Stanford Federal Credit Union

They give a credit card without any credit history.
They gave a 5 year auto-​loan with 2% interest.
They have fewer ATMs, but they refund upto 3 withdrawals from any US bank ATMs per month, which is all you need for cash.
I am unhappy with the delay incurred in obtaining my replacement credit card, but that was caused because they depend on a 3^rd party for credit cards and they didn’t have a well-​refined process to update change of address with their 3^rd party. Atleast they called and corrected this mishap by expediting my credit card. This mishap cost them 1 star in my review.

I’ve had an account since 2011. Here are my honest experiences:
1) Transferring money to/​from your account is difficult. I wanted to move my money to another bank. Had to sign up for something called PopMoney. Went through that process (takes 3 – 4 days). I tried to transfer, told I can’t transfer funds.
1a) Called customer service. They worked on it. Got me back into my account. Still locked out of Pop Money. Ironically, I get like, 10 emails a week from SFCU saying «did you know you can send money with PopMoney??» This is ironic.
1b) Decided to transfer funds using their limits (limited $ 5,000/month). Needed do «unlock» my account to do so. Still locked out of PopMoney. Asked to call another number.
2) Membership didn’t result in a competitive loan rate. Got a car loan in 2011, repayed the entire thing in less than six months. Never missed a payment, had a credit rating of 730+. In 2013, applied for a mortgage. Offered an interest rate 2x higher than mkt avg. Went with Quicken loans instead, got a rate almost 3x lower.
3) The website is unforgivably terrible. You have to use a «member number,» which — if you’re like me and have dozens and dozens of online logins to remember, you’ll forget; and a login ID; and a password.
3a) Sometimes you get asked for a «login» and it could be your login ID, or your member number. You try both, get locked out, have to call customer service — which is only available weekdays during business hours.
My general impression: if they can’t get their act together enough to support a website, then I shouldn’t trust them with my money. If being a member doesn’t get me a competitive lending rate, then membership has no value.

I just called and spoke with Stacey Jefferson. She was able to speak to my frustrations in a calm, wise, and collected manor. She clammed my anxiety, fixed my problems, and helped me understand all of my issues of all the various angles I was missing. Stacey is a rock star. Thanks!

I’ve been banking with SFCU for ages (my mom opened a savings account for me there when I was a baby – in 1984!). I have a couple E-​checking accounts, a savings account, a short-​term CD account, and a cash reward credit card with them.
In my line of work, I’m often paid by personal check. SFCU has a great online check deposit feature on their mobile app, which is super simple to use and the money is there right away.
Rates on everything are fair, nothing special; but what I love is that they don’t have a million hidden fees. I’m sure if you bounce a check or something, there would be a fee, but free checking is actually FREE! That’s unheard of! I love that you can call and speak to a human being, and it’s so nice to be able to use other Co-​op network ATMs without paying a bunch of fees. I’m sorry to read from the other reviews that people had bad experiences because mine have largely been positive.

I worked with my Loan officer Delia. Had a wonderful experience starting from the verification, processing and guiding me through the entire process of my Loan. Kudos to SFCU for creating such a pleasant environment.

Yikes after reading a lot of these reviews I was almost hesitant to open accounts. However, Closest Credit union to where I sometimes live and I was impressed with the rates so I opened an account CD/​checking/​cashback credit card :-) Nino was professional, quick and presented the full line of services. So I guess I’ve been with them for 3 or 4 months but this is why I’m writing this review I called The help phone number Justin to pay my credit card bill and he’s actually here in Palo Alto unlike Citibank and everyone else who are out sources the call centers which I thinks inexcusable… So basically everyone I’ve dealt with there is helpful competent and follows through :-)

Best bank I’ve ever been to. Got my checkings/​savings account there as well as a credit card and a car loan. The employees were always very helpful. Most thing that I like about SFCU is that you don’t talk to a black box along account/​loan applications/​support cases. An email contact was always available.

I’m pissed that in three-​separate occasions I came running over there thinking they close at 6pm but they actually close at 5pm. They used to close at 6pm… The kill part is that online it STILL says they close at 6pm… But I’m not the only unsatisfied customer here; because each time i get there; there’s always always always 6−7people outside who all saw the same thing… I don’t even understand why they close at 5pm? But the other banks are still open?

