Desert Schools Federal Credit Union

I am writing in response to the complaint you recently filed with the Revdex.com regarding overdraft protection being added to your account and subsequent non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees being applied to the account. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our...

attention.In your complaint, you indicated your belief that Desert Schools enabled Privilege Pay without your consent which led to eight overdraft fees being incurred. That is not the case. Privilege Pay has not been active on your account since April 20, 2012 and, as a result, Desert Schools will not authorize debit card transactions against an insufficient balance.In this case, the Paid NSF Fees assessed to your account in April and May of this year resulted from debit card transactions which were each authorized against a sufficient balance. However, because the merchant was apparently slow in completing the transactions, the funds held against those authorizations had been released and the account balances were no longer sufficient. A Paid NSF Fee of $35.00 was applied to each transaction.Our Statement of Terms, Conditions and Disclosures that govern your account state: “Once the Credit Union approves an authorization, the amount of that authorization will be held against the checking account or applicable overdraft accounts until the completed financial transaction is submitted by the merchant or one business day, whichever occurs first.” The one business day limit is enough for most transactions to be completed because, as you might imagine, merchants are typically keen to complete transactions. However, there is no requirement that they do so within one day, which seems to have been the case in this situation. This makes it important that you remain aware of your available balance. As a courtesy, I have refunded the additional four NSF Fees on your account. However, in the event this situation recurs in the future you should expect we would again apply Paid NSF Fees of $35.00 for each transaction, up to a maximum of five per day.I hope my response adequately explains our processes and addresses your concerns. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to call me directly at ###-###-####.

I am writing in response to the complaint you filed with the Revdex.com regarding the issues you experienced recently with the direct deposit of your wife's direct deposit. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. 

I would like to begin with an apology for...

the issues you faced while trying to determine the status of your wife's direct deposit from the [redacted]. Desert Schools did experience an unexpected hardware failure that subsequently caused a delay in the processing of the direct deposit files we received. We recognize this unanticipated system issue may have caused issues for some of our members. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue caused you and your family. 

In your letter, you correctly identified that Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) fees are applied automatically by our system if items clear an account when funds are not available to cover them. Clearly, if your wife's direct deposit had not been delayed by our system issue, there would have been sufficient funds in your account and no NSF fees would have been applied. Since that is not what transpired, I have reviewed your account to ensure only the two NSF fees you mentioned were charged as a result of this error, and have reversed those fees, crediting the $70 back to your account. Once again, I do apologize for the inconvenience you experienced as a result of this unanticipated system issue. 

Although the credit union, a non-for-profit financial service cooperative, is unable to redirect funds entrusted to us by members like you, to provide compensation in the manner requested in your letter, I can certainly understand your frustration at the impacts of our system issue. I have, however, enclosed two complimentary [redacted] movie tickets as a small gesture to indicate our understanding of your frustration. On behalf of the entire Desert Schools organization, I truly apologize for the inconvenience you and your wife experienced. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to call me directly at ([redacted]) [redacted].

Sincerely, 

Vice President - Contact Center Operations 

Enclosure

cc: Revdex.com

Attached is a copy of our response to Revdex.com complaint ID #[redacted] submitted by our member [redacted]. If any questions or additional information is needed, please let us know.
Thank you,
Sandy K[redacted]
Executive Assistant
Desert Schools Federal Credit Union

Let me first offer my sincerest condolences for the passing of your mother. I am writing in response to a complaint you recently submitted to the Revdex.com requesting that Desert Schools defer our annual Safe Deposit Box rental fee of $75.  You previously addressed this...

issue at our 44th Street & Thomas Road location and through social media on our Facebook page.

I can clearly see your frustration and truly apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.  We have fallen short of our commitment to provide you with exceptional service and an immediate solution. This situation does not represent the standard of service on which we pride ourselves.

I understand that, since writing your letter, you met with [redacted], our 44th Street & Thomas Road Branch Manager, on August 4th and a solution was agreed upon. In summary, Desert Schools will incur the expense associated with having the Safe Deposit Box opened, provide you with its contents and terminate the lease agreement on August 5th. In addition, we have reversed the $35 non­-sufficient funds charge that you incurred as a result of the application of the original Safe Deposit Box fee.

