Cathay Bank

Joke of service.
Clients aren’t treated right.
Had to close a joint account then open an Individual and you’d think I was asking for the formula to clone a universal soldier human.
I even saw an irate lady going off on a teller.
I gotta close and run. I’m afraid of this bank.
I’m not kidding.

I closed my account several months ago. I am very happy now. The tipping point was…
My uncle asked me to withdraw $$ for him using his ATM card. It was around 8:30pm so I had to use an ATM. The ATM was housed in glass doors. After I got the $$ and ready to leave, the door knob was stuck and I WAS LOCKED. No matter how hard I was pressing the release button at the door, rocking the door handle, sliding the ATM card into the slot, the door WAS LOCKED.
8:30pm in Chinatown is very quiet. The 10 minutes I was stuck inside there was no one passing by. Finally, for some reason I was able to unlock the door and leave. I really had enough with this bank: bad services, slow and old-​fashioned banking mode, I was locked inside an ATM room and charged for something I should not have paid in the first place… It was so difficult to bank with them.
Glad that I have no relationship with them.

I’m not all too certain on the criteria I’d be in need of simply to review a bank. When my employers informed me that they’d opened an account here and I’d be responsible for traveling and making deposits and withdrawals, etc., I confess to having a surplus of reservations.
I’d honestly never heard of the bank but Unilocaled & Googled it to see that it was located on the north end of Broadway within the heart of Chinatown.
I questioned why there weren’t any other locations throughout Greater Los Angeles and this baffles me. This was the ONLY local branch without cruising out to Monterrey Park or someplace else like Torrance. Lightbulb. The locations are clearly placed within predominant Korean/​Chinese locations.
I suppose that’s fairly strategic marketing.
Parking is easily accessed by way of an adjacent lot just south of the bank and upon pulling a ticket you’ll note that they validate up to half an hour.
…walking into the bank itself however, …compels you to lower your expectations.
This place definitely wouldn’t be found anywhere within Beverly Hills on Wilshire. As other reviews have alleged, Cathay Bank serves more of a Korean demographic and while I love my Koreans (K-​BBQ sounds lovely right about now)…realizing we don’t have any within my office, I’m compelled to question why this bank was even selected.
Moving on however, there was no one in the bank at 4:30pm, mind you I’d hauled azz from West Hollywood just to get here; that was a HUGE PLUS —– star addition.
I walked in from the side parking entrance and wasn’t greeted by anyone aside of security. All of the windows were closed but one and that gentleman there appeared to be preoccupied.
I stood afront him for a moment or two and after being greeted explained my reason for visiting. Handing them my check alongside 2 forms of ID, I was looked up and down in a Miranda Priestly type of manner…, (—– star deduction)
NO DOUBT, BECAUSE I WAS THE ONLY PIECE OF WATERMELON AMID A PLETHORA OF SPRING ROLLS.
…thereon I was politely asked to take a seat for a few minutes. This allowed me to catch up on Unilocal after «checking in».
No sooner than I was seated, I was called back to the window where a young lady walked over to my original banker (I’m assuming her to have been the branch manager) and requested I remove my Kangol.
Uhm… Is this a new procedure? My smile was complimented, she nodded her head in affirmation… and then began the counting of my cash… without an electronic counter. I haven’t seen anyone manually count cash for quite some time now and this was an admitted setback.
Directly afterwards, I was on my way and I’d like to note the exit for parking to be on the OPPOSITE side of the lot.
In short, I wouldn’t rule this place out by any means… but don’t expect it to be winning any major awards for customer service/​satisfaction and anything else groundbreaking any time soon either.

Terrible bank. My mom wanted to open up an account… she has a drivers license, but was told she needed a second form of i.d. Okay… my mom is a citizen… doesn’t have a green card… doesn’t have a passport… doesn’t use a credit card. So what is acceptable? Pretty much nothing. BoA will accept practically anything for the second i. d…social security card, health card… aarp card… utility bills, etc. Cathay will not accept anything. Well, I guess they didn’t want my mom’s money… so she’ll go to another bank. I have a large deposit there, too… I guess I will be leaving them, too.

Easy and safe, I never go inside though, ATM for me. Unlike other ATM machines, I’ve never had cards sucked in or the wrong amount of money.

Do not ask me how I become a customer of this bank, my parents are customers and I somehow got duped in opening an acct when I accompany my mom to this bank.
This bank is not an Americanized bank, it is a bank cater toward two categories: #1, ur a senior citizen, #2, ur Chinese. And it’s usually both requirements. So what happens when it’s the first of the month, all the mamas and papas go retrieve their social security money, which is fine, but for people like me the line is superlong.
They also charge lots of junk fees and ridiculously high minimum balance requirements. There are better choices out there in terms if banking needs, let’s leave this bank for the silver sneaker crowd.

My first time here at this bank. I’ve driven past it numerous times since it’s smack dab in the middle of Chinatown.
My first impression when I walked in… WOW. the décor looked so old. But… I don’t frequent banks for their décor, I go there for their service.
Came in today because R and I wanted to find out about exchanging some US dollars into Yen. I don’t have an account here but R does. Even with an account with the bank there is a $ 10 transaction fee for Foreign Exchange. There is a minimum $ 160 (I think). but there is no max on how much you can exchange. It’s nice that there is a ticker/​signage that shows you what rate the bank is selling and buying currency at.
The $ 10 fee is cheaper than if we would have gone elsewhere. At Chase it would have been 6% of however much we were planning on exchanging.
There were lots of tellers when we went in mid-​noon on a Monday and no line at all. In fact, there was only one other patron in the bank.
A plus of this bank, they are in a private parking lot ($ 3/​day) but the bank validates, so free parking, YAY!
FYI: Exchanging money takes about 3 days. Teller will call when it is ready. When the exchange form was getting signed, I noticed that it said #01. I asked and found out that this location is the first bank. Pretty cool.

I hate coming to this bank but my husband makes me come for deposits.
Sob Sob ;*****
There’s a separate line for deposits and there will be one maybe two tellers at most. The waits are usually long. It’s cold and depressing inside.
I usually don’t Unilocal banks, but my check-​in kept reminding me to.
Note to self: do NOT check in at banks!

Hate this bank. Slow, slow, and bad service. All other banks have up to date systems. This bank like all of it’s branches are in the dinosaur age. Only reason I come here is for work and this place waste alot of my time.

Since reviewing Cathay Bank, I’ve actually rejoined them again as a customer. And am in the process of leaving them again. Here’s why:
In the past few months, they’ve made several small, but annoying mistakes, Either someone has argued with me over something I wanted (like what check number I wanted to start with), to mistakes involving customer relations. Without going into my personal business, let’s just say I’m no longer a fan of their service, and looking at the review before, I wasn’t then either.
In truth they’ve quite a few good points, their online banking is good and very secure as far as I can tell. I can text the bank for account information, and the debit card has a whopping $ 2500 daily limit. Far better than the standard $ 1000. Of course the ATM is still $ 300…
But, I am tired of poor customer service, and somewhat cold aloof people who really don’t want to spend much time making sure I’m satisfied. There are a few exceptions: Kitty Lau is bubbly and friendly, usually cooperative. Jeannie has been promoted and so her friendliness has declined with her advancement. Oh well. Fanny Tan is helpful, however, and will generally make sure you are taken care of.
So, Cathay Bank is not the worst of banks, but I’ve been spoiled in the customer service area by Hanmi Bank, which I never left, and am instead moving the remaining accounts to.