Educator's Credit Union

My string of issues began in late April when I was contacted by my auto financial service that my April car payment was not received. My records indicate that my payment was made through Educators Bill Payment service on April 15th . It was later discovered that their bill payment service sent my auto payment to the wrong address despite my having the proper address entered into the system.

Then on May 15, 2014 one of their telephone tellers transferred $20,000 out of my Home Equity Line of Credit account by the request of, in her words, “a man with a Nigerian accent”. (source: Racine Co. Sheriff’s Dept. complaint # 14-276**) This forced me to change my phone number as well as all of my log in and passwords for numerous online accounts. Despite the emotional toll this took on me, I was delighted to hear that Educators Credit Union would offer free monthly credit checks (aka What’s Your Score?). I later realized that these credit checks required me to endure a mandatory sales presentation where “not interested” was met with even higher pressure sales tactics. Thank you, Teresa at the Burlington branch, for the part of my life I’ll never get back. I felt I was victimized twice.

The malicious injustice continued on Nov. 12 when I innocently again made my monthly car payment through their bill payment service. A few weeks later I noticed that their bill payment service made a double payment on my behalf. When I used your “secure” email system to question the double transaction, this was the reply:

Hello,

I do apologize but we actually do not have access to your Bill pay at all, so we would not have access to send out an additional payment at all. The "pay" button would have had to be hit 2x. But we are actually not able to credit your account for that amount. The funds were send out on 11/12 and were received by the payee. You would have to contact the payee for them to issue a credit to you. Again I do apologize.

Thank you,

Jenna -------- END OF FI MESSAGE --------

Is this employee “owning it” or simply blaming me? I sent a “Secure” email reply to this message but did not receive a response. My response to Jenna indicated that I submitted several of my bills at once so why would the auto payment be the only one duplicated.

After what I have been through, I certainly cannot recommend this business to anyone do to their lack of integrity, security and proficiency. And with all the other credit unions out there, why would you?

Review: I went to the Newman road location some[redacted]e in June. I explained to the woman who helped me that I have 2 credit cards. I explained that I was able to afford to pay them, however I wanted to simplify things and asked about consolidating them on an Educators Credit Card. I explained that I wanted to work on my credit score, as well as build up positive credit with educators credit union, because I want to take out a car and home loan in the future with Educators. The Girl explained to me that would be a good idea. She then went through all the steps to get me approved for a credit card. I was told that the card I would be issued would be around 9% interest. I did the math quickly on my phone and confirmed the amount that would come off of my minimum payment each month and she verbally confirmed it as well. I also did the same thing with the entire balance taking the 9% into account. We also discussed doing automatic payroll deduction when I get paid, seeing as how I had direct deposit set up. With that being said my complain has two parts. First of all my Automatic payment was never set up, resulting in my payments being past due. Second after seeing that my balance was not going down I found that almost my entire payment was going to interest. After returning to another Educators location I was told that I had a different card with a higher rate, then I was lead to believe. The girl helping me said I was unable to qualify for another card.Desired Settlement: I am kindly asking Educators to issue me the credit card with the 9% interest I was originally quoted. I understand that it's my responsibility to read and understand what I am agreeing to, however the person helping me not only failed to set up my payments correctly resulting in late fees, but she severely misguided me. This tells me it was an error and miss communication on the employee's end. Had I known I would have to pay such a large interest I would have never agreed to this card, and these terms. If I am not able to get a new card with a better interest rate, there is absolutely no way I will be able to pay this card off. Prior to this I was able to afford the payments on my cards easily. I have been with educators for many years, and never had any problems. I don't think this is an unreasonable request seeing as how this was clearly an error in communication on the employees end.

Business

Response:

December 4, 2014To Whom It May Concern:My name is [redacted]. I am the Branch Manager of the Newman Road location of Educators Credit Union. At the direction of the Vice President of Lending, Linda Hoover, I attempted to contact [redacted] by phone on three occasions - November 7th, November 19th and December 4th, 2014. I did not receive a call back. On December 4th, I mailed a letter attached to this response and sent [redacted] a VISA Platinum with the interest rate he believed he was receiving in the first place. We also refunded all late charges caused by the failure of the automatic payments. We also refunded the difference of the interest charged between the card he received (13.8%) and the card he understood he was getting originally in June (8.9%.) This amount totaled $75.00 and was deducted from his principle balance. I also invited Mr. Philips to stop in any branch to have a new card issued with the lower interest rate if he did not want to wait for the one we sent him through the mail. We hope this resolves all of the miscommunication that occurred in June when Mr. [redacted] first applied for the credit card. We are certainly willing to address any remaining issues Mr. [redacted] may have.Sincerely,[redacted]Branch ManagerEducators Credit Union1400 N Newman RdRacine, WI 53406

Consumer

Response:

[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 is satisfactory to me.