RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Never use Sun Trust for a car loan. I pay online WELL before the due date, but they say the payment is late so they can charge a huge late fee. I had to pay the loan off with my home equity line of credit so they would stop charging the late fees.

I used to work at a bank(not SunTrust), but constant complaints from customers drove me away. I got to fill my days with complaints from people that can't stop overdrafting their account. I really feel like banks get many more complaints that any other type of business. People want to blame other people. The bottom line: banks offer overdraft protection and if you use money that you don't have you will be charged. It's kind of like paying a really high interest rate on a credit card. Atleast, banks actually pay the people that you have made an agreement with instead of letting you go to the wolves and have to deal with legal issues with companies. Every single bank is similar in policies. Banks do not get anything out of holding your $30, cashing your checks, processing your deposits, or giving you free checks. Banks truly offer a free checking account. Your part is to not spend more than what you have and they will hold on to your money for you. Banks cannot lend out money from a checking account so they basically make nothing out of it. The reasons banks offer free checking accounts is to form a relationship, so one day they can help with all of your financial needs. Thats how it works. Do your part.

By the way, still haven't received my card. Remember the manager who was supposed to mail me a card first class? I forgot to mention that it was a "computer error" and all the cards that were supposed to be mailed out that time all got screwed up so they mailed them all out 1st class? Just got off the phone with them and was told that he wasn't allowed to do that because, apparently, that whole 1st class deal applied to something else entirely. Therefore I have to wait another 5-7 business days for my (1st? 3rd?) card. In all, 5 different excuses (sorry, I accidentally erased my first post, but basically it said that Suntrust sucks). Nothing but shite.

After 30 years of Suntrust banking I quit !! They are owned by the machine and eat you alive.

I had a checking account very shortly with this bank, it was my first checking account when i just got out of high school 5 years ago. I wasn't making enough money to deposit money i not he account yet so most of the time the balance stayed at $0 when i went from making 5.15 a hour to 9 an hour i was going to start depositing money, well come to find out they had closed my account, charged $30 to close the account, then charged my $35 as a overdraft fee and then charged me $30 because it was going be sent to collections and then a overdraft fee for that as well? wtf, they left my account open long enough for then send through these bogus transactions? but wouldn't leave it open long enough for me to start depositing a descent amount of money? They should change there name to Sun UnTrusted Bank, nothing but crooks.

To date, I have spoken with over twelve Customer Service agents from SunTrust, and EACH has given me a different story. Last year, when my husband and I sold off his car, we had to deal with SunTrust to get the title. That was a nightmare. Now I have to deal with SunTrust again, as I paid off my car loan and am fighting to get my title released. SunTrust agents are consistently misinformed or incompetent. Unless you want significant problems, do not use SunTrust for anything.

I'd give them a zero, if I could. Yesterday, before 5pm, I called and had $524. I knew I had a payment for $205 that was going to hit any day and we made small debit transactions over the weekend. I had a 1500 check to deposit, but since it seemed like it could wait until today, I waited. Well, at midnight, applying the highest to the lowest, as they say, in order to maximize their fees, I paid $315 in bank fees. The check I deposited this morning before 9am will not post until midnight, so all day I've had a negative balance and could not even put gas in my car at Costco (have to used debit). It's very hard when you can't see what the pending items are. They just come in at midnight. With my other bank, I could see if stuff was coming in I forgot about and I would immediately make a deposit so everything would be covered. But you can't do that with Suntrust.

TERRIBLE SERVICE AND RIDICULOUSLY HIGH NSF FEES WITHOUT WARNING.

I WOULD NOT even rate them with 1 star. Do not deal with anyone at Suntrust Bank especially the Sprayberry Branch. A particular teller there has made it her mission to place holds on everything I deposit. I deposited more then $20,000 in local checks and Suntrust placed a 5 day hold on ALL of the funds. They did not even release the first $100. DON'T BANK WITH SUNTRUST!!

This bank has decieved us. They have over $11,000 of ours! It seems that our checking account was closed without our knowledge. Not even a phone call. Where is our money? Do not go to the Branch on Hwy 17N in Mount Pleasant SC..... Do not go to the Branch On Pelham Road in Greenville, SC.

