I opened a new account with Suntrust a few weeks ago in order to have my tax refund direct deposited into it. The actual refund was for my fiancee' /common law husband (we had been together for about 16 years. I live in Georgia). We have an 11 year old son. My fiancee' passed away last September unexpectedly. He said goodnight, went to bed and never woke up the next morning. He was only 37 and never sick at all. He had always been very healthy. Anyway, He had no will. Georgia law states that all money or property of his goes to his son. I did his taxes through Turbo Tax and filed the proper paperwork with them for the IRS concerning his death and my filing and receiving his tax refund, which all approved (both the Turbo Tax specialists and The IRS). The money was direct deposited into the account on April 1st. I was told by a bank rep that same day, on the phone, that I could use my Suntrust card that day for the entire amount, should I want to purchase anything, pay bills, etc. She told me there was no problem with my using the funds immediately. I chose to wait until Saturday to withdraw money because I needed to pay my rent which was past due. The sheriff had already served me eviction papers. It's been really hard since my fiancee' died. It was unplanned and my son and I were left with less than $10.00 to our names. I have worked and struggled and we've gotten through but never ahead. I knew this tax refund would get us out of the little debt we had and actually put us ahead so that we could stay ahead from here on out. Unfortunately, the asst. manager of the Suntrust Bank at the Publix (her last name is Skeeter or something very similar) I chose to visit decided that I couldn't have the money and put a legal hold on it. Over the next 5 days, she has had me running up to her branch 2 to 3 times each day, and waiting in front of her counter at least for more than a total of 12 hours, has sent me to our county courthouse twice and had me personally bring to her many documents to prove that my fiancee' is dead and that our son belongs to him and more. She knew we were being evicted this Thursday and that I had to have the money by Tuesday night to avoid an additional $200.00 charge on top o the $2044.00 I already owed for rent. She kept dragging her feet and literally lying and making up excuses. I ended up speaking with Suntrust's legal team many times during this period. I told them the Ga. law she was violating and discussed everything else with them about my situation too. They told her to release the money to me on Tuesday. She kept telling me she was waiting on a piece of paper from them first. They told me there was no paper and that she was making that up. They talked to her several times and told her to give me the money but she wouldn't. She told me that the money wasn't mine and that it belonged to my son. She refused to give it to him. She wanted me to prove that I was his guardian even though she had the birth certificate and the genetics test and all. The court said there was no such thing and that she was in violation of Ga. Code 29-3-1 which states that money, property, etc. with a value of $15, 000.00 or less (The tax refund was for a bit over five thousand dollars) belonging to A Deceased person must be turned over immediately to the legal heir...which is my son, Taylor, the deceased's only child. The only proof any person or establishment is allowed to ask for is proof that the heir is the child of the deceased which I provided to the asst. manager in the means of a Georgia State Genetics Test. This Georgia Code states that any person refusing to turn over the money or property is in violation of the law and can be prosecuted. I showed her the actual code printed out to her from the courthouse and she just laughed at it and told me she still wasn't going to do it. I told her that I would prosecute her and she grinned, saying, "Go ahead...call the cops if you want to, you're not getting that money". Finally, after a load of paperwork being provided to her, the legal dept. in Florida telling her she legally had to release that money to me, and my visit to another Suntrust Bank for help (in which they investigated and said there was no legal reason for her to hold the money), she called me and my son into her office where she told me again that she and the main lawyer in Florida decided that the money did belong to my son but that she has decided not to give it to us because it's not my money just to go out and blow. I told her that she was causing us to get evicted from our apt. the following day and she laughed and said, "yes, i told our lawyer that