Guaranty Bank & Trust, N.A., Review

Mr.
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by Finkelstein, Oct. 12, 2015

I have lived in Longview, Texas starting as a little boy of about 4 years old, went to grade school here at South Ward and later on at First Ward when my parents moved to another part of town. My parents lived here and got married here. My paternal grandparents lived out in White Oak, and my grandfather was a Gregg county constable there in the 1940s.  My maternal grandmother ran a rooming house on E. Methvin right next to the newspaper building. My wife and I are both retired and are free to travel as we like. For the last 11 years we have visit countries all over the world for shorter and longer periods of time. To finance these sojourns I have invested CDs in various Longview banks depending on which of them could give me the best rate of interest and used the interest transferred over to checking accounts with debit cards to finance our visits while “on the road”.  For the past few years we have spent more and more time in Europe especially Sweden where my wife's parents live. As they are very old and ailing, we have stayed mainly at their home helping out.  In November, 2014 I was arranging things in Longview for a visit of up to 2 years mainly in Sweden with some brief visits to other countries in Europe. I had contacted a number of banks in Longview and found that Guaranty Bank and Trust offered by far the best interest rate on a two-year CD. On November 6, 2014 I went to their location at 200 W. Hawkins Pkwy in Longview and arranged for the CDs as well as for a checking account and a debit card. This was done with the assistance of Mss. T. Cano and L. Mock. I explained to Ms. Cano the nature of my stay in Europe and that I would be depending heavily on this card and my checking account for everyday expenses while in Europe. She assured me that there would be no problem and gave me my debit card and her Guaranty business card with telephone number and e-mail address and told me to call or e-mail her whenever I needed help or encountered problems. She assured me that the card would be good for the two years that I was in Europe. I also received a copy of the CD contracts and checking account documentation, where it clearly stated my address in Sweden and the duration term of two years for my business arrangement with Guaranty.. After arriving in Sweden later on in November the use of the card, etc. in Sweden went smoothly with no problems other than the occasional very late bank statement, which Ms. Cano took care of when I e-mailed her about it. In late April and early May, 2015 I made a short visit to Spain and discovered that the Guaranty card was blocked. I contacted Ms. Cano, and she unblocked it immediately.  It was then for the first time that I was told that I must notify her in advance of the country to be visited and the inclusive dates of the visit, but that the card was always open for Sweden and the U.S.A.Thereafter I financed my expenses in Spain with the card. Upon returning to Sweden in early May 2015, I continued to use the card as needed without any problems until August 2015,when I was planning a trip mainly to Germany. On August 26, 2015 Ms. Cano e-mailed me that the card was set to open for the period of my planned stay in Germany and a short excursion into the Czech Republic, August 2-23, 2015. Later the same day I received an e-mail from a Wade White, vice-president at Guaranty, that due to information that he had read stating that Sweden and Germany were at the top of the list of 15 countries suffering from debit card fraud and that due to the risk for Guaranty my card would be blocked in the near future but I would be given a  period of grace to take my assets out of their bank and arrange for investing them elsewhere. In connection with earlier trips to Sweden and other parts of Europe, I had already done some research concerning this problem and found that Germany and Sweden were at the bottom of  lists globally when it concerned debit and credit card fraud. I e-mailed Mr. White an article from Forbes Magazine with statistics on Global card fraud indicating that Sweden was at the bottom of a list of 20 countries and Germany was third from the bottom. He sent me a seething e-mailed claiming I was accusing him of lying and that if I was displeased with Guaranty's blocking my account I should get out of their bank as soon as possible. He also stated that the information he had was correct and that my information was out of date as it was compiled in 2013 for the year 2012.  Sometime later I sent him an  article from cardhub's http://www.cardhub.com/edu/credit-debit-card-fraud-statistics/  showing the most recent statistics from ACI Payments Systems compiled in 2015 for the year 2014  indicating that Sweden was at the bottom of a list of 20 nations and Germany was 3rd from the bottom as regards card fraud. For example, 8% of cardholders in Sweden experienced card fraud as compared with 42-43% of cardholders in the U.S.A. I invited him to email me his statistics supporting his claims about Sweden and Germany with detailed information as to who or what entity compiled them as well as the date that they were compiled and for what year. To date I have had no response.

