GLS Bank Reviews 420

I went to the bank in Berlin to report that I was a victim of a phishing attack and the old woman at the front desk was so extremely unhelpful just because my spoken German sucks. Despite the fact that she had an English speaking guy right next to her.

I came in time because the payment in question has not been yet proceeded by PayPal but I have no idea if the old woman managed to dispute the payment or not.

GLS Bank is only for Germans, definitely not foreigners friendly!

So, it's official! The bank must be working with the scammers in Tandem. Because on Monday I become a victim of phishing attack. On Tuesday I reported the attack and tried to dispute the payment but I was ignored by the bank teller. And finally on Thursday my money are officially gone!

What a bank!

So, I was right. It is a rasist bank because I received an answer from them saying that the official language of the bank in Germany is German and I should act accordingly.

They do take money from foreigners but a customer service in a foreign language is not their style!

If I would have asked for support in my native language then I would be agree that would be over the top because I am from a small country but let's be honest English today is nothing special and yet the bank was not willing to help in English.

I am just wondering then why is English a obligatory subject on German schools if people are not willing to use in everyday life in their adulthood?

Government would safe a lot money if they take English out of the school curriculum because it is useless to teach it if nobody is willing to use it.

While GLS Bank promotes an appealing concept of ethical banking, my experience has left me questioning the sincerity of their environmental commitments. The volume of paper mail I receive is concerning; it seems excessive for a bank that claims to prioritize sustainability. This contradiction between their marketing and their operational practices raises doubts about how deeply their ethical standards are actually implemented within their own structures. It's disheartening to see a potentially transformative approach undermined by practices that do not align with their proclaimed values. I hope GLS Bank reevaluates their methods and truly practices what they preach regarding environmental responsibility.

FIRST THING. I did not manage to use their banking app and got locked out of my account on the web version as a result. As for some reason my old deactivated phone number is still showing tied to my account in the app (even though I have changed it more than 3 years ago and was receiving TANs on the new one). To change it, the app redirected me to the web version. Where I could not do it, as I don't have the Sicherheitsverfahren -- a thing now DONE THROUGH THE APP. I was locked out of my account after I tried to login on the web version again. Absolutely mind-blowing! SECOND THING. About their fees: on top of the 3,80 EUR /month one has to pay 12-60 EUR /year depending on the income. The fee is set to 60 EUR by default, if your income is lower than 1000 EUR, you need to contact the bank about the reduction yourself. The branch managers explained this fee as a measure that helps GLS survive the bank crisis without firing employees.

Sustainable doesn't mean Service-oriented; cooperative doesn't mean community

There were so many reasons to be excited when I discovered GLS Bank: 1. I'd always been a member of cooperative banks in the US 2. I like banking where my money is being invested in sustainable and ethical enterprises. Well, at GLS Bank, "sustainable" doesn't mean "service-oriented" and "cooperative" doesn't mean "friendly" or "community".

Problems started from the beginning: It's a multistep process that includes several letters and codes -- but there's no one letter that tells you the steps to follow or what you need to do to complete the process. After multiple messages through the service portals and a couple of voice messages on their hotline, someone finally called me. I speak/write business-level German, but the way I was treated by the customer service agent was like I was the stupidest person on the planet. She kept giving exasperated sighs and hrmps. She obviously didn't like her job and seemed to have no idea how to give any kind of guidance or support -- but we made it through! In all, it took about 6 weeks to actually start using my account. This included waiting for each letter with a different passcode or login and the time it took for them to help me.

When I finally was able to access my account, I was shocked at how outdated the online banking system was. It felt like it was 2005! They have recently given the system a facelift, but it still lacks a lot of functionality that most banks (even in Germany) have. Huge disappointment considering the banks fees and shareholder money that gets paid to them. What are they doing with the fees? Obviously not investing in creating a service-oriented work culture or good user experience.

I should have seen that initial customer service interaction and the outdated portal as a red flag, but I wanted to make this work; it's an ecological, cooperative bank! And to be honest, I blamed myself for perhaps missing something during the setup process after feeling shamed by the customer service agent for needing help. I can't imagine how it would have been had I not been a fluent German speaker!

Other customer service interactions for other things stretched on for days or messages in their portal messaging system went unanswered. Those messages that were answered were often short or unhelpful.

