topic Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU? in Credit Cards

DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

MountainHiker — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:18:59 GMT

I talked with a few people today that have a long history with DCU and in their opinion this CU has changed for the worst.I don't know if that is true but they did scare me with stories about money going missing from credit card payments and other irregular activity on the part of DCU in regard to mortgage payments.I'm getting cold feet. I heard about them on this site and don't know anything about them outside the info learned from this forum. Have any of you heard negative info about DCU? And I do mean anything.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

visorboy1974 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:59:41 GMT

I don't like the fact that they charge you $1.50 to take money from Savings out of an ATM even if you're at a fee free ATM. Other than that I haven't had any issues.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

webhopper — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 01:21:04 GMT

To mountainhiker; you should rely on NFCU... would not make sense for you to join dcu at this time!

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

MountainHiker — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 01:51:25 GMT

@webhopper wrote:
To mountainhiker; you should rely on NFCU... would not make sense for you to join dcu at this time!

ThankIs for both your response.

Webhopper

I was approved for one of DCU's credit products but after hearing some horror stories of payments going missing and extra fees charged and CDs rolling over against customer's wishes, it is safe to say I'm concern, and I'm questioning the wisdom of this option.My brother inlaw is now with NFCU and there is a part of me that is starting to wonder if that fact might not be a sign.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

toppers555 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:09:55 GMT

I wouldn't do a morgage if they don't have a local branch besides that always keep a paper trail

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:13:27 GMT

I've never heard of them until this site too. But sounds not soo good. 1.50 fee at a free ATM and all the other stuf metions sounds like a pass to me.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Jutz — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:22:54 GMT

Rates are tough to beat for a public CU, good credit products. Decent fringe benefits, but it's not like it's the best and only CU. NFCU is great, and I don't you'd find many people that would pass up them for another CU.

Just remember, you're only going to hear the negative stories about different businesses. I can't imagine money going missing is the norm, or they wouldn't have the high ratings they do. Fee for WD from a savings account from an ATM? How often does that even happen? Can't you do an instant transfer via their website?

I'm not a customer of theirs, but I'm considering it, so anything I know is still just surface.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Rhaeny — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:26:29 GMT

I am a member of DCU and they have been good to me. I can call or email and they are quickly responsive. Have I heard bad things about them? Yep, sure have, but the only experience that counts is MY experience with them.

You hear bad things about every single bank, CU and CC but in the end you have to sort through all of the bs and make your own decision. Some of your decisions pan out and others don't.

I just read a freakin horror story about how USAA closed down someone's accounts cutting them off from their cash for 30 plus days. I had USAA on the radar for a future CC with them. Does it make me wonder? Yep and I will just take what I learned about that person's situation and make sure that I don't do some of the things that triggered this AA. But I'm not writing them off because I've heard some bad news about them. Besides, I think sometimes you don't get the full story anyway.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:30:16 GMT

@Rhaeny wrote:
I am a member of DCU and they have been good to me. I can call or email and they are quickly responsive. Have I heard bad things about them? Yep, sure have, but the only experience that counts is MY experience with them.

You hear bad things about every single bank, CU and CC but in the end you have to sort through all of the bs and make your own decision. Some of your decisions pan out and others don't.

I just read a freakin horror story about how USAA closed down someone's accounts cutting them off from their cash for 30 plus days. I had USAA on the radar for a future CC with them. Does it make me wonder? Yep and I will just take what I learned about that person's situation and make sure that I don't do some of the things that triggered this AA. But I'm not writing them off because I've heard some bad news about them. Besides, I think sometimes you don't get the full story anyway.

I've heard of NFCU doing that, never USAA. It was on this forum that a post about NFCU shut everything down.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Rhaeny — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:34:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Rhaeny wrote:
I am a member of DCU and they have been good to me. I can call or email and they are quickly responsive. Have I heard bad things about them? Yep, sure have, but the only experience that counts is MY experience with them.

You hear bad things about every single bank, CU and CC but in the end you have to sort through all of the bs and make your own decision. Some of your decisions pan out and others don't.

