Credit Unions - experience?

[Ped]

I use a credit union that's not in Alberta, but I've been with them for years and they always treated me great, whether it was for loans or any other issues. I have a credit card with them as well and when I've had to cancel or dispute charges, no issues there either.


In fact, a few years ago I was temporarily out of work and had a loan with them that I missed payments on. They called and when I explained to them what was going on, they just deferred the payments and told me to contact them when I was working again. No pressure, no penalties, and when I told them to resume, it was that simple.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

IIRC Cecil worked for them at one time. A strong opinion and not much willingness to elaborate would fit that scenario as well

I actually worked with them in the past as an outside consultant, worked with an IT director who was just a treat. I designed a solution for them, he complained and demanded a bastardized version of it be implemented despite my telling him "this is a bad idea, do not do this" and then shocker, it underperformed in what it was meant to do.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I was with First Calgary, and the technical issues they had as well as customer service issues were terrible. Like all financial institutions, they are good when you are just doing some regular banking. However when a problem comes up- you are SOL.

One example, their online system is often down. Last fall I was buying something from a CPer. I went to send an Interac transfer from First Calgary/ Connect First and the system said it failed, try again later. I ended up sending the transfer from another bank. Turns out the transfer went through via email; however I wasn't informed nor my account debited for an entire week. Fortunately the CPer was honest and didn't cash both transfers. However if they had auto-deposit, I would have been in trouble.

Another time my wife's debit M/C had a charge from some place in Florida. She went to dispute the charge, and was told they would look into it and we'd have to wait. It took them 2 weeks to credit her account back. It was around $2000. I know it wasn't that long ago for me where missing that amount of money for that length of time would have killed me financially.

I now pay my $16 per month with a real bank. Considering all the things that I spend money on in a month, having that peace of mind is worth $16.

The First Calgary transition to Connect First was, and still is, a disaster. I have no fees accounts at Tangerine and First Calgary and I would recommend Tangerine 10 times out of 10.

Connect Firsts customer service is fine but with Tangerine everything works so you don't need to contact customer service in the first place.

Everything from the rates to day to day banking to ABM locations are far better with Tangerine.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

$16 a month??? Mine is $4, but I get it rebated by having 3 services with them(RBC), so it's free.

I'm with Scotia, and as long as you have a set amount of money in your chequing account (depending on banking plan), there are no fees. I quite like that system, as it forces me to keep a buffer in my account that has saved me in the past when emergencies came up