So-So Offerings, Clueless Employees

As a student, I banked with them for about 2 years. They have several ATMs around Bloomington, one in the union, one in the library for example. They give free checks.

But the employees always seemed a bit off. For example, they refused to raise my credit card limit from 2k to 3k citing my "lack of income" (apparently they only would consider my stipend, and ignored the fact I earn 20k each summer doing internship). Capitol One gave me a card with a 10k limit - much more than the 3k I asked for, with the same information. Since I must often purchase plane tickets and then submit the receipt for reimbursement, it is nice to have a credit card limit that can carry all charges from a business trip.

IUCU also shut down my Visa credit card while I was travelling in Spain. My backup card was a Discover (not accepted in most European businesses). They were completely unapolegetic when I had to call them (at international rates) to gain access to my funds.

When I planned to spend a summer in the SF Bay Area, I called IUCU to inquire about their "shared branching" service. They assured me I could perform all the functions I perform at IUCU (such as cashing checks) at affiliated CUs in the Bay. After I received my first paycheck, I went to deposit it... I had to pay off Visa charges from my gas and meals driving to California, as well as get access to money for rent. Unfortunately, IUCU would not allow shared branching because they had been unable to deliver mail to me. (I had filed a  temporary change of address with the post office - but to no avail, the bank would not honor it). In addition to not being able to cash my rent check, I was charged a "bad address" fee (which, in their defense, they waived after I called to complain)

There also have been other minor issues... for example, they upgraded their online banking, breaking Mint compatibility. The new UI was powered by Intuit (Mint's parent company) and contained similar functionality, but I lost several months of historical data from the switch.

In short, the only real benefit IUCU provides is ample atm access, even this is true only in Bloomington, and you can get a Charles Schwab account and not be subject to ATM fees anyways. IUCU's basic saving accounts gives less interest than a Charles Schwab checking account.