It’s hard for me to continue to recommend SFCU in general, for two big reasons.
1) Their deposit account and certificate interest rates are no longer much better than what’s offered by their competitor banks. Over the past few years, they have begun offering their best rates only to those customers who have both direct deposit and a line of credit/​mortgage (or another major product) with them. For those that don’t want or need an auto loan or a mortgage from SFCU, you can forget about getting reasonable savings interest rates. I know that CDs/​share certificates should never be a major part of your saving strategy, but they used to be useful for getting decent rates out of small chunks of money you didn’t need for some time.
2) Their credit card reward programs are very sub-​par compared to their competition. The Classic rewards credit card gives you «CURewards» points for buying massively overpriced things in a CURewards online store with limited selection. The «Platinum Cash back» credit card gives you a measly 1% cash back on your purchases. The worse part is that they don’t offer you the ability to convert the «Classic» rewards card into a «Platinum» cash back card (or to convert between any two credit card types that they offer) and insist that the only way to do this is to close the Classic account and open a Platinum account, or to have two credit card lines open — the Classic and the Platinum. Outside SFCU, there are multiple credit cards available today that give you more than 1% cash back with no annual fee, including the Citi double cash back, the Discover It, the Fidelity Amex, Cap One QuickSilver, and the Bank of America 1−2−3. Pretty much the only thing SFCU credit cards have going for them right now is that they charge no foreign transaction fee, but there are a few non-​SFCU credit cards out there that offer this feature too
The one place where SFCU shines is in servicing new students who arrive at Stanford and want to get set up quickly with an unsecured credit card, and some no fee checking and savings accounts.
For students who’ve graduated, it may be worth continuing to maintain a banking relationship with SFCU so that you can get an auto loan or something similar in the future. But I can’t honestly recommend using them as your sole or primary financial institution, given that there are much better savings to be had if you shop elsewhere.

THANK YOU, SFCU!!! It is always a pleasure working with you guys… you do a great job in making your customers happy and satisfied. I want to thank everybody that I was in touch with (including those in the past) for their sterling customer service and commitment in assisting their customers. I would like to address this particular review to Elena Tioco and Evelyn Bascos for their untiring effort and patience in handling my request for car refinancing. The process went smoothly and hassle-​free.
Elena, thanks so much for initially taking care of my request and ultimately processed and finalized by Evelyn. You both have been tremendously helpful and extremely patient in guiding me throughout the process! Have been an SFCU customer since 2000 and I have nothing but praises for the entire staff (including those in Pampas branch and sorry, I missed to get their names) and great benefits. More power to you all and thank you very much!

SFCU has been super responsive for my case with checking and auto loan.

Stanford credit union has great loan offers but all the people here are unbelievably rude. The tellers all speak to you like your an idiot. Every single time I talk to them or have to go into a branch, it literally surprises me how rude they are and their behavior is tolerated.

This review is specifically for Terrie Romero, Sr. Lending Service Advisor.
Terrie, over the course of a year, has been unbelievably gracious, helpful, and informative. I felt extremely well-​taken care of by Terrie, and I felt like everything she was doing was tailored specifically to my individual case. She would often reply to my emails just outside of regular bank hours, and she was always spot-​on with her advise.
I can’t stress enough how big of an impact this one professional, friendly, and experienced advisor had on my personal feelings about banking in general. The world desperately needs more Terrie Romeros. Thank you Terrie!

My credit card company decided to charge the wrong account — the one at Stanford Credit Union. Stanford charged me over $ 100 in overdraft fees and closed my account without telling me. Then, I had to come into the branch in person to pay off more overdraft fees. I’ve been in the branch for 30 minutes so far, and after a lot of typing they’re not able to process my payment. There is literally a $ 20 bill on the counter that they are unable to accept as payment. For their own fees, which they refuse to waive.

Very consumer UN-​friendly. Partly it is their policies and partly it is due to their computer systems being extremely out of date and unfriendly. Staff are nice, well meaning, and polite but helpless.
Example: If you don’t log in for 3 months they deactivate your online status, and don’t tell you. When you try to log in, the system acts like you typed in the wrong id or password, when in reality, you probably did enter the correct password but they consider you «inactive» and won’t let you log in.
So you sit there on your computer trying various id and password combinations, and all the while, your online status has been de-​activated — and they don’t tell you unless you call. Of course you must call during their limited business hours.
Example: If you want to send a wire, you have to fill a form out online and then turn it in. That’s ok, but, they only let you access the form online before 4pm.
So, it’s fine to use this bank if you find that they offer good interest rates for deposits or loans and you don’t mind the inconvenience.
Be prepared for some frustrations with them.

