SunTrust Bank
We’ve used SunTrust for years, and overall we’re quite happy with them. Our issue lies with their apparent trouble in updating their own system.
The first case of this was about a year ago. Three times in the course of a month, we’d try to pay for something (usually a meal) and our card would be declined. I knew we had plenty of money, so I’d call them and they’d unblock it. It was blocked “for our security”, which is fine - I appreciate them being proactive. The dumb part was that when they blocked the card, they’d call me to let me know — but use an old number of mine that I haven’t had in years. Every time, I’d have them update it to a new one, but the next time they blocked the card they’d use the old number again. I eventually called and got escalated high enough that someone was able to change it in a way that would stick.
A similar thing just happened with our checks. I tried to order new ones online, but couldn’t because our address had changed. I called them up, explained that, verified the address, and placed the order. The new checks arrived yesterday at our new address — printed for our old one. :) I have no idea how they still have that address. They verified the new one on the phone, they sent the checks to the new one, and I changed our address online with them about 10 months ago. Anyhow, they’re re-printing them now…
September 3rd, 2007 at 2:01 am
It’s getting worse. I’m randomly having things get denied, and when I call they say “we don’t see any denial here - it just be a problem on their end”. After insisting for a few minutes that they really did deny the charge, I have to just give up and try again later.
Later that day, I usually get an automated call from SunTrust asking if it was a legitimate purchase I was trying to make, thus proving that they did indeed really block it.
If this happened once, it’d be a simply mistake. It’s happened twice now, which points to a procedural and/or technical issue on their page. Blech.