Sandia Area Federal Credit Union

Over $ 200+ worth of fees on an auto loan from June 2015!!!
If I am ever late on a payment I will pay back the late fee because I will admit my fault in not watching out for the due date. Unfortunately I had no idea I still owed $ 100 on it for June 2015 and they never bothered telling me about it. Their online system does not work well so I am always locked out. I had received a notice this month from them that I was overdue on a payment. Thinking that this must be an error I called in to see what the notice was about. I was shocked to find out that this was an incident from June of last year and late fees had been accruing since then! I explained to them that I have never received a notice about my loan being over due while he kept insisting 2 notices were mailed out per month. 2 notices from a bank stating an overdue charge? for the past year? And I supposedly just sat around and did nothing?! I kept telling them I never received any notices in the mail. I then asked for paper billing statements to be mailed since I can never get into their online system to check the e-​statements. I do not want to be in this situation again and knowing that they lied about mailing notices to my address; I wanted to confirm that my payments were being processed and that my loan was current on my monthly statements. They said they did NOT and could NOT mail paper billing statements. That makes no sense to me. So now I am stuck with $ 220 worth of late fees that I have to pay back. I am also stuck with calling into their worthless customer service phone center (sometimes I had to wait as much as 10 minutes) to confirm my payments are current every month. This is a bank that I no longer trust. I am paying an extra payment each month so that I can finish my auto loan extra quickly with them and get the hell out of there. This bank lies, deceives you and you as a member will have to pay for it $$$.
My advice, go somewhere else.

I joined a credit union because I have heard great things about them. However, I have had nothing but issues from this place. First, I was steered away from opening an account because I was told it would cost me $ 50 cash, which I later found out was FALSE. Then, my debit card didn’t arrive for over two weeks. When I finally received it and went to the ATM, the machine was asking me for a PIN. I was confused because I had followed the directions on the activation sticker that came on the card, and they did not include a PIN. I called the bank and they told me I am locked out of my account since I didn’t know my PIN. They told me I could come into the bank to get a new pin or get one in the mail. Since I work long hours, I requested to receive one in the mail. I’ve been awaiting my new PIN number in the mail for over two weeks when I was told it would only take 3 – 5 business days. I have called member services over 5 times in the past weeks, where I remain on hold to no avail. Here I am, over 2 months later with no access to my account, several late fees and unpaid bills. Do yourself a favor and open an account somewhere else.

I know people like to complain more than write positive reviews, but when I saw all these negative Unilocal,I was totally surprised. I’ve been thru many banks in my life, and most of them didn’t give a hoot about me. Others made me so mad that I couldn’t wait to get my money out. And once, I ended up suing a bank (they settled) for messing up my accounts and credit score. But once I became a member at Sandia Area, I stayed.
When I look at how much I saved on my auto loan, and how much more I’m making on one of their CDs, I’m really happy. The tellers are just fine — I’ve never had any trouble there. But it’s their branch people who help with loans and that kind of stuff that really make things easy. In fact, when I got my new credit card, I got at least 3 phone calls from them, making sure that everything was going well, and at the end, that everything worked out (it was a pretty involved procedure because of an existing card problem).
I’m wondering if any of these unhappy people are confused about where they bank. There IS another Sandia Credit Union — Sandia Labs. But Sandia AREA has been a great place for ME to bank!

They moved the ATM so it’s facing South. Anytime after about noon the glare is so bad on the screen the machine is basically unusable. I called the management and they said there’s nothing they can do because don’t own it. They also said they’ve had many complaints about this. There are solutions out there if you care about the customer. Apparently customer service isn’t a priorty.

we have two loans with them. Always expect a wait, you may get lucky and not have one on a Tuesday morning. Dont expect customer service. Dont expect a decent online banking. Iif your significant other has a loan, they will not release the payment due on the vehicle, but you can update their address to yours. Expect a lot of mail. But dont throw it away, it’s not junk mail. Its them telling you to take action for the X amount of time, because they are ‘missing’ whatever… that you gave them. Multiple times. When you call in upset, do not expect any empathy. Do not expect a warm greeting. Do not expect security. I cannot wait until we move our loans to Bank of America. Sure, Sandia may give you a decent interest rate, but I would rather pay the whatever extra couple of percent or whatever it may be to not have to deal with all of the shit I am put through as well as the lack of empathy, even at their main contact center. Ugh!

This credit union is great! Friendly staff and great rates, They are so helpful when I go in to do business! I am glad I have my checking account here!

My initial impression of Sandia was a little rough. After a couple of recent very pleasant customer service experiences I am pleased to report that all is well!

Deceptive practices by their loan officers. Not a place I would trust in the future.

This place is a joke. I’ve been a customer of theirs for about 2 ½ years, and it seems like every time I try to perform some sort of transaction with them, they fail. You would think they would encourage their customers to make large deposits, but if you try, they tell you you have to wait days (once it was over a week) to see your funds. I deposited the money in my other bank and the funds were available the next day. Plus, they pretty much charge you for everything. I deposited a check that they say was too old, so they took the amount of the check out of my account (the check was for $ 29) and then charged me a $ 29 fee for the privilege. They might as well just ask me to close my account. Actually, they’re not going to get the opportunity. I’m breaking up with you. It’s not me, it’s you. Good bye.

This credit union has good service and their staff tries to do their best for you…
BUT… they like fees. They charges me a fee for inactivity on my savings, and then another fee when I closed the account.

Headed in here on Christmas Eve to open a new account. They handled us well, two year old and all. They were friendly and helpful, and everything went pretty smoothly. Overall, it’s just nice to get things done in a straightforward way. No muss, no fuss… just business. I like it.