Either Very Good Or Very Horrid

My husband has been a member of Navy Federal since he joined the Navy in 2005 and I have had accounts there since we married in 2008.  They used to be great, but in the last 18 months or so, things have taken a severe turn for the worse. 

Here are the cons:

* Customer service is a nightmare.  Rude, rude, rude and rude.  They will actually argue with you, take "notes" for your account (which are never there when you have to call again), act like you are an idiot when you call and then will try to sell you something!  Everytime I call, I'm told I'm not a full member - I guess the checking account, credit card, debit card, car loans and savings account with my name on it are not enough...  They all say the same thing, too - "If your husband dies, we will lock you out of the accounts because you don't have a seperate account from him."  Excuse me?!?!  Beyond the error of the statement since the accounts are JOINT, nice customer service to a military spouse.  Considering this is NAVY Federal Credit Union, and sea duty can be 50% or more of a sailor's career and they (along with every other branch) are in hotzones, this is just great customer service, ya know?  Thank you for reminding me of the dangers of my husband's job.  Not like I simply forgot...

* Simple issues like changing an address take forever to fix and usually need to be done online and on the phone for it to stick.  Also, if you have a joint account, everything is linked for payments, but not personal information, so you have to log in to 2 seperate accounts and more than likely, make 2 seperate phone calls to just change an address.  As a military related institution, whose members change addresses quite frequently, this is just absurd. 

*  Paperwork is sent to different places for the same loan.  For example, car titles go to Pennsylvania, but all of the loan paperwork is sent to Virginia, hence the common complaint of titles being lost that you'll find on the web.  We've purchased 2 cars with loans from Navy Federal and the paperwork seems to be very confusing for the car dealer and add an extra layer of hassle to an already frustrating experience.  This has happened at 2 different dealers in 2 different states. 

*  They will freeze your debit card with no warning.  Imagine how fun that is on a payday at the commissary and your debit card does not work!  Sometimes they don't even have an idea as to why it was frozen and will gladly unfreeze it, but still...  And, good luck if you need a new card because of a legitimate security issue.  When VISA had its issues with security breaches a few years ago, Navy Federal's policy was freeze first, then wait to see if the customer calls to send out a new card.  It took multiple phone calls to find out why our cards were not working and then after being assured that new cards were in the mail, they never processed the order for the new cards!   Something that should've taken a few business days to correct took almost 2 weeks!  Thank goodness we were in San Diego which has branches everywhere, unlike other stations where there is 1 branch 30 minutes away so we at least had access to our money.  Other institutions we have belonged to will freeze the card, call/email/send smoke signals/etc.. to inform you of the problem and will have a new card to you with in 3 or 4 business days... it just doesn't work that way with Navy Federal.

*  Their mortgage center is either severly understaffed or incompetent.  It took 8 weeks for them to acknowledge our application and that was after we had to move heaven and earth to rescind it since we went with another lender.  We had a representative call 2 weeks after we closed on our house to start the mortgage process.  When informed that we had already closed, she offered to refinance for us!  Umm.. no thanks.

The pros:

*  They have good rates.  The same rates can be found elsewhere, however.

* The branches are superb.  Yes there can be a wait, but they are always courteous, quick as they can be and make sure you leave happy.  I think the longest I've ever waited in line was 30 minutes and considering that was a payday, not too bad.  For those who complain about the lines at the bank, try a Bank of America or other large bank on a payday afternoon, the wait is comparable or longer.

*  Perks with discounts & member only services.  They have discounts on tax software and occasionally on shopping items.  The member only services are nice - their home center is very helpful with checklists to compare realtors & houses when looking to buy.  They will even refer you to a realtor and if you close with that realtor, you receive money back.  You don't have to have a mortgage with them to qualify.

Overall, the experience with Navy Federal is hit and miss.  The perks are nice, but for us, the hassles of everyday banking are just too much.  Most of our major issues began as they expanded to include all branches of the military & DOD personnel.  Maybe they grew too fast and haven't been able to properly train people, hence all of the incompentcy that is encountered online & over the phone.  Maybe they don't care.  And that is why we are looking at other options for our money.