Photographer Phil - Photofill.com ([info]bmfphil) wrote in [info]niu,
@ 2005-09-20 02:46:00
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TCF Bank
I really don’t see what problem people have with TCF. I have no affiliation with TCF, I just don’t think they are a bad bank. So many people I talk to rip on them, because they ‘charge weird fees’ or ‘screwed them over’. Well I'm sorry bud, but if you write a check for $31 and you have $30 in your account ANY bank will charge you overdraft fees. Really I haven’t seen any solid proof that would give reason to believe that TCF is a horrible bank like some people make them out to be. The reason I mention this is because the Northern Star has an article today about it:

http://www.northernstar.info/articles/?id=11374

The article talks about how this one person had fees, which she shouldn’t have gotten, she went through a mess to get them resolved but the article even states: “In the end, she got the overdraft fees back and successfully paid the bill, but she was not happy.” Alright, so what’s your problem, I doubt anyone can tell me a bank that hasn’t put someone through hell at one point, YOU GOT YOUR MONEY BACK, give it up! Yes, I wasn’t happy when TCF charged me wrongly either, but I called, and complained about it, and they reversed the fee, problem solved.

Others complain that TCF has a whole bunch of hidden charges, including if you use your ATM card as a credit card, or something similar, that they get some $.30 fee. I don’t know what their talking about, I've used my ATM card and I sure don’t have any fees on my statements. In talking to someone just a few days ago, they stated that their bank didn’t charge for using any ATM, no matter who owns the ATM. Saying that, I really don’t think people are comparing the same accounts. No your free student TCF account does not include free ATM transactions for non-TCF ATM’s, however other non-student checking accounts through TCF have that option. So we can't compare our home bank account, that you have to have a $500 balance and you get 1.00001% interest, to the FREE student TCF account.

The article also mentioned that “Many students, however, have complaints with the bank. On www.livejournal.com, for example, 28 comments on an entry on TCF Bank were posted by members unhappy with the bank’s service. Only one of the entries is favorable.” I searched the NIU community for a bit, and I sure don’t find anything about TCF. I do remember seeing something though, just was not able to find it, but I don’t remember only one person saying TCF was good, I thought others did and I'm pretty sure I did.

I'm not saying TCF is the ultimate bank, I have Old Second, and Castle as well, I'm just saying location wise TCF is the best choice. Depending on where I go after college, I may close my account at TCF, just depends on what they offer and what other banks offer, however for anyone going to college on campus it only makes sense to have a TCF account, purely for convenience. Also like the article stated, most people are from the Chicago area, and that’s where TCF is predominate. There’s got to be a reason “From 1999 to 2003, TCF experienced the fourth-largest period of growth of any bank branch in the U.S.”

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[info]himvalo
2005-09-20 07:57 am UTC (link)
Um, a tcf atm froze on me when i was taking out 100, never got the money, went to a diff atm cuz i needed the money for emergency. My statement lists 200 being taken out, i call and they "Credit" me 100 while they investigate, well, investigation later, they take the credit back and never give me my money back.

And i am the one who it states had his visa card deactivated due to an error by them, and it took them 2-3 weeks to reactivate(when they said 2-4 business days) and on the third time of complaining, they reactivated it at the desk.

as for hidden fee's, care to complain what is this on my billing statement "Service Charge or Fee TOTAL POS BANK FEES"

Only reason i maintain tcf is due to "free" atms and there is a branch at every jewel where i am back home, where i opened my account

Also, tcf threatened to have my mum removed from the bank(by police) because due to their error, her direct deposit paycheck didnt hit and was recalled for some reason and her bank account was closed and she caused a scene. So my mum was without a bank account for some weeks till they once again ruled they were not at fault.

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[info]thabigd
2005-09-20 08:00 am UTC (link)
i dunno man, i got charged $200 for withdrawals that were never made. i didn't get my money back, either.

