I've been a customer of First Northern Credit Union since 2009 and love this bank! In fact, I closed down my Chase account and now exclusively use FNCU! The staff, particularly Ana Ramirez, Ana Leon and Emily Perez are very knowledgable about FNCU's financial packages, as well as very kind and friendly. They seem to make a point of knowing each and every customer, which creates a very personalized experience when using FNCU services. FNCU also have various free classes to help you improve your credit score, buy a home or purchase a car. After 10 years of extremely positive, as well as personalized service, I cannot even imaging ever going back to a traditional bank ever again! read more

Easy transaction with a very nice teller. I chatted with a elderly member at the door who has done her banking here for 30 years, starting with her first paycheck from her employer, Northwestern University. She was great to chat with and was FIRED UP about paying her last of the mortgage payment on a 30 year Evanston home mortgage. Keep It Up ! read more

I have been banking at FNCU for almost 12 years. I left Bank of America as they had been suspiciously reorganizing my deposits and debits to generate fees (and were later hit with a class action lawsuit for doing so) and was very happy with the service I had been getting at FNCU. That is until recently. For the past couple of years, I have noticed debits and charges shuffled around and in some cases creating a scenario for an NSF. I have also experienced unreasonable holds on deposits of checks issued from a local business (my employer) despite that I have deposited literally over a thousand of these checks with no history of any of them being returned. These holds that FNCU levy have caused numerous NSFs. In fact, upon investigating my own account, I was shocked to discover I had been charged with over $1500 in fees in a 6 month span. That is egregious. Sometimes, after complaining, they'll over turn a fee here and there. But, much more often, I'm usually left with someone who describes what is really a systemic inefficiency as 'policy'. It didn't used to be this way. I am a local resident working multiple jobs. I make deposits almost daily. For them to hit me with that many fees is almost abusive. read more

Lettie is a great help at First Northern Credit Union always takes great care of her customers. The people are always helpful. I have been doing my banking there for more than 40 years and am very happy withtem . Thank you, Lettie. read more

I want to give a minus star if there is one available. Avoid at all cost in opening any type of account at this bank. They have discrimination against color races. I went to Evanston branch to open a checking account and I was not informed about any hard inquiry that they would be conducting in order to open one and after going through all the paperwork, and done two hard inquiries into my credit report, I was told that I am not eligible to open a checking account or online services. I could only open a saving account. And also I was not asked if I would like to enroll in paperless statement to avoid $5 fee for paper statements but again not informed and only got it deducted from my account after the first month. About the two hard inquiries to my credit report, I only realized when I reviewed my credit report after a few months. I have checking account and credit card with Bank of America for the information if someone is wandering it is the bank's discretion for not allowing one to open a checking account there. It is ridiculous to bar someone from opening a checking account unless that person has fraudulent history or anything that could cause negative financial impact to their bank and I don't see any in my case. I got to the conclusion that it is discrimination against color people and they only want to serve a specific type at their bank. read more

Thank you Charlene for your pleasant and courteous service. Have a great wknd. read more

Switching to a credit union must be one of the best financial decisions I've made. I used to bank with Wachovia and never had problems. C used Chevy Chase Bank, a local bank in the DC area, and they treated him like crap. They held his check for up to 7 days and charged many fees. Their customer service was absolutely horrid. Why did I choose credit unions over traditional banks? - They are non-profit organizations and local/community businesses. - Members of a credit union are the owners. They do not exist to financially benefit investors. - Credit unions are known to be very customer-service centric. (More on this branch's financial advisors in a moment.) - Credit unions offer the same services as banks - checking, savings, loans, et cetera, but with better interest rates. - Membership for FNCU is limited to residents and employees working in Evanston and certain counties and companies (check their website). Yes, Northwestern students can bank here! - Extensive shared network of surcharge-free ATMs. The only major con of a credit union (including FNCU) is the lack of locations. In my case, this is a slight positive because less access to money means less spending. Anyway, about this branch. I do all of my banking here. It's a short walk from the Davis St. station. The financial advisors are very cool and friendly. In fact, Curtis and I would joke about how Alayna and Ryan were the only two people we've known since moving to Evanston. James Smith, the manager, is extremely apt at processing paperwork and returning calls. I have no huge complaints about FNCU so far. I just have a checking and saving account with them. Their online banking is a bit tedious to access, as you need to input your account number, pin, the answer to a security question, and finally, your password. Whew! Checking history isn't updated as quickly as regular banks. Consider credit unions, especially if you're fed up with the low quality of customer service that is so evident of many national banks. read more

