I am generally in the practice of either leaving a stellar review or a rather scathing one. I'm not a middle of the road kind of person and I don't mince words so buckle your seatbelts this is going to be a bumpy review.
I have a lot of experience with banks and credit unions. The differences between credit unions are many and varied. Wauna built a brick and mortar location in Forest Grove several years ago. It wasn't exactly an improvement to the look and character of Forest Grove because the building is overstatedly flashy and garish as they did not build to the landscape rather they landscaped to the building. Nevertheless, they are there and they're not leaving so I thought that I would give them a test drive to see what they were made of.
When I had some free time I stopped in there and dropped 500 in a savings account to get the process going because I wanted to explore what services they had to offer and while I was in the process of that I noticed that their CDs had a rate of return that were extremely low on a par with those offered by banks. That was my first red flag. It took well over an hour to fill out the paperwork, provide the necessary documentation, get the form signed and issue a temporary membership card. During this process the person that was helping me kept getting up from her seat and going into another area and then coming back which was a bit odd. Also, two of the other tellers kept interrupting our business with questions from at least four different customers they were trying to help. It was obvious to me that they weren't very well trained. They were pleasant but it really seemed to me that they didn't really know what they were doing. That was the second red flag.
A few days later I got a call from one of Wauna's employees at another branch who wanted to interview me with regard to the fact that I had expressed interest in signing up for a credit card there. The woman that I spoke with wanted to know my entire work history. She wanted to know whether I owned a home or if I was a renter. She wanted to know what my monthly income was, whether I had other people living with me or not, if I was married - - some of the questions, she asked me were outside of the confines of a simple credit application which I found to be somewhat invasive and overly personal. That was my third red flag.
Several days later I got a letter in the mail stating that if I have a checking or a savings account with Wauna that drops below a balance of $300 there would be a $15 surcharge. They told me they had free checking... that's not free checking. That was my fourth red flag.
Wauna has an 800 number that you call that goes to a call center that is probably at one of their other locations that will transfer you to the credit union that you are trying to contact should you ever need to contact them by telephone. I called that number and let them know that I needed to speak with the manager to formalize the paperwork for the credit application and get the form signed. The person on the telephone told me that the manager was there and that he was waiting to speak with me. When I was transferred I got the managers voicemail. I didn't leave a message. I just simply hung up and called back and made an appointment to see the manager through their answering service. When I arrived at Wauna for the appointment the manager was nowhere in sight and I was told that he had taken the afternoon off. Another red flag!
I decided to further test them by making a $100 deposit from my savings account that I had opened as a test account. For some reason the teller was having a great deal of difficulty with her computer. She told me that it was being slow. This went on for quite some time until I began to become a little frustrated and just decided that I was done. I told the teller just give me all my money. She notified me that that would close the account. I told her I just really didn't care at that point do what you have to do. She struggled with the computer for about 35 more minutes until finally she dispersed $500 to me. I said, thank you very much - - turned and left - breathing to myself a rather relieving sigh. I was glad that I tested them the way that I did in order to avoid a whole lot of headaches in the future from Wauna Credit Union and the law of unintended consequences.
I've shared this experience with you carefully and honestly in the hopes that you will be able to make a more informed choice about which credit union you decide to do business with. Many happy returns! read more
