Bank of the West

I’ve been banking here for over 12 years and I love it. It’s conveniently located and there’s rarely a line. Some times deposits may be put on hold but that’s business and I understand that. And there’s some bank fees, but I understand that too. I love a small bank and no lines and familiar faces and EASY parking! Their location in Culver has easy parking too. The BH location is good too. I’m happy here.

If you are a customer at this bank, you may have a difficult time getting into its parking lot. The bank recently erected a fence on its parking lot that is a great inconvenience to Santa Monica downtown residents. Everybody including the bank customers are now prevented from entering the bank parking lot through one of its two entrances, making it harder to access this bank.

I wanted to give a big thumbs up to Niccole who helped my wife and myself get a HELOC so we could do an addition to our home. We wanted to make sure we had the funds in place prior to working up a set of plans for the construction. When it turned out we were going to need more than we initially expected, Niccole worked hard to get us an increase in our credit line. Now that the additional funds are available, we’re looking forward to starting our project. Thanks for all your help.

Since becoming a Bank of the West customer, I’ve been knocked out by their customer service. This is really the only branch where I’ve encountered someone that wasn’t super friendly or helpful.
Came in for a cashier’s check and had a comedy of errors where the teller didn’t seem interested in getting information from me and made the check out to ME (why?). Teller was not nice or warm and treated me a bit like an annoyance. His manager was helpful and fixed the error and SHE seemed very friendly.
Still, parking lot — bonus! But this is my least fave Bank of the West branch so far. I think the particular teller I worked with doesn’t fit with BOTW and hopefully he’ll either be re-​trained or find other employment. Other than this one little blip, I am loving this bank.

These is the most incompetent group of people I have ever encountered. I could live with the incompetence but they are also incredibly rude. I did not realize opening a bank account could be such an awful experience. Do yourself a favor and go to one of the many other banks in this area.

Poor service. Nicolle was on her cellphone while talking to me. She was rude and unprofessional. Never going back to this bank again. I already reported her!

Used to be a good back when it took over a bank at a location in Arcadia I had banked at for 20+ years, UCB or somesuch. The people there were great. The Santa Monica branch struggles.
Another thing making me crazy is that for several years now I can’t seem to balance either my checking or savings accounts. I only write a few checks a month and I do balance my statements. I will get everything perfectly reconciled and yet money is always disappearing! I don’t see any charges on my statements but I swear they are stealing form me! It is almost always around $ 50-​$ 80. Several times I have let my checking sit for 4 — 5 weeks, wrote down the balance in my online statement, then started using it again, and at the end of the next statement it is down again, showing I have less than what I show! I can balance four checks! I don’t have that much in either account, a few thousand in each, and now suddenly my savings which generally I don’t touch, just add money to, is down $ 85.54! So somewhere someone is doing something funny and it’s not me. Nobody else uses my accounts and that would show up anyway. I can’t prove a thing but I’m sick of it and I am going to change banks. Chase is the closest but I despise them, I had two credit cards that were high amounts on which I carried a balance for several years, never missed a payment, always payed more than minimum, and paid off when I got a big chunk. As soon as I paid both completely off, total about $ 17K, they closed all my credit cards! I had been a perfect customer for 20 years.

