Astoria Bank Astoria Federal Deprived elderly long-time customer of her last funds, when she was trying to enter nursing home. Tried to charge $800 fee for look-back. patchogue New York

My mother, an 89 year old invalid, needed to get Medicaid to enter a long-term care facility. Part of the application process for NYS Medicaid is a 5 year look-back. Any bank account with her name on it must produce a hardcopy of transactions going back, of course, 5 years. Since I've been having her live with me, our Astoria DDA (checking) accounts were linked to make our bill paying eaiser. Astoria contacted me regarding this, and they attempted to charge her $800 for "print costs". Now, needless to say, on her fixed income, her balance and total assets was under $10. After her bills were paid every month, her balance was $0. I had to pay for all food and some utilities. After much back and forth, They brought it down to $300, which she also did not have. I ended up having to pay it. I am a School Bus driver, and take home les than $300 per week. Asking around my job, a few co-workers were/are in the same process with their parents, except not one was asked to pay a fee from their bank. Not one. These were both large commericial banks and small Credit Unions. They were, as am I, stunned that Astoria was so inflexable and, for the lack of a better word, greedy. I begged them to exempt her from this fee, to no avail. I was told by the branch that the Main Office would have the final say, and they said Pay Up. 

 2 months later, I recieved a phone call from the bank stating Medicaid needed more printouts, and my bank account would be charged another $135. Not asked, Told. I did not argue because my mom needed to ged Medicaid. This is outragious, and I feel for the other elderly customers who have not yet experienced Astorias buisness practices. My Mother passed last week, and I felt I owed it to her and others to write this. Possibly it will help, but banks always write the rules, even when they almost bring down entire countries.

Thank you.