Bay Cities Credit Union

I’ve been coming here since I was about 17 years old or so. Never have I ever had any problems.
PROS:
* Staff is nice
* Home Banking
* E-​Statements (I hate mail being delivered so this works out perfectly and if you need a copy you can print it at home!)
* Shared Branching option
CONS:
* I have none.
Have a good day :)

I unfortunately haft to come here to pay my car payment. I originally got the loan with Patelco. The ladies that work here are rude most of the time and will look right at you standing in line while they are sitting there flipping through papers without a «hi» or a «I will be right with you» there’s ONE lady that is half way decent though. Overall, It’s more of a chore to go in there every month. Hopefully it will push me to pay my car off sooner: D

I recently sold my car and the buyer received financing from Bay Cities Credit Union. It was the first time I sold a car on my own, so I was a little uneasy about the process of selling to a buyer receiving financing. The process was made very easy by Yolanda at Bay Cities. She was very knowledgable about the process and I felt reassured with her handling the transaction. I was very satisfied with the customer service which she provided and would highly recommend her. Thanks Yolanda!

THE GOOD:
In short, they are local, small, and have great rates.
I’ve financed my last 3 cars with Bay Cities over the last 15 years, for two reasons: First, they treat me like family. They are consistently helpful and friendly when I work with them. Second, and equally important, they have given me very competitive rates for auto loans. I have a clean credit score, and Bay Cities has either met or significantly beat the APR of every other car loan offer I’ve ever found. Most recently (Oct. 2014) they were willing to match any other bank’s offer as low as 1.9% on a 72 month loan as long as I use their automatic-​payment system.
All of my interactions have been over the phone, I’ve never gone to their Hayward location, but I have worked with Terry, Yolanda, and most recently Aurora. All three of them treat me with kindness and respect. On the few occasions that I’ve needed something out of the ordinary (like dealing with awful auto-​dealership finance departments or awful Departments of Motor Vehicles) Bay Cities has always gone above and beyond the norm to ensure a successful outcome. I can’t imagine Wells Fargo or Chase ever going to bat with the DMV on my behalf.
THE NOT SO GOOD:
They’re an old school bank. They’re closed on weekends, they’re technologically-​challenged (to put it mildly), and this doesn’t appear likely to change any time soon.
The technology part is especially tough for me because I work in IT and know how useful modern technology can be in banking, and how potentially dangerous it can be if used improperly.
Their website is fairly consistently about 10 years behind what their competitors can offer. They finally have online banking now, but it’s very limited.
Email is also challenging for them. Not everybody I’ve worked with knows how to email attachments properly. Most recently I got an 8 page document emailed with no subject line, and the document as 8 individual JPGs that were scanned to a legal-​size template, so they all had 3 inches of white space at the bottom that had to be cropped off before I could print them.
I’ve also once been emailed documents to sign that were for the wrong customer, including that person’s full name, date of birth, SS#, and credit score. This was a huge red flag for privacy, and I now hesitate to interact with anybody at Bay Cities via email at all.
To summarize: I love Bay Cities for being a local business with real people, but I fear for their future if they can’t keep up with the times.

My Father opened an account for me when I was a kid. To give you an idea how long I had been a member of Bay Cities, my account number was only 4-​digits. I had accounts with this institution for close to 30 years…
Recently, I had been getting charged «inactivity fees», which is apparently something new that Bay Cities probably sent me an arbitrary piece of mail about, and I either ignored, or forgot about. Slowly but surely, Bay Cities began to siphon off $ 5 a month, until I called them about it. They said that it was a new policy, and that I had to use the account, or they would continue to deduct the fees.
I should say at this point that when I was younger, I used the account more. After I received my commission in the US Air Force, I started using USAA because they are almost always more competitive than other banks. That being said, whenever I was looking at buying a car, or something like that, I checked the rates with Bay Cities. So, I admit that I wasn’t exactly a «daily customer» of Bay Cities but that shouldn’t really matter. So, I said to the manager I was on the phone with: «Okay, just know that if you keep doing this, I’m going to close my accounts, and blast you on Unilocal!» The fees kept coming, so I closed my accounts…
They were warned!!!

