Optus Bank Main St, Columbia

We absolutely love Optus bank! When we were having trouble with our small business’ procurement of PPP funding, Optus came through for us. This allowed us to stay afloat during the pandemic and now we’re operating at capacity. We have since transferred all of our bank needs over to them from the Big Bank that couldn’t/wouldn’t help us survive (rhymes with Smells Largo).

The bank falls short of it's mission statements about supporting black businesses

Awesome staff, never had an issue with anything. I love Optus Bank.

This bank CANNOT be trusted – their VP and “Relationship Officer” Kenny told me on two separate occasions that the minimum account balance in order to avoid a monthly fee is $100 (I have this documented from him in an email he sent to me). Turns out it’s actually $1,000. He initially owned up to his mistake and told me that he’d waive the monthly fee, and that I could email him each month and he’d continue to waive the monthly fee if I was below the $1,000 balance threshold (I also have this documented as well). When the 2nd month (July) came around, I was charged a fee again, and when I emailed him to remove it (which I had to send multiple times because he ignored the first several emails), he told me he can no longer do so. So not only did he tell me the wrong number to begin with ($100 when it’s $1,000) he is now going back on his word that he would remove the fees, because of his error. He did not offer an explanation as to why he told me one thing in June, and now the exact opposite in July. I worked with Optus in the first place because they were accepting PPP loan applications, but that whole process was an absolute joke. They kept telling me that I’d have my loan funds on a specific date, and they kept missing that deadline. I gave them a pass for this because I know a lot of banks were not properly staffed to handle the PPP volumes, but I wish I wasn’t the one who constantly had to check-in once a deadline was missed. Once I actually had the funds, transferring them to other bank accounts was a disaster and basically impossible without a wire transfer. This is much easier with other banks that I work with – I was told that ACH was not an option with Optus (despite them having a “transfer money” tab on their website. Before I had all these issues with getting my loan funded and then the funds sent to various accounts, I had referred my father to them so he could get a PPP loan. His experience was even worse than mine – they lost his application the first time and he had to do it all over again, and then they lost the check they sent him, we think because they sent it to the wrong address. He applied in April and literally just got his loan funds today on July 10th. Of course he had to be the one to constantly follow up with them otherwise nothing would happen. Completely unacceptable. Finally, their Customer Service person Gregory is extremely dismissive and rude – no personality and certainly no customer service skills. I also found him to be completely unhelpful on each of the 3 instances I spoke with him. There are a lot of other banks out there, so banks need to rely on customer service in order to attract and retain customers. I’d strongly recommend doing your business at one of the other banks.

Avoid this bank to all cost. They are slow, understaffed, unaware of the meaning of custom service. This one needs to close along with the rest. Don't waste ur time.

Way under-staffed, follow-up is terrible. Drop balls left and right. Take your money elsewhere