Associated Bank Checking Accounts

If I could give 0 stars, I would. This bank is run by a group of incompetent senior citizens with no recollection or understanding of modern security. They lie about providing overdraft protection upon signup, they allow fraudulent transactions from other states to go through, and this is the 13th time my mother has gone in to discuss this issue with them and get another card with the same spiel. The overdraft protection is a joke, just a money-grabbing scheme. Oops, went over by $12? Now you owe these individuals another $35 on top!

We were told that if we had overdraft protection, any purchases that exceed the amount we have in the account would not go through. Yet another falsehood! Not to mention that everything done is automatically your fault, and if anything bad occurs, it's on you. I got hit with a fraud investigation and had my PayPal and CashApp banned permanently because I am the beneficiary of the account. I managed to get all those cases dismissed because there was no evidence to support their accusations against me in the first place. So, because of them, I lost all my medical and EBT benefits for 3 months and lost my main payment method for receiving payments.

Now, after trying to pay back the overdraft and getting a refund issue settled, they are holding the account open, stating they cannot do anything until a written form is signed off and sent to my mom's mailbox as a confirmation. We went in person today, December 30, 2025, and the lady got huffy with us right off the bat because my mom insisted on getting that issue resolved, getting the form printed out to reduce the hold time, and paying upfront. These unethical individuals looked at her as though she were mentally ill, denied being able to print off the form in the office, and take care of everything then and there. So now, she's on hold for up to another week where she can't spend any of her money; she won't know her true account balance or anything until we wait for the mailman to deliver this "magical" piece of paper to her mailbox, which they supposedly have absolutely no other way of delivering other than mailing it to her.

This bank is nothing but a waste of your time and money. I guarantee this bank comes with nothing more than a ton of headaches. I highly recommend you all go somewhere else and do your research on this place before making a decision. I've never seen a bank so bad in my entire life as of yet.

They offered a bonus to open a checking account. I verified the terms before opening and was told I would qualify, but then they did not accept my direct deposits as qualified. I can't bank when I can't trust.

Came in two days in a row for a cash advance on my card. With all the proper identification needed for it being a government card, they made it very difficult to get the service I needed. The representative seemed very unwilling to help with the situation, and I honestly felt racially profiled. I bank online for this exact reason, to avoid the profiling in certain areas. I would never open an account with Associated Bank.

I've been with this bank for about 15 years and never had anyone from the bank disclose to me their "out of network" ATM charges. Had I known that these charges were not the fees being charged by the ATM machines I had been using but an extra fee that AB was charging on top of the fees from the ATM machines, I certainly would not have spent 15 years racking up over $7,000 in extra ATM fees. Since this is not standard practice for all financial institutions, the banker is required to disclose this information to prospective customers prior to opening a new checking account. Certainly, a fraction of the responsibility for this error falls upon myself for not having a complete understanding of the agreement with the bank, but at any point during the past 15 years, the bank could have notified me that I had been unnecessarily paying double the average fee per ATM withdrawal, but I assume because this is income for the bank, they did not. When I did finally understand this, which was about 4 months ago, I have driven to the bank to use their ATM for every withdrawal. I have attempted to recoup the fees from the bank stating that this was not disclosed to me in a manner that I understood, and that I assumed the term "out of network" ATM fees on my statements were the fees charged by the owner of the ATM machine. But, all they did was refer me to the agreement. Disclosure to me implies transparency, and I am hardly an idiot. I've requested evidence of this disclosure to me at the time of opening my account, but all they did was refer me to the agreement. Because it takes two to tango, the burden of this expense should hardly fall solely on myself. I have maintained my account at this bank while I was fighting it, but it has taken longer than I originally thought to reach a resolution. My next step is to file a case in the court system. The latest inconvenience from AB was their freezing my debit card the other night without explanation. This used to be resolved simply by calling the phone number on the card. However, AB no longer offers 24-hour support for their errors, and so I was instructed to call during banking hours. Well, the bank was closed today in honor of Juneteenth, so I have not been able to resolve this yet and have had no access to my personal funds for almost 2 days.

So, I have a state tax lien for taxes. If I could have paid it, I would have. The state went in and wiped out not only my pathetic $50.33, but they also wiped out my two kids' accounts as well. On top of it, Associated Bank charged $100 for 'legal' fees to process it. They will not budge on the legal fees. I now have to review my paperwork. I do not recall seeing a $100 legal fee in their 'fee' section. This is unfair. I do not recommend working with this bank due to a lack of integrity.

If I could give them a -5, I would. The Waukesha brands are the worst, and the employees, oh my goodness. No wonder why so many of them are closing. I give them 5 more years open, and that's being nice. Terrible customer service, if you can even call it that.

Strange unknown charges and fees occur regularly and are often found to be accounting errors on the side of the bank. I am anxious about their policies, which change frequently. Customer service at most branch locations is fair to average.

Outside of what the customer service may be, they are one of the few banks that looked out for me going through a tough time during identity theft.

Very slow at everything. Calling customer service they are very rude. They don't try to fix the problem until tou are ready to close the account

Avoid this despicable bank!

They invite you to open an account with them and encourage you to set up DD and initial funding, after all verifications and deposit they will suddenly freeze your accpunt without notice. One day you wake up and cannot login into your account or see your balance or pay any of your bills. These theives then will not provide answers or help you. Using a faulty fraud detection system then disconnect you from your own hard earned money and will not give any recourse. You will get very rude people like bridgette who wont help you.

The only course of action you have left is filing a complaint with CFPB asap and let CFPB force these thieves to provide answers. Thank god for CFPB. Without auch regulatory federal agencies these thieves would thrive on stolen money from customers.

Never make these your primary bank.
Avoid at all costs.