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[info]barryicide
2005-09-20 08:34 am UTC (link)
my co-worker transfered 10,000 from a trust-fund and they locked his account... he couldn't put in money or take it out... and since our work had direct-deposit his money wasn't getting put into his account from work (they didn't inform him they locked his account). he spent 2 days on the phone with them before someone finally unlocked his account (no one seemed to know why his account was locked or how to unlock it). needless to say, he no longer has a TCF account.

I haven't had any problems with them myself, but I've heard a lot of bad news.

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[info]belladona
2005-09-20 08:55 am UTC (link)
There’s got to be a reason “From 1999 to 2003, TCF experienced the fourth-largest period of growth of any bank branch in the U.S.”


Probably because between 1999-2003 they opened brances in low-income areas where many people could not previously get ANY checking account. Exploiting an underserved community does not a good corporate citizen make.

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[info]wunderaliceland
2005-09-20 12:41 pm UTC (link)
Eh i know the mistakes Ive made with them are my fault..as far as overdraft fees and such. Thats just bad record keeping on my part. But on my second account with them they DO charge .30 cents for every atm transaction so I just run it as credit. Problem solved.

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[info]bmfphil
2005-09-20 06:59 pm UTC (link)
hmm, i use atm trasations all the time, no charges.

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[info]veeee
2005-09-20 01:10 pm UTC (link)
I deposited a $500 check with them and it never showed up in my account. And the check was a payroll check from a huge national company, so there wouldn't have been any problems there. They wouldn't give me my money for my 2 weeks of work, that's why I switched to TCF.

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[info]veeee
2005-09-20 01:10 pm UTC (link)
And by TCF in the last sentence I mean 5/3. :-p

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[info]la_becky
2005-09-20 01:22 pm UTC (link)
Wow i have never heard of problems with TCF. I personaly am really pleased.

I took out some cash at an ATM, and ended up going over becuase of the 1.50 service charge. I then proceded to take ANOTHER withdrawl that went over. Both times it was totaly my fault, but i went into TCF bank. And explained how the first one was a really silly mistake, of me not noticing the service charge (sorta). At anyrate, they only made me pay one of the charges. They didnt have to, but they were willing to listen and sypathize.

I have only good things to say about TCF.

I wonder.... i bet N. Star wrote about it, because as students we need somthing to complain about, and its easiest, if its something visibly close.

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[info]bmfphil
2005-09-20 07:03 pm UTC (link)
yes, agreed. the student body just has to complain about a company doing business, just like all the other banks in the area, i mean whats next? lets complain about walmart.

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[info]zimdawg
2005-09-21 02:25 am UTC (link)
while I agree that students need to stop whining about small things that happen at all banks like freezing accounts and fees and such, I've heard numerous complaints about TCF from both NIU students and non-NIU students.

Tales involving such things and money missing with no record of it. From more than one person at more than one branch.

On the whole, TCF probably isn't a horrible bank, but I've heard enough bad things that I won't ever get an account at one, even though they're in nearly every Jewel and many other places.

Any stories the Northern Star does are well deserved, and the option of banking somewhere other than TCF should be looked at by students. Its not just something made up by the Star just to whine. Thats what lj is for. :)

As I state in most of the posts about TCF, I must say that I'm an employee of Castle Bank, and think they're one of the finest banks I've known, except for umpqua bank of the northwestern region of the united states (www.umpquabank.com) They just freakin rock.

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[info]magenta120
2005-09-20 01:34 pm UTC (link)
never had a problem...had the account since 2000.

Sometimes I think people just don't realize there are problems every where but they are not in such a populated area like a college campus where everyone had that common bond of the same bank.

just a thought...

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[info]bmfphil
2005-09-20 07:05 pm UTC (link)
yep, i'm sure TCF isnt the only bank that puts freezes on peoples accounts. credit cards do it too, im glad discover puts a freeze on my account when it finds 'suspicious activity'. its rather comforting.

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[info]rulerofthestars
2005-09-20 02:02 pm UTC (link)
TCF bank is the worst bank. I put money into my account and they lost it, causing about 300 bucks in overdraft fees. They refuse to research it, saying it is more complicated than looking through TWO tellers' work for that day that the deposit was made, so I closed my accounts with them and I am taking them to court next month.

