CIBC Reviews 1,946

No response after waiting more than an hour in line with CIBC customer service. The worst customer service ever.

Worst bank ever
They treat you like garbage and you have no control over your own money
They over charge you with bank fees and the staff are rude and unhelpful
Don't use this bank

What a waste of time this bank is. I opened a 'smart' account that would give a reward to do a number of things such as set up direct deposit and make a number of online purchases. I have been told over and over again that I qualify, but they won't give the reward. Now, the 'smart' account is turning into a regular account that has a high monthly charge.

I have a Costco cibc credit card but no account at CIBC and that has caused problems. Hard to get a person on the phone. When card was lost, the phone recording kept asking for my card number which I didn't have because lost and wouldn't let me speak to a person. Finally got a person after going home and getting card number. She cancelled old card and sent me a new card which I couldn't get because of mail strike. When I tried to find out my account balance on old card to pay it ( didn't have number of new card yet so couldn't use that), had a lot of trouble and long wait on hold. Or at least I thought might be on hold. Call kept going for 25 mins before I hung up because after initial recording telling me to push this button then that one, it went silent without noise like music. Was I on hold or not? Called many times with same results. What a waste of time. Because I struggled for days to get my balance on what to pay I now have to pay interest due to late payment. Should be easier to talk to someone directly. Gave my experience one star when it should have been zero because I finally did get a wonderful woman named Azar. She was excellent in not only helping me but making me feel like my struggles mattered. If I could request her whenever I had a problem then I would stay with CIBC but since not possible, I will be cutting up my new card when I receive it. Not worth the hassle dealing with their customer service department where I struggled to talk to someone.

Is there negative star option? . I paid my credit card at the branch to the teller, they said its going to reflect in 3-5 business days. WTF? I am pinching myself to see if i am living in the year 2025 or 1025 ? Such a useless bank, they should rather work in a farm land where people should wait months after planting a seed. Utter shame to exist in this era.

Rated as 1 because there is no zero option. I have spnt a month dealing with their so called "fraud team"
because theey want to protect me (a senior) from scams. BUT they do not answer questions and refuse to provide information. They don't care about their customers. The only fraud I experienced soo far is fron CIBC. Stay away from this bank!

I spent 3 hours on hold trying to activate my new credit card. The lady said i need to go back to the bank and give proof of adress, a tax form and a whole bunch of other info. Mind you i was just at the bank geting the new card and they told me to call the number to activate the card. This service is very infuriating and im 100% looking into switching banks at the end of the year.

I paid off my mortgage on July 30 and have been following up since August 20 for discharge documentation and confirmation that the mortgage was registered as satisfied. Despite multiple emails and calls (about 30 calls over 30 days, including to the 1-800 line) and my lawyer’s involvement, I’ve received little to no response—or vague, non-actionable replies.

This delay jeopardized a scheduled Oct 2 home closing and has left me in limbo. All I need is written confirmation and proof of registry—a basic discharge package. From what I understand, registering a satisfied mortgage should typically be completed well before 60 days and yet mine has not. And, they continue to blame Canada Post when they can send documents securely.

Please improve follow-through and assign a single point of contact to own discharge files...or something. Poeple rely on closure, their money and so on. They don't have the knowledge or time to figure out how to get through the red tape. I can't even get an interim discharge/comfort letter while registration is pending would also help clients avoid last-minute crises. I became very irate and this triggered an irate response too. IT all went bad. Over 30 days and over 30 calls....not cool.
The tone of CIBC staff feelspassive aggressive - they have no authority or ways to demonstrate trust or accountability. They explain their process like I work there but all I wanted was a document to release my money.

Still unresolved as of Oct 3 and not looking good because the escalation team has a FIFO system - and they still haven't gotten to my request from Oct 2nd.

Friends...if you can, don't use CIBC for a mortgage. Or a bank in general. They have lost sight of service - using technology and security as a rational. It matters to have security but the communication skills feel more like random.

They might be the first to the table to give you a mortgage but they are hard to divorce.

