BECU

[Anonymous]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gunnerboy wrote:

IME, poor quality of received fax is usually caused by the sending fax machine.  I don't think this is on BECU, just saying.  Still, good luck on your app.

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They could very easily offer a secure document upload service where high quality images, far higher quality than a fax will ever be, could be uploaded and processed in minutes. They choose to use this ridiculous process and therefore they deserve to be chastised for it. Everything about their process is a problem of their own creation with simple solutions available. 

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You mean, like this?

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Yeah but that's not offered when you're sent to the financial crimes unit. Or at least it wasn't a year ago. My membership was instantly approved and my accounts were up and going with opening deposits before they froze me. 

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@chiefone4u wrote:

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@britt585 wrote:

Thanks...Yes I may buy one just to be up to date.....I mailed the color copies already...I'll follow up with them next week...I'm aware of the limited staff....Allowing members to upload docs will be much quicker... and I'm sure save them some much needed time.. just my 2 cents....

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It would be much quicker. I had a very nice Loan Officer tell me the biggest reason they haven't offered that in the past is because the majority of their members are Boeing employees; and their branches are conveniently located near those facilities and residents of those employees. 

As they branch out, they may decide to offer the ability... or they may decide those more than 100 miles from a physical branch are to much hassle... only time will tell. 

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They no longer focus on Boeing employees, hence the reason they don't have any branches on Boeing properties. They're mainly focused on their local footprint, but are allowing open enrollment in case they decide to expand. 

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gunnerboy wrote:

IME, poor quality of received fax is usually caused by the sending fax machine.  I don't think this is on BECU, just saying.  Still, good luck on your app.

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They could very easily offer a secure document upload service where high quality images, far higher quality than a fax will ever be, could be uploaded and processed in minutes. They choose to use this ridiculous process and therefore they deserve to be chastised for it. Everything about their process is a problem of their own creation with simple solutions available. 

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You mean, like this?

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Yeah but that's not offered when you're sent to the financial crimes unit. Or at least it wasn't a year ago. My membership was instantly approved and my accounts were up and going with opening deposits before they froze me. 

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You said they should offer an upload service. It exists.

[Anonymous]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gunnerboy wrote:

IME, poor quality of received fax is usually caused by the sending fax machine.  I don't think this is on BECU, just saying.  Still, good luck on your app.

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They could very easily offer a secure document upload service where high quality images, far higher quality than a fax will ever be, could be uploaded and processed in minutes. They choose to use this ridiculous process and therefore they deserve to be chastised for it. Everything about their process is a problem of their own creation with simple solutions available. 

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You mean, like this?

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Yeah but that's not offered when you're sent to the financial crimes unit. Or at least it wasn't a year ago. My membership was instantly approved and my accounts were up and going with opening deposits before they froze me. 

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You said they should offer an upload service. It exists.

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Clearly not relevant to the current discussion seeing how it hasn't been offered to anyone sent to the financial crimes unit and that is where the OP finds themself. 

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gunnerboy wrote:

IME, poor quality of received fax is usually caused by the sending fax machine.  I don't think this is on BECU, just saying.  Still, good luck on your app.

---

They could very easily offer a secure document upload service where high quality images, far higher quality than a fax will ever be, could be uploaded and processed in minutes. They choose to use this ridiculous process and therefore they deserve to be chastised for it. Everything about their process is a problem of their own creation with simple solutions available. 

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You mean, like this?

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Yeah but that's not offered when you're sent to the financial crimes unit. Or at least it wasn't a year ago. My membership was instantly approved and my accounts were up and going with opening deposits before they froze me. 

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You said they should offer an upload service. It exists.

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Clearly not relevant to the current discussion seeing how it hasn't been offered to anyone sent to the financial crimes unit and that is where the OP finds themself. 

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You're making it not relevant. You said they could easily offer an upload service. I posted a screenshot of it existing. Nowhere in what I quoted, and what you quoted, does it mention financial crimes unit and they need to offer a service just for that. It exists, and can be used for financial crimes, if they wanted to use it for that.

