Bank of the West Mobile App Reviews

by PeteNava

I have been with this bank for more than 15 years. I have used the accounts as my main accounts for auto deposits and auto billing. I was depositing and spending thousands of dollars every month. I have a credit score of over 800. I have had many unfavorable encounters with Bank of The West. The most recent which was the icing on the cake caused me to move all my auto deposits and auto Billings to a different financial institution. Keep in mind this is just one of many. My credit card that I used on a daily basis had a crack in it. I called the bank and they said they would send me another. That was fine I had this happen before and it was not a problem. This time however they cancelled the card I was using and never told me they were cancelling it. Meanwhile I starting getting notices of bounced or rejected payments for bills I had on auto payment with that card. When I called them they pretty much said that was my problem and not theirs since it is their policy to cancel the cracked card immediately after I called them. The last time this happened I continued using my card until the new one arrived. They never said anything either time about this policy. I then proceeded to change everything to a different bank and will no longer rely on BOW for any consistent banking.

by CPTGETSOME

Ive been on hold now for an hour and 25 minutes. This call is the 4th time Ive tried contacting BotW and the second time ive been able to get somebody on the phone with me. After experiencing difficulty and technical problems setting up a credit card account on their confusing and trouble ridden app which is oriented towards bank account and debit card holders I tried to get someone to help me so that I can setup autopay for my credit card. At this point Im considering cancelling the credit card and being done with BotW altogether. Ive been a customer of SEVEN credit card companies over the last few years and have NEVER experienced this level of difficulty and lack of customer service support. Im honestly not sure if anyone is going to answer my call at this point its been almost an hour since the last person transferred me. Wish me luck..

by Realino Buragay Jr.

They hold the check deposited even if the check issuer had the balance deducted and so because of that they hold a multiple overdraft services in my bank and whn I called the bank they said that they can’t do anything to help me in that problem. They are not customers friendly. I suggest you better move to Chase bank. Bank of the West will steal all your money. When they saw a chance to steal money from you they will kill your money in your bank little by little. I hope one day soon all the money you steal from me will be taken out from you by God. You made me struggle in my finances. I have the auto-deposits and everything was set to this bank. And they turn my head around and around and fooled me until they get me charged for overdraft services of more than $200/ month because they are jot addressing my concerns and they don't help me at all. Even if it was the bank failures they don't consider and admit and give back the money. This is the most corrupt bank. I hope your bank falls one day and your financial institution struggle and get bankrupted. I hate your bank very very much! For one year this bank stoled almost 2000$ from me due to unreasonable and unacceptable bank charges they put in.

by Dizzyfrizzy..

This bank's customer service is absolutely horrid. I recently have had to call multiple times because of issues in my checking account. Every call I have been on hold for 40 minutes minimum (all at varying times throughout different days), and half of those calls I was told to call the same number later because the person I called could not deal with the issue. I would call again and get the same person directing me to call another phone number with an additional 20-40 minute wait. Complete circus. They do not give straight answers to problems, and almost everyone who answered my calls couldn't answer basic questions. Questionable employees receiving calls, and worst customer I have experienced consistently. I cannot wait to switch banks!

by Mundocruz

If I could give BankoftheWest zero stars I would. It is not user friendly or intuitive. The sole purpose for downloading BankoftheWest is to make my loan payment & I can’t even do that! App gave me an incorrect due date and cause a late payment. When speaking to the loan department and online banking department neither seemed to care about the issue and said they would “notate to the account.” I hope BankoftheWest developers see the notes, otherwise their efforts were pretty much useless. They also gave me conflicting information that just left me more confused than before I called them.

I didn’t have a choice in picking this bank as I finance a recreational item. But if you are shopping for a bank DO NOT bank here!! Customer service is not engaged and are quick to hand you off to a different department that will also be of no help.

by Digitaldoc1976

What can I say? I hate this bank and BankoftheWest doesn't help. It is cumbersome and not very user friendly, just like my accounts. Checks deposited via BankoftheWest take FOREVER to clear, without interest, and if you NSF, They will attack you with fees. I expect them to close my accounts after this because they've called and threatened to close my accounts due to NSFs. The irony is that when I deposit an $8000 check, they give me $200 immediately. Then $1000 the next business morning. Then nothing for two days. Then another $1500. Then $1500 again a few days later. It's insane. Truly. With every check hitting causing a $35 NSF. Hand to God, that's how this bank operates. RUN AWAY!!! Oh, and I had to write this with white text on white background because BankoftheWest is garbage. Forgive the errors. I’m sure they’re charging me for them.

by ArisEleventy

I haven’t been able to sign in for two weeks now. After putting in my password (it’s correct, I’ve checked many many times) it just says loading but never logs in.