I had a very disappointing experience this week, and as an alumnus, I am shocked that a credit union would do this. I was inquiring about re-​financing my auto loan. Here are the problems I encountered:
1. They never informed me before running the credit check that they are looking to refinance the total principal + interest of my current auto-​loan, which defeats the purpose of the loan for me.
2. This one is the worst of problems — they only want to loan out the KBB value of the car as of date. Had they told me this before I ran the credit check, I would have either refused to proceed, or checked the KBB value and then stopped there. I now have a wasted credit inquiry.
3. The agent did not get back to me with these details till I asked her, and when I responded asking why they don’t disclose these ahead of time, she responded with — radio silence.
As I stated ahead, I am quite disappointed. If anyone knows where you report Credit Unions, do let me know. This lack of transparency and sloppy workmanship is unnerving, to say the least.

This is the 2^nd day of website issues — wherein the website may give you a chance to log in to your account but beyond that, nothing. Considering this is a Credit Union with limited hours and locations in a geographically specific area, the website needs 100% uptime.
But, let’s be realistic: this is not the first time SFCU has been plagued by technology. I can tell that they are really trying to upgrade their technology, but I’m pretty certain they don’t have the savvy to do so effectively or efficiently. Logging on to my SFCU account is like logging on to me Wells Fargo account in 1999.
This week, whilst out of town on business in Houston, my credit and debit cards were deactivated. I did not announce my trip — fair enough, though considering I was out of town for only 3 days and this happened on day 2, seems kind of like a hair trigger — but the kicker was, I discovered my debit card was deactivated at 745-​ish Central time, 545 pacific time, and while SFCU was able to lift the hold, there was a super secret extra hold placed on it by their card vendor Falcon Services, who happen to close at 5:00 and no one can release the hold until («…something like») 8:30 tomorrow morning. That is 10:30 Central time. If I had been on the East Coast, I’d be lucky to get the hold lifted by lunch.
[screeeeeeech] What? This is the 21^st century. How can a company that is peripheral to my CHECKING ACCOUNT have that kind of power? Moreover, how can they have that power and only be availabe for less than half a day to unwield it?
SFCU, time for a new card vendor.
This is not the first vacation/​trip where my card has been deactivated, but it is the first where I’ve had to wait for more than 12 hours to get the wheels moving again.
You knwo what would have been nice, a phone call.
«Hello, Mr. Romero? How are you? Are you currently in possession of your credit and debit card because I see some charges on your account from a strannge location. Oh, I see, no problem, have a nice trip.»
Or how about an email (Gah, technology, I know — )
Mr Romero,
We’ve noticed odd charges on your accoutn from Houston. Please contact ASAP to verify that you are in possession of your debit and credit cards. Thank you.
Even the firstly mentioned web site issues were only acknowledged when I sent an email that said «Hey, what’s going on?»
No courtesy email. Nothing posted on the SFCU homepage. Nada.
SFCU — it would be a serious pain for me to canccel my accounts, but I am seriously disappointed. Bad. Form.

I have been a client for over 10 years, they have been SPECTACULAR to work with on EVERYTHING I’ve EVER taken to them. The customer service I receive is Stellar. I tell everyone I know… they are just the very, very best! Car loans, personal loans, advise on investing, and the online banking is AMAZING, my whole transaction in the Central Valley where I moved to a couple of years ago… all done online. And my APR… always 1 point lower because of my client loyalty. Love them!!!

SFCU just overhauled their website. Does registration for their mobile working yet? No. I can’t fathom how this bank can go so long without correcting the basic functionality of setting up your account to use mobile banking.

I had a good experience here today with Eun. My reason for coming in was my CD reached its maturity date. I had opened my account two years ago at the campus location.
This location is much nicer — Modern looking, space is a bit cramped, but nonetheless conveniently located on University Ave. Eun helped me change my account type to collect a better interest rate. She walked me through online banking and answered all my questions accordingly. She took her time with me which I appreciated.
I’m keeping just one account here therefore I don’t deal with this bank often, but so far so good.