Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union

I am writing to discuss my experience working with Kanita in the application of my New car loan. I will admit it was so easy and took no time at all. All who I am in contact with from tellers, Dawn at Southcenter whom I have dealt with for last year’s car buying experience, are interested with what I have gotten myself into! That’s a funny! Got myself into — like drivers seat! !

the personnel are very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately I need to bank online and I’m defiantly at the wrong bank for that. In the last 3 or 4 months I’ve probably tried 60 times and been successful MAYBE 8 or 10 times. Can’t do it, guess I’ll try Boeing.

A new upgrade to the online banking system stinks! When you go to the bill pay section, they’ve limited the number of visible bills so that in my case any account with a name starting with S-​Z isn’t there! You have to go to a different screen to find it. Anything you pay a few times a year isn’t there! Real estate taxes anybody? Charitable donations? They changed the name of my accounts so it took me half an hour to find which account was Comcast and which was Comcast-​vacation. I have to redo all nicknames to find the correct payee. When you go to the advanced site, you can’t make a payment on that site. There is no history available. Smaller print. It’s ugly.
I’m expecting a full-​blown rebellion from people who use their online bill pay regularly once people find out how difficult it is. Honestly, this isn’t a matter of getting used to it. It is a crummy upgrade. And who has the time to call them to help get it figured out as I did — that’s the only way I knew to go on to an advanced screen. People are working when this credit union is open for business and calls for help will be mighty.
Honestly, I’ve always liked SMCU and been a customer for twenty years but this upgrade — I really can’t believe somebody allowed this to happen. The old presence was excellent. Some tweaks to fix internal problems if there were any, okay. But this is miserable. It is like they kept finding things to fix and have ended up with a patchwork quilt of stuff. No intuitive here. No alignment or logic. I might have to go back to writing checks again.

Worst bank ever… I was told by a friend to refinance my car with them. Jessica told me that I was going to get a 239 $ payment and my term was 60 months. Now i am logging on to make my first payment and it is 320 $. So i called and asked why, she said they couldn’t approve me for the 60 month term. They never called and told me the difference. Also when my insurance renewed they apparently they didn’t get the updated info so they tried to add their own insurance on. I was told at the time of application that they are great at communicating and i said to keep my number on file to call if any changes occur. I cant believe that they haven’t called and tried to add their own insurance. When my insurance agent called they were rude to him. I asked to speak to a manager and they said she is busy. I am not feeling like they care about my business and i am seriously upset. I will be taking my business somewhere else and make sure everyone knows the service level they provide. I am in the banking industry and have already referred 2 clients to them. DO NOT TAKE THERE WORD GET IT IN WRITING. I didn’t keep the original paperwork cause i trusted them and it was singed via docusign.

Deeply upset by the customer service I had with the call center. Spoke with a women about my account she had an attitude then her supervisor also had an attitude. All I wanted to do was avoid the over draft charge I asked 5 times to request my card be turned off if there’s no funds available finally it took the women to get her supervisor to make an adjustment to my account. I am giving two stars instead of zero due to the fact that I love every person at every branch I’ve been two so helpful and amazing. The call center not so much quite unfortunate.
Update: a representative called me today very kindly followed up and resolved the situ1 I really appreciate it and that is the reason why I am still a loyal customer.

Why do I always get the feeling that I just lost a lousy fight with some girlfriend every time I do some banking from this place lately? I swear, if you want to feel all unwanted, miserable, and what not, just come to this establishment and some Megan will make sure that you”ll get it. I’ve been a member of this credit union ever since I started working in downtown, and lately the customer service here is getting poorer at every visit. I don’t know what’s going on at this place, but I know it can’t be me, because I’m always polite when dealing with anyone. It is disappointing, considering all I want to do is finish some banking of sorts and get out of there. I wonder if the people managing this place, if there are any at all, even know what’s going on at their floor. The overall vibe certainly gives the impression that some of the staff here are not happy with what they do, and knowing or unknowingly project the bad attitude to other members that are just trying to do some business that cannot be accomplished online.
Since I can only control what I do, I see one recourse for myself as a member if I don’t want to close my account yet: stick to doing the banking online. If there are other transactions that have to be done in person, it’s a good idea to have an account with another establishment that has a known reputation for good customer service (Wells Fargo is an example) and just have the non-​online transactions completed there. That should save one from the potential aggravation awaiting at this place, and life will go on happier, away from some toxic entities that tend to make good establishments look bad.

