Virginia Educators Credit Union
Virginia Educators Credit Union is headquartered in Newport News and is the 55th largest credit union in the state of Virginia. It is also the 2,061st largest credit union in the nation. It was established in 1954 and as of December of 2022, it had grown to 4 employees and 4,502 members at 2 locations. Virginia Educators Credit Union has an A health rating.
Field of Membership Restrictions
Membership is open to employees, students, faculty and alumni of Hampton University; students of Thomas Nelson Community College; students, those employed by educational organizations, and those involved in school auxiliaries in Williamsburg, Newport News; James City County; York County; Isle of Wight County; Gloucester County; Mathews County.
See current membership details
Customer Service Does Not Allow A 5 Star Rating
It is extremely difficult to reach someone at VECU and when you do finally reach someone you are disconnected constantly. This makes paying bills or working out payment extremely difficult. I have also had some very bad experiences with the customer service representatives who were very rude and not very helpful.
Quality Is Below Poor And None Of The Staff Seem To Care
Being a member of the credit union for more than 30 years, its amazing to see the decline in quality of services during the past five (5) years. No one answers the phone. No one returns messages or emails. Processing for a loan which took 20 mins at car dealership took about 8 weeks at the VECU requiring me to lease a car and make a rushed decision on buying a car from Enterprise which major had tire issues (wrong size tires on car - and I learned this when car failed inspection 8 months post purchase).
I travel for work and can't get my credit card mailed to me. One person says its in the mail. Another person says that the person who says its in the mail will contact me. This is serious because it's almost impossible to travel without a credit card.
After years of seeing this insane behavior, I am putting 2 and 2 together and wondering whether this is only done to certain people like "women" "senior citizens" and other groups that are different from the staff who work there.
I've requested to speak with the Board and was told that the tellers and loan officers are self managed. So now I have to go to the Better Business Bureau and close my account even though my car is financed by them, and at a higher rate than the car dealership.
VECU's staff are insensitive and mean spirited and do not deserve to have their jobs working with teachers who are some of the hardest working people in America.
Management needs to immediately survey customers and institute customer feedback process. The staff that you have entrusted your company to have some serious mental health issues and bad behavior. They do not deserve to work for teachers.
They Will Take Your Money!
THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY!!! My mom was used VAC for banking for over 20 years. When I left to college, she put me on all of her accounts in case something was to happen to her. This is a sad story because the poor treatment and customer service came directly after the passing of my mom. I currently live in Arizona and my mom lived in Virginia. In October, I received a call from my mother’s doctor informing me that mom was terminally ill and didn’t have much time left. I returned to VA to stay with mom while she was in hospice care. I stayed with her through the duration of her hospice care which took about two weeks. While mom was in care, I had to take care a lot of her financial obligations because she was no longer able to do for herself. After she passed, I went to the VAC location with her death certificate to close out her accounts (I was already listed on her accounts). I was directed to a lady in upper management. Out of all the companies I visited to take care of my mom’s business, every last one of them at least had the decency to say “my condolences” or “sorry for your loss” or something to that affect. This first thing this lady mentioned was my mom’s past due balances on her credit card and never expressed any type of care or concern for the situation. I knew at that point that my mom trusted the wrong people with her money. The lady told me that for some reason that they could not close one of the three of moms account which was her savings account. My mom had been on scheduled payments of a lot of smaller increments to pay off the card. A few weeks after I left VA and the bank, I received notice that a large lump sum of money had been taken from my mom’s account to satisfy my mom’s credit card debt with VAC. My mother had secured debts that still needed to be taken care of, but VAC took upon themselves to take money that was sent to now my mother closed checking account, then moved to the saving account and took nearly all of it, depleting my mom’s account. VAC could have contacted me, but they didn’t even try. They just took the money that was earmarked for my mother. When I saw what had happened, I called the bank. The first rep that I spoke to was the only rep had the decency to say sorry for your loss. The lady I spoke was immediate hostile (probably the same lady from before) and told me that she wouldn’t be able to speak to me until she got the VAC lawyers involved. True story! I wanted proof that the bank has authority to take money from my mom’s (now my account) without permission. My name was on all of my mom’s accounts for close to 10 years and the bank didn’t even think to notify me. The lady did tell me that they had the authority to take the money. I was supposed to receive a call back about proof of this authority. I am still waiting on this call or any proof. This bank obviously has poor leadership in place. I would advise anyone to place their money with a bank that secures their money, not takes it. I have read the reviews and find it odd that anyone that says anything positive to say about the VAC. I see that most of the positive reviews that I have read, have no written responses or give very little detail. Take my advice. Use a different method of banking or read the fine print.
A Bank That Cannot Be Reached During Business Hours Is Useless
I have been trying constantly for two days to talk to someone to clear my debit card for use while I am out of the country. Every time I call, I get a recorded message that says they are experiencing high call volume and will return my call. Other banks give you the option to be put on hold. They did return my call--after business hours while I was dining out with friends. Completely unacceptable.
Horrible Bank
This is the worst banking institution i have ever dealt with. You can only call during certain hours for help (& thats even w/a debit card -their help is not 24/7, VECU will only help you when it is convenient for them). If you want to change your address you can only do that by going inside their office (you cant change your address online or over the phone, you either go inside the office or print out an online form fill it out get it notarized & mail it in). If there is a fraud allert (which no one will tell you when you call, you actually have to mention "hey is there a fraud alert on my account") you cant call the bank to release the hold, you actually have to call an outsourced company (like, hang up w/the bank then dial another number) & the outsourced company releases the hold. VECU charges you every time you use your debit card as a debit card (but apparently other banking institutions are also doing that). Their customer service skills are seriously lacking, and all of my friends that use this 'credit union' report the same problems.
Data as of Q4 2022
Learn why bank health mattersHealth Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| NCUA # | 66700 |
| Year Chartered | 1954 |
| Employees | 4 |
| Primary Regulator | |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 1.17% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 9% |
| Annual Interest Income | $1.7MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q4 2022vs Q4 2021 | $79.8MM$79.0MM |
| Loans | Q4 2022vs Q4 2021 | $9.7MM$11.4MM |
| Deposits | Q4 2022vs Q4 2021 | $69.1MM$69.2MM |
| Equity Capital | Q4 2022vs Q4 2021 | $10.4MM$9.5MM |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q4 2022vs Q4 2021 | $22.00K$28.00K |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q4 2022vs Q4 2021 | $73.00K$101.00K |
| Real Estate Owned | Q4 2022vs Q4 2021 | $0$0 |