I hate Suntrust. We have a mortgage with them and I have to say it was the biggest mistake we made. It was a struggle since the beginning. The worst part came when we all agreed on the price of the house and the date of the closing and our loan officer couldn't be reached for 4 days! Our agent, title agency, seller's agent... everybody tried to reach him. Then we received a letter (after they said that they're ready to close) that they needed additional documents and started digging into stupid things like a deposit on our account for $1500 3 months back! Our pre-approval letter almost expired. That wasn't all. When we finally closed on the house 3 months later we got a call from Suntrust that they gave us a wrong rate and that they want us to sign a new contract!!! They keep calling...

Suntrust is a horrible bank to bank with. They are all over Vanderbilt campus and set up stands outside the freshman doors during move in and convince every kid to bank with them. Basically they get every student to bank with them and then take advantage of the fact that they are students with little money. If they see that you are going to over withdraw... even by a couple cents, the will process the higher transactions first, so that all the little transactions will cause -35 fees each time.

I made a mistake and took out too much money, 50cents to be exact, but they somehow managed to start charging me fees before I had ever done so!?!?!? I ended up being charged $140. I then deposited CASH to bring my balance up to a positive amount and the next day I was charged another fee!?!?!?!? IT makes no sense.

They don't care about losing costumers because they know they will just get the next group of freshman.

Suntrust is no different from any other major banks out there. They have, in my opinion, worked a lot on their customer service skills. I have my mortgage, checking and savings account through them, and haven't had any complaints. They have actually been very helpful with me when situations have occured. I still think they are not very competitive on the market (I applied for a home equity loan and their offer was beaten out by my Credit Union), but overall, an ok player. Maybe it's because I've never been late on a mortgage payment, and have a mortgage account with them as to why they have been so cool with me.

Like a lot of people here, I know it is my fault for overdrawing my account. But Suntrust does unfairly take advantage of us paycheck to paycheck types. The worst part is how they even up your account during overnight processing.
I had a balance of $259. Withdrew $240 - which became some kind of damn pending transaction. That night a check for $250 hit. Guess what? 2 - $35 overdraft charges. Does not seem like this should be legal. I dont care what their procedures/policies are. I had enough to cover one or the other and only should have been changed 1 overdraft.

I give Suntrust a big fat f-----------I have a complaint against Suntrust Bank, On Feb 5th 2008, The IRS took a forced debit out of my checking account of 1053.00, my issue is not with IRS, but with Suntrust. I owed that money to the IRS and that is taken care of. I would have not known the money was even deducted out of my account unless I went to my online banking and found the deduction. I have been a loyal customer when Suntrust was Hamilton bank. When I called the 1-800 to inquire who took the money, it was a foreigh gentleman who couldn't speak english, when I finally got someone who could speak english they informed me in a rude way that Suntrust was not obligated to inform me of any withdrawls from my account. After all the money that I have put in their bank over the years they were not obligated to tell me that someone had removed that much money from my account that it would be wise for me not to write any more checks or debits? I am no longer obligated to bank at their financial institution anymore, and I will be taking all my family with me and whoever I can get the word out to. I do not want to bank with a business that does not have honestly, loyalty , obligation and courtesy and a fundamental building block of their business. It is the small people who make that business run. I have so say that I am very lucky that this happened because in the next few weeks I was getting a 300,000 life insurance from my deceased fathers account that I will not be depositing into their bank. The internet and word of mouth is a very good marketing tool. Spread the work Suntrust has one person in mind themselves, they are not for the people.

Suntrust screwed my livelyhood royaly! My plan is to write at every web site and tell everyone what horrible bank practices they have. I had a line of credit and I missed 2 months. I know I messed up. So I made a payment to make up for the late 2 months and a week later it went into collections. I recieved no notice by mail or phone. They took out money out of our joint account. BUT!!!! The first amount was for 1474.00 and then the next day they took out another 1700.00. Well we work hard for our money and that left us with nothing. Not only did that leave us with nothing but the lack of communication we had paid our bills and such so we ended up negative almost 2k and stuck us with NSFs. Mind you we had to ask our family for money to get gas and food. So when I called to find out what was going on,I kept getting transfered and put on hold. Finally someone said that they can take out money anytime they want without giving notice.
So I went to my local branch because I could not let my credit get messed up like that! Well they train their phone peopl well to say exatly the same thing. The person that tried to help me said it was messed up they did that and he never knew about the common practices or protocol. So we went to another branch where we signed for the line of credit. They were very nice and very confused why this happened. When they made the call they were told the same thing and only thing they could say was we are sorry and they thought it was unfair as well. in fact one person said that we should close our account with Suntrust.
So after finally getting our account from the negative, I called Suntrust about what options I have to make payments since it was on auto draft and I was about to close my account out. I talked to 4 different people, and the last lady was so rude!!!! Again I will make it a point to tell everyone NEVER to go to Suntrust. If people that work there dont even bank with them then why should anyone else. And why try to endure talking to people who obviously don't care about your welfare. Suntrust is a only out for themselves!

