Bank of the West / BMO, Portland OR

Nice, low key bank. Very friendly employees. Money seems safe and not nearly as greedy as blue or constantly trying to up-sell you like red.

I've been banking with Bank of the West since February 2022 and from April 2022 through March 2023 I made trips in person every week to the Division Street branch where I felt they knew me quite well. Last week I received a ssettlement from being wrongly terminated & I decided to deposit my checks at the nearest branch to my attorney's office which was downtown. Had never been there before but I felt I'd been a customer long enough that I could request $860 out of those funds. Especially since one of the checks was from my former employer and I had been depositing checks from this employer for 9 months. That check was for $1200 & I didn't dream I'd be denied access to those funds but I was. I was told I had never deposited that much in my account before which is patently false as I direct deposit my current paychecks bill weekly which are always far larger than $1200. I asked the manager to please call the Division Street branch because they knew me and I was stunned when they said they also wouldn't release those funds. Evidently being a conscientious customer that comes to the same branch in person for nearly 52 weeks and has deposited thousands upon thousands of dollars into my account didn't mean as much as I believed it did. I immediately started applications with On Point and Advantis because I need to request a loan and clearly Bank of the West is not going to give me one since they can't trust me with a $1200 check that I know they can and do verify so holding my funds is really just a way to let me know how little I mean to them.

Have been a customer for over a year andam very familiar with employees at another branch but neither of these things made any difference in the way I was treated. I was inconvenienced but worse, made to feel untrustworthy & inferior. It also made me realize that the loan I was going to see them about because I felt I had a good relationship with them would only be another exercise in hu.iliation so I'm opening an account with a credit union instead. Good riddance.

I cannot even begin to explain all these issues I have had stemming from this branch. I will be immediately canceling my account here and getting as far away from this corrupted company as I possibly can.