and something should be done to stop this.

If you are a person who keeps your books organized, manage your accounts well and better yet, have extra money or savings, then I applaud you. Keep up the good work. But for those folks, who may not be able to manage to the penny, because M&T will charge $37 for an overdraft of $1.00, then they (we) need to write our senators, congressman, etc and ask them to investigate this practice.

You know, when I'm wrong, I try to deal with it. Well, I got tired of the fees and went to the bank manager and requested that they lift this grace of $250 off my account, so that if I am off by a few figures, then my card will reject. You know, like in the olden days of credit cards - no money, no charge. This would be perfect. Do you know, they said this could not be done? In other words, it is designed to make money off of the consumer. Only the consumer can stop it.

When I asked the manager, "why the fees? Why bombard a person with fees that you know that can't pay?" His response, "like you said, it's a 79 Billion dollars…” Write your elected officials, today! I'd go so far as to write Obama (I have). This needs to stop. They are taking advantage of the consumer. It's like a legal scam and needs to be addressed and modified immediately.

DO NOT USE M&T BANK. THEY ARE A RIP OFF! THEY ARE NOT CONSUMER FRIENDLY, BUT ONLY OUT TO GET YOUR MONEY THROUGH FEES AND OTHER BOGUS CHARGES. In New York, M&T charges 50 cents if you use your debit card and enter your PIN #. You have to select credit. Also, if you use a non M&T ATM, they will charge you a $2-$4 fee depending on how much $ you withdraw. That is in addition to the fee you are charged at the non M&T ATM. Most banks do not exercise these practices anymore.

Also, the next business day at this bank begins at 2:00 or 2:30 pm. So, if you have $0 in the bank and you know a check is going to be submitted that day for payment, you had better haul your butt in the branch before 2:00 pm or else the deposit will be posted with the following date and the check that came in the previous day will be paid, but they are going to charge you a $37 overdraft fee b/c the money to cover the check was deposited after 2:00 pm. This is what happened to me. I knew a $75 check was coming in on 6/3/09 to be paid. There was no money in the bank.

On 6/3/09 at 4:00 pm, I made the cash deposit. Remember, the check has not been posted. There is nothing online showing that anything came in. The teller gave me a receipt that said $75 available. The next day 6/4/09, the check posted with the date of 6/3/09. My deposit also posted online with a deposit date of 6/4/09 and I was charged an overdraft fee. Doesn't sound fair to me! WAMU and CHASE do not operate that way.

MADISON, WISCONSIN -- We enrolled in the rewards program about 4 years ago. We decided to save our points for travel. We tried to redeem the travel reward for overseas travel. This requires 50,000 points. We only have enough for one ticket and need 4 tickets. In order to book the ticket, we must go through Visa rewards 1-800 number. The cost is 1061.00 the cap is 1,000. We must pay the difference and if we want to purchase other tickets i.e., the other three, we must also pay a "service charge" of 25.00 for each additional ticket. This is 75.00 for the 3 extra tickets.

The cost of the airline ticket seems somewhat comparable but we have also found travel website offers for tickets about 100-200 cheaper than what M&I rewards offers. I then looked into the Marriott rewards. Figuring if we can't use the airline miles maybe we can stay somewhere with our points. There are restrictions there as well. The M&I representative could not answer my questions about the restrictions and gave me the Marriott number. The Marriott rep also could not answer all of my questions about restrictions because she needed to know what the name of the M&I rewards certificate was called. She told me the restrictions are listed on the back of the certificate.

Seems odd you have to redeem your points to know what the restrictions are. She did tell me if we tried to use them overseas the dollars are converted to local currency and at what the hotel exchange rate is not the market rate. If you have ever paid long distance charges at a hotel, you know hotels are not the best for exchage rates either. Given where the dollar is at compared to the British Pound or the Euro - not a good deal. There is an expiration date on the rewards for Marriott.

For the additional fees, we pay and then the extra fees for trying to redeem the rewards we calculate we are getting about a 1/2 cent back on purchases but that is only if we can use the rewards. At 50.00 a year for the program fee and 75 for each ticket plus the price difference, it's hard to see where the reward is? We will try to redeem all the points before we close the account. It would seem the $500 Visa card would be the best option - I am just waiting to find out what the "catch" is. We will be looking for another card. :(

BERLIN, MARYLAND -- I always pay Twisters Gymnastics with checks 99% of the time. They use M&T Bank for their commercial account. M&T Bank submitted two of my checks twice. The amount came out of my bank account and I asked my bank to reimburse me for one of each of the cleared checks that were cleared twice. My bank complied. M&T has stated that they will charge Twisters for my two checks bouncing. I gave the owner of Twisters my banking information showing the balance at time of submission of checks to the time they cleared. She agreed that M&T Bank is in error and has informed me the money was never deposited into her account.

