HIDDEN Fees With Grow Financial Federal Credit Union!

Imagine you go into your federal credit union (Grow Financial) where you have been banking since 1986 to withdraw your money market funds, and get hit with a “very hidden” fee of $885.00! Nobody bothers to tell me about this fee, no paperwork is signed, not even is my identification checked. They did this without my knowledge or consent, by secretly going into my “checking” account to take (steal) what they have labeled as a “cash withdraw fee”. I would have never even known it was missing until checks started bouncing, or by checking my account(s) online. Luckily I did go online and was able to spot it before checks began bouncing.

 

I have gotten nowhere in my complaints with the branch manager(s), and have written the CEO ( Robert Fisher ) a letter that was received months ago and has went ignored.

 

I thought there might be some public interest in this story, with just how safe our money really is in the bank. What do you do (or can you do) when the financial institution you are trusting with your money- decides to rob you? I have contacted the NCUA and Grow just lied to them and said I was informed.

 

The reason I decided to withdraw my money in the first place was because of thier inferior service when I went to get a pre-approval for a mortgage loan. I would be happy to share more details but I'm not sure if I can list my contact info here? Please let me know if you're interested when you respond (to this thread) and I'll get back to you will complete details of what happened to me with this nightmare of a credit union.

 

Robert Johnson

Update: I complained to the NCUA about Grow Federal Credit Union and they responded that the credit union basically regulates itself- a frightening realization. They were no help at all, so now I will need to sue Grow credit union to try to get my money back. In the meantime, a relative went into the credit union and got a signed document stating, "no fees for deposits or withdraws". This should help in court!

Yes, it is called a "cash withdraw fee". They at no time informed me there was a fee and purposely kept it hidden from me, it was never mentioned! The manager actually laughed at me and said, "I knew you would be angry when you found out." The fee is only mentioned on thier website, buried in links. Was I supposed to search out the fees on thier website before coming into the branch to do a withdraw!? The CEO obviously hides in his Ivory Tower, I've never heard from him once.

The federal credit unions regulate themselves. The NCUA is a joke as well as the BBB. The most recent response I got from the NCUA was that Grow "investigated" themself and the "case is closed". I've contacted all the media and only one paper ran a short article on it- TBT, some little freebie paper. Channel 8's On Your Side acted like they were interested and requested proof of the fee I was charged. I sent them a copy and never heard back from them again, without any reason why. I followed up several times with them and was ignored. It was very strange.

I've shopped around for lawyers and they all want big bucks, none will take it on a contigency even though they can charge defendant for legal fees, etc. None seem to understand the big picture of this and that this could happen to anyone. And it will, this is going to get much worse!

I withdrew my entire balance, in cash. I'm fine with a fee, just make it known in advance and not hidden- Period!

Yes, it was grandfathered in as a business account in 1986, but what's the difference?! At no time was a fee mentioned, it was purposely hidden from me. Was I expected to go online, click through 3 links and download an Adobe file to see the fees BEFORE completing a transaction???

Recent update:
My sister when to a branch to inquire about fees and they told her "NO FEES for cash withdraws of any amount". She asked to have it put in writing and it was. So it looks like this is headed to court if it doesn't get resolved soon. Would be nice to get a hungry lawyer to sock it to them!