Blue Ridge Bank

Jul 25th, 2021

Feb 14th, 2018

BOL has recently been swallowed by Virginia Commerce Bank, and the change is for the worse thus far. I have been charged a higher fee for checks that my customers bounce which I have to pass on to them. They don't like this much; no surprise. Deposits and withdrawals are no longer counted together at the end of the day but are credited/debited "live" which means if a big check arrives at 10:00 and I make a deposit to cover it at 10:05 I get charged $35 for the 5-minute overdraft loan. To be fair, I have complained to my bank rep and he has reversed six or seven of these but he will be unable to do so in the future. This means I need to get my ass to the bank right as they open. I must cater to their convenience rather than them to mine. The online banking site is no better and perhaps worse that BOL's. As of this writing I still cannot get access to past banking statements despite many attempts. Unlike before I cannot give my accounts "friendly" names for easier identification. Instead I have to remember which account is which by memorizing the last four numbers of the account. There were a few bumps during the transition. BOL/VCB erroneously issued new ATM cards three weeks before the switchover, causing many customers to shred their old cards before the new cards were usable. The weekend-long online banking site hookup took about three days longer than planned, and current data was unavailable for several days. I may find more points to write about, both good and bad, as time moves on, and I will update here if anything significant affects me.
Feb 9th, 2017