Eastern Bank

OMG BAD!!!, I used Eastern Bank for a vehicle loan, what a mistake!!! For the 4 years I owned the vehicle, I would receive 3 times a year a letter from them stating that I did not have insurance… I am in MASS and cannot register a car without insurance! I would call, be left on hold and send them 3 times a year the insurance binder, low and behold the next year I would receive the notice that I did not have insurance… 3 times. So guess what happened, I go to trade in my vehicle and get a buy out cost on the remainder of the balance and I am told that I owe 4 years of bank forced insurance because I did not have insurance. I spent probably 3 hours over all on hold and 4 hours emailing and faxing the 4 years of paperwork that I had been sending over the last 4 years. I get to the dealership to trade in my car and the dealer tells me that I can not triad in my car because I can not get a buy out on the balance with Eastern Bank, I owe the bank the forced insurance. I called the bank from the dealership and am told that there is no record of the previous conversations and proof that I had had insurance… It was awful. STAY AWAY!!!
If I could give negative 5 stars I would.

Considering a car loan with Eastern Bank then you should think again. After you sign for a loan a coupon book will arrive. A coupon must be sent with each payment or your payment will not be applied to your account. I tried to send a check with out coupon and the check was never cleared.
You can pay on line but are charged $ 1.50 per payment. Or call and be charged $ 10 for each phone payment. Forget if you pay all your bills on line because this bill will not be one of those. I have TD Bank which I pay all of my bills including life insurance from but can’t make payments on a car loan. I did once and my payment was never was cleared. I called and was told the coupon needs to accompany the payment. All of the payment methods are a major inconvenience to pay on this loan. Wish there are not fees or a coupon book to make payments.
If you make any early payments then you will still pay all the interest.

Horrible Customer Service. The left hand has no clue what the right is doing. I’ve been told its not my dept by countless representatives and have been told they could do a lien release and then turn around and do nothing. I work for a company that does regular business with them and I would have to say that if it was my decision to do business with them, I wouldn’t…Move on to a new bank that properly trains its employees on customer service, and maybe explain to them not to sigh at a customer on the phone, its arrogant and rude.

I’m not sure what the rest of the reviewers are talking about. I was a Wainwright customer and nobody likes change. I was certainly skeptical about what would happen when Eastern Bank bought them, but the staff remained the same as did the excellent customer service from the Wainwright days. I probably go into the bank about 6 times a year and the teller still knows me by name.
I recently did a very tricky condo refinance and, after a horrible experience with Well Fargo (which ended in being denied after a 6 month process), the loan officer at Eastern Bank could not have made things any easier. I’m saving a ton of money as a result.
I know that there were some hiccups during the switch over (hence the 4 stars) from Wainwright to Eastern, but I would recommend Eastern Bank to anyone who asks.

Former Wainwright hold over. Loved Wainwright. People at Eastern Bank seem pleasant enough when you need to go into a branch.
Now, if you have an issue and you need to call… forget about it! They are horrendous! My issue, which should have taken 5 minutes to correct ended up taking me hours. Total inept service and rude.
Need to start hunting for a new bank!

When you call up Eastern Bank the employees are forced to answer the phone «
Eastern Bank the friendliest team in banking». They should answer the phone «Eastern Bank the shadiest team in banking.».
I was a happy Wainwright Bank customer whose account was switched over to Eastern Bank once Wainwright took them over. I think that I would be better off dealing with a check cashing store. At least the people there are friendly and they are up front about the exorbitant fees that they charge.
Eastern, in addition to having atrocious service on their 800# is also famous for selective posting of transactions and reshuffling transactions to maximize overdraft fees.
I would recommend to people considering switching to Eastern to run away !! Stuffing their money under their mattress and going to the Check Cashing Store are far better alternatives to this bank. Beware !!