and he says he knows it and that it's unfortunate but that it's TOO BAD." These were her exact words. I told her that I wanted the money sent back to the IRS then so I could just wait for a check and she told me "no" and (these are her exact words) "this money isn't going anywhere. It's gonna stay right here in my bank until I decide what to do with it". I told her she couldn't do that and she pretty much threw us out as she giggled. I'm not joking at all. She literally giggled at us. My son was devastated and I was humiliated. When i got home, I again called the lady who had been helping me on the phone and she said all that was a lie...that their lawyer never said anything like that and that the asst. manager had not even talked to the legal dept. that day as she said she had. They were truly fed up with her and I'm sure you can check this all out with them should you choose to do so. Anyway, after waiting all this time, doing everything the asst. manager asked of me and more, the manager of the same branch told me to wait for a phone call that day in which the money would probably be released. The legal dept. told me that the phone call would consist of her telling me the money had been released and I could come and withdraw it. The lady there said that they actually wanted the asst. manager to have to call and tell me that after all the trouble she had put me through. So, I waited all day long. I'm talking all day. I did call a few times and each time I was told by the branch that the asst. manager couldn't come to the phone but that she said for me to wait by my phone for her call. Finally, at about 6:30, just before that branch was to close, she called me. I was so excited when I got the call. I answered and she told me who she was and all and said, "ok, about your money, I just wanted to let you know that you're not getting a penny of it". i was totally shocked. I actually burst out crying. I told her that I was told that she was to release it. She said she knew all that but that no one was making her do anything and she wasn't giving it to me. She said "all you white people think you can get whatever you want in this world, but I'm going to show you that you can't here at Suntrust". She then hung up on me. Needless to say, I have never seen a penny of the money and when I tried to check on it today, The IRS says they haven't heard anything about it and the people at the 24 hour bank line told me that they had no idea what happened to it and that my account had been closed. I didn't close it and I can't believe that she would have the nerve to close my account on her own and for no reason.
My dad has had an account with Suntrust bank for more than 30 years. He has never had a bounced check or a negative balance and is in very good standing with them. He even offered to come up and sign anything he could to guarantee the money and the transaction himself and this asst. manager laughed at him also and said that "that's not going to help her either. I'm not giving her the money". He told her he was thinking about closing his account because of this and she smirked at him and said, "well, we have lots of other accounts, I'm sure your's closing won't even be noticed, Mr. Williams". How is that to treat a faithful and loyal 30+ year customer?...WOW!!...I was never rude to this woman. I never caused trouble at the bank or even let anyone know what was going on during all the time I was going through this. All the times she had me and my son standing there waiting, I never let on to any of the other customers that I was unhappy or having any type of problem. She had no right to treat me the way she did and certainly no right to talk to me the way she chose to either.
Can you believe that on the second day of all of this that she called me on the telephone at my home. I was so excited when my son told me who it was. I thought she was going to tell me that the money had been released. I picked up the phone (all happy and such) and She actually started yelling at me (just like a parent would yell at a child who was being very bad) saying " YOU BETTER NOT CALL THE 1-800 NUMBER AGAIN FOR HELP AND YOU BETTER NOT TRY TO CONTACT THE LEGAL DEPARTMENT AGAIN EITHER". Now, does she have the right to call a customer at home and literally scream at them and then hang up on them. I want you to know that I am just so upset by all this that I don't know what to do. I can't get over it. She ruined our lives and knowingly did so by her own choice. I have emailed James Wells, the President of Suntrust Bank about this but haven't received a reply yet. She just can't get away with this.