You know, I'm sorry you had a bad experience with them, but give it a break. It seems like you mention them whenever possible so you can trash them. It's almost like a crusade to keep everyone away from them.  It's fine posting about negative experiences, but it's getting a bit much.

[Anonymous]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gunnerboy wrote:

IME, poor quality of received fax is usually caused by the sending fax machine.  I don't think this is on BECU, just saying.  Still, good luck on your app.

---

They could very easily offer a secure document upload service where high quality images, far higher quality than a fax will ever be, could be uploaded and processed in minutes. They choose to use this ridiculous process and therefore they deserve to be chastised for it. Everything about their process is a problem of their own creation with simple solutions available. 

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You mean, like this?

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Yeah but that's not offered when you're sent to the financial crimes unit. Or at least it wasn't a year ago. My membership was instantly approved and my accounts were up and going with opening deposits before they froze me. 

---

You said they should offer an upload service. It exists.

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Clearly not relevant to the current discussion seeing how it hasn't been offered to anyone sent to the financial crimes unit and that is where the OP finds themself. 

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You're making it not relevant. You said they could easily offer an upload service. I posted a screenshot of it existing. Nowhere in what I quoted, and what you quoted, does it mention financial crimes unit and they need to offer a service just for that. It exists, and can be used for financial crimes, if they wanted to use it for that.

You know, I'm sorry you had a bad experience with them, but give it a break. It seems like you mention them whenever possible so you can trash them. It's almost like a crusade to keep everyone away from them.  It's fine posting about negative experiences, but it's getting a bit much.

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This is a thread where OP was sent to the financial crimes unit. I and others added our experience to the thread. I don't actively go into every BECU thread and trash them, I trash them when I see someone else having to deal with the financial crimes unit. The vast majority of BECU threads end up being people dealing with their accounts being frozen or approval threads and in case you haven't noticed, I end up answering the vast majority of threads that go up in the credit card forums. I'm not going to hold back when I see someone else going through the nonsense. 

This thread was up quite a while before I added my own experience to it. I had seen it and read it and went about my business. I only added my complaint about their process when OP came back and said they had been locked out. 

[Royalbacon]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gunnerboy wrote:

IME, poor quality of received fax is usually caused by the sending fax machine.  I don't think this is on BECU, just saying.  Still, good luck on your app.

---

They could very easily offer a secure document upload service where high quality images, far higher quality than a fax will ever be, could be uploaded and processed in minutes. They choose to use this ridiculous process and therefore they deserve to be chastised for it. Everything about their process is a problem of their own creation with simple solutions available. 

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Yep, I wholeheartedly agree 110%. Absolutely ridiculous and inexcusable in 2020. The fact that people here ardently defend their archaic methods is absolutely insane and unbelievable to me. And not to mention this is what, the 4th largest credit union in the country, and largest financial institution headquartered in Washington State with over $20 billion in assets. Larger then many banks throughout the USA. Not some teeny tiny little financial institution in a tiny little rural town no ones heard of.

I've dealt with rinky dink credit unions here in Minnesota  where I live with 2-3 branches and less then $200 million in assets along with teeny tiny little banks in towns that have populations of less then 500 people way the heck in the middle of nowhere 3+ hours away from Minneapolis that have had more sophisticated and modern procedures in place to get stuff done, including being able to pay a credit card in the online banking with a checking account from a different bank/credit union.

(By the way, I was one of the lucky ones who had his membership at BECU and credit card instantly approved and no documentation whatsoever requested. Its just the mere fact that reading horror stories like these make me angry seeing financial institutions acting so amateur in 2020)

[Royalbacon]

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@chiefone4u wrote:

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@britt585 wrote:

Thanks...Yes I may buy one just to be up to date.....I mailed the color copies already...I'll follow up with them next week...I'm aware of the limited staff....Allowing members to upload docs will be much quicker... and I'm sure save them some much needed time.. just my 2 cents....

