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Heartland Financial Richard Bray Ruined my credit, cost me over $100,000, refuses to acknowledge or fix it Dubuque Iowa Rich Bray Heartland Financial Dubuque Iowa
Allow me to preface my review with a gentle bit of insight as to who I am and why I'm writing this...
I'm not one of those internet troll who hates their life and writes anonymous negative reviews to feel better about myself. Quite the opposite, actually.
I've been featured on Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur and more.
I'm also a real person just like you, who's unafraid to speak truthfully about an awful experience.
It's 4:30pm and I'm staying at my office instead of heading home to see my daughter because I feel so compelled to warn every single human being I can about the experience I've had with this bank.
It all starts a few years ago when I switched over to MN Bank & Trust on the recommendation of my realtor.
Not long after, I was convinced to move my business' merchant account processor to their recommended company.
Two weeks later, that merchant held nearly $200,000 in funds...refused to process them...then refunded them to my customers. Leaving my business in a crippling cash flow problem and literally costing me $100,000 in lost revenue due to having to go back to those customers and process their payments via another merchant (50% of my customers didn't pay again, which I can't blame them).
MN Bank & Trust's Margaret Johnson didn't step up to help me at all through that nightmare, which she promised in enrolling me with their merchant that "I'd be taken care of". Then, she deflects me to their legal team whom said "this matter is not going to be discussed and MN Bank & Trust holds no liability in this situation".
Cool. Way to handle it, guys. High five.
I wish the story ended there and, if I was smart and not so trusting, I should have yanked my money out...pursued legal action...and never looked back.
^^That's my biggest business regret, to this day.
Instead, I naively decided to 'give them another shot'...and kept banking with them.
Fast-forward to now.
Insert Julianne Cordes, my new account rep (btw, take a peek at how much employee turnover this bank has, it's all starting to make sense)
I've got a loan with them that I've been faithfully paying each month. Never a day late or a dollar short, as my dad always says.
That loan matured and, without warning, turned into a fiasco.
In order to renew the loan, they requested documents (including tax returns) which I've been working extremely hard to provide. Unfortunately, I couldn't just snap my fingers and produce these documents like they demanded.
I explained that I may need 60 or so days to produce those documents per my accountant, and asked if it was okay to continue sending checks for the monthly payment in the interim.
Instead of filing an extension and allowing me to do that, which would have kept the loan current, bought some time to get those returns filed and submitted...Julianne told me I "didn't have to make any payments because the loan is current".
Cool, I thought.
Fast-forward a month, and I notice my credit score went down significantly, because MN Bank & Trust reported to the credit bureaus that I have a delinquent account.
Weird, I thought.
I reach out to Julianne and ask why that happened and again offered to make temporary payments.
She again assured me that wasn't necessary.
Another month passes, and my credit gets whacked again.
I'm no expert when it comes to banking, but a fairly common sensical approach would say that this situation could have been prevented by simply giving me an extension and accepting my payments in the interim while I was producing the requested documents.
My faith in Julianne's competence to take care of me was gone at this point, so a new rep was assigned.
Insert Amy Rogahn.
Assures me on the phone I'll be taken care of.
I mention 3 times my concern over the damage to my credit and again offer multiple times to make interim payments.
I was assured that "I'd be taken care of". (Gosh, where have I heard that one before?)
Insert Richard Bray.
The apparent 'collections guy' for this bank calls me several times and I repeat what I told all the others. I'm working on it and will you please accept $$ from me in the interim.
Apparently, everybody at this bank hates money because nobody accepted my ~10 attempts to make payments.
Now, the bank has sent this account into collections...has whacked my credit for a 3rd time...and has told me they "can't stop it".
Cool.
We've won 2 world wars and have been on the moon, but you can't figure out how to stop reporting to the credit bureaus or sending collections to one of your customers who's trying to give you $$.
Ever heard of a company sending collections against somebody trying to pay them?
Me neither.
Do yourselves a favor.
Don't bank with these guys.
Go to Wells Fargo or a real bank that's got competent employees who know what they're doing and how to treat people...and don't turn over every year.
They've robbed me of $100,000 on a terrible exchange and I never even got an apology from anybody.
Now they've ruined my credit over an account that I'm trying to pay on.
They don't care...and I hate to say it, they're what's wrong with America.