Desert Schools Federal Credit Union

I have been a member of Desert Schools for over a decade now. At first it was great. The service was awesome, always plenty of tellers ready to serve members, even the NSF fees were about half that of a regular bank ($ 16 vs. $ 30+… because sometimes things happen). Now, it’s becoming a pain to bank here. If you must go in and conduct business, there’s usually no more than two tellers available (it’s starting to remind me of the post office). Also, their fraud prevention is EXTREMELY tight, and it makes it seem like they are more about inconveniencing members than actually preventing fraud. I discovered this on a trip to Michigan a few years ago. I went to check in at my hotel and my card came back declined. I had plenty of money in my account so I knew it had to be a bank problem. So when I got through after a rather lengthy wait on hold, the representative would not help me unless I could tell her the amounts of my last two deposits and the exact dates they were made. Now this is what I’m talking about… who would know that? Seriously? I could give a ballpark number and dates, but to be that exact when I didn’t have my statement or computer to check? I offered to give her some other form of identifying information, including my SS# or my last two addresses, but no, it had to be the deposit information. So I had to hang up with her in order to use my phone on the hotel’s wifi and check (and that was real fun getting the hotel manager to give me the password before I had checked in). Then I called back and was finally able to be helped. Turns out that at Desert Schools, if you are going to travel outside of your home city, you basically must get their permission to use your own debit card. You need to tell them WHERE you’re going and the exact dates you’ll be gone. I’m all for preventing fraud, but this just feels wrong to me, and I really did NOT appreciate standing at the hotel reservation desk for an HOUR dealing with this BS. Oh, and the kicker is that Desert Schools does NOT offer 24 hour assistance, so if you’re needing to call and get their permission to use your own debit card, you had better make sure it’s within their business hours, otherwise you’re sh*t out of luck! As was the case tonight. I wanted to order some deeply discounted PC games from a company based in Europe, so my card was automatically declined, but there was no way for me to call this ridiculous bank and get them to allow the debit to go through. The sale ended at midnight and I have no other Visa, so Desert Schools caused me to miss out. I am NOT happy about this at all and I think it’s time to switch banks. Considering there is no benefit to staying with DSFCU compared to a bank like Chase or Wells Fargo (they have 24 hour customer service lines), I am just going to make the move. Even their NSF fees have climbed to match the others ($ 35).

CUSTOMER SERVICE LINE WAS THE WORST PEOPLE IVE EVER TALKED TO IN MY LIFE… Worst bank I’ve ever had to deal with… I called to get business account number, simple task, after numerous attempts of having to hang up and call back, they finally gave me a number, the WRONG number on purpose after we exchanged words… That’s got to be illegal and she needs to be fired. Then she even has the nerve to freeze my account while I’m out of town and can’t go into a branch when they’re clearly in the wrong. Grow up and get better employees. I’m making sure everyone knows how I feel about this credit union. I definitely would not ever bank here for anyone in the future.

Ten people in line. One teller. Branch manager can’t do teller duties.
After bringing it to her attention viola two more tellers appear.

This isn’t my favorite location. Mainly because there is no drive-​thru. Other than that, I really like Desert Schools. I highly recommend a credit union over a bank. When I had my accounts with a regular bank there always ended up being fees. That Isn’t the case here.
The tellers are personable and helpful. I recently lost my debit card. Stopped by and explained the situation. They canceled my card and gave me a new one on the spot. Total time was maybe ten minutes.
I plan to be a long time customer!

My wife and I banked at B of A for years. Then we noticed that they were getting bigger and bigger and dipping their fingers in all different kinds of enterprises. It seemed that they were making their customers their last priority, while doing a lot of shady deals to boost their bottom line. It reminded us of that movie «The International» from a few years back. B of A is so big and powerful, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were manipulating countries to start wars in order to profit from them. We grew disgusted with everything that they stood for. Which is why we started banking with Desert Schools. Desert Schools has a long history in the valley, and we’ve known many people that have been satisfied customers for a long time. Switching all of our direct deposits and auto-​debits was actually easier than I thought. We just had to peruse our bank records to see the recurring transactions and make a few quick calls to those companies. Desert Schools has also made some technological strides even in the few years that we’ve been banking with them. They have a great mobile app and their ATMs accept the envelope-​free cash and check deposits. If you need to go inside and talk to someone they are relatively quick, whether you’re talking to a teller or an account specialist. I had an issue a few months back where a cable company in Florida debited my account for another customers bill. I initially thought it was fraud, so I called Desert Schools to inform them. Within minutes of placing the call I was talking to a live person in Phoenix and he was securing my account so another transaction from that company couldn’t go through. With B of A, or another bank of that size, I guarantee that it would have been a half-​day process for the same situation. If you want a local, personal bank that can do all of your banking efficiently and technologically-​forward, then Desert Schools is a good way to go.