Couldn't agree more with the negative reviews trust the negative reviews

I had an account at Arlington Bank before they merged with First Merchant Bank. It was a small community bank where everyone knew everyone. It was easy to set up checking accounts and handle transactions in a timely manner. I had a checking and savings account with them. Now, since they have changed hands, I'm not exactly sure what their new goals are or how they changed. It was a positive experience working with Arlington Bank and adds to the hometown feel cities need to keep adopting instead of throwing away.

I refi'd this spring with a 2.25% rate. That's fantastic, but if I'd known what a headache it would be to *pay them*, I'd have taken a higher rate elsewhere. I'm still considering refinancing AGAIN just to get away from them. - They can't autodraft my payment from my Huntington account. They blame Huntington. Odd, the refi for my other property completed in January manages to autodraft it just fine. As do my credit cards, etc. Only First Merchants can't get past this. They keep pulling the payment and then issuing a reversal and telling me I'm overdue. - They can't ACH my Huntington account, either, though they told me they could and sent a form for me to do so. - I finally used bill pay from my Huntington account to send them $1100. Nowhere on the site can I see that that $1100 payment posted, though they swear it did. Even the customer service agent said, "I could look at this list of transactions all day and they wouldn't make any sense to me." Great. How are they supposed to make sense to ME, then? - I got an email saying payments weren't working and I was overdue, but when I call, they tell me I'm current. They say they've been mailing me statements, but I haven't gotten a single one from them. That department said they couldn't sign me up for e-statements, but they would transfer me to a department that could. - Surprise! That department says they don't do e-statements for mortgages AT ALL. In 2021. So God forbid I would want to use money management software for transactions or something; there's zero chance of that. If you want a bank that's living in this century, First Merchants is not for you.

I tried to open an account 6 months ago, but they couldn't figure how to get online access for me so I closed it. They are now threatening to report me to the credit agencies if I don't deposit $6.61 in my account. I just can't even! Very poor business ethics