We are committed to quality and exceptional member service to each and every one of our members and strive to exceed every member's expectations. Although we fell short in this situation, I hope that you will allow us to demonstrate our dedication to delivering quality service in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to tell us how we are doing and I apologize again for your recent experience. If I can be of further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact me at ([redacted]) [redacted].

Dear Ms. [redacted]:I am writing in response to the complaint you recently filed with the Revdex.com regarding the bill payments to [redacted] from your account. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.In your complaint, you identified problems with...

payments made through our bill-pay system and, in particular, three payments to [redacted] in amounts that you did not authorize. After reviewing your account we can see where you established a reoccurring bill payment to pay [redacted] for $608.47 each month starting in October 2012. We can also see where you modified your pending payment in November of 2013, reducing it from $608.47 to $45.19. That seems to be where the issue occurred.Our bill-payment system provides members the opportunity to change or cancel individual pending payments directly from the main “Payment Center”; however, it is necessary to access the “Manage My Bills” menu in order to change multiple scheduled payments. Desert Schools has no way to make changes of this sort on a member’s behalf. It appears, from our review that you only changed the amount for the pending payment, and not for the recurring payments scheduled in the months to follow. As a result, the December 2013, January and February 2014 payments to [redacted] were sent in the original amount of $608.47.When you contacted our Member Assistance Center in February 2014 regarding this issue we indicated that only the November payment had been modified and not the recurring payments to follow; however, it is clear from your complaint that we did not explain the source of the issue adequately. However, we were correct in directing you to the payee ([redacted]) for a refund or credit. Based on your account of the change in your premium, it appears you inadvertently overpaid them and it seems logical they should refund that overpayment.I hope my explanation helps to clear-up any remaining confusion regarding changing payments through our bill-pay system. If I have managed that, you should now understand that the bill-pay engine processed the payments correctly, based on the inputs you had provided and, as a result, I cannot authorize a refund of the apparent over-payments to [redacted]. However, our review did uncover an NSF Fee which was charged to your account on 3/21/2014. On the assumption that the payments issue may have contributed to the NSF fee of $35.00, we have refunded that amount. In the event my response has not adequately explained the process, or if you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to call me directly at ###-###-####.[redacted]Vice President – Contact Center Operations

Attached is a copy of our response to the Revdex.com complaint ID #[redacted] submitted by our member [redacted]. If any questions or additional information is needed, please let us know.
Thank you,
Sandy K[redacted]
Executive Assistant
Desert Schools Federal Credit Union

Dear Mr. [redacted]:I am writing in response to a recent Revdex.com complaint we received involving a transaction you processed at our [redacted] branch located at [redacted].In reviewing your transaction I completely agree that we did not handle this issue in the...

appropriate manner. I understand the service you received during this situation was neither satisfactory to you norwas it the caliber of service we pride ourselves in providing to our members. I do apologize for this issue and have taken steps to ensure future transactions or account adjustments such as this are addressed differently.I have also been advised that [redacted], Regional Director of that location has contacted you by phone and has corrected the issue to your satisfaction. Again, please let me apologize for anyinconvenience this may have caused you, your membership and satisfaction is very important to us. If I can be of any other assistance to you please feel free to contact me at ###-###-####. Thank you for your continued patronage.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

I am writing in response to a complaint you recently submitted to the Revdex.com regarding a credit bureau inquiry by Desert Schools Federal Credit Union. We sincerely apologize for our misunderstanding of your intent to refinance your auto loan and the inconvenience this has caused you....

We have taken the necessary steps to have this inquiry removed from your credit report.

In addition, I would like to apologize for our lack of response and follow up on two separate occasions. This level of service is unacceptable and has been address withed the branch staff. We are committed to quality and exceptional member service to each an delivery one of our members and strive to exceed every member's expectations. Although we fell short in this situation, I hope that you will allow us to demonstrate our dedication to delivering quality service in the future. 

