I had a large CD mature over the weekend. On the prior Friday I spoke with a rep at Us All. and asked if there was any problem getting my money at a shared branch and whether US Alliance had any limits on what I could take out of a shared branch. The rep assured me that there was no limit at US Alliance and the only limit was the shared branch's limit. On Monday, I check that the money was in my savings acct at US Alliance and went to a shared branch. You guessed it. US Alliance would not let the shared branch withdraw the money. I spent 20 min on the phone waiting to speak to a US Alliance rep and was never able to. Had to hang up and leave. Left message for a manager at US Alliance. Got no response. Never again will I deposit money at US Alliance.
I am surprised, or maybe disappointed, that no one has mentioned that about US Alliance up until now.
US Alliance is now out of my consideration for moving a CD that will mature next month. I hope they take note of this.
I'm starting to run into a couple issues with the shared branch system too. I see Quorum CU charges fees to its members for using the system for deposits or withdrawals. So does GTE Financial. This seems really wrong to me too, I'm certainly not going to pay them to take my money! In fact, just last week I was going to make a significant deposit into Quorum, but decided not to give them my money because of that fee (I hope they note this). I did have to pay a fee to GTE for using the shared branch system to deposit the money for a CD with them via the shared branch system. I don't see the fee on withdrawals any differently.
I know at Financial Partners FCU, it is either that you are hit with a fee for using the shared branch system, or you can't use it at all, unless you have a minimum of $50,000 in your account.
And in the past few years, for some reason, all the shared branches that were near me have dropped out of the system. Why?
I think the shared branch system needs to implement some rules about these things. We can't be trying to jump through hoops figuring out what this or that CU adds on to the usual rules, and we can't even get straight information. And why are we paying fees left and right anwyay?
If a CU thinks it is too much for them to pay I thiink it is 50¢ to the shared branch I use for the transaction, then maybe they should not be in the shared branch system, they should hire more tellers at their branches to handle the load instead, and they should give up the many more depositors they get by being in the system. They are making plenty of money off the system! It's a big reason why I prefer CUs to banks! If that is undermined, I will be using a lot fewer CUs.
And it should make no difference to them if the amount withdrawn is $50,000 or the full amount of a CD that just matured, maybe over $200,000. IDs are checked just the same at shared branches as they are at the other side if you go in there instead. I have never used a shared branch that did not even make a copy of my ID.