First Merchants Bank Vollmer Rd, Flossmoor

Clarity UPDATE: Let me make myself perfectly clear, I don’t like to be misunderstood. That being said, the Flossmoor IL location and the employees that work at that specific location are always great, polite, customer service oriented and professional. I never had any issue with this particular location. It was the customer service people when you call the 1-800 number and get the corporate office that’s who I took issue with . Let me just make myself clear NOT the Flossmoor location. Denise and her staff were always professional. WORST bank EVER….They ran my account up to a (negative -237) about $7.99 …YES!!!! SEVEN dollars and ninety nine cents reoccurring monthly payments (which they didn’t pay and was the only activity on that account), then through the -237 in collections after 30 days. Wowww. First of all I didn’t use that account so I never checked it. JUST THURSTY and GHETTO…..DO NOT GO TO THIS BANK!!!!!!! ZERO stars

I opened up Elite Checking account online on March 30th, 2019. During that time, the bank had a special promotion going on, which was valid until March 31st. This promotion required you to deposit $15k and setup direct deposit and you can earn $400 bonus reward if I fulfilled all the requirements. The bonus payment will be credited to my bank account within 8 weeks of meeting the requirements. I met all the requirements of the promotion within the first month. I decided to wait 8 weeks to see if my promotion bonus would be credited to my account. After waiting for nearly 10+ weeks, I still had not received my promotion, so I decided to call the bank. After calling the bank, they informed me that they had pushed the date of account opening to April 1st since the date when I opened up my account (Saturday, March 30th) wasn't a business day, therefore they would not be able to give my the $400 bonus. Are you kidding me? 1) I received a welcome to first merchants bank email on March 30th 2) I went to the Darien branch to deposit $15k on March 30th (there is date and time written on the deposit slip) 3) The terms and conditions on the promotion clearly say that you have to open up an account between Jan 1st and March 31st in order to qualify. Nowhere on the terms it says that the account has to opened up during a business day I've been banking with various corporations over the past decade and this is the most ridiculous excuse I've heard from a bank when they don't want to pay out the promotion bonus. Very disappointed with the service I've received from the Darien and Flossmoor branch.

Avoid the headache if you can. I am not sure how this union was rated so highly on Forbes list. I have been using First Merchants (what was once Citizens Bank) for 24 years and it is not only a large inconvenience but it is severely lacking in customer service. This bank uses USPS to ship debit cards. An "expedited" debit card takes 3-5 business days to get to you and will cost you $25. They will not send you the tracking information for the "expedited" parcel unless you specifically ask for it and they will not be happy that you asked. The customer service team is too emotionally involved in conversations involving faults and inconveniences that the bank is responsible for and will extend hold times if they are unhappy with your requests. The hours of the banks are limited and several locations are in unsafe neighborhoods. Place your money elsewhere.

Ashley Smith is an awesome banker. She is always professional, patient, forthcoming and she is truly the only reason my wife and I continue to bank with First Merchants. We'd love to see her as a branch manager or district manager. First Merchants is awesome with Ashley

I work here an receive nothing but complements on my customers service.