Complaint Review: West Coast Bank

It started last year when we got a notice of NSF charges to our checking account after not having bounced a check in over two years. Investigation showed West Coast Bank paid an electronic withdrawal of nearly $150 that we had NOT authorized and had no knowledge of, even though at the time we had only about $50 balance in the account. This resulted in a reversal of the charge and having to close the account and open a new account to prevent further problems. It also resulted in me missing a full day of work in order to deal with this in person at the bank office.

Then a couple of months ago we started getting NSF charges again when we had made sufficient deposits (many in CASH!) to cover all our checks. When we make deposits we ask them to post the deposit to our account immediately and they always promise they will and that this is their standard practice - to always process deposits BEFORE any debits are charged. We went to the bank office again and discussed this with the Customer Service Manager, who looked at our account history, agreed that we had made timely deposits, could offer no explanation for the charges yet did nothing to correct the problem and offered no solution.

Being concerned we checked our account status frequently using the online banking system (www.wcb.com) although it was often "down" and since we were not receiving timely bank statements in the mail we were basically in the dark, yet knowing we had made sufficient deposits to cover all our debits.

In late December we sent our rent check for January, 2004 to our landlord and checked the online system which reported it was paid. It was not until over one month later, after our landlord contacted us that we discovered the bank returned that $700 rent check TWICE, charging our account TWO NSF fees, even though we had MORE than sufficient funds to cover it, and DID NOT NOTIFY US AT ALL about this!

We looked closer; our rent check for February was also returned and now we are facing eviction. West Coast Bank returned EVERY SINGLE CHECK WE WROTE for the months of February and January WITHOUT NOTIFYING US, nor offering ANY explanation. West Coast Bank again racked up massive NSF fees against our account and on 2-13-04 without ANY notice, paid off a "negative balance" of over $900 and closed our account. No contact, no notice and no explanation what so ever.

Now we are facing eviction from our home and owe several businesses (our FRIENDS!) in our community hundreds of dollars and returned check fees as a result of West Coast Bank ripping us off for well over $3000! We have yet to recieve a final statement from the bank and are still collecting receipts and data in order to pursue legal action against these bank robbers, but without detailed account information that WCB is not giving to us we cannot proceed. The online information appears to be skewed in the banks favor, however we can see in several cases the bank marked large checks as paid, then racked up NSF fees for other checks (even though there was sufficient funds depositied to cover them), then reversed payment on the larger checks, racking up even MORE NSF fees against our account - all on the same business day (if we can even believe that data).

We have heard of several people in our community facing the same kinds of difficulties with this particular bank and are hoping to collect enough information to enter into a class action suit against West Coast Bank.

We would appreciate hearing from anyone in the Northwest region who has experience similar problems with WCB. We intend to take this institution down for ruining our lives and we will seek out punative damages for work lost and emotional distress as well, but we've got to work together to accompish this. Otherwise we just another batch of victims ready to be exploited again by these kinds of financial institutions.

We no longer trust ANY bank and are paying everyone in cash or with Money Orders. I don't even trust a savings account anymore.

Steve
Waldport, Oregon
U.S.A.