I am not sure who to use but CIBC and TD are too complicated and have this "hold" system that impact clients (it takes 3 to 5 days to resolve - or in my case over 60 days despite being proactive). This is the second time I've had issues in big ways with banks.

Do not go with CIBC for your kids’ accounts. They supposedly had an offer where if you open your first child account with them and follow specific steps they would give you $75 to the new account and the account will have no fees. That turned out to be a complete scam. Despite finding record of the offer, I was repeatedly told that such offer never existed and we just received notification that the account will now have a monthly fee.

Worst bank . Worst experience for an Auto loan.
will never recommend anyone

CIBC cancelled my Credit Card as it was compromised. They say they sent a new card over the weekend but I have not yet got it. Now with Canada Post strike I am on a phone hold for the last 2 hours to ask them to send another card to a CIBC branch near me. Usually they give an option for them to call me back but this time no. Yes once I resolve the issues will seriously consider a change.

Garbage service, everyone passes you off to the next person and nothing gets done. I even had an email chain get passed through 4 business advisors and ended with every single one of them completely ignoring the conversation to the point where I replied saying I was pulling all 3 of my business accounts with them and not a single one replied. Complete joke

Awful experience. First, I transferred a card balance with a 0% interest rate for 12 months. Now, interest charges are being applied to my account. I've been waiting on hold for over an hour to speak with a client service representative. This is unacceptable — I’m closing this card.

I have had auto financing through CIBC since 2020. I have had to call them twice per year, on average. I have to say that EVERY single time resulted in them servicing my needs and concerns within minutes of dialing their number. In today's day and age, I have found this to be very rare. I am grateful for such prompt, FRIENDLY service. Thank you, CIBC.

The worst experience I have ever had with a bank and its customer service was with CIBC.

I received a new credit card and attempted to activate it online, but something went wrong. I then called the number provided on the sticker attached to the card. After passing verification, I was informed that the teller had entered the wrong phone number on my account. The first representative told me the card was now active. I asked him to update my phone number to my current one, but he said he could not do it and would transfer me to someone who could.

After waiting, the second representative picked up and told me the card was not active. I again requested that he activate the card, which he eventually confirmed was done. I then asked him to update my phone number, which was the reason I was transferred to him in the first place. Instead of addressing this, he began asking me unrelated personal questions about my other credit cards and their limits. I answered a few but refused to provide further details, as I considered this private information and irrelevant to simply updating a phone number. At that point, he said I would have to visit a branch and that he could not assist me further.

Later, when I tried to make a purchase with this supposedly “active” card, it was declined. After waiting almost five hours to speak with another customer service representative, I was told the card was active but blocked, and that I needed to go to a branch with two pieces of ID. At that point, I asked her to cancel the card and close the account, which she did in about 20 seconds.

This experience left me feeling that CIBC does not value new customers. Rather than assisting me properly, their process made it easier to lose a customer than to keep one and allow the bank to build a relationship.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The worste bank I have ever seen. They approved my mortgage refinance with a Line of credit, signed everything including the lawyer paper and now this is two weeks still no fund. I am already prepared to leave this thing asap. Please stay away.

I’ve been Waiting for 1 hr 45 minutes for a CSR to assist with a payment discrepancy. I’m sure they are just hoping I will give up and go away.

Silly bank. This institution is absurd. Laughable. Stay away!! This is a BAD institution

My credit card was not working, so I called the customer service to find out the reason. I hold the phone for more than 2 and a half hours . Even they don't have call back option.

Customer service was crappy and non-productive. A waist of my time. My elderly brother was not able to ask a simple question regarding his bank account as he lives out of town and could not get anybody from CIBC to talk to. A load of crap.

So disappointed with customer service at CIBC. I opened an account with CIBC as part of a promotion and I have to say, it was not worth it. I had an issue that should have been resolved in a few days ended up locking my account and I was not able to access my funds for over two weeks including my payroll. Not only was I extremely inconvenienced, I also had to deal with rude customer service. I will be closing out my account as soon as possible.