I apologize again for your experience at our [redacted]'s branch on [redacted]. If I can be of further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact me at ###-###-#### or via email at [redacted]

Sincerely, 

Assistant Vice President - Retail Sales & Branch Operations

Your recent concerns lodged with the Revdex.com (Revdex.com) have been forwarded to my attention for response. I have reviewed your accounts and the situations you described as well as Deserts Schools' practices as they pertain to your accounts and have summarized my findings below.Your...

complaint indicates that you believe your loan is scheduled to be "paid in full" in January 2014. Your loan opened on 1/31/09 with a 72 month term and is scheduled to mature on 2/15/15. Please see the enclosed copy of your loan contract which confirms the loan term. The payoff amount of your loan as of today's date is $5,254.03. ($5,201.28 principal, $40.72 interest to date, $12 .00 accrued late fees) Continued and timely remittance of monthly payments throughout the remainder of your loan term will satisfy the remaining balance.The loan payments which were scheduled and due for October, November, December of 2011, and January and February of 2012 were not paid until 2/29/12.  Due to the stage of delinquency during this time frame, the vehicle had been assigned for repossession. Our records indicate that you contacted our office on 2/29112 to discuss your loan delinquency and to make arrangements to bring the loan current.  Funds in the amount of $2,726.50 were remitted by you via shared branching. A total of $2,563 .50 was credited to your existing loan balance and $162.00 was credited toward the accrued repossession assignment fee.Working with you to rectify the delinquency for your auto loan in February 2012 we also advised you of the condition of your checking account. Your checking account f irst became negative on 9/22/11. On 9/30/11 there was a deposit of $502.00 via shared branching. However, on 10/17/11 we received a returned check for non-sufficient funds from Arapahoe Credit Union. The return check caused your account to be overdrawn by -$516.14. We have enclosed a copy of the return check notice for your reference. Your overdrawn checking account was never resolved; as a result the credit union was forced to charge off the loss on 12/29/1 1. I have enclosed account statements from 10/11/11 through 3/11/ 12 which will provide the transaction detail that I've summarized above.Typically account services are restricted when Desert Schools incurs a loss on any account. Online access, monthly statements, and some branch services are restricted. Additionally, alerts are placed on the account in an effort to mitigate the risk of any further loss. These types of actions are outlined in The Statement of Terms, Conditions and Disclosure which govern all accounts at Desert Schools. Additionally, they are within the regulatory guidelines outlined by the NCUA and established business practices.It would appear from a review of your account statements that Desert Schools was not notified of your 2011 address change until you contacted our office in February of 2012 at which time you stated you resided in [redacted]. As you can see from the statement copies, we began sending them to your Centennial address at that time. However, the address referenced on your complaint to the Revdex.com is in [redacted]. We have never been notified of your change to that address. If we should now be sending statements to that address, please call us to confirm that.We appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.  We are hopeful that this information has provided the details you require for clarity regarding the present status of both your automobile loan and the charged-off checking account. Please contact me directly to make arrangements for repayment of the checking account. We are happy to work with you to re-establish your access to online services and monthly statements.

Your recent concerns lodged with the [redacted] have been forwarded to me for review. I have reviewed your account and the situation you described as well as Deserts Schools’ practices asthey pertain to your account and have summarized my findings below. Your complaint...

indicates that though you have remitted all of your monthly installments late, they were all remitted on or before the 30th day of delinquency and should not be reported as being 30 days late on your permanent credit profile. You also indicate that Desert Schools has reported your payment history incorrectly. Further your comments in the ‘Desired Settlement’, implies that the credit reporting practices of Desert Schools is not compliant with regulatory guidelines. As a furnisher of consumer credit account data, Desert Schools adheres to all applicable regulatory guidelines for reporting payment history under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Additionally we follow the standard electronic data reporting format provided by the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA). Within the CDIA’s Metro 2® Format guide it states: “The “clock” for a 30-day delinquency starts 30 days after the due date, as opposed to the billing date.” Although you may have made your payments on the 30th day of delinquency, because the account actually reached the 30th day of delinquency it is a reportable delinquency. Your payment history is charted below and does confirm when payments were due versus when they were received. Our records confirm that you contacted the credit union regarding your 10/17/2013 payment which was received on 11/18/2013. Per your request we processed a one-time courtesy reversal and corrected your credit report accordingly. It is also important to note that the majority of payments have been made via the check-by-phone service offered by Desert Schools. As such each time you authorized payment it was disclosed to you that the payment may take up to 48-business hours for the transaction to be processed and the payment applied to your loan. In fact, when the check-by-phone payment was authorized on Friday, 11/14/14 for the 10/17/14 due date, the representative from our Credit Assistance department specifically explained that the account may report 30 days late because the account was already 28 days, the check-by-phone may take 48- business hours and it was a Friday. Despite the information you received from the representative, you elected to continue with the transaction. It is the 10/17/14 payment that is reporting over 30 days. The payment you made via shared branching on 12/15/14 was credited to your loan on the same day.