Our level of satisfaction with SMCU has gone precipitously downhill in recent years. We joined in 2008 because it was convenient to our lifestyle at the time. I ignored the poor customer service that we encountered from time to time. We were simply happy to get away from the lousy bank we had been in previous years. But every experience we’ve had with this institution has revealed extremely poor customer service and really no benefits to speak of that come anywhere near mitigating those negatives. I’m not sure what we’re switching to, but we’re actively searching and plan to leave imminently. It saddens me because we want to belong to a credit union instead of a bank. But there’s a limit to how much bad service we will implicitly endorse by continuing as members. No more.

If I could provide zero stars I would. The lack of member service is horrible at SMCU. I requested to have a check mailed to me to close my account. The check was processed incorrectly and sent to the wrong address. Now I have to fill out more paperwork to get another check. They were unable to fax or email this information to make the process more efficient. Overall I am unhappy with SMCU. I wouldn’t recommend banking with them at all due to lack of service and efficiency. Hopefully my account will be officially closed, because this process has been horrible!

After a couple of years of good years of service I’ve run into some really bad customer service staff at this credit union. I had a pretty big problem with bill pay and the people at their call center where pretty uninformed regarding how it all worked and then really rude in the way they handled my problem. It was two different people I talked to (one staff and one supervisor) and the situation was handled so poorly that I ended up starting the process of closing my accounts (which is super annoying!). It’s unfortunate. Luckily there are plenty of other credit unions to choose from. If they don’t start treating their members better then I think they’re going to have some troubles.

I’m only giving it one star because there is no zero-​star option. I’ve been with a few different banks and credit unions, and SMCU is by far THE FREAKING WORST. Without going into too much detail, I am currently dealing with a fairly simple external transfer issue involving my checking account with SMCU and my checking account with my primary credit union, and I have spoken to and exchanged emails with about 7 people over the last 2 weeks, and NO ONE seems capable of figuring out how to properly tell their computer system to do things so that the money I told them NOT to pull from my primary CU account that they pulled anyway could be transferred back IMMEDIATELY. To top it all off, my SMCU checking account is now suspended after their computer system rejected my request to transfer the money back to my primary CU account, and I can’t touch the money that is not supposed to be there anyway! HOLY HELL. I’m serious — look elsewhere to do any financial business. SMCU is bad news.

I received terrible customer service when trying to set up an auto loan at SMCU. Kanita never returned any of my voice mails, I just had to call everyday to try to catch her in the office. Over 3 – 4 weeks I got through 3 times, each time learning there was a new issue holding up my application that they never bothered to contact me about.
I’m a restaurant server who receives most of my income from tips. I have student loans with a monthly payment of 0 $ from the IBR plan. First, they found bad information showing that my loan payments were actually 700+ dollars a month. I submitted proof that my payments were actually 0 $. I couldn’t get ahold of her for another week. Then I found out that since the underwriters were gracious enough to use my actual loan payment amount instead of the inaccurate number, they were going to disregard all earned tips as income and only consider my minimum wage base pay. I earn about 3 – 4 times min wage including tips, these tips are reported on my pay stubs. Kanita doesn’t want pay stubs, only a W2. Apparently, they don’t understand or care that a W2 consists of all these pay stubs (that aren’t good enough proof) added together. They are refusing to consider my main source of verifiable income. Who knows if/​when I’ll hear back from them.
This whole thing has been a shit show and I’m done.

Firsttime ive stepfoot inside thisbank had to see if i can get a new debit card send. Anyways wthdrew some money just before i left i see her that rude bank teller ofcourse she rolls her eyes at me and goes to the back i just left hoping i never haveto visit this branch thank god for online banking !!!

I have been a member of different credit unions and, of course, banks over the years and in different parts of the country. The ease of opening accounts with awesome rates was so simplistic. Their online self service website and mobile app are super easy to use. Every employee makes you feel like you are their priority. The way it is suppose to be! I have closed my accounts with all other institutions because of the great rates and service.

Called to update my mailing address… was told they closed my savings account and sent the money to the state due to lack of activity. Are you kidding me? It was a savings account!