Edited April 9, 2020: I did call customer support a month ago, as suggested in the developer response. I was told that it “just doesn’t work on some devices” and since “it’s a device issue,” there’s nothing they can do to support that. I have an iPhone 11 purchased in March 2020 running the most recent version of iOS. So apparently BankoftheWest works fine as long as you don’t have a recently manufactured model of one of the most popular phones with an up to date operating system installed. Because of the pandemic I’ve switched to using my credit union as my primary bank, since I can’t use mobile deposit without BankoftheWest . It’s unbelievable that an issue like this would go unaddressed for this long in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty when everyone uses mobile access, and that support would say there’s nothing they can do and that there may never be a solution.

by Big Red1543642484

I’ve synced up a credit card with my eBills so that it will inform me of my minimum payment due and my owed balance. When I want to pay the bill it gives 3 options- minimum payment, full balance or other. It is automatically selected as full balance. Now, I’ll admit I could have been more careful during the payment process but basically I selected to pay $4,300 to my credit card when I meant to make a minimum payment. The payment processed and left my account at -$2,900. Called Bank of the West and they said they couldn’t reverse it and they even said Bank of America wouldn’t return the payment (BofA did return the payment first thing next morning. God bless Bank of America, there customer service was 1000x better then Bank of the West). I’m opted out of debit OD services so that payments will just get declined instead of processed and then OD fees added but apparently there is an overdraft service for bill pay and checks that customers are automatically opted in to and will acquire overdraft fees as needed. Talk to your bank about this and opt out of it. This could have been a disaster for my family.

by Mason505

Only half of the “screen” shows up when I open BankoftheWest, as if it's too big for my iPad. When I go to put in my login/password, I can’t even see the fields! So I type carefully, blind. Okay, I got past the login. And then it wants to send me a verification code—hey, that’s just fine with me, better security. Except the email isn’t showing up, even after 15 minutes. I don’t think it's coming. (I’ve had this happen before with the BOW app, it’s not a problem just today). Okay, so call me. I select that, and the “Continue” button doesn’t “push.” (I assume it says Continue because only a piece of the blue button is visible on my screen!)

I had BankoftheWest in the past, on another device even, and deleted it for these very types of reasons. Figured I would try again, maybe it's been upgraded. Ummm...no.
So now I have to take time off from work in order to make a deposit? What year is this?

by Melanie B 3

This is the worse bank ever. Made a deposit in mobile banking on January 25th. Received a confirmation that deposit was accepted. Money in account on the 28th. Then without notice deposit is reversed. I did not receive any communication that deposit was reversed.
Saw my account was overdrawn , telephoned, on hold extended time. Requested to speak with a supervisor. Employee named Melissa in Claims said she was a supervisor then said she was not. Then Melissa said her supervisor refused to speak with me. I requested supervisors name and Melissa hung up on me. I had to call back. Finally, spoke with Shannon, Supervisor in the Core Department in Fargo ND. She said that B of W is not required to notify customers when they reverse a deposit because they can’t read the deposited check. Refused to refund any fees. Said she would check into it. Bank of the West charged $72 in transfer fees from my overdraft protection account.
So, hour long phone call to be told “we don’t care”. Employees hung up on me and did no bother to call back. This bank is the worse.

by Rafiki4488

I have no idea how it’s so highly-rated. This is one of the least intuitive apps I’ve used in a while. And before you think “well, maybe you’re just dumb,” I find the Chase mobile app and the BofA Prepaid App to be super user-friendly.

1. BankoftheWest looks terrible. When you send a payment to another account a banner pops up saying “sent,” but it’s just slapped onto the screen on top of other useful information.

2. When someone requests money from you using Zelle there is NO INDICATION that you have received a request. You have to Payments > Send Money > Activity to even see that a request has been made. When you do try and fulfill the request, there are at least four steps to click through including a “don’t send money to people you don’t know” warning. Like give me a break. AND sometimes these requests send twice so you end up transferring twice the money. Like, what the hell?