Apparently Mr. R. Hamilton, president of Guaranty Bank and Trust, intercepted my e-mail dated October 2015 to Mr. White and he had evidently seen that Sweden was not a risk to Guaranty and this was not a valid motive for blocking my card.There were several e-mails back and forth between us. Hamilton's position was in total agreement with Mr. White's that my card should be blocked albeit the motive was no longer the extreme dangers of card fraud in Sweden. In fact, he stated that Mr. White's concerns in this way were irrelevant. Now he introduced the fabrication that it had always been the policy of Guaranty to limit cards used abroad to short periods, perhaps a week or so. He also claimed that Ms. Cano was well aware of this policy and could not have agreed to let me use the card abroad for such a long period, and it must have been someone else – he had no idea who and could not provide names - who no longer worked there that had given me this incorrect information. Furthermore, he stated that even if the assurances were erroneously made by Ms. Cano or someone else, I have nothing in writing and therefore no proof. This, of course, is not quite correct. I have e-mails from Ms. Cano and many bank statements indicating purchases made with the Guaranty card in Sweden, Spain and Germany dating from November 2014 to September 2015.
Guaranty unfortunately is a bank where the top echelons, as evidenced by Wade White and R. Hamilton, employ unscrupulous methods to attain goals which in my case have been financially damaging in the extreme. At present, I still do not know their real motives for blocking my account. I know that in November 2014 there was a real possibility that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by the middle of 2015, but this did not happen. Now it looks as though the rates will not be raised until 2016, if then. With the relatively high CD interest rate that I received, as well as the postages expenses and e-mail charges involved with my account they may have felt that my account was a loss for the bank.

* this reviewer has be with this bank for 6 months - 1 year
* this reviewer had 3 - 5 banks before.
* this review was made on Guaranty Bank & Trust, N.A., Longview Branch at Longview, TX
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by harland, Jul. 13, 2013

I have had many years services with this bank in getting personnel loans and real estate loans and the service has been as described above. Especially with dealing with the President Mr. Kendall Burns.

* this reviewer has be with this bank for 3 - 10 years
* this reviewer had 3 - 5 banks before.
* this review was made on Guaranty Bank & Trust, N.A., Guaranty Bank-Pittsburg at Pittsburg, TX
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Good People
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by JohnnyM, Jan. 17, 2013

I have delt with several banks over the years. Guaranty Bond Bank has been there for me when I needed them. They are always kind, caring, and sincere.
I recomend this bank to all of my family and friends.
As for the last poster... If you have "A LOT" of money in the bank, why would you have to make payments on your overdraft charges???


* this reviewer has be with this bank for >10 years
* this reviewer had 3 - 5 banks before.
* this review was made on Guaranty Bank & Trust, N.A., Sulphur Springs Branch at Sulphur Springs, TX
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Scott Shirk
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by Janetgreen32, Sep. 05, 2012

Scott Shirk is the MOST unprofessional banker that I've personally ever met in my life! He has allowed another employee to speak demeaningly to me after NUMEROUS complaints all he ever did was take up for her hateful and snide behavior. We've got a LOT of money in this bank they they are about to lose due to the unbelievable amount of unprofessionalism demonstrated to me within the past year. After being told my account had been closed and a new account opened i get a call almost A MONTH LATER to inform me that my bank account is seriously overdrawn when I knew it shouldn't have been. When Scott was told another employee there at their bank assured me the account had been closed he treated me as if I were an idiot! I told him I had no problems taking care of the account however it would NOT BE all upfront and that I would have to make payments on the account to pay it off. So I go deposit my check Friday and Sunday I find out that he's taken it upon himself to withdrawal every last dime out of my checking account. Never mind that I had already told him I COULD NOT pay it all at one time, and never mind that I was out of town 3 hrs away from home where I was STUCK for FOUR DAYS until I could get in touch with my husband when he landed at the airport. I would STRONGLY ADVISE doing business with ANY OTHER BANK IN TOWN, then with a bank that doesn't care about the MILLIONS of company $$ coming through their bank DAILY!

* this reviewer has be with this bank for 1 - 3 years
* this reviewer had 1 - 2 banks before.
* this review was made on Guaranty Bank & Trust, N.A., Saint Michael Branch at Texarkana, TX
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