To the Editor,
I am writing to express my total frustration with the consistently poor service and inaccessibility of ACB Caribbean, a bank that many of us in Antigua and Barbuda rely on. What was once considered a bank for the people has, for many “normal people” like myself, become a source of utter exhaustion.
My experiences over the past years paint a clear picture of a bank struggling to meet the basic needs of its expanded customer base. The most evident issue is the unreliability of the bank’s ATMS. I have personally encountered non-functional ATMs at various key locations including Epicurean Fine Foods, Thames Street, and Village Walk. It is not an isolated incident; there have been instances when virtually _none_ of the bank’s ATMs across the entire island were working, leaving customers stranded without access to their own cash. This is unacceptable.
To make matters worse, if you use the ATM of another bank to receive cash, your account is charged for the transaction. It goes without saying, ACB Caribbean does not refund that charge.
Adding insult to injury, ACB Caribbean is, to my knowledge, the only bank that levies a charge on its customers for using ATMs not directly attached to a branch. This policy, combined with the frequent outages, feels like a penalty for attempting to access one’s funds conveniently.
The problem is compounded by the bank’s geographical limitations. All of ACB Caribbean’s ATMs and branches are concentrated within St. John’s environs. The locations are Market Street, Thames Street, High Street, Village Walk, Epicurean, Townhouse Megastore. For anyone living outside the city, this means a mandatory and often time-consuming journey just to withdraw cash, further exacerbated by the unreliable ATM network.
The situation has deteriorated significantly since ACB Caribbean acquired Royal Bank of Canada’s customer base. While expansion is a business goal, it seems to have come at the expense of service quality. The closure of the Thames Street branch, a vital location for many, has funneled an even larger volume of customers into the remaining branches, leading to perpetually long lines and extended waiting times inside the bank. It is disheartening to arrive at a branch, endure a lengthy queue, only to find that even the ATMs _inside_ the bank are not working, forcing yet another wasted trip.
ACB Caribbean began with a mission to serve the local population, including those who were historically underserved. It is deeply ironic and frankly, infuriating, that it has now become a source of such significant frustration for everyday citizens simply trying to manage their finances.
I urge ACB Caribbean to urgently address these critical issues: invest in robust, reliable ATM infrastructure, reconsider their ATM fee policy, and decentralize their services to better serve customers across the island. Our hard-earned money deserves accessible and dependable banking services.
Sincerely,
A Soon To Be Former Customer of ACB Caribbean.