This is a cautionary note as well as a sharp criticsm of Astoria bank, or at least a criticism of one of their employees.

In 2005 we opened up an account for my then less than one-year-old son. We went to Astoria Bank because they are a neighborhood bank and we liked them when we opened other accounts. Overall we were happy with them. We felt their customer service was better than average.

My son had been given a $100 check as a gift from a relative and we figured we'd start him with a bank account. We already had a "Kids Account" at Astoria for his sister, which didn't charge us fees even if the balance was low. After all, kids seldom start out with enough for a minimum balance, so banks often have a kind of account that takes this into account. Besides I am the kind of person who thinks the fees charged by banks is borderline criminal. Why should WE pay for THEM to make money off of our money? So I look for situations where there is no fee or I always maintain the minimum balance in the account needed to avoid the fee. But I do kind of figure banks should have appropriate Kids Accounts that don't take your money if you are too poor to have a minimum balance. This was the kind of account we wanted to open for Jacob and that is what we told them.

Since opening the account we had no real opportunity to add to it. The Bush economy was such we really didn't have the resources to add to an account that gave almost no interest. But recently my mother sent a check for $200 for Jacob as a gift and we decided we should add to his account.

Today we went there to find that the account they opened for him was NOT a Kids Account, in fact they COULD not have opened such an account for him when he was that young because he couldn't sign his name. So they opened, against our wishes, an account where they charged a fee if you had less than $500 in it. We had specifically told them we did NOT want that kind of account. Had they told us that was the only option, I would have added the extra $400 if I could, or waited til we had the extra money to bring up the difference. But no one told either myself or my wife that there was a $10 per quarter fee. No one ever told us that quarter after quarter, they were pilfering Jacob's money. Of course the interest paid was minimal, but the fees charged were enough to swamp the whole account.

So today we found out the account was long closed.

I am obsessively careful about these things, or at least THOUGHT I was. I ask about fees. I hate the kind of nickel-and-diming fees banks charge us for us to let them use our money. I find ways to avoid fees and pay close attention to minimum balances when I am told about them. If I could imagine any way we made this mistake, I would be kicking myself, not feeling outraged at Astoria bank. But my wife and I both remember us being meticulously careful to ASK about fees and being SPECIFICALLY TOLD there were none.

Now I am sure by law they had to give us information about the fees. In fact in the package of information I just dug up that they gave us after we opened it, it says it on the front page. What I am looking at is NOT what we had to sign and what we were told verbally did not match what is on the paper. We trusted the Astoria customer service rep rather than read the documents, which makes us stupid and naive. But it also makes Astoria, or at least that particular customer service rep, misleading. I am sure they did what was legally correct. But they failed miserably when it comes to customer service.

The fact remains we specifically asked them and were verbally told wrong or misleading information. They opened a different account than what we asked for (and different from what we had opened for my daughter) and failed to make it verbally clear that they would be pilfering Jacob's money four times a year. Yes, it is there in print when I dig through what they gave us as we left after opening the account. I specifically remember discussing that we wanted to have an account where the low balance would not incure fees. My wife remembers the same and, as she puts it, knows that kind of thing would not get by me (she knows how I feel about that kind of fee).

Jacob was shocked that they had taken his money. It is his first lesson about what big business is like in America and how you can NOT trust what they say but only what is in writing. A good lesson, perhaps, in the long run but kind of a messed up thing to do to a four year old. I promised I would pay him myself what the bank stole from him. He thanked me several times for "sharing my $100 with him." Needless to say, Astoria will be losing our business. We have heard good things about Commerce so will check them out. I have a USAA account so maybe we will look at what kind of Kids Accounts they have. I suspect they all will have similar rules and fee structures. But if they are OPEN about it, then we can act accordingly. Astoria, either through the actions of the individual who opened the account for us, or through whatever policy they may have that might keep such pitfalls less than transparent, did precisely what we had told them we didn't want.

So parents, don't get caught out the same way we did. Don't take their word for it when you ask specifically about fees and they assure you there will be none. Read before your sign. It shouldn't need saying, but I guess it does. They may not be giving you what you asked for and ONLY by looking at every page and every paragraph of the Truth in Savings Disclosure will you know if what they give you is what you asked for. They will screw you if they can, at least at Astoria, and perhaps anywhere. I shouldn't be surprised, but honestly, you expect better of a neighborhood bank and when you open up an account for a kid. Ultimately the fault is ours since the forms to open account MUST have had something in fine print telling us about the fee. But we made the mistake of trusting an Astoria bank customer service rep on the assumption that by the time you are opening a third account at that branch you might have established some kind of relationship with the bank. Now I know better and I'm passing along the warning.