ok i dont use them anymore went to chase

I wish I could give more stars but unfortunately I can not, first of all, when I call I literally have to wait on hold a minimum of 10 to 15 MINUTES! for a person to actually pick up the phone, if it is THAT busy, they need to hire a few more people to answer the phone, although I doubt that is the case since EVERY time I have gone in there there is maybe 1 or 2 other people in the bank and that is it! Second, they need to get with the times!, if they can’t offer Saturday banking (which literally every other bank in the world does) then they need to at least have a 24hr operator to answer the phone and I mean a live person not the stupid automated bay line service which is basically useless unless you want to check your balance or transfer money from one account to another (which you can also do at the atm) it serves no purpose beyond that. And third, I recently had an emergency situation arise and called them at 10am to see about getting a small personal loan (my cat was in the hospital and needed emergency medical care) after waiting on hold for 11 minutes (I timed it on my phone) someone finally picked up and was able to transfer me to the loan department where I talked to Yolanda, after telling me they do offer that type of loan and then going through the application process i asked her how long it would be before I would find out if I got approved she said it would be sometime that day and she would call me back to let me know one way or another. By 4pm when i still had gotten no call back I called Yolanda again (on hold another 8 minutes that time) and was told she was with a customer so I left a voice mail reminding her of the urgency of the situation and to please call back as soon as possible finally at 5pm I called a third time and was told she was still with a client (they closed at 6pm it was a Friday) so I left another message with someone else and I explained the whole situation over again and also explained that even if I didnt get approved for the loan just to please call and let me know so i could make other arrangements, well needless to say I NEVER got any call back with a yes or a no or anything, thanks a lot Yolanda my vet fortunately still went ahead and treated my cat but no thanks to Bay Cities Credit Union, that being said I am pretty disgusted with their customer service and their promises to get back to me with an answer which they never followed through with. I told her several times even if the answer is no, PLEASE PLEASE call me and tell me! I actually have had a car loan with them which I paid off and they made quite a bit of money off of me because of it, I guess that really doesn’t matter to them though, they have much more important things to do like listen to the phone ring for 11 minutes before they can answer it, there has to be a better option for credit union services out there I just have to go look for it and after this experience I will definitely be looking for a credit union that values my business and my money more than Bay Cites does.

I am SHOCKED at how Bay Cities Car Loan Dept. whent out of their way to help me get my tags from DMV. After two trips to the DMV each at least2−3 hrs. I still could not get my tags… It took someone from Baycities going and helping me argue that DMV made the mistake and I finally got my tags after 4 months of fighting DMV. Their customer service was superb. They could have just said sorry not our fault but instead they helped me. NO OTHER BANK WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME! I am comforted to know that I can actually talk to people not a machine in another state.

I have been a member at Bay Cities Credit Union for years and have come to this location, exclusively. The employees have always been nice, friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.
The online banking is easy, though the site is a bit home-​made feeling.
There is even a phone banking option when you are away from your computer and need to do some banking. Not quite sure what is available because I’ve only used it to check my balance.
So this should be a 5 star review, right? Well, until this past month, it would have been.
In our many years as members, we have had access to free ATMs, even at a variety of non-​Bay Cities locations, free checking & savings accounts. It was great. Then, as of September 2010, Bay Cities Credit Union no longer has free checking… they began to charge fees. $ 10 per month to simply have a checking account. Oh, but there’s a discounted rate of only $ 5 if you have direct deposit. What a great discount… my fees just went from ZERO to either $ 5 or $ 10.
Needless to say, we’ll be leaving Bay Cities Credit Union before the next fee hits. Patelco has actual free checking & savings accounts, along with a variety of no-​fee ATMs. So does Wells Fargo (well, for some accounts you get two free non-​WF ATM withdrawals per ATM card). Chase (formerly WaMu) has free checking, but I’m not sure about non-​Chase ATM fees. Don’t know about others, but Bay Cities Credit Union definitely no longer offers free checking. It was good while it lasted… now it’s good-​bye!