Farmers & Merchants Bank

I have banked with F and M since 1995. Last week I recommended a friend to use the Bank for his new business. I called him to ask for his experience. I was happy to hear that his review was extra ordinary. What made the difference was the way the staff at the branch made him feel that his account is important. Over the past 3 months my wife and I have been working on taking advantage of the low home loan interest rates. The process always seems frustrating but F and M came through with flying colors.

Effective August 1, 2014 F&M Bank will be charging $ 10 for each paper Bank Account Statement. Apparenlty this includes the montly Bank Account statements, the quarterly Savings Account Statements, the quarterly Roth IRA statements, & the Quarterly CD/​TD Statements. This will amount to $ 900 for our family., (More than the compined interest from all the accounts.) We understand that my father in love worked with the Walker family at the «Queens City Bank» in Los Angeles, & came to F&M Bank of Long Beach when it was founded. Our family has done business with the bank ever since. Recenlty, I tried to go on line to find the place to sign up for viewing «Electronic Statements on Line» & was not able to do so. I tried to sign in to their site to in an effort to find the place to view the accounts & was not able to «log on» The site kept telling me that the my E Mail address was not correct. I tried to send them an EMail, but my computer kept telling me that it was not going through. Using this form caused my computer to freeze. I had just had the computer repaired at a cost of $ 250. I had to shut the comptuer down, & come back later. By copy & paste, I was able to send an email using another route. Apaprenlty, the Email copied it’s self many times.
In converstions with family members, we understand that the Teacher’s credit Union in the Fresno, California Area are not charging for Paper statements, & an not happy about F& M Bank doing this. We have always been very happy with F&M Bank over the 50 years that I have been a member of the family.
A bank employee called this morning to talk with me about the issue & was going to call one of our branches to discuss the problem with them. We pray that they will either change their mind about these rediculous charges or give us detailed instructions on how to log in to obtain our statements on line. Of course we still do not feel that having this information on line is safe.
Most businesses & goverment agencies have had their internet systems hacked or computers stolen with the consequences that patients accounts have been compromised. My comptuer has been telling me that some of the SCAM/​SPAM Emails that the hackers are sending out are inifected with virus & are to be deleated.

A roll of quarters.
That’s all I wanted. A single roll of quarters.
I don’t have an account with F&M, but I have been to many other banks, credit unions, & grocery stores for this simple transaction before. Never have I been required to have an account, and never have I had to wait 15 minutes *after* I’d reached the window for this to be completed.
The banker assisting me informed me that had I been asking for more than $ 10 in quarters, they might have turned me away. This simple transaction required verification of my account, and because I didn’t have an account, approval from a supervisor or manager. Either way, when she brought me my single roll of quarters, the cashier’s exact words were, «Here you go. Finally!»
My response? «My thoughts, exactly!»
I’ve been with SchoolsFirst for fifteen years, and with Citibank for two years now. I know F&M is a Long Beach institution, but after this ridiculousness, I would never consider switching accounts. (And in case F&M reads these reviews– you’re missing out on a history that includes 3 car loans and 2 credit cards.)
The moral of the story is that even the smallest, non-​revenue generating transactions can have a big impact of your bottom line.

Bret Holloway is the Vice President and Manager of this branch. Bret suggested that I take my accounts to the Lakewood office where Jeff Spinelli was the manager. I had been with B of A until they got screwed up and started depositing all of my deposits into a branch in San Diego where the sign company had a similar name, and they drew all the funds from my account here in Cypress.
Needless to say, I closed that account and moved the F & M Bank in Lkwd.
I have never made a better business decision!
They treat you like you are in Marshall Dillon’s little town, and everyone knows your name!
I can’t begin to tell all the times my relationship with Bret and F & M has been a deal maker for me.
If you want some good old fashion Customer Relations, move over to F & M Bank!

If you are planning your estate, and are considering using Farmers and Merchants Bank as a Trust Company, this is a warning: Do Not Do It! This company over charges considerably, they drag the process for estate settlement (for the beneficiaries) on so long that it is unbelievable. For example my Mother set up a living trust to avoid any problems that might occur between siblings after she passed away. This was supposed to avoid a long process in probate. However, Farmers has been dragging on my case for almost 4 years! My case had some unusual contingencies, I’ll give them that, but they have been so busy protecting themselves against any possible lawsuits that they have used a VERY LARGE portion of the estate just in hiring Attorneys. The attorneys are paid from the estate! They have continued find every reason possible to slow this process down– A warning– if you want your children to inherit what you have worked so hard to earn– DO NOT WORK WITH THIS COMPANY!

Once again Joe with his prowess and expertise saved me from financial angst.
The Online Bill Pay feature doubled charged my car payment, and was going to continue to do so if Joe (The Operations Manager and Maria) had not jumped on this problem.
Maria (one of the Head Tellers) got the ball rolling and Joe took over; correcting the problem within 36 hours and I was back in the black, no late charges and, the correct payment amount in place.
Joe went above and beyond the call of duty (as this was quite a stinker of a caveat) if you will to correct this problem, even with the full plate he has with his position within this fine banking institution.
Sensing the urgency of my problem Joe demonstrated once again true integrity when it comes to customer service.
With so many banking institutions looking at customers as just a number or a pain for asking for help in solving a problem it is refreshing to see that someone does what they say and means what they say.
Hey Joe, not just because you’re my friend, I know you were just doing your job but Platonically in this arena: