Provident Credit Union

Super helpful. I never have a bad experience when I go to Provident

Great costumer service, low interest car loans, high interest pay on your checking account. I feel like just hit the jackpot.
I recently did a car loan. Once they get to know you everything will go a lot easier. Thanks Carol & Tao.

I’m a commercial and personal account holder since 2010. I was told today that even though all branch managers are licensed Notary Publics, they will not sign my loan documents because the loan isn’t through Provident Credit Union. So, they are happy leaving their business and personal account customers out in the cold for notary services, even though they are capable, just because the documents are not for a PCU product. Complete outrage. I’m looking to take my business checking and personal checking/​savings elsewhere. I was happy before this happened.

Awesome customer service — I’ve only dealt with Tao so far. I came in around closing time on Friday and Tao stayed back to help me set up a new account. Since then, I’ve called for once with a bunch of questions and I got quick and helpful answers.

Great Bank and great Branch Maneger Tao Gian. He is helpful and patient. Best personal service I’ve had ever.

You want a great bank and a great person to working with Steven Lentz II to get my auto loan went above and beyond. What a great person and a great bank

BEST BANK EVER ive never had a bank stand up for me but provident has my back ive been wrongly charged and over charged then they even reversed the overdraft fees most banks wont help at all provident took care of it THANKS PROVIDENT

I try to avoid this location due to the misfortune of being «helped» by the same girl with the attitude issues. I had to let her know how to do the transaction because she was overwhelmed… with what? I don’t know. Maybe herself.

I’ve come here for years. The staff is friendly and nice. They handle my requests with efficiency. Never had any problems here.

I love Provident but not this branch. Go to the one in Belmont. They are infinitely better.
The issue that prompted this review was the following:
I have opened 2 of my 3 checking accounts at the Belmont branch with no problem. But when I stopped in to the San Mateo branch to open the 3^rd checking account, they did not give me a debit card. I asked and the lady said she would mail it… two weeks later it never came.
I went to the Belmont branch where they confirmed that the card had never been sent. They then issued one right on the spot. (Why couldn’t San Mateo do this?)
Provident should just shut this San Mateo branch down. Besides, Belmont is about a mile down the road. I’m never going to this branch again. The Belmont branch is full of friendly, helpful people. Go there!

I love credit unions, but I hate Provident due to my experience at this branch. I am a member of another credit union which has a shared branching relationship with Provident. This weekend I tried to use the ATM at this branch and the dispenser drawer was malfunctioning and would not open. So today I went back to the branch to get the $ 200 that is missing from my bank account. The teller smiled and told me that I would have to speak with my own bank about the problem. I asked her if she knew of a problem with their ATM and she said yes, and that she was sorry but there was nothing that she could do. It was bad enough that she was completely unwilling to take any responsibility for helping me to get the situation resolved; but what really made me angry is that she kept that plastic smile on her face the whole time! When your company ripped me out of $ 200 and you aren’t going to be any help, a smile is exactly the WRONG expression to have on your face if you don’t want me to get angry.
I noticed that the few good reviews this branch has speak of the benefits of credit union accounts and not the staff here. I’ve had really good experiences with other credit unions, but this experience assures that I will never be a member at Provident unless they fire this branch manager and put the entire staff through some serious customer service training.

My email address is
. I’m willing to give out my personal email address, just to make sure no one uses this credit union.
I’m absolutely amazed at how poorly I’ve been treated here.
I moved from Santa Cruz to Belmont and wanted to find a good local credit union, since mine had no branches on this side of the hill.
I couldn’t resist their 2% back on debit purchases. This sounds like a fantastic deal, right !? Well not after my experience. I’m in the process of looking for a new credit union.
Let me summarize my situation. Because of a simple mistake, I was charged about $ 400 in overdraft fees. They refused to budge whatsoever on these fees. I’m even willing to pay some of the fees, but 17 overrage fees at $ 23 a pop is outrageous. All for a simple mistake.
I recently purchased a new car and to make a down payment, I wanted to move some money from a mutual fund account, into my checking account. The way that I did this was that I had a check book for my mutual fund account and wrote myself a check for $ 6000 to my provident account. No problem. I did this for the last car I bought with a different CU.
Here’s the problem. Evidently, the check book only pulls from a «specific» fund, not the account as a whole. So even though I had 10 grand in the fund account, the specific fund I was trying to pull $ 6k from, only had 3k in it.
So as you can guess, it flopped. Simple mistake, technically my fault, though really it’s an innocent mistake.
Well, this created a downward spiral of accounting errors, for which I had no Idea was going on. Luckily, I had enough in my account to cover the $ 4k I put down on the new car, so that cleared, but I had other things I was paying off at the same time. So I ran out of money.
They charged me over and over. They didn’t call me to let me know I was getting screwed repeatedly. Over and Over.
My wife bought a $ 2 noise maker at Walmart, $ 23 fee added. We bought lunch, $ 23 dollar fee added. over and over 17 times.
I understand this is an automated process, which is why I wasn’t angry. I explained all of this to provident and their managers (yes, plural), they simply didn’t care. They treated me as if I deserved to be penalized. I can’t believe this. Even my friends that have accounts with banks (you know, those evil capitalist corporations that cause us to want to use local credit unions) have had this happened and the bank reversed ALL the charges, including the first one.
Not so much luck for me. After a week of bickering with their manager, they offered to remove 3 of the 17 charges! What an insult. And I even after I told them I’d take my business elsewhere, they basically shrugged it off.
And they haven’t even reversed those three! I guess it’s not important to them when a customer is upset. I work in customer service. I was polite, but firm in every conversation. They were also polite, but completely un-​helpful.
Merry Christmas to me.
And some of you might say, «well why didn’t you have a back up account to pull from in an emergency?».
Good question. I’ve always had a line of credit for a backup to my checking account so this could never happen. Provident refused to give me a backup line of credit, even though the smallest amount on the lamest card.
They kept declining me without reason. I finally got an answer out of them after this whole debacle. Since I recently bought a car and they ran my credit at 730, I demanded to know why provident repeatedly refused to issue me a backup line of credit.
They finally told me that «I’m in collections»… WHAT? So I run a credit report and find out that in 2006 after a car accident, my insurance didn’t cover the entire cost of an xray. So I’ve «been in collections» for 5 years for an unpaid xray of $ 60.
Don’t you think someone should have told me this a little sooner? So I contacted the collections company (what a crappy collections company — if I could be in collections for 5 years and not know it…) and paid it off and they said they’ll remove it from my record since it’s an obvious stupid error.
So that’s my story of why I’ll never do business with Provident ever again and neither should you.
Even if my issue was completely my fault and I messed, out of good grace and if nothing else, how about some christmas spirit in a bad economy (I know. cliché for the times), they reverse some of the fees. It’s simply good customer service and an extension of empathy.

I generally like credit unions for their personal service. I just re-​opened my account here since quite a few years ago.
For convenience and general availability of ATM machines, I usually do most of my financial transactions through one of the larger banks, but I like keeping my savings at a credit union and for them to handle things like auto loans and such.
As I mentioned before … much better personal service.

To be clear, it’s important that you know that I love Provident Credit Union. I’ve been a memeber there now for 4 years, and I have always found the Credit Union to be a refreshing change from normal banks. They also offer the highest interest rate around for your accounts.
However, upon moving to San Mateo, our nearest branch is now this one. I don’t know who is to blame. the workers at the bank (including their unknowledgeable, curt manager) for making mistake after mistake after mistake (8 mistakes total that have required my husband and I to return to the bank several times to fix them) or us for giving them the benefit of the doubt and returning to that branch.
Don’t get me wrong, the workers (with the exception of the manager) are very friendly, just not as capable as the workers at the other branches.
Final result: Banking at all other Provident Credit Unions but avoiding the San Mateo branch