Bank of the West

Been here a few times actually… street parking is generally pretty easy. Same friendly BOTW employees you encounter in (almost) every branch. This one isn’t open on Saturday, but you can access the ATM to make deposits or get cash.
If you are thinking about changing banks, I really do recommend BOTW. There aren’t that many locations (only real downside), but thus far I’ve been very happy with them since I switched about 6 months ago.

yes revisiting past review wehn i joined the bank still a high 5 star for all there attitude friendliness, concern and many services even there atm give 5.00 bills and great investment programs and real nice workers on the hotline too ga gold yep extending there services get bette r in time there frindliness and great services and attiude on phone and in person thanks to all there g a gold since oct 2015

Dear people who want to bank with Bank of the West. Warning, don’t do it. Look at real reviews not the ones that was written by them. Google online and you will find so many complains you cant even imagine. Consumer affairs has 141 complains alone and I’m not talking about other website complains. Online banking is terrible. Every time I log in it locks me out saying wrong password. There is no way I’m entering wrong password. Then I have to call and wait for 20 minute to resolve this issue. Debit card arrived in 24 days after opening the account and calling for 5 times. I went to withdraw money they did offer me a cashiers check instead of cash REALLY? I mean what do you expect from this French bank? They don’t like Americans anyways. I closed the account.

Very satisfied with the service they provided!

I was standing at the teller making a deposit, and out Of nowhere Parviz chimes in saying he can save me money on my car loan. After talking to him for a bit, I tell him I’m interested and applied to refinance a car loan through BotW. He then tells me that I qualify for two free lines of credit. I decline the offer because I just spent the last three years building my credit up, and the last thing I want to do is apply for a bunch of things at once. He assures me repeatedly that because I already applied to refinance a car loan, they won’t have to run my credit again because they just ran it for the refinance. I agree, repeating that I’ll only do it IF THEY DONT RUN MY CREDIT ANY MORE. He promises they only ran it ONCE, and will not run it again. Imagine my surprise when I check my credit monitoring agency and see that my credit was run NINE TIMES!!! NINE. The number after 8. In fact, that’s 8 more than what I was promised. My credit dropped from 782 to 734. This is exactly what I wanted to avoid, which is why I made in inescapably clear that it was not to be done, and I had Parviz’s promise. Apparently, that means nothing. I disputed it with corporate, and their response was basically «we’re sorry that he lied to you. We can’t (won’t) do anything about it». What a f*cking joke.

Short story: Bank of the West took a $ 400 application fee from me before fully disclosing what they could and couldn’t do and then they were too stubborn to work with after that.
Details: after I paid the $ 400 application fee they wanted me to put in a heater in my house which they should’ve brought up prior to taking my money. It’s understandable that they’d want a heater put in but they insisted that I get a permit to do it. I gave them 3 choices:
— allow me to do the heater without permits (since I was concerned about the inspector calling out other issues),
— refund my $ 400 or
— apply the $ 400 to a new loan application.
They stubbornly refused all three. It was unprofessional of them that they did not make sure there were going to be any issues like this prior to spending my $ 400 IMO yet they refused to take any responsibility for their actions.
I should also add that Bank of the West has dicked me around 2 years ago as well: after paying and applying for a loan they jacked up the closing costs by another $ 1200 and didn’t tell me until the day of signing!

The absolute best. Have both my business and my personal account with this branch. I have currently moved to Florida and am keeping both accounts. Aside from super personnel at the branch with great personal customer service their bill pay system is great. I can send emails to the bank and request transactions. It’s about the personal service

Great bank. Ppl working here are very sweet and helpful. See Mike for business loan needs he’s the best!

This is just a great bank to work with. I have both my businesses banking here, and it’s so nice to walk into a bank branch where people know my name and who I am when I ask questions. I get great help both over the phone and in-​person, and getting in and out is very easy.
I would very much recommend this branch for any small business looking to create a banking relationship.

This is my local branch of this bank. There’s plenty of parking on the street and I’m always able to go in and out under 15 minutes. I only use the checking account, and I can say that I’m satisfied with it; terms are fair and straightforward. Overall, as the Unilocal rating says, «Yay! I’m a fan.»

I first opened a bank account here when I turned 18. They did a personal favor by helped me build credit with my first credit card. Since then I’ve opened multiple business and personal accounts and taken out credit for those businesses. I even transferred my car loan here due to all the problems Chase was causing by not having my correct SSN, Name, Address, etc. After moving my car loan to them they were so thankful that they dropped the rate by a ¼ of a percent. I get a personal thank you car from the business manager there. Anytime one of my friends has banking issues I recommend them to Bank of the West and they couldn’t be happier. This branch is full of friendly employees. I wouldn’t bank anywhere else.

Bears are my power animal. My name in Latin means «Little Bear», my dad used to call me Little Bear when he was alive so I got a tattoo of Ursa Minor (the little bear/​little dipper constellation) to symbolize this, I live in California with a bear as the state animal and on the flag… and countless other bear relations which I won’t get into right now due to lack of time. Naturally, I bank with Bank of the West whose symbol is the bear. I like to call it the «Bear Bank». I actually say to people, «I am going to the Bear Bank».
The Bear Bank is not necessarily sweet as honey but it is close. Service is always pleasant, they provide free checking/​savings accounts which unlike other banks such as the ever-​popular Wells Fargo doesn’t require a minimum monthly amount or charge a fee, and the debit card (MasterCard) is super cute with bears on it. I had been approved for a free Goldline account (this is similar to overdraft protection but you only get charged $ 2 versus the $ 35 if you overdraft because you pay $ 10/​yr for the account) and thus the membership fee for Goldline was waived. When my membership expired, I didn’t want to pay the $ 10 fee so they simply canceled my membership and got rid of the fee in minutes flat.
The negatives of the Bear Bank is that they don’t have many branches in LA (they are also in several other Western States such as Oregon, Washington, and even Utah) so you are stuck going out of your way to find one. Plus, they don’t have drive-​thrus (MAJOR NEGATIVE), and the ATM is old-​fashioned and makes me feel like I am playing Oregon Trail on the original Apple II computers in grade school. This is a sad change from my previous bank which had a touch screen ATM.
I’ve been with the Bear Bank for over a year and have had no issues. Then again, I’m a Little Bear so I am biased.