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A bad banking experience

Dear Editor:

Heed my warning! I recently had an awful experience at American National Bank.

First, a little history is in order. I had been a customer of American National for several years whom they seem to like, demonstrated by the VIP tickets offered me to Theatre Aspen performances over the years.



Late in the day on July 1, the bank had a computer problem in which I was not able to access my funds, as they could not determine the amount of money in my account. They refused to contact the Denver main office to verify what I had available; instead they instructed me to go downvalley to do my banking. But it was too late in the day to even do that.

Truthfully, I was very upset, and the conversation was to say, at the very least, not pleasant. I will say at no time did I raise my voice, but I admit to being very frustrated. It seemed to me the bank needed to figure out a better solution than sending me downvalley.




The problem was only made worse because it was a holiday weekend.

For reasons unknown to me, the next thing that happened was the bank closed my account. Yes, seriously, they just closed down my account.

Could they just arbitrarily do that?

According to banking regulations, they can!

I received a letter dated July 6, but with no explanation. My tickets to Theatre Aspen were also pulled, which I thought was very petty.

The reason for this letter to the newspapers is to point it out to the general public; I certainly had no idea current banking regulations allow a bank to close an account without explanation, and with little or no warning.

Because I had a number of monthly direct deposits coming into the account, it had a very negative effect on my time, as I scrambled to make arrangement to transfer my direct deposit accounts to another bank.

I am still unclear why American National did what they did, but luckily for me, there were a number of other great banks to choose from.

So, heed my warning! If you bank at American National, be very careful because they just might close you down one day without the courtesy of an explanation.

Final thought, I guess customer service is defined differently at American National.

Corinne Cliford

Aspen

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