BECU Eligibility Question

[Anonymous]

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@Five6Two wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Just an update, I was able to login and fund my account this morning via Zelle with a bit of fussing around since my email address and phone number were used for another bank. Pretty sure I just broke DCU and NFCU now so it’s a good thing I zapped $100 from DCU to 1stBank this morning. 

BECU has free ACH in and out so I think I’m going to really like this account, thanks for prompting me to go for it. 

I should note that my accounts didnt show in the online dashboard when I created them so it looks like my membership was manually processed this morning so everything is all good. 👍 

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And no HP? Just making sure, this seems like a nice account to have with fee-free ACH transaction. 

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Nope, no HP. I haven’t gotten any alerts. 

[Anonymous]

Flagged for verification. I spoke with them and they definitely don’t like out of state members but they asked me for a statement of why I want to be a BECU member, that I accept the very limited account access not being near an actual branch (basically that everything has to be done online and that CO-OP branches have limits on deposits and withdrawals), and they wanted proof of NFCU membership which apparently works in my favor having a relationship with them. Since I don’t pay utilities, they had me send my Social Security benefits statement and Comcast bill plus drivers license, social security card, NWCUF confirmation email, and a picture of my NFCU membership card. 

While I was typing this, I got notification that the fax failed to go through so I have to call them and find out why. 

This is definitely a bit of a headache. I called again, they said that the fax number is working so I went ahead and tried sending it again but I’m pretty annoyed at this point for sure and may just tell them to mail me the check for the two deposits and dispute the NWCUF payment because the membership was supposed to be an avenue to BECU and it’s obviously not. They told me that it’s decided on a case by case basis if they will take members outside of their area regardless of what the website says. 

[Green456]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Flagged for verification. I spoke with them and they definitely don’t like out of state members but they asked me for a statement of why I want to be a BECU member, that I accept the very limited account access not being near an actual branch (basically that everything has to be done online and that CO-OP branches have limits on deposits and withdrawals), and they wanted proof of NFCU membership which apparently works in my favor having a relationship with them. Since I don’t pay utilities, they had me send my Social Security benefits statement and Comcast bill plus drivers license, social security card, NWCUF confirmation email, and a picture of my NFCU membership card. 

While I was typing this, I got notification that the fax failed to go through so I have to call them and find out why. 

This is definitely a bit of a headache. I called again, they said that the fax number is working so I went ahead and tried sending it again but I’m pretty annoyed at this point for sure and may just tell them to mail me the check for the two deposits and dispute the NWCUF payment because the membership was supposed to be an avenue to BECU and it’s obviously not. They told me that it’s decided on a case by case basis if they will take members outside of their area regardless of what the website says. 

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Wait so they let you open account then suspended it? 

[Anonymous]

That’s exactly what they did, as soon as I funded the checking and savings they suspended it. 

[Green456]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That’s exactly what they did, as soon as I funded the checking and savings they suspended it. 

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This is really annyoing. I am from NJ, so I expect that they will flag me this week. I will try to appeal, as I really enjoy their mobile experiance.

[Anonymous]

Okay so I just got off the phone with a very helpful rep and she explained a few things. 

First off, any out of state account will always get flagged for review. 

Second, they check to see if there are other credit union accounts and if there are, they question your motives for opening another account. 

Third, they check if you have opened any other bank accounts recently (these would be the Chex denials). 

Fourth, even people who live in WA usually have to provide their drivers license and a utility bill to open an account with them. 

Lastly, NWCUF is a legitimate path to membership but will come under scrutiny because of 1-3 and normally will land in the fraud review where mine did if two or more of those conditions exist. Since I’m out of state, I have accounts at three credit unions, and I opened DCU checking in February, I hit all of the flags. She doesn’t see me getting denied because I am actually working with them to provide them the information instead of disappearing and I have a legitimate case for wanting accounts with them and I submitted my NWCUF email. 

She said they have been having a lot of people sign up with the NWCUF option and not actually submitting any proof of doing so. 

We will see what happens. I have to call tomorrow to make sure they got all of the faxes I sent. Since I don’t have access to a fax machine, I used GotFreeFax’s premium service since I don’t really want to be uploading images of my drivers license and social security card without encryption and the fax kept failing when I submitted everything in one drop. 

I have to say they answer phones stupid fast. Four calls today and zero wait for a rep once I chose the department. 

[creditfan]

if you would do the same way I did, it could save you some troubles

[Anonymous]

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@creditfan wrote:

if you would do the same way I did, it could save you some troubles

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No way to be sure of that but it does make me wonder if they scrutinize online applications closer for fear of fraud or identity theft.

My 2 week wait to get into online banking seems like a walk in the park comparatively.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have a legitimate case for wanting accounts with them and I submitted my NWCUF email. 

If you don't mind sharing, beyond the the great interest rates on their savings and checking, what do they consider a legitimate reason for wanting to join them from out of state?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have a legitimate case for wanting accounts with them and I submitted my NWCUF email. 

If you don't mind sharing, beyond the the great interest rates on their savings and checking, what do they consider a legitimate reason for wanting to join them from out of state?

Thanks!

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I don’t know but I told the lady the truth. NFCU doesn’t allow push and pull from external financial institutions and doesn’t have competitive interest rates at all plus their downtime is a lot more than I find acceptable for my primary financial institution, DCU’s lack of Zelle makes it impossible for them to be my primary, SSFCU’s technology is so outdated I won’t even consider them, and my bank I have now even has a fee for a debit card. 

I told her I want to make BECU my primary with an attached line of credit and grow from there which is the truth. 

Even just wanting to take advantage of their great rates shouldn’t be a problem since it gets money into them. They’re likely being all anal because of the $100 referral bonus offer that’s going around right now but I explicitly refrained from putting in the code to activate that when I did my registration.