I’m inclined to write that this is the worst banking institution I’ve ever encountered, but I don’t think that would adequately sum up the stupidity I encountered, nor the frustration I experienced as a result. I have to write, this is the absolute worst business I’ve ever had to deal with in my life. Bank of the West utilizes the most archaic methods possible, and is run by quite possibly the dumbest, most unhelpful people that are alive today. I’ve never had to deal with a bigger group of morons, and to think that these people were handling my my finances is beyond frightening. I wholeheartedly discourage anyone from doing business here.
I initially opened my account for two reasons: 1.) The proximity to where I worked, and 2.) A $ 150 bonus offer for opening a new checking account. It seemed like perfect logic at the time, but if I had known of the nightmare that would ensue a year later, I never would’ve opened my account. The story that follows is very long; I apologize in advance.
The during part was fine; mediocre at best. I didn’t run into too many problems while my account was open– AFTER THE ACCOUNT WAS CLOSED, well, that’s when the nightmare began. Basically, what happened was I closed my account because I moved across the country; tied up loose ends, ect, and closed the account. About month after I had moved and closed my account, I received two credits from businesses that I had perviously paid with my BOW account. After speaking with both companies and informing them that the account was closed, they (not the bank) told me that usually when credits are issued to closed accounts, the bank mails checks out to the customer for the funds. Which made sense, I had that happen with other banks I’ve used in the past. So, I immediately called BOW, and told them the situation, to which they responded, «Bank of the West does not accept refunds to closed accounts.» Point blank. They told me that there was no way that they had the funds I was expecting, and that I needed to contact the issuing companies. So, obviously, I did.
To avoid a long tale of back and forth, let me just write that I went back and forth between the bank and the companies that refunded me no less than five times each (for weeks!) before I got any straight answers from BOW. The two companies sent me dates, amounts, confirmation numbers, ect. so that I could prove to the bank that the funds were sent and accepted by BOW, and each time I spoke to anyone, they gave me the same response that they do not accept funds to closed accounts, that they automatically reject, and that they have no records of these transactions. It wasn’t until I had one of the companies set up a conference call with an associate at the bank, that I got any sort of answer. And of course, THEY HAD MY MONEY THE ENTIRE TIME. The debit department had received it, and sent checks to my previous address. If I had spoken to anyone who know anything at any time prior to finding this out, I could have given them the forwarding address, and actually ever received my money.
It would be nice if I could tell you that this is the end of the whole stupid situation, but it’s obviously not. The woman that I dealt with at the bank, Liddy, who finally did the legwork to find my money told me that she would issue a stop-​payment on the previously issued checks, contact the debit department, and call me when she knew the checks had been issued. This conversation, however, was the end of her interest in the situation, as I never received the call that she assured me she’d make. After not hearing back from her a week later, and also not receiving any checks, I called her back to follow-​up. Liddy told me that she didn’t remember telling me that she would call me (!!!), that everything was taken care of, and that if I hadn’t received my money by the end of the week to call her again. I sure didn’t get that money. So, I called her again the next week (cut to present day), and again asked her about the checks. She, again that everything was taken care of, and that they were in the mail. Based on the absolute lack of knowledge possessed by anyone at that bank, I demanded proof in writing that the checks had actually been sent– a confirmation number, and email, a check number, what have you. She called me back (not even the same day) to tell me that THE CHECKS HAD NEVER BEEN ISSUED. This was today. I have been waiting on this money for over a month! And, she wasn’t even apologetic about it! She repeatedly tells me that this has never happened before, and that I need to wait for all my refunds before closing my account. Well. Duh. But, other companies don’t do things according to your schedule, Liddy.
In summation, it has been one month and twenty days these refunds were issued to BOW, and have yet to see a dime. Everyone I have dealt with has been an absolute moron, and has offered me no apologies or tried to do anything. WORST. BUSINESS. EVER.

Terrible customer service. I walked in around noon on a Wednesday and there was one employee visibly struggling to help a client, he had to call in «back up» two times, and I waited in line for around 15 minutes before being helped (while three tellers struggled to help the client). I asked the female teller who finally helped me whether I could deposit a check as a member of an affiliated credit union. I got Bank of the West’s name from my credit union as one of several approved banks, and I’ve NEVER had trouble at any other credit unions, so I know they are capable of depositing the check. The teller was uninformed and told me I could only use the ATM, which I know is incorrect. I should’ve asked to speak with a manager but at that point I had waited for so long and the customer service was so terrible, that I decided to cut my losses. When I mentioned that it would have been nice to know that before I waited for 15 minutes due to their being understaffed the teller literally rolled her eyes at me, and copped an attitude the likes of which I’ve only seen in high school mean girls. It was truly the most disgusting customer service I have ever experienced and I should’ve spoken to a manager and I’m sure she would have at minimum gotten a stern talking to, if not worse. I would recommend avoiding this unprofessional mess of a bank branch at all costs.

Convenient location right in downtown Santa Monica. Staff are friendly, and I usually don’t have to wait too long to see a teller. I wish they did check depositing by cell phone (hopefully soon). A big downside to using Bank of the West is their lack of ATM locations. Unless you spend all of your time in Santa Monica, get used to ATM fees.

