National Bank

tldr: I got charged 3 hidden fees which which I shouldn't have. After unsuccessfully attempting to reach them several times via phone, a customer service rep emailed me unapologetically and and reversed the charges matter-of-factly. I think that reversing the charges was the bare minimum they could've done in this situation and that they could've done so much more. My rating maintains 1 star. I opened an account with them last month for a special promotion. A few days ago, I was charged without my consent or knowledge 3 different service fees; a $2.50 fee for receiving paper statements which no other banks do (I haven't even received any mail from them yet!), a monthly account fee which was unwarranted because I am a student, meaning all monthly fees were waived, and finally an overdraft fee because the 2 previous fees made my account go into a negative balance. So right now, three weeks after opening my account, the bank is telling me to pay money to them. Wow. When I tried calling them the first time, I was placed on hold for over 10 minutes. The second time, which was today, I received some vague explanations about the fees which I had no idea about until now. The lady told me she wasn't familiar with the bank's plans, charges, and promotions well enough (really?) and she would transfer me to the person who opened my account. I was placed on hold but was transferred to an automatic recorded message in French, forcing me to hang up again, and when I called for the third time, I was told that that person wasn't available at the moment. I work in the hospitality industry myself and I interact with customers very frequently. While I can't say anything about financial aspects, the employees at this bank are not familiar with their own charges, policies and products. The three fees I received were completely unwarranted and kinda speak to the bank's poor, non-user friendly, confusing presentation of information and interface. My opinion: for any fellow students out there, please do yourself a favour and bank with a more reputable bank like TD, BMO, Scotiabank. I've banked with all 3 of them and I've never once received any unwarranted charges. Even if I did, they have excellent customer service and I would imagine they would resolve the situation promptly and professionally. Very disappointed, thinking of closing my account immediately after getting those 3 charges reversed. I will call them again tomorrow and update this review accordingly. This bank has some major problems but I'm just hoping that it has what it takes to correct them. _____________________________________________________________________ EDIT: A customer service representative got back to me via email and reversed my three charges. However, nowhere in the email did the representative apologize and it seemed to me that the representative was trying to say "you should've known the fees better before opening the account". Personally, I think it should be the bank's reponsibility to clearly interpret the fine print to the customer, but that's just my personal opinion. Also, the representative didn't mention anything about how as a student, I shouldn't have been charged any fees at all. So it seems that I'm still going to get charged the monthly account fee in the future. I sent them a clarification and I hope they notice.

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