FNCU is one of three organizations for which I joined Yelp. The customer service is so friendly & efficient it makes me blush (yes, I blush in the face of efficiency), and I feel 100% more human there than with B of A (my former bank). (The only thing I miss about B of A was that you could deposit checks directly into the ATM, sans annoying deposit envelope. I do NOT miss their ridiculous fees, capricious changes to my account features, and excessive presence on Chicago's every street corner. They appear to be in a cage match with Starbucks for sheer ubiquity...) James, the exceedingly responsive branch manager, has helped us with waiving fees, figuring out the right account to get, and finding an extremely low-interest car loan. My husband thus has an almost unhealthy attachment to him; I'm not totally sure James isn't on his speed dial. This really is a fabulous, and, unusually enough for financial institutions, *humane* organization. read more

I saved $3,300 by joining the credit union. I went to a dealership and was offered a car loan for 18.99% interest! I applied for a loan at my bank, Chase, and was turned down. Then I read somewhere online that a credit union will sometimes offer a loan to a member who has been turned down by other institutions. I thought, "Well, might as well try." I did... and I was offered a rate of 7.99%!!! I couldn't believe it! I was almost crying! Mr. Smith is unlike any other banker or financial manager I have ever met. He is thoughtful, patient, and genuinely concerned about the well being of his customers. If you are eligible to join FNCU, then I strongly urge you to do so. read more

This place used to be great, but the service has declined significantly over the last year or so. The experienced workers at my branch seem to have left en mass. I asked about fees, both in person, and by phone, and received different answers. I asked what kind of fees I'd have to watch out for if I leave my money in my accounts, untouched while I'm away for school. They'll charge me several fees for that. Ridiculous! I called to warn them that I'd be visiting family in another state for two weeks. They took an extensive amount of personal information, my travel plans, location and dates, and said okay...Over the two weeks I was gone, my credit and debit cards repeatedly stopped working, at one point leaving me on the side of a highway overnight, unable to buy gas, or even a coffee. FNCU has no emergency contact when your cards stop working. They called me four times in those two weeks, claiming that they thought my cards had been stolen. I confirmed my identity, and my plans each time. When I told them it was a bad time to talk, they insisted I talk to them there and then if I wanted access to my money again, forcing me to share my personal and banking information with everyone in the room. If I didn't have such a long (credit) history with this company, I'd close my account ASAP. If I keep it open, I'll have to spend a lot of time juggling harassing phone calls, moving money from account to account and other burdens, just to avoid fees. I asked for help working out how to avoid those fees, and the customer service person (who is very hard to access by phone) accused me of not telling them I was leaving the state, and suggested she close my account right now. Awful service! I'll update this review later. read more

I called and emailed 5 times because I was traveling abroad and needed to make sure I would be able to use my debit card without any problems. Unfortunately, it was virtually impossible to get anyone on the phone to help with this matter, creating a stressful situation where I almost ran out of money while on my vacation in Thailand. Extremely disappointed. read more

Everything about trying to open an account with FNCU was problematic. I had read all the good reviews but they wouldn't accept evidence of my recent home purchase as proof of residence. I submitted multiple copies of paperwork and it was nothing but a run around. I finally gave up and took my business elsewhere. I have never faced this kind of problem in all my years of belonging to a credit unions. read more

Omg Tyler S in the Evanston office rocks. He is so efficient and thorough. I have referred a coworker to this location and directly to Tyler. Keep on satisfying your customers. read more

This is for Charlene Cease, very helpful and friendly. She explained well when i had my transaction there last week, 12/ 04/ 2020.

