Tons of hidden fees that are never mentioned - I suggest you go with a more up-front bank without hidden fees.

I signed up with $100 for a free iPod. You have to leave the money in for 6 months, so I never checked my balance and assumed they were taking good care of my $100. A little over a year later and that $100 had shrunk to $52.50 with tons of monthly fees that nobody told me about. Somehow I got signed up for bill pay, which is $5/month if you don't pay 3 bills per month. I never would have signed up for this since I wasn't even using the account, just leaving my money in there. When I opened the account, the friendly staff person asked if I wanted a debit card - I said 'sure', thinking it might come in handy if I decided to use the account. It was never mentioned that there is a yearly charge of $7.50.

When I complained, they refunded a measly $5 of the $47.50 they had taken and said I should have read the hundreds of pages of fine type legalese documents.

I just want others out there to know that First Bank is a horrible bank--if you're smart, do not bank with them. They do reordering of checks so that they can give more overdraft fees (taking out say a check for a $1000 first, which puts you close to $0, and then subsequent transactions that may be for as little as $2 will be put through for a bank fee of $32). They don't tell you when you get an account that they allow you to overdraft by $750! Now I know that I am responsible for checking what I spend, but to make a long story short, my husband and I use the same account, and somewhere along the way we went into the negative and it snowballed from there out of control. They don't let you know you're over until a week later or more in the mail. So they kept posting transactions after that $750, instead of declining the transaction. And get this, after we're charged $32 for each of those overdrafts past the $750, we get charged another $32 for the bank returning payment to whoever the check, etc. went to!! How is that even legal? If I can't spend past the $750, how do they think it's right for them to do it and then get double the fees from me?? I'd rather just be declined on transactions then for my account to get this bad. Also read the terms and agreements of your account, b/c once you sign and start using the account, you have a contract with the bank, and they can do pretty much anything they want to get as much money out of you as they can. First Bank may offer "Free Checking", but it is a joke!!! I'm closing my account and hopefully finding a better bank or credit union. First Bank in Missouri sucks!

fake check for 4890.00 SHOPPERS SWEEPSTAKES WINNING NOTIFICATION

This is the lesson I just learned that cost me $224.00 in overdraught penalty fees. Yes, technically it was my fault because I made a mathematical error balancing my checkbook. But, my complaint is the rude customer service I received from First Bank here in St. Louis, MO when I called them to explain what I did, they just basically told me it was my tough luck and then they started lecturing me on being more responsible. I didn't want them to refund all the fees, just a portion if they could, but they acted like they couldn't care less to keep me as a customer, they had my money and thats the end of that.

What I did was make a mistake balancing my checking account which made me think I had more money than I actually did. I proceeded to use my debit card 7 times to make small purchases not knowing that I was being charged 32.00 for each item. One item I bought was for only a $1.80 but a was charged $32.00 by First Bank. Almost all the purchases I made were under $20.00. I thought my overdraught protection only applied to checks but I found out the hard way that they also apply to debit card purchases. A few years ago I made a mistake balancing my check book but when I tried to use my debit card to buy something it was rejected at the store. They told me they had changed their policy because the majority of First Bank customers had complained that they didn't like being embarrassed by having their cards rejected in a store. I asked them if they had taken a poll because no one at that bank had ever asked me my opinion on the subject.

They told me they sent me a letter telling me I had overdrawn my account but by that time I had already used my debit card 7 times. The irony is that I was going to use my most recent paycheck to open a savings account there but since they charged me $224.00 in fees I don't have enough money now to open a new account. That's OK though, after talking to two rude people there I am closing my account and will never give them another penny of my money again!