I heard this credit union was good, like others I used in the past in other places I've lived, and I really really really wanted it to work out. The staff at this credit union are superb, friendly, and really great. Unfortunately, the staff at this credit union have no control over the things that really matter for your personal banking. Because they are small, they contract out all their fundamental services (ATM, credit and debit cards, etc.) to big monolithic horrible service providers. When the contracted service provider screws you around, the credit union employees are powerless to help you.
We just closed our account. The service provider for the credit/debit cards was so paranoid they were constantly canceling our card because they "suspected" fraud was occurring. This continually put us in dangerous situations, when we believed we could pay with our card but it was declined. The employees at the credit union did everything they could to help us, but in the end they were thwarted by the card service providers, who refused to stop canceling the card.
If you open an account here, beware that the balance is never up-to-date. Sometimes it takes a whole week before their computers register the activity. If you rely on the banks electronic ledgers, like I do, to keep track of your balance, you will very likely have an overdraft. And then even if you catch it before the overdraft occurs they will refuse to recognize your deposit for days, even when it is proven that they had the funds in the account the entire time.
They broke my trust. I was about to set up direct deposit, but after they told me to read "page 27" of the fine print, I decided to instead cash my paycheck instead of trusting them with my money.
Stay away from Golden One Credit Union if you want decent reliable trustworthy service. This is a shoe string operation.
UPDATE: I opened an account at BayFed Credit Union in Santa Cruz after moving. Golden 1 had destroyed my trust in credit unions, but BayFed restored my trust once again. BayFed is an incredible credit union, my ledger is fast and up-to-date (even seconds after a transaction occurs!), the staff are friendly, and they offer all kinds of services. Even better, they never cancel my card when I'm traveling, so I no longer feel like I'm at risk of being arrested for defrauding an innkeeper or similar when carrying their plastic!
STAY AWAY FROM GOLDEN ONE! CREDIT UNIONS CAN REALLY BE MUCH MUCH BETTER!!! read more