National Bank

Save yourself a big trouble. Stay away from this bank. Their online services suck so hard you end up coming to bank always. Got cc lost called to get it shut down. No automated services. Waited 1.5 hr to speak to agent. Card used in meantime. Ordered new cc. Again waited half hour to speak to agent. She asking all these questions totally unrelated saying for security and survey purposes. Said either answer or cc cant be activated. Asked to close down account and send paperwork. Again end up going to branch.

Very disappointed with the service from National Bank. I was forced to do business with them when I obtained a vehicle loan. Would not give me a bank account to see the balance of my loan online with out paying a $4 monthly fee and was treated with a very condescending attitude. If I made a lot more money (doctor or lawyer) they would be willing to give me a free account How does this made sense? Now I cannot do anything online without an account so I try and call. Impossible to get anyone on the phone, terrible phone system and wait times. I will be obtaining a new loan from another bank right away to remove any dealing I have with the bank.

Since moving here last November I have been treated with the utmost respect and the service has been excellent. I was concerned as I had been dealing with the National Bank in Aurora, Ontario for over 30 years. Informative, polite staff. always at the Douglas, Victoria branch.

For starters, this branch in Victoria, being the only National branch on the island, has ridiculous operating hours. Currently, this branch is open weekdays till 3pm and is closed on the weekends. We live 3 hours away, in Comox Valley, and my spouse, who works for Canadian Military, can not leave his duties and can never make it to the branch during its operating hours.We had a closing on a property we were purchasing and needed a bank draft for the cash down amount that very day. The bank draft had to be made to, of course, ‘IN TRUST' to the notary firm. My spouse couldn't make it to the branch in person, I don't have access to his account, and we don’t have a joint account. So we looked into National's policies and drafted a Power of Attorney that would allow me to perform certain transactions on his behalf. So, armed with all the legal documents, notary’s information, PoA letter signed and dated, and our IDs, my spouse sent me to Victoria to get the bank draft on his behalf. Well, turns out, for me to have PoA that is recognized by this branch, my spouse would still have to show up in person to verify his identity and to confirm that I do in fact have the PoA.At this point we were seriously considering moving our business and mortgage to another bank.Then comes the branch manager. She kindly agreed to accommodate us after operating hours, she got in touch with the bank manager at our home branch in Quebec and our mortgage advisor to vouch for my spouse and verify his identity remotely. They did their magic over the phone. It took a couple hours of back and forth phone calls, but at the end the bank draft was done. Thanks to her professional knowledge, common sense, patience and understanding, she saved us a great deal of trouble.Its so easy to dismiss someone and just say “Sorry, but this is our branch's policy”. It takes time and compassion to find a creative solution to help. Unfortunately, most people would not even bother.Big thanks to Rita Liu for helping us in our special situation, and to Toni Sandico for assisting me in this matter. This was the best customer service I’ve ever received! We are very happy customers!

Dismal customer service!

I went to the bank with the intention to close my investment account. But I ended up being sold some other mutual fund. And I have to open another account just to have access to online banking faster. The worst part is that I forgot my password, and the advisor didn't help me set up the security questions, or give me my new account's number at the time. Now I find out they don't open on weekends. The customer service has limited operation hours. I have just opened accounts with two other banks and they are not like this. I agree with other reviewers that this bank has quite a bit of room for improvement. After this experience, I will rather sell their mutual funds and just buy their stock (TSX:NA). All these savings on customer services should increase bottom line. ...National Bank replied to this post. I was finally able to access my account on Sunday morning. I will raise my rating to three star because of their prompt reply and their phone line support.

My husband and I have a mortgage with this bank and, though the rate is good, the customer service is severely lacking. I wanted to inquire about our existing mortgage and changing from variable to fixed but it's impossible to get a human on the phone. Nothing but phone trees and voicemail. I left a message for a local mortgage broker who didn't return my call. When I tried again, and he actually answered, he said he didn't do existing mortgages (though he would email the branch manager for me). I tried the National Bank Financial" and they were zero help as well. I spoke with live human who only searched the web to provide me with the branch phone number that I had already called."

My wife and I had a mortgage with this bank. They had a good rate, but they are terrible with keeping appointments and doing things on time. We had our property taxes built in to the mortgage and they screwed up paying it on time twice over our 5-year mortgage term. We found out when we got a letter from the city saying we were being charged a penalty for failing to pay on time. National Bank took responsibility and paid the penalty, but it caused quite a bit of anxiety for my wife and me. We had to arrange a phone appointment to deal with their missed property tax payment and they missed the appointment. We set up another appointment later to cancel the property tax payments so we could just deal with that ourselves to avoid more problems, and they missed that appointment too. Considering the small number of interactions we've had with this bank, that's a lot of screw-ups.