Now M&T Bank is telling her I need to reimburse Twisters for the amount of the combined total of the two checks after seeing snapshots of my account showing the two checks clearing twice and each one of the two transactions being reimbursed. M&T Bank I believe is acting in a fraudulent manner. M&T Bank has $198.00 of money floating around that belongs to Twisters.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND -- I entered the bank on January 30, 2013 to cash a check; I have 2 business accounts and a personal account with M&T Bank. I signed the check and put a thumbprint while waiting for the teller. When she came she was looking up the account and had to receive approval because of the amount of the check. This was a new account but I am not a new customer.

The other teller comes and starts asking who the owner of the company is, where else did I try to cash the check, and treating me as if I was a thug that just came off the streets. My check had cleared and been validated, the teller proceeds to help other people without letting me know anything. When I asked what is going on she tells me that they are working on it and she doesn't know what they are doing.

So I asked to speak to a manager and she says the manager is in the back working on something. After I insisted on a manager and raised my voice then someone came from the back and guided me to the manager. As I arrived in the manager's office she is calling the bank I opened the account with inquiring on my intentions.

I was never asked any questions; they were treating me as if I had bad intentions, without explaining or asking any clarifying questions! They didn't even research to see if I had any other accounts. The customer service at this location is very unprofessional and the tellers are very unhelpful, if you can go to another location or better yet go to another bank.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND -- Apparently the bank, in their usual manner, issued a notice in small letters at the bottom of a statement that they were to charge a fee for each and every ATM withdrawal over 4 per statement period (1 month). I still haven't found that notice! This fee was to be $5.00 per transaction. This is in addition to the $2.50 fee if you use another bank's ATM.

In July my wife used the ATM 20 times to access HER money so M&T charged her $80.00 in fees. During the same period they paid the $.01 in interest. It looks to me like they want to penalize you to keep YOUR money where THEY can have access to it to use as they see fit. When I called them I was told "TOO BAD no refunds for you." That is why by September 1st the account will be closed and in another bank that appreciates my business.

M&T mortgage consumer beware. If you are thinking of a mortgage, you must definitely avoid M&T bank. They will put clauses in their documents making your life miserable and threaten you later on to do all kinds of things. In addition, even if you are late one day in ten years to send your payment (within of course the grace period) they will start calling you with automated systems!

I was very surprised to get this treatment after so many years. Be absolutely careful of their mortgage clauses! Do not just depend on my opinion. Search the web for related complaints. They are a fourth grade bank of unprofessionals to deal with. I am in the process of refinancing and go with a better bank.

BUFFALO, NEW YORK -- For the life of me I couldn't understand what was going wrong with my checking account. In my pledge to get my finances under control this year I called the bank to find out exactly what was going wrong. To my surprise I was told by a bank representative that the bank puts a 3 day hold on your account every time you swipe your check card. In some instances, they will take the money out, put it back into your account and then take it out again. All depending on the merchant. Also, did you know that the bank will no longer decline your card if you don't have money in your account. "We do this as a courtesy to you" I was told by the bank representative.

"A COURTESY??? Not to me… It's a courtesy to the bank because they hit you with a $37.00 fee for insufficient funds. Was I asked that I wanted this? NO! I never agreed that it's OK for this COURTESY and I don't mind paying you $37.00 each time. Decline my friggin card. That's my choice. It's my money not yours."

M&T charged me $37.00 for being overdrawn by $2.00 then again for $.84… Seriously?!??! How is that justified. And forget about trying to get that reversed.... Where is the room for human error? I was told to ditch the bank and go to a credit union where they will not charge you any fees. Needless to say, I am reporting the bank to the Federal Reserve (not that reporting one thief to the next will do anything but you have to try).

My husband and I joined M&T shortly after moving to NY and it has been nothing but a disaster. From the first week of being a new member we were hit with various fees and were treated harshly by the reps at the call center as well as the reps at the branch. Examples are how we were never made aware of how putting cash in the account after so called business hours will not be available until the next day. Needless to say we were charged a couple overdraft fees even though the money was there.

The final straw with this corporate of thieves happened today when we were told we had seven overdraft fees even though the online account as well as three reps and the automatic tellers told us that our account was fine, everything was showing up as paid and we were told that nothing was pending. Now today we are told that there was an authorization hold that overdrafted several items even though we were shown and told that everything was fine and nothing pending. We spoke with a manager and were rudely told that the reps were wrong to tell us that all was well and it was our fault for following what was on our online account.

I asked if they would waive the fees and were told no. I feel that this was an illegal act to try to get more money from us. Needless to say we are going to close this account and get away from these lying thieves. We would strongly recommend that if you are not a member at this bank then keep it that way, stay far away from M&T and do not trust them.