Sun Trust Bank gets a grade of F from this teacher. I have been with them for three years and have paid some outrageous fees. They take their time putting in the deposits but very quickly like to withdraw your money so they hope you will be overdrawn. This last incident takes the cake!! I am a teacher we get paid on Dec. 21 and get another check Jan.31.That is 6 weeks with no money. Well, they made sure that the biggest amount got taken out and then started charging fees which then made the smallest transactions bounce and then they charged more fees.This was about $350 dollars in fees.Well, of course when I got paid the fees were paid. Well, then they froze my check card where I could not use it even after the fees were paid and my paycheck was in the bank.When I called about it, they were rude and said they would not unfreeze the card for another month. Well, needless to say I am closing the account and going somewhere else. I feel like I got treated like a crap by them and it was not fair.

I would not recommend Suntrust to ANYONE!!! An outside creditor was taking money out of my account as payments for a credit card I had in college, which was fine until they made a accident and took it out on the wrong date. Of course this caused my act to overdraft. After explaining to the bank what happen I was told that they have nothing to do with the creditors error and the creditor would have to refund my fees!! WHAT? Not to get into extent of it all, but I was charged a 35.00 fee about 3 times because of pending items that cleared and would have been okay had he not made the mistake...The creditor was even willing to call Suntrust to clarify and they still did nothing about it. To top it all, I was given misinformation that my account would not get written off until 90 days after its in the negative. I called to make sure that my account was still active before I sent a direct deposit to it and the next day they closed my account! Even though they explained I had 30 more days until write-off. Its like they wanted my money for the overdrafts fee but did not want my service anymore. People go through hard times and they charge you excessive fees to get your more in debt. SUNTRUST IS THE WORST BANK EVER!!

This is December and I've been charged 1/3 of my salary for the month in charges from SunTrust Bank. I take responsibility for overdrawing my account but there is no possible way to catch up when you are facing such excessive charges. I will be closing my account today and I can tell you, their stock will drop immediately because I feel I've been carrying them for a long time now in the charges I've paid.
Burke and Herbert Bank is the bank for me. They treat customers as customers with value and respect and take the time to call you if you have a problem. You are not JUST a number to them.

I wish I could give SunTrust 0 stars. This bank will rob you blind. If you have a SunTrust account, wait at least a week after making a deposit to write checks against it. Otherwise, you could find yourself being charged hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees and SunTrust won't care what the circumstances are, even if you have NEVER had an overdraft in the 3 years you've had a checking account with them. SunTrust will allow you to make ATM cash withdrawals and debit purchases when your account is in the negative while charging $35 for every debit. I had a returned deposit because they changed their bank policies without informing me, which resulted in $245 in overdraft fees. I have spoken with other people who tell me that they have never had a bank approve debit transaction while their account is in the negative. SunTrust tells me their doing me a favor by allowing me to make purchases. Why on earth would I make a $5.00 purchase if I knew it would result in a $35 overdraft fee?

I find most of the comments laughable. If I was SunTrust I would rape you on fees also... to lose you as customers.

I have jumbo mortgages, investment accounts, etc etc with Suntrust. Have been with them for 10+ years... Which says a lot as I am very particular about who I bank with.

Note to the other posters... Learn to manage your accounts and not live from bill to bill... Blaming the banks for your lack of money.

