Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union

$ 30 overdraft fee for EACH and EVERY transaction that is over your checking account amount. EVEN If you have PLENTY to cover it IN other accounts! Unbelievable. I thought the point of a credit union was to bolster it’s members up and help them out? Not to charge them big bank fees. WTF?

Always have to wait for ever! I have been sitting here for half an hour, i think the whole staff goes on lunch at the same time, i thought this guy was with a customer, turns out he was just chatting with another employee, so unprofessional, thank god im here to close my account

Neighborhood credit union’s are supposed to be a place that allows for banking in a specific community. They are, in an ideal world, supposed to supply access to capital and tools for those who may not otherwise have access to such capital.
My mother is mentally ill. Most days, she is fine. In fact, you might never know. So when her illness strikes, it can be unexpected and surprising. In fact, sometimes, it can be pretty intense. Other times, disaster can strike before one realizes what is occurring. Under the wrong circumstances, this can have horrific results, especially with respect to the treatment of someone you love due to fear or bullying.
I walked my mother to her bank, Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union a couple years ago on a day that was not so go for her. She needed to get money to go shopping. I walked her up to the teller. We had discussed that she did not have an ID as she lost her wallet and because she has the illness she had, I worried that if some Police officer arrested her or she was hurt, she might not be readily identified. She assured me she had something to identify her.
So we are at the teller. My mom gives them her bank slip and the teller asks for ID. To my horror, my mother pulls out a cut out from a cereal box. It still had writing on one side. On the other side, she had taped her picture and written her information in a colored marker. I was so thrown off guard that I was silent. The teller looked at her, looked at her «ID» and then dispensed her money. She smiled. My mother smiled. She said thank you and left. Outside the bank, I asked my mother what that object she presented was. She said it was her ID. I told her it was a cereal box and not valid ID. Her response:
«It worked didn’t it?»
She was right. It worked. Mostly because the people at the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union treated my mother with respect and dignity and understood that she is fighting bigger fights in life than those in the mainstream. They knew her and knew she was not having the best day. It was at that moment for the first time, that I appreciated community credit unions and the need for them. They can be really important to under served communities.
Now my mother has proper ID and a bank that cares.

The $ 5 annual fee came up I asked to close the account. They said there would be no fee so I didn’t. However they did charge that fee and because of that I didn’t have the minimum amount and they kept charging for that also. Pretty terrible to deal with.

total piece of shit place with no customer service.

Always a delay in account update.
I hesitate to deposit any money I may need immediately. I can never get it out in a timely fashion.
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From the reviews ‘here, you need a penis to get proper services.
I would advise those persons without one, should pick one up at «Fantasy World», before re entering the establishment.

I love my credit union! There branches are a bit of an ugly betty but their service is awesome! Everytime I stop by or call they know my name, they offer courses for personal financial development and they are invested in the community!

No problems with this place yet. I’ve had them for about a year after canceling on Bank of America (good riddance). They even helped me do my taxes. Really happy to be off the big banks and supporting the community. For those of you who don’t know the difference– banks exist to make a profit. Credit unions exist to serve their customers. No-​brainer.

What a nightmare this place is. I too am a small buisness that wanted to support a federal credit union but my god this place needs to tighten up. Customer service is horrible, Tellers are slow and rude, the vibe there is indifferent if not impartial.
I dont expect people to be nice but rude is just straight up intolerable. My main problem has been with trying to close my account which has been a huge ordeal and no one seems to know what is going on. I went into the branch to close the account, because I had a pending transaction the branch manager suggested I write my info on a peice of notebook paper, once the transaction cleared I’d be sent a check, did this happen? NOPE! In fact he lost the paper or has no recollection of it because when I called back he suggested I fax him all the info I already gave him after he said he’s email me, which he never did, so another call back and I speak with the only competent employee who is having me do all the same stuff I have already done. Nightmare folks! Better to go with a bank that knows what theyre doing. Its a huge waste of time to deal with such an inorganized place. Get it together LESPFC!

