Sound Credit Union

Best Credit Union ever!!! Member service is top notch and the rates are great. I’ve been a happy member for years.

I need to say I love the customer service Karen gives me. It’s GREAT! There’s a woman of Asian descent that’s usually working on the right side of the entrance. I do not remember her name, but she has great customer service too. The security guard is a very nice man too! My main issue is with Chase. He has this thing where he refuses to put the change in my hands after I make a transaction I thought I was imagining things. But I saw him put change in an older White man’s hands, and I thought what’s wrong with him putting my change in my hands once a transaction is done? Where’s the professionalism?

Almost a year since my last review and I am almost completely out of SCU. I have moved most everything to BECU and the difference is… well hard to describe. While all financial institutions have annoying quirks BECU has saved me a small fortune in interest and has been very easy to deal with. I am still waiting to hear back from the SCU rep who said she would get back to me in «about 10 minutes.» That was in March. The culture at SCU is so toxic I cannot imagine them staying in business and expect them to be bought out in the future. For the sake of their remaining customers I hope that comes soon.

I took out a car loan through Sound CU as my son and his wife needed a vehicle ASAP having come from Europe and no car here in the states to get to work. It was a bad decision. I should have spent the extra day or two and gone to BECU. I can’t pay my car loan online, I have no need of checks so don’t have any yet without a check Sound CU won’t allow me to set up auto pay. They will generously take the payment over the phone for a fee each month, NOT! I will be refinancing through BECU as soon as possible. I have never dealt with a company that makes it so difficult to make payments. Horrible!!!

Been a member for many years. I have Car loans, credit cards, safety deposit boxes — all without any issues. The personal touch and great customer service is why you come to Sound over a big bank. Great rates help too!
Pro’s —
Personal touch and human interaction lacking from big banks.
Completely free checking and savings accounts. Minimum balances are something like $ 25
Great rates for car and home loans (pending credit of course)
No deposit slips!
Free cashier’s checks and notarizing services
Great joining promotions
Mobile App
Con’s —
Limited Saturday hours
Not all ATMs can deposit cash/​checks though it is getting better
Online bank homepage is cluttered, but fully customizable

Worst bank I’ve ever worked with. My car loan is through them. I had to call them to receive my initial bill. How did they think I was going to pay it?
My most recent interaction involved getting a letter of authorization to ship my car overseas. They were very knowledgeable about telling me what I needed to do. But they failed to inform me that approval would take a number of weeks. I sure hope I get it before I have to leave next week!

See my added picture where the password length is too long and special characters are not allowed.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! How can you set such low limitations on a password for a BANK? Do you guys save the password in clear text as well ??
SCU you should be ashamed at this!
You should be setting no limits on password length and character restrictions, and should start thinking about multi factor authentication via sms/​phone etc!

Never apply for a loan through them. Unprofessional,
unknowledgeable, inexperienced, greedy, careless people with poor customer service. I would rather give my interest payments who will appreciate my business. Wasn’t even aware that they changed from Watermark. That’s how much they care about your loyalty. At least pay for some stationary and stamps to write a short letter saying they’ve taken over would be nice. Something simple like that actually goes a long way. Sorry but NO ONE can even try to change my mind because its been made up! Definitely agree with other Unilocalers’ bad reviews for this bank.

I would be remiss if I did not update to point out that improvements have been made.
Last week, I was able to use one of my Sound debit or credit cards at a Seattle parking meter. I was ecstatic to find that this had been fixed.
Account numbers indeed are no longer printed on receipts.
The main phone number no longer gives me fits.
However, the banking alert function — which I really depended on with Watermark — is broken again, and I’m just not going to bother to try to fix it anymore. And the quality of the assistance I get when I call the main phone number is a bit questionable. I’ve found that the people (who are all very nice and polite) that answer this number can get out of their depth rapidly, which never was an opinion I formed when I called Watermark.
I was told that the fee that I was concerned about does not actually exist, but the last I looked it was still on their fee schedule.
So, if you want a credit union, this is a credit union. I’ve talked to seemingly a lot of new members to Sound who had not been previous Watermark conversions, and they all tell me how happy they are with Sound. Perhaps my complaints are sour grapes, but I remember when I had a credit union that I loved, as opposed to a credit union that I’m simply a member of. The bulk of my business accounts will stay here, but I’ve moved part of them off to another credit union (Verity), and I’m in the process of moving my personal banking to Umpqua.
So far, my recommendation is Umpqua.

I’ve banked with Watermark for years and never had any problems. Now, my new Sound card does not work in Seattle city parking meters! I called Sound and they said that «lots of people» were having those problems, that they didn’t know what was going on, offered to send me a new card, but said they couldn’t guarantee it would work! I don’t have another Visa/​MC, so now I have to carry several rolls of quarters everywhere I go?! This is ridiculous. I’m going to BECU.

I lost trust in Sound Credit (formerly Watermark) after our recent home loan experience through them. I’m not sure whether it was just the loan officer we worked with (Shelly Cox), or the whole credit union.
She lost a lot of documents we sent her, so we had to send the same things 2 or 3 times each. Even then, she had trouble keeping track of them. We’re talking documents with our SSNs, etc. We started checking with her frequently to make sure she had received things, and she would say yes, but then ask us for them again the next day. Her disorganization and terrible communication cost us the chance to close early.
I’m writing this to help other home buyers out there. It’s stressful even under the best of circumstances. For the sake of your sanity and all things great and small in this world, DON’T get a home loan through Sound Credit!