Complaint Review: Bank of the West (Culver City CA Branch) - Culver City CA

This is the worst experience I have ever had with a bank.  I have filed 2 complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and shared my story with ABC 7 News 7 on Your Side with the hope that someone will go after this bank for what they've done to me.

Bank of the West, on a whim, pays and then refuses to pay properly endorsed checks made out to my minor child.  On the last occasion, Bank of the West lost my check and still have not returned it.  It’s been lost for 18 days as of the date of this complaint.

I’ve deposited 3 checks into my Bank of the West account that were made payable to my minor child and that I properly endorsed as her parent. Bank of the West honored 1 of those checks and then refused to process 2 of the checks. I have a 6 year old daughter who works in the entertainment industry. After deductions for taxes, agent fees, and Coogan account, my daughter is issued paychecks in her name for projects she has worked. The checks in question in this complaint are all paychecks made out to her from various production companies.

On or about June 19, 2018, I deposited in the ATM at the Culver City Bank of the West branch a check made payable to my daughter and properly endorsed by me, her mother. Bank of the West processed the check and credited the funds to my account. No problems occurred with this deposit.

On or about August 17, 2018, I deposited another check in the ATM at the Santa Monica Bank of the West branch made payable to my daughter and properly endorsed by me, her mother. Bank of the West processed the check, credited the funds to my account, AND THEN DEBITED the funds from my account WITHOUT NOTICE causing overdraft fees. When I confronted the bank about why they debited the funds, they gave me a litany of misinformation and lies. First they said that I can’t deposit funds earned by my daughter into my account and that I needed to deposit the funds into a Coogan account. I tried to explain that we already have a Coogan account and that I am not required to deposit any funds into a Coogan account, the production company takes my daughters money out of her check before I even get it and send it to the Coogan account.  Then they said that I can only deposit my daughter’s checks into a Minors Trust Account, which while I know is an option, I also know the law does not state that this is the only way I can deposit my minor’s checks. Then they said that I can only deposit my daughters check if her name is on my account. My daughter is a minor child, she’s 6 years old, why would I put her name on my checking account?  

An employee in the Culver City Bank of the West branch even went so far as to accuse me of depositing "other peoples checks" into my account illegally. She said she is a grandmother and that her grandchild is in the entertainment industry and that she knows that I have to deposit my child’s checks into a Coogan account! She was loud and she was wrong! I was incredibly insulted. The debacle ended on August 17, 2018 with the Santa Monica Bank of the West branch returning the check to me by hand when I went into the branch and picked up the check. I then took the check to the bank it was drawn on and cashed it with no problem.

Fast forward to September 18, 2018: my daughter received another paycheck. I promptly deposited the check, properly endorsed, into the ATM at the Culver City Bank of the West branch. Despite the problems I had depositing the check last time, I wanted to see if they would cash this check this time because they did cash one of my daughters checks back in June before declining to cash the last of my daughters checks in August. Plus, depositing the checks into my account is more convenient given the location of the bank.  But unfortunately they did the same thing they did in August. They credited some of the funds to my account and then reversed the funds the very next day.

This time I was so angry, I went to the Culver City Bank of the West branch and didn’t even open a discussion about why they refused the check. I just simply asked them to give me the check back so I can take it and cash it somewhere else. But they couldn’t find the check. I wasn’t expecting to hear that. I just deposited the check in the ATM around 6PM on Tuesday, Sept 18, 2018. I just found out the morning of Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018 that they had reversed the check!

According to the branch manager, the check was gone. I asked where the check went. They said it was gone and that I would be mailed a new check in the mail.

As of today, 18 days have passed since I deposited the check in the ATM.  I still have not received my check in the mail. 

I have called Bank of the West customer service nearly every day for the past 2 weeks and each time I get a different answer – no one know where my check is.  They claimed to have mailed it out on September 20th.  Then they claimed to have mailed another out on September 27th.  No one can or will tell me where the check even comes from.  Remember – this is my family’s check.  It’s not drawn on Bank of the West.  It’s my property.

My next step is to sue Bank of the West in small claims court for all the financial harm I've suffered by their withholding my check.  And, I now have to wait 2 months to have the production company reissue me a new check since Bank of the West lost my check.

Bank of the West mistreats its customers without a care in the world.  I'm living proof of that.