Your recent concerns lodged with the Revdex.com have been forwarded to me for review. I have evaluated your account and the situation you described, as well as Deserts Schools' practices as they pertain to your account and have summarized my findings below.
Your complaint...

concerns a charged-off checking account on which you are a joint owner with Peter [redacted]. In your complaint you expressed your desire that Desert Schools should collect the remaining balance due from him, as 'agreed', and you described your alternate checking account, solely owned by you, as having been frozen.A review of our records does not show that an agreement of that nature was ever made with you. In fact, the Desert Schools Statements of Terms, Conditions and Disclosures states that the Credit Union can enforce overdraft liability in the joint account against any joint owner individually. The terms state specifically; "Each joint owner guarantees the signatures of the other joint owners and authorizes the others to endorse checks for deposit if they are payable to any of the joint owners. Each joint owner also authorizes the Credit Union to exercise setoff and enforce its security interest in the entire joint account, even though only one of the joint owners is the debtor; these rights exist irrespective of who contributed funds to the joint account. Similarly, the Credit Union can enforce overdraft liability in the joint account against any joint owner individually." (A copy of the Statements of Terms, Conditions and Disclosures are enclosed.)
Because your joint checking account was charged off on 6/27/13; your personal, related checking account was restricted in accordance with Desert Schools' established practices and procedures. As you already know, this means you can only conduct withdrawals at a branch office. However; as you have visited a branch each month since the charge-off to withdraw the funds from your SSI and SSA deposits, you are also apparently aware that the funds on deposit were not offset to pay for the charged off checking, and were available for your use.
I understand you have already visited your local branch office and have made arrangements with the representatives from the branch and from our Credit Assistance department to pay the remaining balance due on your charged-off checking account. I can confirm what our staff already explained: once the charge off balance has been paid in full, restrictions on your individual account will be removed and you can begin using the account normally.
I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns. I am hopeful that the information provided will assist in understanding the transactions and account ownership  responsibilities.   Please contact me directly if I can be of any further assistance.
Sincerely,[redacted]Senior Director

I am writing in response to the complaint you recently filed with the Revdex.com regarding the fees applied to your account and the subsequent closing of your account. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention .

In November of 2012, all of our members were notified...

of a new $5.00 Limited Membership Fee that was to begin in January 2013. This fee applies to those members who only maintain savings accounts and have a combined balance of less than $200. Members whom we projected could possibly incur this fee in January , were notified again in December of 2013. The notifications were intended to encourage members to determine how they would like to manage their relationships with Desert Schools going forward. We asked those members to consider growing their relationships with the credit union by opening additional accounts or increasing the savings account balance to greater than $200. The notifications we re also intended as a reminder for members for whom the credit union savings account had potentially become an overlooked element of their financial management plan.

At the time the fee was first applied, in January 2013, you had a balance of $ 182.17 in yo ur Desert Schools savings account and there had been no transact ions recorded since an ATM withdrawal on January 3, 2012. As a result, in addition to the Limited Membership Fee, the twelve months of inactivity also triggered the implementation of an Inactive Account Fee of $5.00 per month. You should note that, while the Limited Membership Fee was new, the Inactive Account Fee has existed in our fee schedule for a number of yea rs and the appropriate prior notifications were provided before your account was classified as inactive.

From our review of your account, and the information provided in your BB B complaint, it appears you have moved out of state. However, since you had elected to receive electronic statements and notifications from Desert Schools, all of the notifications we provided were available to you with your statements. Each month, when the new statement becomes available online, Desert Schools also sends an e-mail to our members who use eStatements, to encourage them to review their accounts and to record any disputes within the 60 days allotted under our Terms and Conditions.