I just read a freakin horror story about how USAA closed down someone's accounts cutting them off from their cash for 30 plus days. I had USAA on the radar for a future CC with them. Does it make me wonder? Yep and I will just take what I learned about that person's situation and make sure that I don't do some of the things that triggered this AA. But I'm not writing them off because I've heard some bad news about them. Besides, I think sometimes you don't get the full story anyway.
I've heard of NFCU doing that, never USAA. It was on this forum that a post about NFCU shut everything down.

Yea it was on a different forum...the one nobody wants to mention. It was just unbelievable what happened to this person. I also beleive though that this person was not doing anything wrong at all, its just the way that USAA perceived her activity. It had to do with kitting. But heck some of the activities she did I have done myself but not with large amounts over $1K. I think she had some transfers that totaled over $10K in a month and that was all and they shut her down completely.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

MountainHiker — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:36:01 GMT

I'm going to call them tomorrow and investigate and attempt to make sense of my concerns. I will report back just in case the experience might help others on this site.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:55:42 GMT

@MountainHiker wrote:
I'm going to call them tomorrow and investigate and attempt to make sense of my concerns. I will report back just in case the experience might help others on this site.

Worth a try I suppose but not sure what you will gain! Any decent criminal business will sound very much like the best businesses, and tell you about high ratings, growing customer base, and say that most if not all of the stories you heard are either completely untrue or greatly exaggerated or were at other banks/CUs.

So, do let us know if you hear something like "Yes, actually we are having a few more problems these days and we are trying to fix it." I would be surprised.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Rhaeny — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:08:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@MountainHiker wrote:
I'm going to call them tomorrow and investigate and attempt to make sense of my concerns. I will report back just in case the experience might help others on this site.
Worth a try I suppose but not sure what you will gain! Any decent criminal business will sound very much like the best businesses, and tell you about high ratings, growing customer base, and say that most if not all of the stories you heard are either completely untrue or greatly exaggerated or were at other banks/CUs.

So, do let us know if you hear something like "Yes, actually we are having a few more problems these days and we are trying to fix it." I would be surprised.

Yea I was thinking that as well. I just don't know what will be accomplished with this inquiry other than "oh I have never heard that story". Actually it may be true that the CSR you speak to may not know anything about it.

But I too am interested to hear what they will say, so do please post back.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

visorboy1974 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:30:14 GMT

@Jutz wrote:
Fee for WD from a savings account from an ATM? How often does that even happen? Can't you do an instant transfer via their website?

Even if it happens once I should be able to access my money when I want...

It's a trivial fee for sure, but if I'm taking money out of a network "surcharge free" ATM, there should never be a fee. Don't tell me there's no surcharge then...it's pretty simple.

Instant transfer to where? Another financial institution? Would have taken 2 days.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Rhaeny — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:35:21 GMT

@visorboy1974 wrote:
@Jutz wrote:
Fee for WD from a savings account from an ATM? How often does that even happen? Can't you do an instant transfer via their website?

Even if it happens once I should be able to access my money when I want...

It's a trivial fee for sure, but if I'm taking money out of a network "surcharge free" ATM, there should never be a fee. Don't tell me there's no surcharge then...it's pretty simple.

Instant transfer to where? Another financial institution? Would have taken 2 days.

I think he meant an instant transfer from your savings to your checking and then do the withdrawal....then they wouldn't charge the fee.

But it is bizarre that you would get charged period if you are using one of their machines no matter which account you pulled it out of.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:41:01 GMT

For the most part, DCU has been good to me. I have my direct deposit going there and it gets credited two days early on Wednesday afternoon. I was also approved for a $10K Platinum card as well. I have been using them for a few months now. I only ran into one problem with them. About two months ago on a weekend I was dining out. I opted to pay with my DCU Card and it was declined. I felt a bit embarrassed by it and used another card. Everything was declining that night. I tried to pay a few bills online to test and they were declining. I tried the next morning everything was fine. It was some weird glitch they had.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:52:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
.About two months ago on a weekend I was dining out. I opted to pay with my DCU Card and it was declined. I felt a bit embarrassed by it and used another card. Everything was declining that night. I tried to pay a few bills online to test and they were declining. I tried the next morning everything was fine. It was some weird glitch they had.

