Hughes Federal Credit Union

Before you get an auto loan here, be aware that Hughes Federal Credit Union loses auto titles.
I have a checking/​savings account, and I used to have an auto loan with Hughes. I paid off the auto loan about a month ago, and they appeared to sit on their collective arses instead of sending me my title. I called about it, and got the «it’s in the mail» excuse. Then after another week of waiting, I called again, and they said they were not sending the title, but instead a «release of lien» letter. I adamantly requested that they send my title as well, and that’s when I found out that they had actually LOST THE TITLE. Oops!
Now I have to delay the sale of my current car for another month as I wait for the DMV to issue a duplicate. Thanks a lot, Hughes.
(Thank goodness the FDIC insures that Hughes won’t accidentally lose my cash.)

I understand that current times require a level of security unlike any we have ever experienced in the past, but Hughes makes it impossible to efficiently manage your account due to their ridiculous security policies. You cannot speak to someone if you forget your phone access code regardless of how many other pieces of information you offer to verify. Additionally, the passwords you must select for online banking options are cumbersome and complicated. If by some chance you get locked out of the online pay fast service by entering incorrect passwords, the customer services representatives cannot reset the passwords for you, as I was notified today. You must wait 24 hours and re-​establish a new account. I have had to call Hughes a total of three times in 8 months and have never had an experience in which I hung up feeling anything less than frustrated and annoyed. Like another reviewer, I ended up with my my loan at Hughes through the purchase of a new vehicle. My interest rate is good, but that is not all it’s about. The level of frustration in dealing with Hughes is enough to make me search for a refinance option, even if that comes with an increase in the interest rate.

Horrible to deal with. So far EVERYTHING is difficult through them from my experience. I bought a car a while back and the financing ended up with Hughes FCU. I do not bank with them, but just based on their customer service over the phone I would never do so. You have to provide a typical dumb access code in order to talk to anyone about anything. I forgot mine every time (my bad), but good news! You can reset it. If you call at night you get their «²⁴⁄₇ call center» that can’t handle ANYTHING important, so they tell you to call during regular business hours when the real customer service people work. Which, if you have a 9 – 5 job proves troublesome as it is the same time you work. I’ve called many times after their normal hours and that call center can’t do much of anything useful.
They charge you to pay over the phone (5 $), you cant set up automatic bill pay on the phone like most companies. I haven’t had good luck with their website either. They appear to have made it easier to sign up for an online access account. Looking at bill paying is definitely not easy if you don’t have a bank account with them.
Their reps were always nice though, so they got that going for them. Unfortunately nice doesn’t make things easier or deserve more rating stars.

I don’t know, maybe its just credit unions in general, but the customer service level doesn’t seem to be on the same level as banks. On my last visit into this location, I was completely ignored by the receptionist except for eye contact. She was explaining repeatedly to a woman that car titles were not kept at a branch only at the main office, and that her car didn’t have a paper title anyway but an «e-​Title.» But since the customer would not accept that answer she looked up in the computer for 10 mins to see if she could find an answer that would satisfy her while I was ignored with not so much as «I’ll be with you in a minute.» All I wanted was to be signed in to wait for an officer. And after a crowd gathered with no line to ensure I was first, I ended up leaving in disgust.
Also, do not plan to use your credit card out of state. It will be denied. It seems that’s their new policy to cut down on credit card theft. You have to call ahead and tell them which states and on what dates you plan to use your card when out of town to avoid having your card denied. And I’m talking about as little as $ 22 from a Target.

Great place to bank. They have early drive-​through hours, and they are open on Saturdays from 9:00 to 1:00, which is very convenient. Almost never crowded you can go in, get your banking down, and get out quickly. Great rates on car loans.

This was the boyfriend’s bank of choice. In fact, he’s been a customer for over fifteen years, & neither of us have any real complaints. As far as I can tell, the only real problem we/​he had was how few & far between the branch locations seemed to be. Until we moved across town, the nearest branch was something like half an hour away. This made depositing our money a bit of a pain, but not impossible. (Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by having a Bank of America ATM or branch on almost every corner.)
The checking was free, the fees were standard ($ 25 for overdraft, which I think is standard anyway). They always had a good amount of tellers available, so there wasn’t much of a wait. The tellers were also pretty quick & friendly, & never pressured us into opening any new accounts or signing up for cards/​loans/​etc. we didn’t need. Customer service was also on top of things: they would respond quickly when there was a problem with the account, & they even froze his debit card & sent out a new one when they noticed a suspicious charge & weren’t able to get in touch with him (the boyfriend hadn’t even caught it yet!). Sure, it sucked that time we went to the store & his debit card was declined (since all that stuff was going down & he was unaware that his account was frozen)… but that’s a small price to pay for being protected from what could have ended up being identity theft.
Overall, we had a positive experience, but sadly, you’re only really able to use them if you’re local. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to deposit any checks you get & you’d have to use other banks’ ATMs. Which you might be okay with, I dunno. :P