The Columbia Bank http://www.thecolumbiabank.com Exorbitant Overdraft and NSF Fees, disgusting customer service HANOVER, Maryland

I opened a new checking account with The Columbia Bank through their website (http://www.thecolumbiabank.com) and also signed up for their online banking service / bill pay in response to their 'Free Kindle Fire HD' promotion. The promotion required that I sign-up for bill pay, pay 3 bills using the Bill Pay service and also start a direct deposit through the employer. I thought I met all the requirements but realized later the first direct deposit (from the employer) was off by just 2 days from the additional requirement that direct deposit be made within 60 days after account opening. I called the bank at Arundel Mills (Hanover, MD) and explained that the direct deposit is NOT something I can control and it usually takes 1 or 2 pay cycles for the employer to process it and in my case it just happened in the second pay cycle and hence causing the delay. Also explained to them that it also took them 2-3 weeks to send me the checkbook/checking account details and I could not have applied for a direct deposit without receiving those details from the bank. And that it was not fair on their part to count the '60 days' from the day of account opening but they should count it from the time they mailed me all the account details. After listening to all this, their response was "we are very strict on the Kindle Promotion rules".

In the process of paying bills online, I mistakenly scheduled an online bill payment without calculating the pending bill payments vs. balance in the checking account. This caused one bill to paid when there was no balance left leading to an overdraft protection fee of $39 which I never signed up for. I told them the balance went negative using their online bill pay service and this was not a check I wrote / that did not clear. So I thought it was not fair to charge an overdraft fee or non-sufficient fee for the transaction when their online bill pay service knew before the payment that  funds were not sufficient. What they could have instead done is cancel the transaction and I would have been happy. Their response to all this: "non-negotiable"

After spending so much time setting up direct deposit with them and trying to use their online bill pay service earnestly, it feels like I wasted so much time for no benefit. I don't trust them with my money, their customer service is real bad and I will be closing my account with them soon.