Us Employees Credit Union

My husband and I joined this credit union after some of the major banks started charging fees for checking accounts. I thought the USECU would be great! No-​fee checking account as long as you had direct debit of $ 500 or more. Done!
What no one told me when opening the account was that they have limits on what you can spend per day on your Visa debit card. During the first three months your account is open the maximum is $ 500 per day. After that, no matter how long your account is open it’s $ 1,000 per day. You can call to have that limit raised for a one-​time purchase, but that also requires planning ahead. Their customer service is only open Monday-​Friday, 9am-​4pm. Not that i do this often, but with their account, purchasing a computer or a TV on a Saturday is pretty much out of the question. No shopping sprees or extravagant nights out. I totally understand declining purchases if the money isn’t in the account, but when it is, I should be able to spend it how I want when I want. Luckily we learned this as we were purchasing our cruise instead of on it or we could have been stranded in parts of Caribbean. (I know, the horror, right?) But on a more practical level, a good portion of my bills are paid by my debit card, so those could potentially not be paid on the same day because of this rule. i don’t need my bills being declined and then all screwed up.
My point is, enough people and things come between me and money and I don’t need my credit union or bank to put more barriers. I believe they said it’s a security issue and that you can get a credit card (I won’t use those) or a reloadable Visa debit card for those types of things. Why would I want a second card when my first should allow me to make purchases and have the security protections of Visa?
We are changing back to our old bank. They have customer service ²⁴⁄₇ and don’t have limits on spending as long as the money is in the account.
I really wanted to like USECU, but there are too many things getting between me and money. A few tweaks and they could rock it. Just not now.