So this is an example of a story that could certainly be put in a much more negative light. Hispanic208 refers to it as a weird glitch, and wasn't very inconvenienced beyond some embarrassment, another card came to the rescue.

On the other hand, this could be considered a major problem, weird glitches have no place in financial systems, especially as it seemed to last for some time (hours maybe?) In some circumstances, being declined can be very bad for your reputation, or if it's the only card you are carrying and you really need to make the purchase!

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 05:44:45 GMT

@MountainHiker wrote:
I talked with a few people today that have a long history with DCU and in their opinion this CU has changed for the worst.I don't know if that is true but they did scare me with stories about money going missing from credit card payments and other irregular activity on the part of DCU in regard to mortgage payments.I'm getting cold feet. I heard about them on this site and don't know anything about them outside the info learned from this forum. Have any of you heard negative info about DCU? And I do mean anything.

My DH and I have been members since 2005. I went to them after I escaped B of A. This is our main account for banking and we do enjoy the early posting of I react deposits; the shared branch capabilities; the surcharge free/COOP ATMS; the credit of up to $5.00 if you use are charged ATM fees and the employees seem to always be friendly. We have never had any money missing but there has been 2 times I can think of that my card was declined. The first was a system wide Visa issue and the second was when I was paying for a large purchase (flowers for our daughter's wedding) and Visa flagged the charge. I was obviously a little ticked at first so I called and they confirmed it was Visa- I guess they were trying to call me to confirm the purchase and obviously I was not home. After I was verified the purchase was approved. I have no idea why they couldnt ask the clerk but I was only delayed a few minutes. I might not have been so happy if I was not able to reach them cause they are not open 24hrs like NFCU (which I also have). I can think of that in one or two ways- yes, it was slightly embarrassing at first but since I normally do not buy $3,500 worth of flowers - I appreciated the security.

Just my .02.

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

visorboy1974 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:33:55 GMT

@Rhaeny wrote:
@visorboy1974 wrote:
@Jutz wrote:
Fee for WD from a savings account from an ATM? How often does that even happen? Can't you do an instant transfer via their website?

Even if it happens once I should be able to access my money when I want...

It's a trivial fee for sure, but if I'm taking money out of a network "surcharge free" ATM, there should never be a fee. Don't tell me there's no surcharge then...it's pretty simple.

Instant transfer to where? Another financial institution? Would have taken 2 days.

I think he meant an instant transfer from your savings to your checking and then do the withdrawal....then they wouldn't charge the fee.

But it is bizarre that you would get charged period if you are using one of their machines no matter which account you pulled it out of.

Ahhh gotcha. At the time it wasn't an option. I have since opened one but since I had a couple of ACH transfers in progress on my other main accounts, I decided to go to my DCU savings to take out some cash. $1.50 fee shows up and I was none too happy. Other than that, they've been fine to me...just that I'll take money out of other accounts when I visit an ATM!

Re: DO YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE OPINION OF DCU?

MountainHiker — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:02:59 GMT

Ok here is my opinion after speaking to DCU. Spoke to a rep today about the services offered and curious fees that dcu charge for things like atm,possible late charges,ect.Yes they do expect fees that most CUs don't charge and late fees can approach finance company rates for late charges.I'm not happy about that but not a deal breaker because I don't have any plan of paying late.What does bother me a great great deal is the feeling of poor customer service.They seem to give you the run around when you request to speak to certain departments and its almost as if they don't respect the customer enough to honor their request. After speaking to two different reps I must say they left me feeling uncomfortable with this company.I'm not saying they are a dishonest outfit or has bad products, but their customer service is not the best. And I feel its best not to accept this credit card.Really too bad because I was excited about getting my first nice credit limit account. Any way time to move on.Hope this help other posters.