Is First Hawaiian Bank a Good Bank?

Do you want to know whether First Hawaiian Bank is a good bank? Before you decide to open an account or open a second account, it’s important that you do your homework and evaluate whether the institution fits your needs.

To help you with this we’ve gathered some reviews and ratings for First Hawaiian Bank so that you can evaluate things like the services they offer, what potential fees you might face, and more.

First Hawaiian Bank

First Hawaiian Bank is a simple, Cleveland-based bank with 1,200 branches across 15 states. This makes them a mid-sized bank that offers convenient and simple checking accounts, savings accounts, and CDs. But don’t expect much. All three of these are very bare-bones services.

What the company is more well known for is the customer service that offers. In spite of being a smaller bank, when there are issues you can rest assured that you will get a hold of someone through Live phone support, chat support, or Twitter support.

Ratings

NerdWallet has given First Hawaiian Bank 3.0 out of 5.0 rating. This middle-of-the-road rating is due to the fact that they have slightly cheaper monthly fees to maintain a checking account or savings account especially compared to larger banks, and they offer a variety of contact methods for customer service. However, they have very low interest rates on savings accounts or CDs and you can be hit with extended overdraft fees that add up very quickly.

Customer Service Reviews

Customer service reviews from Consumer Affairs highlight issues with the customer service contact number, long periods of being on hold, and the inability to ever speak with someone directly. Even after people finally get a hold of a person, they end up transferred to different departments where they are on hold for even longer with no solution in sight but an endless loop.

One customer expressed frustration that they had, “been on the phone for three days trying to get a new debit card for my benefits. I wait three hours then they hang up on me.”

Getting their voice heard, having the issue even acknowledged is so problematic that many customers feel they will never get a solution because of how difficult it is just to get the issue acknowledged in the first place.

Customer Complaints First Hawaiian Bank

Consumer affairs has given them a 1 star rating, one out of five because of the number of complaints that have to do with things like failing to disclose hidden fees or misleading tactics for those who are signing up for different accounts.

One consumer, for example, stated that they were never told by the banker who set up their account that they would be charged for things as simple as checking and account balance using a non-First Hawaiian Bank ATM. Simple things like not being informed verbally that there could be specific holds on deposits especially deposits of a few hundred dollars or more have been lodged against the company by consumers.

These issues don’t just have to do with not being informed of hidden charges that can accumulate rather quickly but more importantly have to deal with the consequences of not having that information on hand such as making a deposit for upcoming bills but being unaware that there would be an extended hold on that money and, as a direct result, having bills come through the account which end up accumulating overdraft fees.

Overly Expensive Overdraft

The overdraft fees are one of the least attractive features that heavily influence the low rating this Bank receives. First Hawaiian Bank’s overdraft fees are some of the highest you will find, $38.50. They can charge you this fee each time there is an overdraft which means you can be charged more than once per day and if you go more than 5 days without realizing there was an overdraft fee, they will tack on an additional $28.50.

Services Offered by First Hawaiian Bank

First Hawaiian Bank offers the same key services that you would expect in most banks, including checking accounts, savings accounts, and CDs. For a mid-sized Bank based out of Cleveland, the checking accounts are very basic with no frills and limited extra fees. This makes them slightly more affordable compared to a bank that might charge $12 or $15 per month just for the luxury of having a bank account.

The same benefit can be said of the savings accounts with limited fees and very simple solutions for saving your money. You won’t learn a lot of interest off of this account however common or will you earn a lot of interest with the CDs. The CDs however have very low rates.

What to do if you have a complaint

If you have a complaint against First Hawaiian Bank, and you aren’t getting a solution to your problem, we can help.