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It would be much quicker. I had a very nice Loan Officer tell me the biggest reason they haven't offered that in the past is because the majority of their members are Boeing employees; and their branches are conveniently located near those facilities and residents of those employees. 

As they branch out, they may decide to offer the ability... or they may decide those more than 100 miles from a physical branch are to much hassle... only time will tell. 

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Boeing has  around 153,000 employees (Thats Worldwide, in 65 countries.)

https://www.boeing.com/company/general-info/

BECU has more then 1.2 million members.

https://www.depositaccounts.com/banks/boeing-employees-cu.html

They did branch out beyond Boeing, as in decades ago. Which is how they've become one of the top 5 largest credit unions in the nation and largest financial institution in the state of Washington. Sounds like a clueless and uneducated loan officer you spoke with.

Assuming every single Boeing employee (in all 65 countries) is a BECU member, thats not even 13% of their total membership, which is definitely nowhere close to being a majority.

[chiefone4u]

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@Royalbacon wrote:Boeing has  around 153,000 employees (Thats Worldwide, in 65 countries.)

https://www.boeing.com/company/general-info/

BECU has more then 1.2 million members.

https://www.depositaccounts.com/banks/boeing-employees-cu.html

They did branch out beyond Boeing, as in decades ago. Which is how they've become one of the top 5 largest credit unions in the nation and largest financial institution in the state of Washington. Sounds like a clueless and uneducated loan officer you spoke with.

Assuming every single Boeing employee (in all 65 countries) is a BECU member, thats not even 13% of their total membership, which is definitely nowhere close to being a majority.

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 Perhaps I left out what I felt was or should be obvious. 

These credit unions even when as exclusive as say, Navy Federal, allow people who once served to keep their accounts. They allow family and household members to join. 

I am positive in the (103 year) history of Boeing they have employed more than "153,000" people.  When you factor in children (2.5 children per household on average) and spouses you could reasonably reach the conclusion that over 50% of the "1.2 million members" could in fact be Boeing employees and/or family members who would be considered employees by the credit union because of how they were designated as eligible for membership. 

I do not know exact numbers, nor did I claim to.

I would venture to say it would not be unreasonable to think if Boeing employs 153k people with an estimated average of 10 year employee retention rate (probably closer to 5 years), over the last 50 years they have had roughly 750,000 employees. If you add spouses as members that's potentially 1.5 million people, add children and your over 2.25 million people. Divide by 3 (assuming only 1 in 3 eligible employees actually join) and you are looking at 750,000 of the 1.2 million members. 

If you further look at how most credit unions expand membership they tend to start by allowing people close to a branch in first. Therefore I do not believe the Loan Officer's statement was "clueless and uneducate" the metrics alone support a feasible assumption that the majority of membership could in fact be designated as employees whether that member is an active employee, retired employee, former employee or immediate family of one of the previously mentioned groups. 

[Royalbacon]

I love BECU, and glad I have no issues and that I was one of the lucky ones. I understand they may need documentation and to verify identity and protect from fraud. But its the act of applying membership, instantly approving you then weeks later randomly freezing & locking your account and funds without warning is what triggers me. Its not even the archaic ways they do business requiring you to use a color fax or other ridiculouslness, its the mere fact they somehow refuse and cant do it BEFORE approving you and opening your accounts, rather they wait a few weeks after any normal person has moved their direct deposit over, received their debit card and all that THEN decide they need to verify you. Makes zero sense.

This isn't exclusive to BECU either. Navy Federal was infamous of doing this, don't know if they've gotten better but they were real bad a few years back. People would call in asking phone reps if they were eligible, would just flat out sign you up for a membership, refuse to accept documentation verifying your eligibility, willy nilly signing you up for a membership telling you not to worry about  it and its no big deal only for their accounts to be locked 3 weeks later without warning and then jumping through 8 billion ridiculous hoops before you can get access to your money back.