Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 1:00 PM

Communication Federal Credit Union -- Misleading information during the application process

(3 stars)

Talking about "tough to join" and a bit misleading:

They stated at their website that anyone can join easlily via the "Citizen for Financial Literacy" with $5 contribution. Then when one applies, they stated after one goes through all the online application procedures (Chex, ID check, sending payment, etc.): "Sorry, you have to live in OK or Kansas to join that association."

I am not complaining about the "tough to join" part, but it is a bit misleading to cause people to apply, then they turned one down rapidly. It is a waste of time on the part of the applicants.

Ref. from their website:

It's never been easier to join Communication Federal Credit Union! Just click the Open My Account button below and go directly to our online membership application.

New member? Signing up is simple and easy.

Citizens for Financial Literacy
  (If you do not fall within our regular field of membership, you may join the Citizens for
   Financial Literacy association in order to become a member with Communication
   Federal Credit Union) -- Note that nowhere it specifies the residency requirement to join this association during the important application process.

Please note that Maria did point out the residency requirement was stated at the cover page. The CC should have included this crucial information during the online application process to ensure te ruling out of out-of-state applicants (like the Kasasa Cash application process). Since it is now a minor flaw, I have modified my initial comments and rating accordingly. Thanks Maria!

51hh1,028 posts since
Jan 16, 2010
Rep Points: 4,709

1. Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 2:46 PM

Actually, they do specify the residency. Below is excerp from their website:

"Look below to find out how you can qualify to join Communication Federal Credit Union and take advantage of the great benefits of being a credit union member. You qualify for membership if you:

Are employed by or retired from one of our select employee groups.
Have a family member who is employed by one of our select employee groups.
Live or work in Broken Arrow, OK, or anywhere in Carter County or Pottawatomie County, OK.(CFCU has a community charter for these areas)
Live in Oklahoma or Kansas AND want to join the Citizens for Financial Literacy (CFL), a non-profit group that is one of our select employee groups. CFL assists in providing financial literacy education. Anyone can join CFL through our online application for a one-time $5 membership fee. "

mariafalter57 posts since
Jun 6, 2010
Rep Points: 222

2. Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 4:01 PM

Thanks. I guess that I missed that part and went ahead with the online application, which I copied in the above post. That is the crucial part that they should have listed the residency requirement like the Kasasa Cash application process.

During the application process, one can simply check "joining the association" as eligibility, nowehre is the residency mentioned at all.

Anyhow, it is a cc that few people can join besides OK/Kansas and SEG.

My initial intention for this thread was not to criticize the credit union, but to alert potential out-of-state applicants not to bother (and save some time):D

51hh1,028 posts since
Jan 16, 2010
Rep Points: 4,709

3. Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 5:24 PM

Thanks 51hh for alerting us to this issue.

One positive from this is that anyone from OK and KS can qualify for this credit union and the 4.00% reward checking account.

My previous posts had referenced their membership page which did not mention this CFL association. I did not know about this intro page to the online application which describes this CFL association.

KenBDG5,133 posts since
Nov 29, 2009
Rep Points: 116,939

4. Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 10:52 PM

It's happened to me more than once. I applied for reward checkings, went through the whole process only to receive emails from the banks (1 or 2 days later), stating that my account had not been approved because of the residency restrictions. These banks did not have anything on their websites about local availability, and Kasasa application accepted my zip code. Very annoying!

mariafalter57 posts since
Jun 6, 2010
Rep Points: 222