I opened a so-called 'free' checking account with Woodforest this Spring when they were doing an agressive marketing campaign and they lowered their initial deposit from $200 to $10.

Turned out it was not 'free' but costs $9.95 fee and so I was undecided about keeping it, just considering the convenience of having a bank account in the WalMart I usually use. So I did not build up a balance. Bear in mind, I only opened this a few months ago. And the game they played with their 'free' ad did not inspire confidence.

So I kept it running with $20 a month while I decided whether I wanted to keep it.

Last month, the teller was really weird, full of friendly chat but it was weird. I am an older woman and not into flirting and this guy is 20-something. I thought, ok, just a weird guy. It was only my third time in there.

This month, a few days ago, a different guy, same thing. Weirdly friendly. I was depositing a check from my regular bank, and suddenly he goes from friendly to sarcastic, and wants to know why I don't just take the check to the other bank! I complained to the manager, who stood there and confirmed that there was no problem at all showing up from the other bank and so there was no reason at all for that comment. What would be a good reason for that kind of hatefulness, anyway?

Today, same bank, different teller. I had a small check written to me to deposit. Before I even stepped up to the window, as I was walking forward, the teller starts making chit-chat about Alice in Wonderland and the Caterpillar with the Hookah! Now I cannot think of any reason for that at all... except it was very distracting and weird while I handed him the check.

Of course I expected some comment on the check being a personal and they ask for id, all banks do that, but he acted like it was a big problem. A $20 personal check and I was depositing, not cashing. He said I had to know they might put it on hold. I said 'of course, no problem.' He kept acting weird and then wanted to know what I do for a living. He said that all banks ask this question before aqccepting checks !!!

that's crazy! I could have sent the check through an ATM, and not been asked questions!

I had the feeling through all these encounters that I was around people in a drug scene. The chit-chat was exactly the kind of thing you run into if you walk into the wrong kind of bar. I have lived in poor neighborhoods for most of my life, so I know what groups of young men who are a little high act like.

I'm glad I found this board. It confirms that my feeling of weirdness and that sense I could not fully explain that there is something very wrong with that bank is very well-grounded.

I don't even want to go into that particular WalMart anymore. They are deliberately driving 'normal' people out of their property and it is a lot like when the gangs took over the neighborhood I lived in 15 years ago, the same bizarre out-of-place greetings and chat from young men and the same shell-game way of mixing fast-asked personal questions in with conmpletely irrational chitchat.

Rosetta ****
wherever, Texas
U.S.A.

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