I bank with Bank of America. They are a great bank. But when I went off to college there was only one BOA in town. Which was surprising considering BOA is the the largest banking institution in the country. So I sign up with Suntrust and noticed their banking practices were totally different. Different in a negative way. I overdrawn on my account for about $30 but in the end I had to pay $318. First off Suntrust charge NF(overdraft fees) for items that is pending. And on your account they don't clear items in which they were recieved. They clear items from largest to smallest. I'm a college student and I leave check to check. I take responsibility for overdrawing on my account. But its funny how a few $2 purchase and one large purchase end up being $318. Then they charge extended NF if you don't pay it off in 7 days. Then they add on more fees if you dont pay it off in 30 days. Its hard to even explain my situation without it sounding to confusing.

Apparently SunTrust's computer is programmed to apply their 'end of day' transactions in the following order: first all debits are applied, highest dollar first and then the credits are applied. They do not appear to use real time when doing this, even tho the federal government has stated that banks must apply transactions in the order they are received. This is so confusing to a lay-person and I honestly believe they are charging hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees inappropriately. If you have a 'normal' balance of a few hundred dollars you probably wouldn't even notice their practice. But many many of us run household accounts down to a few dollars monthly, and those are the accounts they make a nice profit on. I'm reporting to the BBB and the fed, and requesting a thorough audit of my account history with SunTrust. Bank of America is a welcome change to the horrid treatment I received as a customer of SunTrust.

Recently I was overdrawn on my account by the amount of 10 dollars through 5 miniscule transactions. Total cost ===A WHOPPING 185 DOLLARS IN FEES.
I almst feinted . I called customer service and the branch , some were nice but others were bordering rude IF NOT RUDE , claiming that "I was in control"..Now if I was in control wouldnt I have my own bank and i CERTAINLY WOULD NOT CHARGE MYSELF 185 DOLLARS FOR A MEASLY 10 DOLLAR TRANSACTION.
People dont bank at SUN TRUST ..I was with HSBC for 10 yrs and only switched because there was no local branches and have NEVER had this problem. Now I too have joined the Bank of America Family
I too have written to the BBB concerning this practice.
Let's hope that someone at SUN is watching these notes so they can change their act
Danny B

Don't bank there. My parents have had severe health problems recently, and to enable me to take care of them and handle their affairs, we went to the various banks (12 of them) where they had CDs and deposit accounts. Every bank, when we explained the situation to them, retitled the accounts, and more importantly, the CDs to joint holding, adding my name. Except that is, Suntrust. Not after three visits by may parents and me. Not after talking to the lower level person, the branch manager, and not even after a call to the regional person. They said we had to break the CD and incur a penalty to do this. The only bank out of 12 that included 3 national banks, 3 regionals, and 6 local/community banks.

They are horrible.

Don't bank with them. Go anywhere else. They treat their customers like a number, hound them for new business everytime you bank with them. They layoff employees with years of service and replace them with newly hired ones. If they treat their own like crap how do you think they will treat their customers. Go to an Internet bank, better rates, check out banking rates at bankrate.com.

My situation is different them everyone elses here.

My problem is with Suntrust's Claim Department. The employees that handle the claims are very rude and could care less about the customer's and if they get recover their funds actually, employees at SunTrust in general are all rude.

I opened up a chargeback on 5/17/07 due to not receiving a item I purchased on eBay. I still have not received a resolution for this claim as of 9/09/07. In July I called the claims departent to find out the status and the lady told me "we don't have any information to give you, but we do have 120 days to decide the outcome because that's what Visa allows". I called again in September and the lady told me again "we don't have any new information but we do have 120 days to decide the outcome". When I told her the 120 days would be up on 9/17/0 she stated, "it's a minimum of 120 days, if needed we can take longer than that".

I have now switched to Bank Of America and filed a claim against SunTrust through the BBB. In my eyes you do not make a valued customer wait (which is not what SunTrust thinks you are) over 120 days, 4+ months to recover their funds, if anything give them a courtesy credit until the decision is made, that's what a loyal bank does.

I worked for SunTrust for about a year and was told in order to get my check Direct Deposited I had to have a account through them, if it wasn't for that I would have never left Bank Of America. I have been with Bank Of Americe since 1999, I have never had any problems with them, and their customer service is 100% better than SunTrust's.

I would never recommend SunTrust to anyone. Not just because of the cliams issue I'm going through, but because of the all around bad customer service issues they have.

Worst bank, poor customer service, employees leaving left and right, bad attitudes, terrible management especially in commercial banking, don't give them any business, you will be sorry you did.