3. This is a curiticism of the entire army of apps by BNP Paribas / Bank of the West. THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME LOGO. How on earth do you expect me to find the right app easily if they all look identical. These programmers and designers are so in the weeds with their work that they don’t even bother to ask an average user before they release these things.

by Eye Dream Of

How disappointing. You took an app that was very intuitive, and made it very un-intuitive. Furthermore, making the iPad app just the phone app using only a small part of the iPad screen real estate is stupid. I am not young am far sighted… I’ve always preferred to use the iPad app, because it was larger and I could see it better. Not any more. it’s just the phone app with most of the iPad screen blacked out. * The new process for depositing a check is confusing. After taking the pictures, when you go back to the page for submit, all but the bottom part looks exactly the same as where you started. It gives the use of the impression, at first glance, that the process had not succeeded. Meanwhile, the numbers and font overall is uncomfortably tiny. Really disappointed.

by 26Laf94549

It’s fine when, and only when, it works. It’s not a great or well designed app but it mostly does the job. Except for all the times both BankoftheWest and the website simply do not function. Happens way more than you would expect, especially from *your bank.* It’s extra fun when BankoftheWest and website are broken on payday, like all day today (still broken), when you have to literally guess how much money you have to pay your bills ... I had to program a backup system so I know how much money I have because I know I can’t rely on BOW to be up and running. Giving 3 stars instead of 1 because if you go into an actual branch they are lovely. App and website not so much. If you plan to do all your banking on your devices sadly this is not the bank for you.

by KimB1212

Since the last update, mobile depositing has been broken. This is terrible timing since I, like many Americans, I am just now getting important relief checks, and banks have requested customers use the mobile app and avoid going to branches in person due to social distancing. I had a positive opinion of BankoftheWest until this. I hope to update my review if they test and fix things in a timely fashion.

UPDATE: After much hassling, an app update, and many error messages, I was finally able to get mobile deposit to work a few weeks after this review. Since it appears to be working now, I have raised my rating to three stars. I would call BankoftheWest functional but not reliable.

by Ranchgirlca

I’ve been using BankoftheWest for mobile deposits for a while now. The bank just processed one of my deposits as a returned item and then charged me a service charge of $15. I get it, if this was a bad check (insufficient funds, post dated…), but it was because the image - that looked perfectly fine in my phone - was skewed on their end. The employee at the call center reversed the fee and let me know they can only do this once in 12 months. Why charge your customer for your technical issue? If I deposit at the atm, and everything is fine when I’m done, but the machine mangles my check, do I get charged for that? Now I have to go to the bank every week to make my deposits. 👎🏻

by Belgeek

I love the convenience and ease of use of this mobile app.
But BankoftheWest does not allow entering a note of what a check is for when you deposit it online...
Instead, I have to wait until the deposit has been fully processed and then need to go back into my online account, open the entry and add the purpose of the check in the Notes. Not good enough!
This should be a trivial step to add in the mobile deposit feature of BankoftheWest and I look forward to the day (at the soonest!) when you will support this functionality for the benefit of all your mobile depositors.
Thank you!

by NoCalMina

We have banked with BOW since July 1989 & have never had a problem with any account or customer service. We moved to Nevada a couple years ago & were elated to find a branch in Reno! Last July our checking account was hacked, we were in San Jose attending to funeral arrangement for a family member when we were notified. The customer service representative went above & beyond the call of duty to schedule appointments with a San Jose bank representative in between our family obligation. It’s not to say there won’t be headaches when doing banking transactions but BOW has always worked diligently to assist our needs.

by Mydogbpbo

I have been banking with you since you we sumitomo bank, and become bank of the West , this branch closer to me and staff are so friendly and helpful, I can’t imagine without these staff , and the building is very nice and clean, feel comfortable to go in the bank, I feel secure . I am old and specially lately had accident, then operation, even slow in motion, now really don’t like to play in computer, eyes become not easy to see, actually I’m requesting going to paper statement, unfortunately you are charging, so I just stay slow wherever I’m now, but I really appreciated the staffs service list who I know.... Brenda Emily Karen and Veronica .
AngelaLin .