I have been a decades-long member of another credit union with no Illinois branches, so I use the First Northern Credit Union branch in downtown Evanston, IL, for fee-free ATM transactions. Their ATMs are the WORST! The interface is cumbersome. It is not clear whether one is supposed to leave one's bank card inserted or remove it immediately. Whichever is the wrong action results in an aborted service attempt. It is unclear from the cluttered home screen whether one must first touch the screen or insert one's card to start a transaction. Rather often, the machine won't receive a deposit. HALF the time, the machine won't dispense cash, and doesn't give a reason. It offers you the choice of $10 bills, or $20 bills, or a combination. Won't it give me cash because it is out of $10s? Is it out of $20s? Is it out of both? NO IDEA. SOOOOO frustrating. read more

FNCU, and in particular, Yadi Vargas, Branch Financial Sales and Service Manager, are stellar. I became a member after a corporate takeover of a community bank, and am most grateful for the wonderful, trustworthy support and services. They partner and persist to problem-solve when necessary. Yadi and others at FNCU care about the safety, security, and overall wellbeing of their clients. Kudos to FNCU for hiring and growing talent on their team! read more

First Northern has been my primary financial servicer for nearly two years. The staff are helpful as well as friendly, I have never caught them making any mistake with my account, and they actually pay a teeny tiny amount of interest on the checking account. Furthermore, as a pedestrian, I appreciate that their Evanston office has no parking lot (there is street parking and municipal lots nearby). Not an ideal institution, however. First, if you need to phone them and don't know the extension number of a staff person at the Evanston office, you are dumped into voice mail jail and may never get thru to anyone. Second, on several occasions I have found their web site to be down when I needed it-- maybe just an unfortunate coincidence, but quite inconvenient. Third, for all their verbiage about being "member-owned," when I set up my account they asked me to sign a perpetual proxy, meaning I'd have no more voice in choosing their board than I would at a mega-bank. Finally, there is no night deposit slot. If you go in after hours to deposit a check, and if the ATM happens to be out of service (as it is today), you are out of luck. Edit 9/27/13: Checks ain't free. They just charged me nearly $20 for a small box of basic checks. Still four stars, tho, since to my knowledge they haven't done anything criminal, thus putting them above so many banks. Another Edit 2/2/14: Yelp don't know it yet, but FNCU have moved around the corner to 1705 Sherman. That's fine, they needed more space. But their website has spent the weekend out of service, which means I can't get bills paid 'til Monday -- or later. read more

I recently bought out the lease on my car and ran the loan through FNCU because of their great rates. Initially I was disappointed that it took a couple of days to get the loan approved, but once it was approved both the speed and customer service were wonderful! Tyler Schumacher talked me through every step and answered all of my questions. He said that he would call me back to confirm everything the following day, and he did just that. When I went to the bank to sign for the loan, everything was ready and waiting for me, and they took care of items I didn't even expect them to. Tyler even followed up with me to let me know when the payment had reached VW and reminded me that I could now move forward with contacting my insurance company. The personal attention and great customer service are greatly appreciated, and I would recommend FNCU to anyone who is eligible to be a member. read more

We financed the purchase of a condo with FNCU and the experience was incredible. Having purchased two other properties I can say that this was the best experience I have had yet. We worked, specifically, with Sandy Federici, and I would HIGHLY recommend her to everyone. She was prompt in e-mail and phone contact, professional, skilled, and detailed. All the traits you want in a Mortgage Lender. We pushed for a short/quick close so that we could move directly into the Condo when we moved to Chicago. Most brokers we talked to wanted almost double the amount of time Sandy was able to get the mortgage approved and ready for close. It was so quick and problem free that at closing all parties involved noted that it was the fastest and easiest financing they had ever seen. Similarly the close was done in one hour, seamless and worry free. Sandy attended the close as a representative of the bank and was able to ensure everything on the banks end went quickly (even keep in touch with her underwriters for a quick final approval). Simply, I cannot say enough for how great the experience was with FNCU and Sandy. I HIGHLY recommend working with them. We were so thrilled with the experience we now bank with FNCU and their bankers have been just as nice and attentive. Plus, they have an interest checking with a decent rate and free checks so you're not sacrificing interest rates to work with a Credit Union. read more

FNCU is a fantastic credit union that I recommend to anyone who is eligible for membership. The entire staff is friendly and helpful - James in particular always goes the extra mile to help in any way he can. They also have a fantastic program called Credit Sense which you should definitely inquire about if you are trying to rebuild your credit score. read more

