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| 1 star: | (14) |
It could be just my account but online CD opening is not working for me: it's stuck on the first page that asks about citizenship. Clicking 'next' briefly changes 'next' to 'saving' and then reverts back to 'next' and stays on the same page. To my astonishment I was told that now it's not possible to open a CD via chat or phone, only online (doesn't work for me) or in person (I'm not in FL). You need to have at least $500 in deposit accounts or suffer the monthly fee.
Update: I was finally able to open the CD over the phone, the previous rep was wrong about it.
My wife and I established a $100k 5% CD with GTE on 6/7/2023! Pretty good rate at the time! In order to fund the CD we had to establish GTE share accounts to wire the money, according to their Customer Service Rep! Anyway here is a summary of things to watch out for from GTE!
1) GTE does a hard credit pull to open up share accounts, etc.
2) GTE charges various nickle and dime fees, one is a so called inactivity fee if no activity within 6 months! Doesn't matter is you have any CD's with them!
3) GTE's customer service in opening an account is decent! However, once the account is opened, it's hard to get any response or contact anyone! The reply I got when requesting the $10 inactivity fee to be reversed was, "The inactivity fee was "avoidable" by depositing, withdrawing, etc. from the share account! Yes! It might have been avoidable if you provided advanced warning! So now we're going to have to make a "nuisance" transaction every 6 months to avoid a nickle and dime fee while GTE has 100K of our funds available to make loans with? The rate way above any interest they will be paying us! However, doing a one time reversal of a $10 fee in the name of customer service goodwill is somehow to be avoided?
In summary, once our CD matures, we are gone from GTE for good, no matter what rates they have for CD's!
I should have looked at BBB where GTE is listed as non-affiliated with the BBB with a D- to F ratings!
Caveat Emptor! LOL
I regret ever having heard of GTE and thinking a credit union was better than a bank. They have a huge revenue because they take money from customers. I opened a SAVINGS account with them because I was please with the APY at the time. I didn't use it because I was SAVING the money but unknowingly to me they were taking $15 a month for inactive use. No letters, no emails, no phone calls. Just taking from my savings. They said it was my responsibility to review my statements and see that I had fees being assessed. I didn't review my statements because I knew that money was there and I was SAVING it. It is a sneaky way of stealing.
Surprisingly, our attempts to open a membership with this credit union have been a complete disaster so far after over three weeks of interacting with them, or at least attempting to. We normally do not comment on our experiences like this one, but the disappointing service by their employees and follow-up failures are noteworthy. Perhaps they are under-staffed or they have poor training and experience in customer relations? Perhaps their management personnel are not aware of these issues?. Or perhaps they discourage people from out of state from becoming members? Given the chaotic state of government in the state of Florida and apparent anti-business sentiment of Florida officials, perhaps we should we should not be surprised. The Health ratings of this organization shown by Deposit Accounts grades are not that great compared to many others, and we thought that new members would be welcomed because the deposit growth grade of C might indicate a need to encourage rather than discourage membership in GTE Financial.
I regrettably used GTE Financial to finance a vehicle I purchased. During my first year of payments, I made double payments, paying over $1,400 per month for my vehicle to pay it off quicker.
During year 2, I lost my debit card and had it replaced. I was under the impression GTE Financial withdrew from my bank account, so I didn't think to update my debit card info.
After only 2 missed payments, my vehicle was repossessed. At first, I thought my vehicle was stolen, and after further investigation I found it was gone via repo.
This pathetic excuse for a bank repossessed my vehicle, after only 2 missed payments that I was unaware of, despite the fact I made DOUBLE payments for the first year.
They would NOT allow me to get my vehicle back, I even offered to pay GTE Financial $4,000 in future payments and any fees related to the repo, and the manager I spoke to said "this is just one of those obstacles that you have to deal with in life, this is one of those times". Are you serious? This manager, whom I forgot who I spoke with, was just rude and didn't care that this repo greatly impacted me.
I had no job at the time of the repo, this was my main vehicle for my children and their carseats were still inside. Because this repo destroyed my credit, I was turned down for a job because of the repo, so this company also cost me a job to support my family.
I absolutely hate this bank. I hope this bank closes, I hope they go out of business, and I wish them the absolute worst in life.
I have just payed off the LAWSUIT, as GTE has sued me for the remaining balance of the vehicle. They are so scummy and do not care at all about the customers.
GTE, shame on you, shame on you for taking a vehicle of someone who made double payments to you previously, you were OK to take them, but 2 months of missed payments and your first instinct is REPO? Other banks dont repo until 6 months, you guys are the absolute worst.