by Dwl

Ever since I got the most recent version of the Mobile Banking app, it will not even let me begin to enter my PIN before it pops up an error message telling me to call their support line. That support line typically has a waiting time of 45 minutes. If you want to transfer any money between accounts in a timely manner, you may as well save yourself the time and just go to the bank. Please fix this! It’s really infuriating when I just want to grab some lunch or something and I actually have no way of seeing how much money I have in my checking account.

by Los Angeles Customer

I cannot begin to explain how this bank has changed my holiday beyond belief. I did not expect to receive the experience that I have today but please believe when I say... this is a family oriented bank. I know off hand because they have gone over and beyond for just a basic customer who only has a checking account. My job uses this bank which is why I opened an account here. Knowing they have big corporate accounts, and yet still go out of their way for a small checking account like mine truly shows that they appreciate ALL THEIR CUSTOMERS. If you want a bank that cares for you... this is the one! Thank you very much BANK OF THE WEST for all you do!

by Yrajk

As a 15 year customer, I aggressively & positively advertised BW. Since logo change and ? ownership about 2017, It appears you’ve sold out big time. You’ve closed branches and now have long in bank lines. Where are the ‘onward & upward new features and improvements’? Not only does it not function easily, it does not function at all for and on an iPad. It is 1/6th size it should be and locked in horizontal position. For some seniors it is difficult to use in iPhone mode, especially regarding small finger function and visual acuity. You took something that wasn’t broken and broke it! It’s like you’re shooing us away and don’t want our business. Is the snot nosed kid who designed this everyone’s boss, hence never reviewed? Your response to gripes is tokenism.

by Dbrehomes1983

Admittedly I have had some difficult financial times recently. While not the bank’s fault, their bizarre and arbitrary overdraft policy has caused me even more grief and lengthened my recovery. They’ve cleared huge bills when I was 100s of dollars short due to medical, then charged over $200 in fees because of it. This week I deposited a large check and they’ve held all of it. They rejected my rent check and charged a fee. Now negative. Throughout the week a recurring bill kept trying to charge my debit. They declined because I had no money. Then today, although they have not cleared my check and I remain negative they cleared this charge and have charged another fee. The irony is I turned off their overdraft service. They’re a complete nightmare. Perhaps they’re fine if you don’t have any adversity in your life.

by Melanie B 107

This is the worse bank ever. Made a deposit in mobile banking on January 25th. Received a confirmation that deposit was accepted. Money in account on the 28th. Then without notice deposit is reversed. I did not receive any communication that deposit was reversed.
Saw my account was overdrawn , telephoned, on hold extended time. Requested to speak with a supervisor. Employee named Melissa in Claims said she was a supervisor then said she was not. Then Melissa said her supervisor refused to speak with me. I requested supervisors name and Melissa hung up on me. I had to call back. Finally, spoke with Shannon, Supervisor in the Core Department in Fargo ND. She said that B of W is not required to notify customers when they reverse a deposit because they can’t read the deposited check. Refused to refund any fees. Said she would check into it. Bank of the West charged $72 in transfer fees from my overdraft protection account.
So, hour long phone call to be told “we don’t care”. Employees hung up on me and did no bother to call back. This bank is the worse.

by O4f

Update7/5: If you just opened an account and are getting ready to download BankoftheWest consider going back to the bank and closing your account. You would be better off somewhere, no anywhere, else. Neither there app or mobile banking works at this point. Total lockdown mode!!

Apparently, they needed to take the only thing good about this bank and make it just as horrible as the bank itself. I use to have very few issues with BankoftheWest until the latest update. Now, it crashes constantly or plain just won’t load. It is dreadfully slow! However, it now tells me good morning or good afternoon or good evening when it first comes up so I guess I should feel good about that new feature.😡

by Paperless User

I’ve had trouble after setting up a payment. If I want to go back a couple days before my payment is do to make sure it is paid, it won’t be in my pending payment section. So I go to the account over view and it won’t be there either until the day it’s set to be paid. In my opinion if the payment had been mailed and cannot be canceled then it should be listed as processing. This way I can track payments all the way through. If money is to be leaving my account I should be able to see it at all times.

by ChefRicky

I recently started a small home-based business and was in need of a business account. The service at Bank of the West in Lodi was absolutely awesome. Michelle Coffee help me open the account and gave me some great insights about future financial needs If they should ever become appropriate. The service was awesome and so far all of my business needs have been taken care of and all of the user interfaces very well designed and easy to use. I’m a happy customer NowI think I will open a personal checking and savings.