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[info]winsomedreamer
2005-09-20 02:42 pm UTC (link)
They charge you thirty cents if you use your debit card as debit instead of credit. Simple solution, use it as credit. Big deal.

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[info]bmfphil
2005-09-20 07:09 pm UTC (link)
i use my card as debit all the time, aldi does not accept credit cards. no fees here.

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[info]winsomedreamer
2005-09-20 07:16 pm UTC (link)
That's weird. I just opened another checking account the other day and he was VERY clear that they charge 30 cents everytime it's used as debit.

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[info]rulerofthestars
2005-09-21 03:23 am UTC (link)
I worked at one over the summer. If you get cash back when you use it as a debit, they take 30 cents. Otherwise, there's no fee.

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[info]idiotsummer
2005-09-20 04:09 pm UTC (link)
You have to go back quite a ways to find the last TCF thread, but it's there. And of the 28 comments, yours was the only positive one, I checked it myself--it's the very last comment on the thread.

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[info]bmfphil
2005-09-20 07:11 pm UTC (link)
where? i couldnt find it, do u have the link?

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[info]idiotsummer
2005-09-20 09:55 pm UTC (link)
http://www.livejournal.com/community/niu/568728.html

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[info]bmfphil
2005-09-20 11:01 pm UTC (link)
ahha! thanks, i thought i remembered something, but could not find it.

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[info]northeverwood
2005-09-20 04:11 pm UTC (link)
They signed me up for something without my permission that cost a few bucks.. that I hadn't fit into my budget. So they take out money, without my ok, and then a check clears that would have been fine had the not removed money without my knowledge which spiralled into a late fee. I spent a day on the phone with them, they took off the fee that they were never allowed to take and refunded HALF of the overcharge fee that was entirely their fault... and by then I had already put in my next work check which SHOULD have been able to cover the checks I wrote except for the 17 they'd already taken out.. so my car payment cleared and two other checks I had written for like 4 dollars.. and I got slammed with $99 of overdraft. Fuck TCF.

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[info]avalanche19c
2005-09-20 04:33 pm UTC (link)
bmfphil,
It sounds like you and the bank have hit it off well. Maybe the two of you should get married...

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[info]himvalo
2005-09-20 04:40 pm UTC (link)
check mate

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[info]bmfphil
2005-09-20 07:10 pm UTC (link)
i know, the least i should get is like some money appear in my account for advertisement.

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[info]avalanche19c
2005-09-20 08:34 pm UTC (link)
hahahahahahaha so true

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[info]bmfphil
2005-09-20 07:25 pm UTC (link)
it seems that lots of people are just jumping on the bandwagon. "oh u think tcf sucks? so do i! tcf did this and this and this." i'm not saying that it didnt happen to the people, but what about the other banks. do 15,000 niu students (or however many students have tcf in dekalb) have old second, or 5/3 accounts here in dekalb? i mean i bet if there was that many people with accounts in those banks i could post something about 5/3 and say they are a decent bank, and there would be 50 comments about how 'they screwed me, took money out of my account without my concent or knowledge'. i mean c'mon people. i dont know why i'm defending tcf, just trying to make a point, not every business is perfect.

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[info]bettydiamond
2005-09-20 10:55 pm UTC (link)
i've had bad experiences in the past with tcf and i've never overdrafted in my life... which is why i just switched to fifth third after being with tcf for 4 years. they are really a bad company.

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[info]swissmiss26
2005-09-21 01:35 am UTC (link)
i had a TCF account for about a year and a half-- i used it at home and here. there must have been at least 5 times (only one of which caused a "problem" other than me freaking out) where they had deducted money from my account and could not explain why to me-- we aren't talking same day stuff... like 2 or 3 days later... and then 2 or 3 days after that, the money would just reappear. and that is why i think TCF is the worst bank out there, period.

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[info]gametechchris
2005-09-21 01:44 am UTC (link)
A good friend of mine lost over $10,000 that he inherited from his mother because TCF let his dad withdraw the money.

And his dad had no ties to the account.

And TCF refused to admit fault.

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