Think Overdraft Fees are Scary? Try These Haunted Banks

A trip to the bank can be nerve-wracking, especially if you’re applying for a mortgage loan or personal loan, or to dispute one of those ghoulish new overdraft fees. There are some banks, however, that are scary for another reason: they’re haunted. Go Banking Rates has compiled a list of these “financial phantoms” that make going to the bank a supernatural adventure.

(Photo from hollowhill.com)

Old Town Spring, Texas

Old Town Spring – just north of Houston – has an old bank that some people claim is haunted. Shops have tried to occupy the space that used to house the bank, but they don’t last very long before the ghost drives them out or maybe they had a bad small business loan.

The building still stands for rent most of the time papered up, but you can peer into the windows…if you dare.

Adorned with bullet holes from violent robberies, the former Spring State Bank is said to be haunted by a ghost who’s still looking for his or her money. (If there’s ever a good reason to haunt a place, that’s probably the best one we’ve heard of.)

Morristown, New Jersey

This town outside of New York City is home to a bank with a rather grisly story behind it.

In 1833 Judge Samuel Sayles, his wife and their slave were murdered by a lunatic Frenchman, Antoine Le Blanc. Le Blanc was tried and hung – and then, because what would a hanging be without souvenirs? – his skin was turned into mementos, like wallets, book covers and lampshades.

The Sayles house is currently a Commerce Bank, which, we hope, gives customers pens and calendars as thank-you gifts.

The bank is said to be haunted by the Sayles slave, who wasn’t worthy enough for Le Blanc to be charged with her murder.

(Photo from lhongchou at flickr.)

London, England

Pound for *cough* pound, England probably has the most famous ghosts of any country in the world – and the “Black Nun,” said to haunt the Bank of England’s Threadneedle Street location, is one of them.

According to legend, in 1811 Sarah Whitehead came looking for her brother, Philip. Philip, who had worked at the bank, had been charged with forgery and consequently hung for it. When she learned of his death she lost her mind, and spent years going back to the bank daily, asking for her brother. She’s continues to look for him as a ghost, still wearing the dark robes which give her her nickname.

(Photo from vacationtime at flickr.)

Seattle, Washington

Under this Pacific Northwest metropolis are sections of streets that were paved over during the city’s early boom years.

On one of these streets was the basement vaults of a local bank, which visitors can now see on guided tours. According to legend, the vaults are haunted by a woman who was killed there in the distant past.

(Photo by Newfie Bullet at flickr.)

Montreal, Canada

Dorothy, a young woman either shot during a bank robbery or who killed herself when her lover, the bank manager, broke up with her, is reported to haunt the halls of the former Bank of Montreal office.

She was killed or committed suicide in the upstairs washroom of the bank early in the morning. Afterward, the female employees of the bank refused to use that restroom, saying they felt uncomfortable. The feeling persisted until the bank was forced to build another women’s restroom.

The building is now used to house the Hockey Hall of Fame.

London, England

Coutts Bank was plagued by lights flickering and a headless ghost in the early ’90s. So, naturally, they held a séance.

The psychic leading the séance figured out the bank was haunted by none other than the Duke of Norfolk – executed in 1572. The psychic was able to broker the ghost’s graceful exit and the bank is now phantom-free.

(Photo from John Neidermeyer at flickr.)

Natchez, Mississippi

Southern Gothic is alive and well in this historic Mississippi River town, home to a very old former bank that’s purportedly haunted by a “shimmering golden man.”

Why he haunts the former bank is unclear, but sounds have been recorded in the basement (which served as a fallout shelter during World War II), and what’s more, the site may have been a county jail in the 18th century.

Do these bank freak you out? Maybe you should try online banking…