In 1957, Service Credit Union (SCU) was founded (as Portsmouth Air Force Base Credit Union) to serve the employees (both military and civilian) of Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Today, SCU provides financial services to well over 200,000 members at more than 50 locations throughout New Hampshire, North Dakota, Massachusetts, and Germany.
In addition to loans and insurance, SCU offers a range of personal depository banking products, including checking, savings, money market, and Certificate of Deposit (CD) accounts, as well as IRA CDs. The money market accounts include varying rate tiers, depending upon the account balance. CD terms range from 3 months to 5 years. Additionally, SCU offers business checking, business savings, business money market, and business CD accounts.
Field of Membership Restrictions
Service Credit Union is open to active duty military and veterans, current/retired DoD employees, members of the American Consumer Council or the Financial Fitness Association, and members of any one of the over 300 select employer groups. Family members are also eligible to join.
See current membership details
One Of The Best CU's I've Been A Member Of.
I have had checking and savings accounts with Service for years. I've clicked on pre-approved re-finance auto buttons and saved money on 2 different auto loans. After hurricane Ian, my home owners insurance was dragging their feet and I needed to get a new roof on. I called Service Credit Union to close out a CD before maturity, they waved the early withdraw fee. They are everything I could hope for from a financial institution.
Go With Wise If You Are Overseas
I wish I read reviews on them before blindly going to them by my peers at work. They have such a bad exchange rate and you can lose hundreds of dollars in the long run. They also constantly put accounts on hold and you can't even login to check your balance, card is blocked as well so feels like you're a criminal in some third world country. Very inconvenient when traveling TDY. Customer service usually talks down to you or makes you feel like you're an inconvenience. Either way, better off with Wise as its easier and foreign exchange rate is far superior.
Pretty Satisfied!
I didn't see many reviews from 2020, so I wanted to add my perspective. I discovered SCU when they opened their membership eligibility to anyone who joined the American Consumer Council. I decided to join after a lot of research of other CUs and found SCU met a lot of my financial and technology requirements.
Opening the account was very easy. I did a bit of research and selected 4 products to open: Savings (currently yielding 5% on $500, Holiday Club (currently yielding 3% on $3,000, Money Market (for the rest of my savings), and Checking (free ATM reimbursements with direct deposit).
I spent a long time researching credit unions in my area and those open nationwide. What I found was that SCU has one of the highest paying interest accounts without having to go through a lot of hoops (no need to use debit cards to get the higher rate) and they reimburse a certain amount of ATM fees with direct deposit. Additionally, SCU natively integrates with Zelle, which was important to me as I use this service a lot to pay back friends and family.
SCU participates in Shared Branching so I can go to a participating branch basically anywhere in the US.
Finally, the mobile app and online banking are both easy to use, intuitive, and I get notified via text and push notification anytime there is a deposit or withdrawal. You can't do everything on the mobile app (such as external transfers), but it's good enough for 99% of my needs.
A nice added bonus is that SCU will release your direct deposit 2 days early before your pay date.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with SCU. In summary:
(+) Deposit rates higher on average than other credit unions
(+) ATM reimbursements
(+) Shared Branch
(+) Zelle integration
(+) Mobile app/online banking
(+) External transfers
(-) 25 transaction limit per day on both credit and debit cards (discovered while trying to shop Christmas gifts, but no big deal as I can better plan next year)
Stole My Money And Sent Me To Collections
They charged me for months after my loan closed out- when I found out I took my money back after many long calls. When they gave my the money back they gave me $700 too much, when I didn’t give them $700 back in time they they sent me to collections w no warning. Fuck this place.
Highly Disappointed
Stay away from this bank! I was recommended to use this bank by a colleague at work that Service Credit Union really took good care of their customers. They couldn’t be more wrong.
At first everything was normal, I applied for membership and a credit card online and having a perfect 850 was approved. After I got the card, I wanted to apply for a small loan as well, as me and my wife are planning on fixing up the house this summer. So, after being approved for the loan, I was asked for some payroll documents and someone from the bank called me.
Now just so you know I have a very thick accent as my family, and I are from India. While on the phone the lady was very rude and treated me like I was some kind of criminal telling me my documents weren’t real. I offered to send them my bank statements showing the deposits in my account as real, but she refused.
Until they heard me on the phone, everything was going smoothly, but it’s amazing as soon I get on the phone, I am no longer good enough for this bank. Even though I have an MBA and I am the controller for a multimillion-dollar business with a six-figure income, suddenly, they shut my entire account down! I was highly embarrassed to say the least and really thought that I would never be treated like this in America, sadly I was wrong.
I am very disappointed and beyond embarrassed how this bank has treated me. Now, I don’t have any access to my accounts and my hard-earned money is stuck. I have no means to access them nor can pay the card.
They Have A Bad Fraud Department
There fraud depart sounds like they have no idea how to do there job they lie to you
Super Disappointed.
Attempted to do an auto refinance with SCU. I mailed in all needed physical documents to finalize the loan and then they pull the disappearing act. What professional company does that? Their customer service is straight trash. I’m sure they’ve helped many people because they’re a large company BUT the way they function I would only assume that they help a handful of people per day. I will only recommend SCU to someone I really don’t like. As a business owner that’s big on referrals, I’ll let all of my clients know who they shouldn’t bank with. They must do better. In my eyes service credit union is a little suspect and a whole lotta trash. Honest review.
Data as of Q1 2025
Learn why bank health mattersHealth Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| NCUA # | 24921 |
| Year Chartered | 1957 |
| Employees | 873 |
| Primary Regulator | |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 1.15% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 9.9% |
| Annual Interest Income | $80MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $6.03B$5.52B |
| Loans | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $4.99B$4.48B |
| Deposits | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $5.26B$4.82B |
| Equity Capital | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $685MM$613.2MM |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $47.6MM$40.3MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $56MM$18.6MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $0$0 |
