First Republic Bank

No off street parking. Not what I want from a Concierge bank in Santa Monica. Nor do I have a half hour to waste walking a few blocks up and back to the monster parking structures at the promenade.
Cookies are great, but no parking — in overcrowded congested Santa Monica where you are guaranteed a $ 100 parking ticket if you go a minute over if you can ever find street parking.
Not

These guys were great. I had an emergency last week where I needed to pull money out of my First Republic account to put into my other checking account from which my mortgage payments are paid. I didn’t have enough money in the other account and would have missed my mortgage payment. I showed up 15 minutes after they closed and one of the gentleman actually still helped me by allowing me to pull cash out after hours so that I could run and put the money into my other account so my mortgage payment wouldn’t be rejected. It was a HUGE help and really appreciated that he still opened the door to help me. FANTASTIC customer service! So glad I signed up and got a checking account with First Republic and a new HELOC (by far the lowest rate out there too)! Thank you guys!

I have been banking with these guys for the
past few years & they are everything one
can expect… professional, extremely courteous & always eager to help my business run smoothly.
Everything they do here is first class!
I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Service: 6S
I’ve been banking with FRB since 2004 in San Francisco. No matter which FRB branch you enter, they all treat you the same. They treat you like they are making money off you. That’s because they DO! All banks make money off you!
The difference is that FRB treats you the way you should be treated. You do feel like VIP. They have fresh baked cookies, they have couches to sit down, water to drink and sometimes fruits. They even have quality built umbrellas at your request… for FREE. Oh yeah, they will reimburse all ATM fees that any other ATM charges you… anywhere in the WORLD. This was quite useful when I was backpacking around the world for 2 years.
They will learn your name after a few visits. They will even remember your checking account. THIS IS WHAT A BANK is suppose to BE!
The only caveat: the minimum is higher than Chase, BofA, WellsFargo, etc. This bank. If you can, bank here. No hesitation.
YOU ARE MY BANK FOR LIFE! UNLESS you change which I hope you don’t.

I LOVE FIRST REPUBLIC BANK!!!
Who the heck else out there can write that they love their bank in capitol letters with several exclamation points?
Okay, let’s move on to WHY I love my bank. I’ve been with a lot of banks. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Washing Mutual, a smaller bank in Oregon and they each managed to offend with incompetence (tellers who can’t seem to add or subtract), greedy corporate behavior (I’m sorry, why are you holding my deposited money for 5 days?), or non-​personal policies, (why can’t I get a real live PERSON to talk to?.
First Republic changed all that. The branches have more of an office setting. If there is a wait, (I think I’ve only experienced a less than 5 minute wait a couple of times) you sit on a comfy couch next to an array of warm, out of the over cookies. NO JOKE! They are baking said cookies in EVERY BRANCH. There is no bullet proof glass and no COINS. If you need to take out $ 515.18 they will give you $ 516.
Every ATM in the world is FREE, even that ridiculous one in the gas station. If they see an ATM charge they reimburse you at the end of the month. I can call and talk to Anna every time. She knows us and is so pretty too. If I have an overdraft issue, they will call to ask if they should move money from one account into another, for FREE. No charge for being lamo and not shuffling your own money around.
The best part is that all this incredible service is free for a sticker shocking minimum balance of $ 3500. But if you have $ 3500 sitting around anywhere else you are probably not getting enough interest to cover the many costs of banking. I’m talking everything is FREE, they even put first class stamps on the deposit envelopes you mail back to them.
The 4 stars rather than five is because they almost always have terrible parking, though I rarely if ever need to go to a branch since I can use any ATM I want for free and make my deposits free by mail and handle all other business on the phone or online.
Also, my husband reports that they are a bit stingy with their business loans after having many accounts there for about 5 years. Still, it’s way better to be the poor people at the snobby rich people bank than the rich people at the take advantage of the firggin’ poor people bank.