February 2021 by Kathie Sanderson
Find a better bank. Finally closed my bank account here after ~10 years of mediocre service. Slowly transitioned to a Charles Schwab checking/savings, which offers services that reach far beyond anything First Home Savings/Stockmens Bank has ever offered. Reasons I left and why you should consider leaving/settling with a different bank:1. Never expect a loan unless you have 800+ credit, and even then you will be marked with higher interest rates than anywhere else because they really do NOT want to loan out to you. (This is confirmed by a retired loan officer I was best friends with).2. They are overprotective of where your debit card is used. If you do not notify them that you are traveling, or if you place an order online with your debit card on websites similar to Etsy where your card is charged through 3rd party systems, they INSTANTLY flag your card and void it without notifying you. If they have to flag any transactions, they automatically close your card without asking you. Even if it were you MEANING to make the purchase, they still void your card and send you a new one. The card takes 3-4 weeks minimum to mail-in, so best of luck being without a card for that long all due to the reason of them THINKING your card was stolen. (I once had 3 new cards voided over the course of 4 months all because I began ordering items online that they flagged as "fraud").3. If you do experience a fraudulent charge, they are NOT willing to refund you at all. They blame you for the fraud and make it near impossible to work with. (I once had ~$4000 fraud charged from my account via PayPal, but it had not been withdrawn from my bank account yet. I called First Home and told them to freeze my account since it had not gone through. They told me they understood the situation and froze my account. The $4000 was withdrawn a day later, and they told me they forgot to freeze my account. They then proceeded to tell me it was my fault and that I needed to contact PayPal and work with them first. PayPal was very unhappy, but I EVENTUALLY received my funds months later with no help from First Home Savings.4. They just created a mobile app after transferring under Stockmens Bank name. The mobile app is probably the least impressive app you'll have on your phone. Your password resets so often you'll become used to not utilizing it at all anyway. Most you can do with the app is view your statement and account balance anyway, fairly useless.5. They are one of the few banks left that charge insane fees for ATMs/overdrafts/return/general bank fees. This should be everyone's #1 reason to not use this bank. Find a good bank that covers your fees for you. If you think that a bank has a right to charge you an overdraft fee because you have "insufficient funds," then you MUST BE the owner of the bank. Though if you get an overdraft fee, you are either are in the act of closing the account or you just do not have the extra funds to cover an automatic withdrawal. If the latter is the case, why would a bank feel right to charge a financially problematic customer an accruing $33 bank fee that adds $33 every single day? (I just experienced this due to my college attempting to withdrawal a large sum from this bank account I've been slowly closing, and have just been making small deposits into for covering small automatic withdrawals. So instead of contacting me in anyway, calling me, emailing me, or anything they instead charge me $33 on Tuesday, $66 on Wednesday, $99 on Thursday, and $99 today. I checked my account today, saw these issues, and decided to walk in and attempt to get this misunderstanding resolved. Instead, I get threatened with being pushed to collections if I did not pay the overdue balance right then and there. No payment plan. No understanding. Just demanding $300 payment. I closed my account instantly, told them how insanely greedy they are, and happily walked out of that building for the last time.DO NOT USE THIS BANK. DEPOSIT YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY INTO SOMEPLACE THAT APPRECIATES YOU, NOT JUST YOUR FU