I joined this bank hoping that I would receive personal service, and that was true to an extent. They did remember my name when I came in and were quite nice. I hoped that they would appreciate my business, which was quite significant… that was less true unfortunately. I figured if I had a lot of money in their bank and had a relationship with them this would make it easier to get a loan or line of credit when needed… it would be arranged locally instead of the decision lying with a faceless bean counter in New York City. Well, don’t be fooled… it may be a local bank but all the decisions and important matters are still handled by faceless bureaucrats in New York City, and their decisions, even for simple matters can take weeks.
But the biggest problem with this bank is that if you require anything more than the simplest banking services you are going to get screwed. In my case I started traveling a lot for work and doing a lot of business outside the USA. Customer service over the phone or internet is non existent at this bank… even the simplest matters (transferring money between two of your accounts) can only be handled by going to your branch in person. Because of this, in only 1 month Bank of the West racked up over $ 1,000 in various «banking» fees on my account… from transfer fees, foreign transaction fees, basically anything I did had a significant fee attached. $ 15 to use my ATM card in a foreign country!!! Honestly, it felt like they were just taking advantage of my situation. And anytime I tried to call or email to move money around to help mitigate the situation I was completely railroaded… How am I supposed to get to a branch in person when I am in Europe or South America for the next couple months! It seemed like they made these rules up just as a way to pocket as many «banking» fees as possible.
And the last straw was when I finally got back and tried to work with the bank to reduce these fees, they weren’t interested in helping me. So much for personal service. I obviously took my business elsewhere.
So if you have only the simplest most basic needs from your bank… Bank of the West is fine. If you require anything more, even just the ability to transfer money between accounts without having to visit a branch, save yourself the hassle and go someplace else.

I love the neighborhood feeling at this branch.
The staff are friendly and attentive. It always feels nice when you walk into an establishment and they recognize you and genuinely say hello.
We get that here, and more.
I have a personal account here, and as the charter member & co-​founder of two Toastmasters clubs, we have set up our club’s bank accounts here.
The service here is so good, that I even moved my own Business account here.
Good people, good service, and friendly!

Do not go to this bank! We recently did a refi and we also have a home equity loan through this bank. My wife decided to do a direct deposit to cover the home equity portion to make things easier for both us and the bank. In every other situation I have been involved with, when a customer sets up direct deposit there is normally a discount in the loan rate and the bank appreciates that they don’t have to worry about getting their money. All of a sudden we get a bill stating that our monthly rate has gone up almost $ 100 and our rate has gone up from 4.75% to 5.75%. We call the bank to see what’s up and they say that when we requested the direct deposit transaction our «contract» allows them to increase our costs. We received no information about any increase in fees. I complained to the bank and to the «supervisor» and all they said was that it was in our contract and nothing can be done. Well, something can be done. I am writing this review to let potential customers know about the attitude of this bank. Put your money in another institution that appreciates you. We certainly are getting as far away from this bank as we can. There are many to choose from!

A couple of years ago, I had my identity stolen from Washington Mutual. It was an inside job. I know this because within 12 hours of changing my accounts that the crooks unsuccessfully tried to get my money out of, those shmucks had my brand spanking new account numbers and were trying to screw me all over again. At the time I lived in Culver City, so I just walked next door to Bank of the West and opened an account there. My logic was: smaller bank, fewer crooks trying to break in. So far, so good.
Well, the other day I was at this particular branch in Santa Monica trying to take out some cash from the ATM. I wanted $ 100. All seemed normal, until the little machine started doing it’s phhhhhtttttttttt sorting money sound. It sounded like it was giving me about $ 500 bucks. Eager to capitalize on their mistake, even though I knew it wouldn’t last for long, I awaited my cash. Click. Door opens. And out comes a giant wad of fives. I looked at it and all I could think of was that old SNL commercial for First Citiwide Change Bank. «We won’t give you two thousand nickels unless that meets your particular change needs.» Well, in this case, 20 fives didn’t really suit my particular change needs. So I walked inside, waited an eternity, and eventually was able to swap my fives for twenties. «You can come to us with sixteen quarters, eight dimes, and four nickels… we can give you a five dollar bill.» Oh SNL, I did love you.
As it says on their website, «We’re California’s 5^th largest bank.» With such stats, and a current record of 3.5 years of not stealing my identity, I think they deserve three solid stars. Minus one star for lack of locations. Minus one more for being slower than molasses. Plus one prop for reminding me of one of the best faux commercials ever.