Frustrating Unprofessionalism
I have been with Teachers Credit Union (TCU) for 9 years. For the first 6 years, I never had a single issue with the bank. After I graduated from college and moved to Chicago, and stopped having a face-to-face relationship with the tellers and bankers, things really went south quickly.
Last year, when I called the institution after having a fraudulent check written and cashed from my checking account, I was initially told by the customer representative that "my voice didn't sound like the picture of the account holder" and that she could not give me any information. In other words, my voice sounded like a woman's and because my driver's license shows that I am a man, they did not think that it was actually me calling (even though I verified my member number, my address, and last 5 of my SSN). By the end of the call, it came to light that the rep interpreted my call as another attempt to defraud the account. When I called back to speak to a manager, the manager was more unprofessional than the front-line rep was. Ultimately, the check amount was credited back to my account, after having to spend my own money to get documents notarized and faxing them over.
This year, when I lost my debit card, and someone proceeded to use it for fraudulent transactions (almost $500 worth) the credit union refused to credit my account and return my money to me. Even though I submitted a police report, they told me that I had to call the merchants myself and try to get refunds that way. Some of the merchants ultimately did not provide refunds, as that responsibility, they asserted, lies with the bank. I am currently working with NCUA to get the rest of my funds returned to me, 6 weeks after the fraud took place.
There have been other miscellaneous quality issues of the years as well. A lot of TCU's problems started when they went from Visa debit cards to MasterCard. I can't tell you how many times I had to get my debit card replaced (and wait several days for its arrival) because the black magnetic strip stopped working. Additionally, after they transitioned to a new website and app a back around 2015, the quality of their online banking decreased drastically. If you check the App Store, for instance, you will see how low of a rating their app has. When they replaced Finance Works with My Money Manager (M3), that was another blow to the experience as the M3 platform rarely works as it should.
Overall, if you live in the Northern Indiana / Southwest Michigan area, and are able to work with the bank face-to-face, it is not a bad place to keep your money. However, if you move out of that area, I would not recommend keeping your account as their call center and online banking experiences are sub-par at best.