Our records confirm that we provided all necessary notifications and emails to inform you of the status of your account; however, we can also see that you had not logged in to online banking. Through your conversations with our Member Assistance Center representatives,  it became apparent that, although you did receive our email notifications, you were not able to access your account and did not take steps to resolve that issue until recently. I can certainly understand you may have had other priorities which prevented you from taking action on our Inactive Account and Limited Membership notifications before the fees began to deplete your balance, and, under the circumstances, I believe Desert Schools should work with you to settle your concerns. Since our implementation of the new Limited Membership Fee, in January, caused your account balance to decline more quickly than would have transpired with just the Inactive Account Fee, I have authorized the refund of all of the Limited Membership Fees that were applied to your account. This totals $90.00. A check for this amount will be mailed under separate cover to the address provided on the Revdex.com complaint.

I hope my response adequately explains our processes and addresses your concerns. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to call me directly at ###-###-####. 
Sincerely,

Vice President - Contact Center Operations

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

Desert Schools Federal Credit Union is in receipt of the correspondence filed by [redacted] with the Revdex.com in her complaint letter dated 8/25/2014.

We have reviewed the events described in Ms. [redacted] letter. Although our staff followed the standard right of offset...

procedures, outlined in our Statements of Terms, Conditions and Disclosures, and provided to members at the time accounts are opened, we are electing to reverse the transfer of funds associated with Ms. [redacted] account. We have contacted our member and will work directly with her to facilitate account resolution.

We value the feedback from Ms. [redacted] letter and reexamining this process. We also appreciate the opportunity to respond to the Revdex.com as we are committed to working with our members to resolve inquiries or disputes promptly and equitably. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely, [redacted]

Dear Ms. [redacted]:

 

This letter is in response to the Revdex.com complaint submitted by our member [redacted]. [redacted] dated March 5, 2014.

 

We contacted Mr. [redacted] to discuss his letter and...

explain the reason for our actions. From this conversation it was clear that a miscommunication did occur between our staff and Mr. [redacted]. As a result of our discussion, we were able to explain the credit union's position and meet his needs with  alternate financing.

 

We appreciate the opportunity to address this issue. If you have any questions, please contact me at the number below.

This credit union is poorly run with poor customer service. I have been a member for over 20 years. This past weekend the bank started taking out multiple charges for every transaction for non-sufficient funds. The account had $300.00 in balance when they started taking them out. With all of the charges, I quickly did have non-sufficient funds. The bank statement printout even showed that the charges were taken with a balance that could cover the transaction. Of course, this started on Friday and I was unable to speak to anyone over the weekend. When my husband went in to the branch on Monday, they would only waive one of the charges- and over 8 charges were made- well over $200.00 did they take from our account. Using their app, we deposited a check on Sunday evening for $500.00 to cover. They told my husband that this money would not even post until Thursday-so much for convenience of their app. They said that if we would have brought the check in for deposit, the money would have been applied immediately to our account. I am very disappointed in this company and would encourage anyone to watch their back. Even if you have written proof from their institution they will not work with you to make it right. They just explain themselves away-talking in circles so they can keep your money. Needless to say, I will be pulling my accounts from their institution.

Better Business...

Bureau:Hello DSFCUWords cannot express how thankful I am for your prompt response and action that was taken regarding my checking account.My heart is filled with gratitude, knowing I can count on my Financial institution to do what is right. It also comforts me to know, that I have chosen the right CU for all my banking needs. I will continue to share with my friends & family of our trustworthy relationship.Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

I was desperate when I bought my house and did not shop around for loan rates. Fast forward a year later and I realize my rate is more than 1% more then the higher prime rate now.

Terrible bank. Checks cash slow. Fees. Broken ATMs.

The most recent straw was I went to the bank to do a wire transfer(Which thanks to Desert schools has to be done in a branch). I was the first one there at 9AM and they made me wait. I was the only one there. I called my other bank and they were able to do the entire transfer before someone came to help me.

[A...

default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,