Harborstone Credit Union is headquartered in Lakewood and is the 10th largest credit union in the state of Washington. It is also the 213th largest credit union in the nation. It was established in 1955 and as of March of 2020, it had grown to 252 employees and 83,036 members at 17 locations. Harborstone Credit Union's money market rates are 14% higher than the national average, and it boasts an A+ health rating.
Field of Membership Restrictions
Membership in Harborstone Credit Union is open to those who live, worship or work in the state of Washington. Membership is also open to active, retired, or reserve military and to active or retired civil service employees regardless of place of residency.
See current membership details
Charges From The Account
I seem to have a problem with this credit union withdrawing the larger abount first and then a smaller amount. There have been times where there was enough in my account to pay for the small amount and not get an overdraw fee of $30 but they processed the larger amount first, charged me $30 for that and then took the small amount out and charged me another $30. Wells Fargo never did this to me. They always took the smaller amount out. It used to be a good credit union, when I was with them years ago, but now they are getting to big and they don't care about their customers. I have done a few test runs with this credit union and everytime the larger amout clears first and then the smaller amout clears. I will be taking my business else where that does not practice this kind of money making scheme.
Terrible Bank
Where to even start, this bank is pathetic. The only good thing is that the process to get a car loan through them is relatively easy and straightforward, after that this bank is hell.
I had 2 car loans through them. Their website is down for maintenance frequently and although you click "remember my account for 30 days" this does nothing and you are forced to verify with your phone everytime.
Customer service is awful and they randomly disconnect with you 50% of the time. There was an instance where I logged in to my bank account via a VPN connection and they thought it was suspicious and froze online access to all my accounts and forced me and my wife to come in to the bank and bring our IDs before they would let us have access to our accounts! Extremely inconvenient as we had moved farther away and we were told multiple times that there was not any other options.
Website is archaic and difficult to navigate. Transfers from external banks sometimes work and the majority of time do not. Was told different things from different individuals on how to set this up. Their online customer service chatbox brings an error half the time and does not connect.
Given external bank transfers only sparingly work, you are forced to go into the bank to make a payment or pay via phone. However, they do not allow you to payoff your loan online and will only accept payments up to $2,500 over the phone, again forcing you to go into a branch which is very inconvenient if you move away. Would rate this bank 0 stars if I could, would never bank here again.
Terrible Experience
I personally had a terrible experience with them. Several matters took way to long to resolve. I finally switched banks and paying my loan with my new account has a 12 dollar flat convenience fee per payment. Thats over 10 percent the loan payment value. Any institution that charges 10 percent per on time payment is doing it wrong. Do not get a loan or bank with them.
Avoid This Credit Union
I was with this credit union for over 5 years and had several bad experiences. Their interest rates on credit cards and loans are very high. Credit cards at 18%+ and auto loans at 5%+ and I have good credit. They don't periodically re-evaluate interest rates on their credit cards like many good credit unions so you are stuck with a high rate permanently. Their online banking was very good 5 years ago when I first joined but has not had a single update since and is now quite dated. Their credit card also doesn't integrate with online banking and must be managed through a completely different web site. It doesn't even support eBill for their credit card through the bill pay system.
Two recent bad experiences stand out and have pushed me to switch to a different bank.
I asked about personal loan products and was directed to a loan officer who demanded to know the specific name of the product I wanted. When I told them I was looking for a personal loan they acted confused and retorted with "Do you mean a 'signature' loan?" as if I'm supposed to know their product naming schemes. They didn't offer any explanation for their products and then finally offered a personal loan with a rate higher than most credit cards.
Another time I went into the branch to setup overdraft protection on my account. I was told I'd need to come back another day because they didn't have loan officers covering their full branch hours. There were no publicly listed hours for loan officer availability, so I had to guess when to return. I returned another day and managed to track down a loan officer to discuss overdraft protection for my checking account. Partway through this process I was given the option to add "extended" overdraft protection to my account. I accepted only to find out later that this was actually a personal line of credit and was reflected as a hard inquiry on my credit report. None of this was mentioned by the staff member.
As noted by other reviewers, this credit union has serious issues with customer service and product interest rates. If you need a good credit union in the Puget Sound, look to BECU or WSECU instead.
Health Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| NCUA # | 66399 |
| Year Chartered | 1955 |
| Employees | 252 |
| Primary Regulator | |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 0.87% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 7.5% |
| Annual Interest Income | $14.7MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $1.56B$1.36B |
| Loans | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $1.16B$1.05B |
| Deposits | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $1.36B$1.11B |
| Equity Capital | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $180.6MM$160.1MM |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $10.9MM$11.0MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $1.6MM$1.2MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q1 2020vs Q1 2019 | $0$0 |