I personally think that Suntrust is extending credit without the permission of the customer. In otherwords, if you use your Suntrust debit card, they will approve the transaction(s), then turn around and charge you $32.00 per transaction. If there is not enough of a balance in the account, the charge should be denied. Many of us are fast paced professionals and they know it. I was personally told by a Suntrust bank employee that the $32.00 charges go back to the originating Suntrust bank as "a bonus". I think a class action law suit is on the horizon.

Let me give you another example of the evil crap this bank pulls

Say you have 5 items pending. 4 of them are for $1 each and one is for $100. If they know that the $100 will bring you into a negative balance, they will post this first so they can charge you for 5 overdraft fees of $35 each. Knowing full well that they could have posted the 4 one dollar pendings first and then only charged you for ONE overdraft fee.


Do you see what I'm getting at here?

If you notice the complaints - they are coming from people who cannot manage their accounts... If you overdraw - thats your fault, not the banks. They have fees to keep you from creating a overdraft in your account, which ultimately costs them time and money.

I am extremely satisfied with Suntrust & I must say that I've had my share of banks and problems, but furthermore, the bank will call you if there is an issue with your account or if they feel that something is wrong before charging fees.

So stop crying about your mistakes - and only post if you had a bad experience based on their faults, not yours. Also - Don't leave a negative comment for someone else, or post negative information from "Hear Say" or post from some story in a paper. Post what you experience.

Five Stars to SunTrust!

You people are all full of shit! There is nothing wrong with SunTrust I've been a customer with them for a longtime and I have NEVER, Repeat NEVER had any problems that includes never being charge for something I didn't deserve to be charged. So if you want to go somewhere else then fine go somewhere else SunTrust doesn't need your whiny bitchy complaining asses.

An elderly woman has her caregiver go to suntrust to deposit three checks totalling $3,300.00. A month later statement comes in and shows $3,000.00. Woman goes to bank and manager says: $300.00 was given back in cash and provides woman with copies of her three checks and absolutely nothing else. Where is the deposit slip used? Bank manager says "we don't use deposit slips and $300.00 can be given back just with a verbal request. Do you check ID's? no again as it ties up the line. Banks answer ...........caregiver stole the money. Elderly woman can initiate a fraud investigation but it requires alot of paperwork. Of course the elderly woman knows that this may be totally over her head so she declines. Bank manager says "never have a caregiver bank for you .........send deposits in the mail!!!!!!
Makes you wonder who took the $300.00 huh ?????? Sun trust make their money preying on the poor and elderly ???????

Our experience with Suntrust is similiar to many of the other posters here - predatory fees for overdraft situations that the bank creates. My daughter is a college student who supports herself working part time. I am her dad, the joint account holder. She incurred $128 in fees - more than she makes in an average week - without being overdrawn. Amazingly, the second two fees were charged on the same transactions as the first two. This diabolical accounting is apparently legal. I shudder to think how many other students in college towns like Radford, Virginia are being victimized by these predatory practices.

I am closing my business account with Suntrust and filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. There appears to be a complaint resolution opportunity with the Federal Reserve as well (http://www.federalreserve.gov/Pubs/complaints/frbanks.htm).

Bank sent a letter that my account was $0.02 overdrawn and was charged $32. Called a couple of times trying to resolve it but was told I had to come in. Went in a week later and was told that I had another $32 chrge (total of $64) because 7 days had passed since overcharge. Branch Mgr was allowed to drop first $32 charge but I had to go to regional mgr for the second $32. Regional mgr was pretty snippy about the whole situation. Incredibly abusive fees and lack of customer focus.

They are ripping me off as well with NSF. I had $175 in the bank and made a $56 payment and was charged $32. When I inquired I was told that it is because some of my funds were on hold because it was less then 6 months since I opened my account and that withdrawal cut into my 'on hold' funds. The thing is in the past I had the account down to $50.00 and never received a NSF fee. They are ripping me off and I am going to write to the fed.

They are ripping me off as well with NSF. I had $175 in the bank and made a $56 payment and was charged $32. When I inquired I was told that it is because some of my funds were on hold because it was less then 6 months since I opened my account and that withdrawal cut into my 'on hold' funds. The thing is in the past I had the account down to $50.00 and never received a NSF fee. They are ripping me off and I am going to write to the fed.