SunTrust is now charging a maintenance fee on Savings accounts that don't do enough deposits! So your savings account will decrease if left alone! They now charge you to use your money. Get out while you can. Plenty of other banks around.

My husband and I got a 2003 Ford Escape in 2003! We made every payment!!! in January 2009 we sent in the "LAST" payment along with a note (thanks to my Grand mom)stating this was the last payment in our Book and That we thought we were payed off! so now TODAY! June 12, 2009 My Husband wakes up to go to work! and Guess What THE TRUCK IS GONE! We have never received anything stating we owed them never received another Payment Book, not even a Phone Call to let us know anything! so while I am on the phone with 911 they let us know that our car was repossessed!BY SUN TRUST! We call them and they inform us that we still owe another YEAR on our truck and could not give an answer to y we were never informed that we owed anything else! We have been tring to get in touch with the Manager Gary McWind But that was like an Hour ago and still No call from him!!!

I think your Bank is a Sham and I will Be contacting the Better Business Bureau! and I hope everyone else who is going through this kind of CRAP!! do the same or do what we should have done ( like MANY people told us to do) go with a diffrent BANK!!

I have been running 30 days late on my car payment. I admit this. This happened because in November 2007 I requested a one-month extension on my car loan. I was having major surgery and my husband wanted to be with me in Nashville. With limited resources, I had to request an extension.

At that time, Suntrust said NOTHING to me about having to request in writing (some form) for payments to be resumed. In fact, in the request that I faxed to Suntrust, I asked for the extension for December but requested that payments be resumed in January. Now, take in consideration my husband (fairly new husband) knew nothing about our banking except I did tell him that I had all of our payments drafted from the account automatically. I have had a Suntrust account since 1994 - the account was initially mine.

My husband used the debit card to run household expenses while I was recovering. He knew how to check the balance on line, but that was about all and I assumed everything else was on autopilot.

For the next three months I was mostly flat on my back because of the surgery (home healthcare was coming in). On top of that I got the flu and was deathly sick. I can provide documentation of both.

I was totally unaware that Suntrust did not draft a payment in January. In January I honestly thought I would die from the pain and had little else on my mind -- especially with having the flu on top of major surgery.

When I became aware of the fact that no payment had been deducted in January and that I had to sign a form to resume my payments it was when Suntrust called me. NO ONE TOLD ME THAT BEFORE. And as I stated before, my fax to Suntrust said to resume payments in January. Anyway, by the time I was aware no payment had been deducted, I was already behind.

Bottom line, I have been running 30-days late since January 2008. I have explained to Suntrust that I am on disability and have limited resources and that I could not afford to make two payments in one month. The car payments are $301 per month. After all my bills are paid each month, I have $600 for living expenses. My husband is in sales and gets straight commission; so with today's economy -- well you know where that is going. He has also not been able to work much because of medical problems.

I cannot/could not pay $600-plus during one month to catch my account up and Suntrust would not give me an additional extension because my account was past due.

In December 2008, Suntrust decided to deduct the past due payment on December 2 without notifying me. My social security check goes in the bank on December 3. Because Suntrust deducted the past-due car payment on December 2, I ended up having $175 in overdraft charges, plus Suntrust also deducted my December 3 car payment. A total of almost $778 in one month.

If Suntrust had just waited ONE DAY to withdraw the past due payment, my Social Security check would have gone in and the money would have been there. It would have really hurt to make a $602 car payment in one month (especially at Christmas), but it would not have resulted in an additional $175 in charges.

Also, Suntrust should have told me they were going to deduct the past due payment. Had they told me, I would have asked them to wait ONE DAY or have borrowed the money to cover the payment.

The biggest downfall was Suntrust making what they call a "Miscellaneous Debit" and it causing five small debits to be INSUFFICIENT FUNDS with a total of $175.00 charge against our account.

It is wrong to do anybody like this without telling them it is going to happen. Prior to this I have loved banking with Suntrust and have recommended Suntrust to others. I don't know what happened to common decency. I also feel what they did was wrong.

They have lied to me numerous times, they put a fraud hold on my payroll check that I deposited on friday 7/25/2009 and was told the funds would be in there immediately, went to make a purchase, was declined. went back to same bank and teller and now was told midnight. Saturday morning, I paid my monthly bills, went to buy food for my family and was declined again. Called customer service they not put a fraud hold because the funds couldnt be verified. So I spoke with a corporate manager would told me that the corporate office could do nothing that basically the branches ran the company, so if they can't do anything why to they make close to 6 figures a year. Anyways now I was told monday before i could get food for my family and gas to go back to work. Monday, still not available, so i called again and now it was said that unless the other bank sent over the funds, they couldn't release it til August 1st over a week away ( no remember I had no food for my wife and 7 yr old daughter and no gas for work), so I call my works bank and was told tuesday morning the funds would be sent over. Tuesday morning posted lifted but now they charged me 144.00 in overdraft charge for the bills I paid with my check before they put a hold on it. So again I called customer service and was told they would be refunded once the funds were available. They had the funds from the other bank and refused to release my money still, now I have to wait to August 1st and hope they give me back the overdraft charges. This is the worst bank by far, I am closing my account once the money is in there and sent a complaint to the better business bureau.