Guaranty Bank, The Good The Bad By Demon_Buttercup on Sep 02, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

When I needed to open up a new, separate checking account, I decided to try Guaranty Bank which is a smaller local bank that operates out of Rainbow Foods stores in my area.

Initially, I was quite impressed. The bankers were friendly and helpful. Only $25 was required to open a checking account and they give you free checks for life! Yes, that's right, for life! When your checks are running low, you just order more and presto, at no cost to you they provide you with another box of checks.

The Guaranty Check card also has great benefits, providing cash back for purchases at stores I purchase most of my items at, such as Kmart, Walmart, Cub Foods, and Rainbow. All new depositors are also given a coupon that is like a free get out of jail card - it cancels out any overdraft charges for your first overdraft (which I am hoping I will never get, but it's nice to have the coupon just in case!).

When I opened my account about 6 months ago, they had GREAT HOURS...everyday 8am - 8pm. However, that changed last month and now I'm not impressed with their hours of operation, including Sundays being open only from 11am -4pm. Granted, many banks are not open on Sundays, but since mine was initially, I am disappointed with the loss of business hours. The bankers have also changed. Some are nice, but there are a few that I really don't care for -particulary the ones who are looking at bridal magazines and huff at you when you come to make a deposit. I found a well worded email will usually solve that problem tho ;).

Overall Guaranty Bank makes sense as a sound financial decision, I'm just disappointed some of the things that lured to them are no longer active.