I hate to give them even one star because when I paid them off they gave me wrong amounts, making me go get another cashiers check and then when I went to sell the car they never had released ther interest in the title. AND of all the times I went in they never told me they pay for parking. Overall they were rude and sucked big time!

I go to this branch often because it’s near my office. Years ago, I used to receive excellent service from the tellers. There was a change in staffing and many tellers that I had come to like left for a variety of reasons. There was a period of adjustment with new staff members and I didn’t feel like I was «clicking» with many of them. Don’t get me wrong, they were always professional but I had come to expect more based on my previous experience, which was excellent.
It’s good that I’m reviewing them now because from my perspective, for the last year, the customer service has been on the upswing. Aside from being professional with my transactions, I get more of a personalized experience now. Sometimes, folks try to introduce me to new products and although I’m usually not interested, I appreciate the check in. For reference, I have a checking and savings account there.
Like most financial institutions, this location can get busy at times. Located right on Third Avenue, it can also be hard to find parking. You can park in their garage (entrance on Columbia) for free for the duration of your banking transaction.
I will say that I have appreciated the level of security. I had my debit card number compromised by merchants and SMCU called me, told me they would issue a new debit card, and sent it to me. While it was inconvenient, I believe in «better safe than sorry.»

Today’s service was horrifying. I usually make my cash deposits to my landlords account at the Georgetown Seattle location. Now THEY are amazing!!! If I felt it would do any good I would split the difference «star-​wise». It just wouldn’t get my bad experience across. So I walked into the Tukwila Branch today and asked the teller if it was possible for me to make a cash deposit to my landlords account even if I had accidentally left her account number at home. The teller said no, then told me if I was gonna call my landlord I needed to step out of line so she could help someone else. Then she told me that she didn’t want to have to stay late and then waived me to be seen by her co-​worker who told me I couldn’t make a cash deposit without an account number. I said ok, that I’d been able to deposit at another branch with my landlords name, address and Date of Birth. She let me know there had been a policy change. I said «if you can’t do it, its ok I just want to know so i can leave and make other arrangements.» Then the original teller told me she would do it, that I needed to get back in line. So I stepped back in line and that SAME teller started talking about me, the type of deposit I was trying to make, how she couldn’t «believe that some customers think its ok to just expect we can do anything without the account number.» All so I could hear it!!! So I just said to her «ya know, I’m gonna leave» and she just yelled out a snotty «Bye!» Now here’s my actual problem with this:
1) I knew I was asking a lot out of the bank.
2) I told both of the tellers that if they couldn’t help me it was ok. I’d get the info from my landlord and go to another branch closer to my house.
I wasnt expecting them to put their jobs in danger by breaking policy, I also didn’t expect the first teller to be so rude, so loud regarding my business at the bank today, and so unhelpful. I could have taken a nice «sorry, its policy, its the end of the day so there really isn’t anyone that can assist you now». Instead I got ordered back into line twice, was talked down to like I was the WORST customer on the planet for what I was asking for, and then literally gossiped about by the teller to another customer right in my face! I left angry, and embarrassed. Supposedly the supervisor is going to contact me today. It hasn’t happened yet, and I’m not going to count on it.

I love banking here. First, there’s never much of a wait, even late on a Friday. They usually have a couple tellers working rather than just one as I’ve seen elsewhere. Second, free checking. Third, they go out of their way to answer any weird questions I might have. I like that I see the same faces every time I stop in the branch downtown, it makes me feel good about the company that they don’t have a high turnover. The tellers have always been very helpful and friendly.

When you call customer service, you get a real person. When stranded in Uganda with hacked accounts and unusable cards, this makes a huge difference.
I’ve always been happy with SMCU, but after that incident (allowing my family to access info and make decisions on my behalf, overnighting new cards to Nairobi, recovering all my money), I’m sticking with my SMCU account for ages.
I’d love to be wrong, but I don’t think you get that kind of personal, quick service from big banks. «Press 4 for…» forget about it.

Wow, 5 star reviews all across? I hate to break this streak but…
It’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to open a business account here for a nonprofit. Worse, they seem to be confused-​depending on who you talk to– about how it works so after investing hours/​days into the process, you find that every member of the board has to each open an account to be a signer on the business account.
That’s just dumb.