I am not a customer of Eastern Bank, my school is. Well they were a customer of Wainwright Bank. I went to the branch in Watertown, after I left the Watertown Library. I did not know there was a branch in Watertown. I went in to to cash a federal student refund check for $ 6,029.50. In the past I went to the branch in Harvard Square. At that branch, they count the money back to you, they always ask me do I want to open up an account. Very friendly. I should have NEVER went to the Watertown branch. Well I am STUPID, thats what Judge Judy would call me. The rude teller (female Bernie Madoff) gave me the money $ 29.50 without counting it out to me then closed her drawer and walked away. I was left standing there wondering what was going on. She came back never said one word to me and put bills on the counter and then looked away as if I was not still standing there. I did not bother to count it until yesterday when I went to pay a large bill for school. The amount was literally ½ of the check amount I called customer service and then today i went into the bank. They said its my responsibility to count the money before i leave. I said, pull the camera and see that the teller did not give me the full amount. They said the cameras are not on the tellers. Wow! So, once you leave if the teller is stealing and you walk out you are screwed! I want to file a formal complaint, there must be other checks and balances in place to cover these types of situations. I will NEVER, walk away again without having the teller count the money back to me. I even asked why did she walk to the back while I waited at the counter? She could have removed the money which should have been 10– $ 100 bills wrapped int he brown slip. But it was not. I am such a fool!
What keeps tellers from ripping of customers like me who are STUPID and dont demand that that count the money back before walking out of the branch.
What recourse do I have? There must be away to file a formal claim against them. Fraud is everywhere. The manager said he will review and get back to me. I have never heard of banks not having the cameras posted on the employees as if they don’t steal.
8/​6-​Waiting to hear from the Presidents office, I requested a letter stating what they said to me that the customer is responsible for shortages even when their tellers don’t bother to count back such a large sum of money. I went to the Watertown Police department. They said I should get as much paperwork from them and then file a civil suit that way they would have to produce the video, the one that they says does not exist. Really!

I opened an account with Wainwright Bank many, many years ago when Citizens bought out my small bank in their efforts to gobble up all the competition. I’m not saying that my experiences were perfect, but overall I was happy enough to stay with Wainwright.
All of that changed after Wainwright officially became Eastern Bank. My experiences as a customer have steadily declined since. Every time I have an issue the staff doesn’t really do anything about it; often they are outright dismissive or condescending, but even when they are apologetic about the issue that’s it, they just say they are sorry but there is nothing they can do. As an example of the latter, Daniel M.‘s review notes the sudden router number change and that the staff claimed to him that customers had been notified. That is different than what I was told; when I called asking why one of my online payments was rejected, the woman who answered said that the router number had changed but only vendors, not customers, had been notified. I asked if I would receive a credit for any fees that accrued because I hadn’t been notified that I was providing an out-​of-​date router number to pay my online bills, and she was very apologetic as she told me that this wasn’t possible to do.
But what got me most of all was the notification I received from them months after the takeover. They said that the account type that *they* had placed my account in without even notifying me was one wherein I couldn’t meet the balance that they had not even told me I was supposed to meet and which I would have told them was not a realistic account balance for me if they had (and believe me, it is an unrealistically high balance for most other people too). Because of my alleged inability to meet a balance that they had never notified me I was supposed to meet, the notification continued that they were going to change the terms of my account, including many more fees. What I found most offensive about this shell game was that they worded it all in a blame-​the-​customer way, even though all of this was stuff that they had never even informed me!
Since I received that notification, I have been shopping around for another bank. In the meantime, my customer service experiences have continued to typically leave me moderately to severely annoyed. I wish that non-​municipal credit unions were more common here.
In short: Avoid Eastern Bank!

I had an account for over 15 years with Wainwright Bank, which was bought by Eastern earlier this year. Ever since, I have found the service horrible, primarily via telephone. The phone tellers are dismissive, and you have to ask to speak to a manager to get anything accomplished. There has also been a strange «hold» on my mastercard debit, limiting my atm withdrawals to $ 100 in the state of California. Since there are no Eastern branches, I have to pay an ATM fee twice to get $ 200 in cash. I tried to explain to the phone teller that I LIVE in California and this isn’t fraud. Could she lift the hold??? No! More transaction fees, and now I am closing my account. Goodbye Eastern, and good luck.

Wow. I am flabbergasted by the rude, dismissive phone customer service I just received from this branch thinking that it was the other branch a few blocks down on Franklin. Apparently I had interrupted her morning with my stupid question about the routing number having changed so she let me know that they told everyone about this.
Well clearly you did a bang up job since my paycheck is unable to be deposited and I will have a live check for the first time in five, six years. Maybe I’ll just take that live check down the street to a bank that wants my business???
It’s a shame that my beloved Wainwright has turned in to yet another shitty bank.