To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. As soon as I find another ethical bank, I'm gonna make a jump. It's just not worth paying so much money to be treated so poorly. They do great marketing though!

Great bank with great values, ethically driven and with focus on environmental protection, climate change issues and social issues.

I do not know where to start honestly. I also wanted to deposit some amount on a more fair bank since we do not have an equivalent in Austria. However, I would not recommend GLS Bank, in particular not if you are not living in Germany. The customer service line is awaful, I usually wait 10-15 minutes and they do not call you back if you leave your number. This did cost me a fortune I could have done something nice with it or better donated it instead of paying for the service line. Once you get through I was rarely given the help I needed. The Online Banking App did severely lagg and cause trouble on my phone and ultimately did not work. How they handle the TAN renewal is incredibly slow and complicated. The bank certainly cares for security but in all other aspects for me it completely failed. Now, when I decided to close my account, I am still waiting (since three weeks) for the transaction of my funds - a task that should be easily accomplished within a few days. I have written to basic customer service and complaints section. Terrible service ! Many companies fail to recruit enough staff to help customers out or at least REPLY to emails. So it the end GLS bank appears to be as greedy as other banks due to management decisions - optimizing profit rate by hiring less people though those employed can apparently not sufficiently handle the incoming requests. Maybe some management staff should reduce their bonuses to hire more people at the lower ranks.

Jesus Christ this was the worst experience I ever had with any bank. Period.
Not only they did not deliver my cards to the correct address... THREE TIMES. But after that they also decided to close my account, because "My values did not align with the company." God knows what that means.
Besides that, contact with Customer Support was always dreadful. Very short hours for calling them and they rarely were able to solve my problems. They kept on saying that they would do it and then things kept on being broken. Best example is with things being delivered to the wrong address. Twice they promised me that they had solved it....
But the reason I write this review is the following:
This all I describe happened half a year ago, at the time I didn't leave any review. But yesterday I received a letter from them.. THANKING ME FOR BEING THEIR CLIENT.
That is bad enough, since I have not been their client for half a year now... but the letter was not even CO2 compensated. I cant facepalm enough to this. You have one job, one defining characteristic, and you screw that one up too. Way to go GLS.

I need to be able to contact a bank person who speaks English. They type my info wrong.

I've been a client for almost 6 years and kept over 300k in 0% interest savings there just because I thought they'd be doing good with it, Sadly I intend to close my account soon, service has been continuously degrading, longer and longer wait time for support, direct messages go unanswered. You'd still get nice people but they are rarely useful or knowledgeable in their own systems.

I think it's a good bank for native Germans who do the bare minimum with their bank and do not intend to keep large sums of money in it. Anything other than that, despite all the good intentions, is simply not functional and it would be nice if they did more to inform potential clients they might not be a good fit for them.

Edit: sadly I had to lower my review even further, shortly after writing this I was informed that my account will be "closed", no explanation as to why nor any reply to my request to know why. The bizarre conduct of this bank is slowly crossing into the absurd

I am a current GLS bank member, and I recently received a letter informing me that they are introducing a new fee, whereby they will charge me a 0.5% "deposit fee" when my account exceeds 50.000 euros.

I find this quite surprising, as I was under the impression that banks profit from having more deposits.

I now understand that, on the contrary, my funds are causing the bank a great inconvenience. I am taking immediate steps to transfer my money elsewhere to ensure that GLS will never have to suffer such inconvenience on my behalf ever again.

Super friendly and helpful service.
Bank itself and especially online is a bit problematic since it’s inferior and UI and usability and features is lagging way behind competition. Though in the end of the day - do you wanna support aushole bankers at Deutsche Bank or a better future?

Very, very good...

I don't like their attitude of not admitting their mistakes, and playing with people's feelings about being a fair bank, while they are not.

GLS asks: What could they improve? Dont be hypocritical. If you make mistakes, even in your company conditions, than stay for it and handle correspondingly. Only pretending your do some customer care is not enough.

I want to express my satisfaction in having handle my boxes over the GLS company.
International delivery from Germany (Magdeburg) to Italy (Palermo). The boxes have been successfully delivered in 4 days.

The only weak point has been the pick up, which took place with a day of delay.