Suntrus bank is doing to us as well. We had account for last 20 years and the service has become very very poor. They have started charging NSF fees for the last three months and running into hundereds of dollars. It is stinking bank and is taking the customers for a ride. They just stick a charge and never call for the problem.

I HATE SunTrust. They socked me with 13 NSF fees in less than 1 month's time. They're online banking is the screwiest, most nonsensical thing I've ever tried to understand. I know they've screwed me, but it's so complicated that I don't even know how to describe it in a complaint. It would take an accountant with a law degree to handle it. Has anyone ever been able to get the NSF fees removed? Thanks.

Suntrust has the unfortunate policy of charging overdrafts (of $32.00) as soon as something is pending. I made a $10.00 charge at 9:30pm on an account with $7.00. The next morning I transfered $100.00 from another account. Despite the fact that the $10.00 charge did not post for 5 business days, I was still given the overdraft fee. This I can understand a little bit (even if my old bank didn't do this). What is unfortunate is that the overdraft fee was added to my account BEFORE I made the $10.00 charge putting my account in the negative the previous morning and (of course) adding overdraft charges to every other purchase made that day (none of which would have taken my account to the negative without the original overdraft fee). All in all, if you live life paycheck to paycheck, do NOT use this bank.

I was attempting to help my mother switch from Suntrust to Bank of America. All was going fine until the draft she had coming out from an insurance company came through. I totally understood that there is a fee for an overdraft. I wish the overdraft could have been avoided, but my mother is older and has several drafts coming out and failed to notify me of the last one that came out before it could be switched. Her account was already switched over and this draft slipped by. I pulled her account up on line and saw that the insurance premium and overdraft fee were on there. There still was something that didn't add up, it seemed like that charged the overdraft fee twice. Well they did sort of. The additional 32.00 was an "Extended Overdraft Fee". The rep told me that if it if overdrawn for more than 7 days there is another $32.00 fee added on. Well it was the 7th day and they refused to take the "Extended Overdraft Fee off. What Jerks to Fleece people like this.

I'm closing my business account with suntrust, last month they charged me almost $2,000.00 in bank fees, managemnet at the bank simply did not care about it.

Suntrust is the worst bank in America. Everyone knows why. I hope the bank sinks and that L Phillip Humann goes bankrupt, along with any other shareholds who take part in the financial rape of the lower and middle class of this country.

Suntrust abuse their customers and have fraudulent deposit practises enabling them to charge NSF fees.

This is how I feel about it as an ex-employee (so, yeah, it's a little biased), and it's solely based on my personal experience working at a single location; hopefully, other people have had positive experiences, but I have not. I have never banked at SunTrust. SunTrust is a company that is currently located mostly on the East Coast, based in Georgia. My first two years working with this company were great, but when I started working full-time it was completely different. Most employees were great, but management clearly had difficulty dealing with problem employees, despite multiple complaints from multiple other employees for a span of several months. My bosses were nice, but perhaps they were too nice, and let things go without controlling workplace bullies. I feel that a strong work environment requires superiors to handle difficult employees when it is brought to their attention. Employees who start shouting matches with other co-workers, complain when their work isn't done an hour before their scheduled time to leave (and would leave regardless before their scheduled time), and refuse to work with others NEED to be disciplined, no matter how long they've worked there. Even though we (we worked in the same department) were not in an administrative position, they would cause a scene if someone came to them with a mistake; it was our job to FIX those mistakes, yet they had no patience for trainees. It got to the point where people came directly to me and refused to work with the two problem employees, because of their negative attitudes. If we caught a problem which would have caused a problem for our clients (i.e. checks deposited into the wrong account, for the wrong amount, or unsigned/incorrectly dated checks), they would prefer it to go through the system and let the client find it so that our co-workers would get in trouble for it; it's not our problem, as they put it. They would rather inconvenience our clients and those who sent checks to our clients JUST to spite our co-workers. My superiors, despite complaints from multiple people in multiple departments, did little to resolve these issues. It was bad enough that it was a major reason for me to leave. I would not suggest working for the company, at least not the same place Ive worked. If you choose to work here, I wish you the best, and I hope your experience is better than mine was.