So far, so good. I called to order checks the other day and an actual person answered the phone on the second or third ring. It kinda threw me. We actually chatted about the weather for a minute. Weird and pleasant.
No problems with this place at all. I’m sure my former mega-​bank is not really missing me, but it still feels good to have dumped them.

I closed my Bank of America account recently and took my money – what little I have – here. I give them some slack about slow service because now they’re only five blocks from my house. They only have one branch – well, two; the other is up in Harlem – but through a deal that other credit unions share, I can get cash at an ATM in any McDonald’s with no transaction fee – which is pretty great, if you ask me. There’s also an ATM less than a block from my house, and it dispenses bills in increments of $ 5. Did I mention that they turned 25 a few weeks ago?
The space is furnished with old wood teller windows and a clock, because this used to be a Manufacturers Hanover branch a long time ago.
I’ve been with them less than a month, so I’ll update my review accordingly after I’ve been with them awhile; I actually moved to this bank on the recommendation of a financial guy I know, and I’m happy to know my money is going back into my community.

I’ve never dealt with worse customer service, banking-​wise. I was advised by a credit counselor to take out a secured loan and did so here, since it’s in my neighborhood and I wanted to support a small banking institution. I realize that sometimes small credit unions don’t have their stuff together, but this is ridiculous.
After six months of paying on the loan, I got a call telling me that I was delinquent. I have this on auto pay, so not likely. Instead, they informed me that I had been paying the wrong amount by $ 0.03 and so was being viewed as delinquent. For $ 0.03.Now, I set this up for the amount they provided. They don’t send monthly bills, or even statements. The only paper trail is a little receipt that could have come from the bodega, stating that a payment has been made.
After several calls to try to sort this out I’ve gotten nowhere. The loan manager doesn’t return calls. The CEO, when I reported the unprofessionalism of the employees, told me she didn’t have time for this. I asked if this was representative of the way they treat customers and she said, «Only the rude ones.»
This is not my first credit union experience, nor my first loan, but it’s my last with this bank. Avoid at all costs.

To begin, I can only write from the standpoint of a small business, not an individual’s account. However, I find that in practice, the process is nearly the same.
The reason I feel the need to write this review is that LESCU has behaved inconsistently enough that it has provided a hinderance, not a help, to the small organization that I help run. We are not interested in supported large transnational banks, and it seemed that the credit union was a great solution. We wanted to deal with human faces who understood something about us, and to keep the money local. To our disappointment, however, it has not been worth the price of doing business.
Here’s why: every time we need something, it’s a different answer, even if the request is the same. Depending on who speaks with you, the information you’ll need to provide might be totally different, as will the time it takes to get what you need. Generally, it seems I deal with who I believe is the manager, who in any case is the most difficult character of all. There is an attitude of «I *could* help you, but… will I?», and that seems to defeat the benefits of closer, face-​to-​face communication. It’s borderline unethical.
Second, is that the communication there is outlandishly poor. Calling the bank, or using online banking, is a quick way to learn that your dealing with a operation that doesn’t take itself very seriously. I am frequently routed through a series of automated lines, only to arrive at an answering machine. I’ve only been able to reach them by phone maybe once or twice out of dozens of attempts. These are the same people you need to contact for online difficulties, so consider it a double curse. I usually just end up walking the 15 blocks over, writing my name down, and waiting my turn there instead.
Finally, the penalty fees are unusually high, for any bank. I imagine this is because they don’t have the enormous sums and volume of clients other banks have to offset the prices. And I would really be OK with this, if I felt like I was supporting a good, local entity. But at the end of the day, I just feel scammed. The red tape has been high, the communication poor, and the cost disproportionate. I strongly recommend against this place.
For those with personal accounts, small ones, I can see this being even more painful. When I couldn’t get money out of my account because the bank had originally mis-​entered my social security number and I didn’t have the card to prove otherwise, it was my business’s money, and it happened to not be an emergency. But, if this was my personal money, I would have been livid. Just imagine how hard it is to deal with big, slick, massive banks, and just apply an additional 30% difficulty. Rather than being less bureaucratic, the inconsistency of this place actually makes for more.
Banker beware.