1st National Bank of Scotia Rte, Clifton Park

This was our principal bank at one time. We still have a few accounts here but they are of the "just hanging around" variety without much money in them. They do not rise to the level of other local banks such as Pioneer, Adirondack Trust, Saratoga National, or even Trustco. All of those banks are making expansion efforts while 1st Bank of Scotia shows no such tendency. They don't have low loan rates or high savings rates, and they have not been competitive on either of those for a long time. The ownership family has their primary interest in the energy company they had for a long time before they opened a bank. They did seem to want to grow the bank at first and make it into at least a leading local bank, but they seem far less concerned about it now, and it doesn't seem likely they will be trying to attract new customers anytime soon with better rates. I'm sure they have some long term plan for the bank but for quite some time it has seemed like a side effort for them.

Business account holder since 2016. Had over $8,500 in fraudulent credit card charges from 8/31/19 - 9/4/19. The bank refused to cover anything. Additionally when I requested the Terms and Conditions/Agreement for my credit card, they denied it. They said "you are responsible for keeping the original copy of the agreement". I was wrong to assume a small, local bank would have my back in a situation like this. I will be fighting this, and will be taking legal action. Please do not be fooled by their false "values" and "mission statement".