3 weeks ago, I filed a complaint within 2 hours of fraudulent activity on my bank account. I was told I was going to receive updates on the investigation, in which I never did. I had to email them to ask them when it had been close to 2 weeks. After almost 3 weeks, I received a letter saying that they found no fraudulent activity in my account and will not be refunding me. This is ridiculous as I supplied them with EVIDENCE that this happened to me. And everyone who has had this happen with other banks,has always gotten their money back. This is the first time friends and family have heard of a bank not refunding your money. This band does not value their customers nor can they be trusted. They are greedy. I am looking into suing them as this goes against the Electronic Transfer Act. Not only did some scumbag steal $536 from my account, some of it belonging to my band as well. But GTE now has stolen this money by refusing to give it back. Horrible bank. I am taking my business elsewhere. If you are looking into opening an account with them, don’t. Or do but just know that your money is not to be trusted with them.
Could you please answer your phones? Could you please respond to email? Please? Pretty please?
Is anyone there?
Two hours later I received 2 e-mails. Thank you and DA!
GTE Financial will perform a hard credit inquiry for all applicants' background checks. If you have a credit freeze, you must temporarily release it to apply.
U.S. Social Security Number
Proof of residency, U.S. citizen or a U.S. permanent resident
Driver's license or other U.S. issued ID (passport, permanent resident card, state-issued non-driver's ID, military ID, or military-dependent ID)
Previous home address (if you have lived at your home address for less than two years)
$5 for your initial deposit funded by a credit card or bank account with a routing number
A number of years ago I tried to open an account with them, It was for one of their really great deals, After dealing with the absolutely horrible customer service (which included them not following up on my application without me calling and reminding them) as well as having to jump through incredible hoops to open an account, I decided to I would not trust them with any of my life savings. In their case, I would rather earn less at a CU I can trust.
They do a hard pull when opening a new membership ouch!!!
UPDATE 1-4-23: I actually took the chance and applied, they did the hard pull, lowered my credit score, and actually DENIED for a simple saving and a CD, with no explanation.
Interestingly, I have an 823 credit score and no issues with the Chex system.
They took my MINOR SONS MONEY AFTER HIS MOTHER PASSED AWAY and told me there is nothing they can do to return it. She was the adult signer that is required for a minor child’s account and when she passed away unexpectedly at 39 years old, they used my sons account as an overdraft to cover an automatic debit bill that she had set up. This happened before we were able to get the death certificate and have her accounts closed and my name placed on his account instead of hers. I have been calling, emailing and stopping into the branch for 3 weeks while they dragged this out and keep telling me they are trying but it’s always another department or person that’s not in the branch to look you in the face when they tell you “ Sorry we are unable to return your sons $150 because of right to offset”. How heartless to keep a child’s entire paycheck from his job at the grocery store when he’s got enough to deal with losing his mother. I am beyond disgusted and will be closing all accounts with this cold hearted institution since all they care about is money or profit. How can you tell me somebody, somewhere in this organization won’t do the right thing for a 16 year old boy who had to pay his mothers final bill. Disgusting business practice. Do not give this company any business.
I've added onto the 5 year Add-On CD many times since 2019 without a problem. I've had nothing but excellent service from the GTE reps over that time frame...just my personal experience.
What a low class Credit Union. Terrible customer service and supervisors are no better. Caught the one I spoke to in several lies and he fell all over himself trying to correct himself, all before he got "snippy". Talk about unprofessional and incapable of handling the resolution of a problem. Closed my account. SMH.
GTE financial is a horrible institution. I was trying to stop five auto bill payments / stop checks that my deceased husband set up. I was unaware that there would be a fee associated with stopping payments that I never even initiated. Nobody verbally told me about the fee. I called and even went into the branch and no one reversed the fees. They had no empathy or compassion. I have been a customer since 1995 and had 7 accounts with them. A good business model would have been to extend a courtesy and reverse the fees. They have forever lost my business.
they charge me 35.00 have not over writhdraw at all they say had 8.06 do not have 8.06 lie to me wont give my 35.00 back in my account if anyone have the credit union dont open they up i am not happy
I have been a member of GTE Financial for over 20 years. I only stayed with them out of convenience. They have never helped me with any of my financial needs over the years. Now that I decided to close out my account, they have made the process so terrible. I asked them to unlink my checking account from Zelle, but instead they restricted and violated me under Zelle's policies (according to Zelle). I cannot use my telephone number or email address AT ALL because of this. Zelle has confirmed twice it was something GTE did, but GTE is telling me there is nothing they can do. I am so angry. Now I need to get a new phone number just because GTE screwed up and doesn't know how to fix it??? They are completely incompetent!!!
They make it VERY hard to speak to a live person, and they will make you jump through over a dozen question. so many...its annoying!
I am slowly transferring all my account to Sun Coast Credit Union...there you can get a live person QUICKLY!!!