BB&T - Branch Banking & Trust Deceptive Practices - avoid BB&T at all costs! Gloucester, Virginia

We have had all of our business and personal accounts with BB&T.  I dont know what is going on, but they are a curse to anyone trying to survive in these tough economic times.

Issue One:  We have a mortgage with them on a house my husband built as a model (he is a contractor).  The mortgage is at 8.75% and when the bottom fell out of the housing industry, we contacted them and asked if we could refinance at a lower rate  (they were around 4.25%).  They said we dont do that for business customers.  We attempted to sell (impossible!), found a renter (which left us without a model) and held on hoping things would turn around.  We went back to the bank six months ago and they agreed to take a look at it, asked for new tax returns, financial statements, etc.  We told them we could not continue to make the payments, and talked with their collections department in North Carolina who told us to make payments of $50 per week until they made a decision.  Okay so we did that. They told us to bring the mortgage current and they would refinance;  we did which they first applied to late fees, then applied to interest, then principal.  That, of course, didnt bring it current because of the penalty charges.  We kept calling and asking if they had made a decision;  they said were looking at it and well get back to you.

Fast forward to December , 2009.  We received a call from our branch manager who left a message on our telephone answering machine stating they were willing to do the refinance BUT would require we pay $25,000 in penalties, principal and interest before they would do the refinance because it had taken so long.  What, are you crazy?  Yesterday we received a letter from an attorney stating the bank was foreclosing.

If they had refinanced, the rental payment would have covered the mortgage and we would not be faced with bankruptcy.  My husband is in his late 60s, has been in this business his entire life, and has never dealt with such greed and unwillingness to assist a customer.

Issue 2:  My husband receives two retirement checks on the last day of the month which are wired into our account.  They always show as pending funds on the last day of the month.  We pay my health insurance payment with BB&T Bill Pay the payment is $270.00.  On December 31, 2009 the two checks were wire transferred as usual.  However, BB&T decided to process the check for $270.00 first (there was $200 in the account) and HOLD his wire transfer until January 4, 2010.  They cancelled my health insurance payment stating there were insufficient funds.  I wrote to them and they confirmed the processed the BillPay at 7:00 instead of midnight, and didnt process his wire transfer until the 4^th of January.  I checked our account activity for the prior six months and never ONCE have they  held the deposit until the 4^th of the following month. 

Thank you for having this website until I stumbled on it, I thought it was just me!  Avoid BB&T at all costs!