I originally had a horrible customer service experience but then the manager Paul Biles stepped up and did and amazing job. He contacted me and really went above and beyond to help me and assure my happiness. He never gave up! Thank You so much Paul for your help!!! read more

I want to thank Jame and Christina from the Evanston branch. I believe they went the mile it took to getting me approved for a car loan. I was worried about me get a car through the dealership, but now that I have my credit union on my side worries out the door. Thanks First Northern Credit Union read more

Great customer service. From loans to transfers to questions about hours, I've always managed to stay in touch with great response via email with many FNCU employees. read more

I really wanted to love this place. I believe in credit unions and this one is affiliated with my university. Unfortunately, it's just plain inconvenient. When I first signed up, I was told I had to wait six months before I was eligible to use mobile deposit. Really? It's 2019. What even is that? There are often longer than typical holds on deposited checks even after I've been a customer for over a year with no issues. They take multiple days to make basic transfers between accounts (my last one took an entire week). The final straw was when I tried to deposit a check today. They pulled out some sheet and then told me it would be a 7 day hold for the check. What?!? Seven days?!? Again, in 2019, that just doesn't fly. That's absolutely ridiculous. The teller informed me that they just instituted some new rules. Welp. They just lost a customer. Heading over there to close my account this very moment. read more

I am trying to rebuild my credit after a rather unfortunate transition. While FNCU has been helpful on several occasions, I have taken issue with several of their practices: 1. Their ATMs often have services outages, so if you happen to deposit a check after hours and the ATM is out, you're out of luck. 2. There is no after-hour or weekend assistance, so if something goes wrong with your account you're out of luck until the next business day. Took a little getting used to since I am used to banking customer service being available 7 days a week, even if it's not 24 hours a day. 3 BIGGEST ISSUE - I have a signature loan with FNCU. Payment due every month. One payment was late due to my direct deposit being a little off. I was contacted by the bank and I explained the situation to them. I let them know that I'd be paying as soon my direct deposit hit, which was actually the next morning. A customer service agent asked me if I wanted to automatically set up the payment. I said no and asked that nothing be removed from my checking account. I'd rather manually do the payment myself. The day I was scheduled to make the payment, I ended up being at work with no access to my phone until after 5pm. I logged into my account to make the payment only to find that my savings account had been debited. I reached out to FNCU on the following monday to find out what happened. Because I hadn't logged into the account first thing morning to make the payment, I guess they just assumed I never would and took it upon themselves to make the payment for me with my savings. I wasn't contacted in any way that this took place before hand. I had to find out for myself and was a little confused at first as to where the funds had went. I never pay my loan with my savings. When I called them out on the action of removing money from my account without my explicit permission, I was told that technically they did exactly as I asked and didn't remove anything from my CHECKING account. I thought this was very rude, sneaky and undermined any control I thought I had over my account and I told them as such. I received no apology or assurance that it wouldn't happen again but I made sure to let them know that unless I specifically ask money to be debited from my checking/savings to my loan, do not debit anything. My financial relationship with them since then has been rather tense. I work right around the corner from the branch, which is extremely convenient, but I'd rather not deal with them at all. read more

I'm a transplant to the Chicago area, an another perk to this credit union is that it belongs to a network of credit unions, which allows me to do my banking with my home credit union out-of-state. I prefer to leave all my business with my original credit union, so accessing my account here makes that a breeze. read more

I became a member of FNCU about a year ago and think it is one of the better decisions I have made. I was sick and tired of all the hidden fees that the big banks were putting on me. I wasn't sure if FNCU would offer the same services - credit cards, different kinds of accts- but they do and it has been great. I like the fact that it is a community of people at FNCU. read more

We joined a credit union in Glenview but they have fees like banks more an more. It didn't affect us too much but they charge for things like a copy of your statement or a cashiers check, or to pay your credit card bill in the lobby. Their loan person is not very professional, maybe because it is so small? We got fed up and checked their Bauer rating and it is only 3 which isn't a good sign so we went back to a community bank with a good rating. maybe the ratings matter. read more