Country Bank for Savings

I had a family member pass during the pandemic. Despite the fact that tMassachusetts (and the world) had put in all sorts of legal workarounds to substitute for in-person business transactions Country Bank continued to insist that in order to open an estate account with them or transfer the money to an estate account in another bank I needed to physically come to the bank. They refused virtual notarization, which the state of Massachusetts made legal during the pandemic, and I had to get an attorney involved to get the money out of this bank. We were finally able to do a virtual notarization and transfer the funds but it took 10 months and almost $900 in legal fees! My relative’s estate shouldn’t have to pay this since transferring the money should have been a simple matter of doing a legally allowed virtual notarization (took 5 minutes) and sending the paperwork to the bank. I went back to Country Bank asking them to pay the legal costs and was told “my request was denied” and “if I have any questions to have my lawyer contact theirs”.

Autopay charge was debited 3 days ahead of authorized due date through no fault of my own, resulting in a $30 charge. CB won't overturn the charge, told me to try to get reimbursed by the other party, and refuses to correct the situation. This bank routinely holds deposits as pending, generates a bounce fee, gives me a lecture on personal responsibility and takes the $30 fee regardless of circumstances. In this case, an autopay debit was presented at 11:30PM on 4/26 (3 days ahead of the actual due date and 2 days prior to the actual authorized debit date). My automatic deposit was generated on 4/25 and was held in the cloud until 7:00AM on 4/27, generating an NSF fee of $30 that they refuse to overturn even though I emailed documentation demonstrating that through no fault of my own, the autopay was billed earlier than it should have been. I am leaving this bank, they truly SUCK. Most banks are working WITH their clientele during the covid crisis. This puritanical, greedy bank is CAPITALIZING on the pandemic crisis instead. If I could go lower than one star, I would. DO NOT bank with Country Bank if you'd like to keep the shirt on your back.

In Dec I had several fraudulent charges on my debit card. I got a letter today stating that they were legit. No customer protection!!I have been a long time (over 10 years) customer at Country Bank. In December 2013 I noticed several fraudulent charges on my account. I called and canceled my debit card, then went and filed out the required paperwork. Some of the charges were automatically canceled before they cleared my account, but two of them (for $101 each) went through. Country Bank gave me a temporary refund and opened an "investigation." Today I received a letter in the mail claiming that they found the charges to be valid. This is in spite of the fact that the person who stole my identity used a completely different name (that I've never heard of before) plus an unknown email account to complete their order. I was told at Country Bank that Master Card was the one who did the investigation and that there was nothing to do. I do not think it is fair for a customer to be out over $200 when they claim that they offer fraud protection. It is completely unacceptable. This is the only bank I have ever heard of not taking care of their customer in a situation like this. I plan to pursue this until it is rectified.Desired SettlementI would like to have the disputed charges returned to my account. In over 10 years I have been a good customer, have not bounced checks and have over $10,000 sitting in their accounts. I simply want what they promise - fraud protection.Business Response Country Bank is unable to provide a detailed response to the Revdex.com regarding the above-mentioned customer complaint. However, Country Bank has researched the complaint and responded directly to the consumer on January 13, 2014.

On Feb. 14, 2013, my son (I am secondary on his account as he was a minor when the account was opened) received false information on a document.My son, [redacted], a high school senior made a cash deposit on Feb. 14, 2013 at 7:36 am through the drive through teller window at Country Bank in Belchertown to cover an automatic withdrawal he expected to be withdrawn from his account the next business day. After he made the cash deposit the teller printed him a receipt with his account balance. The balance reflected a positive amount with enough to cover the automatic withdrawal that would be debited from his account. In the days after this, he received a notice stating that his account was assessed a charge for insufficient funds and was in a negative state due to this fee. On Feb. 14, 2013 both online banking and the receipt printed from the teller indicated that he had the funds in his account to cover the automatic withdrawal. The bank stated that the automatic withdrawal came out two hours prior to the deposit even though there was no documentation to substantiate that until after the fact. He has now been reported to a consumer credit reporting agency and will not be allowed to open a bank account for five years because Country Bank refuses to reverse the fee. Please keep in mind that we are talking about $17 at this point. Now he is going off to college and will likely have difficulty opening bank accounts, credit accounts etc. Country Bank markets to our young people in our community with their student banking incentives. We believe that their business practice is flawed and their system for accurate representation of balances and transactions is one sided leaving the consumer unaware until after they decide to assess a fee and then all of sudden items appear pre-dated in the ledger making it impossible to know for certain where your account stands. In my son's case he was only using this account at that time to pay his car insurance bill. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to rely on online banking if more than a few transactions occurred being that their system for online banking is not accurate and not in "real time" in select cases like when external debits are assessed and it is determined when a fee would be applied. Desired SettlementReversal of fee(s) assessed and retraction of claims filed to both the Banking Commissioner and Consumer Credit Reporting Agency. And a written apology to my son for being unwilling to listen to his concerns regarding this matter when it took place.Business' Initial Response May 6, 2013Revdex.com Serving Central and Western Massachusetts and Northeastern Connecticut6 Park Avenue, Suite 100Worcester, MA 01605Re: Case ID: XXXXXX [redacted]Due to customer confidentiality, Country Bank cannot provide a detailed response to the Revdex.com regarding the above-mentioned customer complaint. However, Country Bank researched the complaint and responded directly to the customer.Very truly yours,[redacted]