Complain about a product or service

Navy Federal Credit Union

Thomas of Phoenix, AZ October 7, 2009

I applied and received a request to have my mortgages modified so that I can make the payments. The first mortgage I worked with NFCU (after several attempts) to make it so that one of my payments would be spread over 6 months. I was told at that time nothing would be reported to the credit agencies as long as I kept current on all the modified payments for six months. I did keep current on the payments, and then at about month 4 I discovered that I was being reported to the credit agency for late pays on my mortgage (keep in mind I was told that would not happen). I also discovered that my credit card had been deactivated. I called the credit card folks on that and was told anytime loan goes into late pay the credit cards will be deactivated. After that I called the mortgage folks and asked them about it. I was told that is only temporary and as soon as I make my last modified payment (March) the credit card will be reactivated. With that I called the credit card folks back and asked about that. I was told that was not true I would need to re-apply to re-open the credit card. I then explained the situation with the modified mortgage and was I was told. I was then told this credit card situation was per the CEO.

I received a called from a supervisor from NFCU offering an apology for the what was occurring. I was told that "all of employees" of the mortgage area that handle this type of situations would not tell me there would be no negative report on my credit report. She told me that they know there would be a negative report. I explained to her a few things that if I was told the correct information from the start I would never have entered into this repayment program: 1) It makes no sense to enter into a repayment program that would report 5 or 6 late pays (30 day). If there was an issue with one payment. 2) Why would I take a chance of destroying my credit with 5 or 6 late pays (30 days)? 3) When I originally entered into the repayment program I was only having problems with 1 payment. 4) I would never enter into an agreement that would cause 5 or 6 late pays (30 day) vs.. 1 late pay (30 day). Would you? She offered nothing more that an apology and that the employees would never tell me there would be no negative report on my credit.

I recently received copies of my credit report. Once I received those I verified that the mortgage repayment program was in fact reported as late pays (30 days). This was what the original dispute was about. I called on 082409 at 1450 and spoke to Fahima (1-800-258-5948 ext 42871). I explained the situation to her that I was having a hard time with a payment. I asked if NFCU has anything to assist me. She told me about a repayment program (sound familiar), that would take this payment and spread it over the next few months. I asked would there be any negative report on my credit reports. She told me only while I was in the program. I asked what would happen once I completed the program. She explained that after I followed the program the negative reports would be taken off (sound familiar).

Thinking that this might be one person and a error on her part I decided to call again. I called and spoke with Tony on 082509 at 1540 (1-800-258-5948). I explained the same situation to him. Surprisingly he told me the same information that I was told before. I explained that I have no problem with the repayment program being reported to the credit reports while I was in the program. I told him that my concern was that in 6 months to a year a negative (30 day late) report would be on my credit report. He told me that would not happen if I successfully completed the program. During both phone calls I asked about the situation in a few different ways. Each time I received the same answer, there would be NO negative (30 day late) report on my credit if I completed the program successfully. This is the same thing I was told originally when I signed up for the repayment program. The bottom line is I would have never signed up for the repayment program if I was told there would be 5 or 6 months of 30 day late pays on my credit report. I am not saying that I was lied to, just I was provided wrong information. I am not sure if I was provided wrong information from the start or later. I would greatly appreciate that this matter be looked into because if this has happened to me, who else is in my same situation not knowing. I just want the negative comments taken off of my credit reports because I was given wrong information.

Jennifer of Centreville, VA September 3, 2009

Back in June I received a phone call from my ex-husband informing me that there were several fraudulent checks cashed using his account number. He informed me that his account is negative several thousand dollars and that the account is now frozen to avoid further fraud. A few hours later I called the the automated system to check my balance. The balance given was 0.00 with a pending transfer to another account. I immediately contacted Navy Frederal's customer service department. They informed me that the transfer was going to a joint account connected with my ex husband and myself. We kept this account open because he transferred money back and forth for out son.

Since I was linked to his account through the joint (even though the other accounts were individual) they took my money and put it towards his negative balance. This left me with nothing. causing my car payment and other ammenities to bounce. I contacted the fraud department directly and spoke with the individual (Michelle) handling the issue. Michelle informed that the money should be returned to each account within 15 days. 20 days later, the funds had still not been returned. I contacted the bank and all of the Fraud representatives were far from helpful.

No one seemed to know what was going on. I then drove down to their office that is approximately 30 minutes from my house. I requested to speak with someone in person. After waiting for about 10 minutes a lady (Terry Awtry) came out into the lobby and asked that I follow her. She had all of my account informationa and asked that I show her where the issue ocurred. I showed her the dates and the amounts. I then showed her the overdraft fees I was charged. She told me that she would have my money back into my account by the next day and have my over draft fees reversed and credited back. The next day I received a call from Terry. She stated that she had good and bad news.

The good news was that she credited my over draft fees. The bad news was that the money taken from my personal account was placed into my ex-husbands account. I told her that was illegal. I am a Deputy Sheriff in VA and I am well aware of the laws. She then told me that he closed his account with them and they could not retrieve the money. She said I would have to get it from him. When I started questioning the issue she became very rude and told me there was nothing else she could do for me. I asked to speak with her supervisor and she said she would have him call me. I never received a call. I attempted to call their office twice but could not get in touch with either individual and no seemed to want to give out information.

I contacted my ex-husband who told me that he knew the money was put in his account but he was waiting for me to tell him the amount. He had given me money the previous week (after he received the funds) and made it seem like it was for expenses with my son. Come to find out he had been asking Navy Federal information regarding my account and Mr. Dooley was relaying it to him. I am the only person on my account. My ex-husband has never had access to the account. My ex-husband refused to return the money and this is where we stand at this point. I just feel that Navy Federal should be penalized for giving out account information to people not on the account and also for depositing my funds into another account. Your opinion would be much appreciated. I am a single parent every penny helps.

Victoria of El Cajon, CA September 3, 2009

I have been unemployed for 2 months now and i have explained this to Navy Federal but they still call me 10-20 times a day. I had one girl tell me that she sees that i went shopping for clothes and that i better go and return everything that i bought so that i can pay them what i owe them. When i asked for her supervisor she told me that her supervisor does not want to talk to me. Then on a different day i had another guy tell me that they will call me as much as they want until i make a payment arrangement with them to pay on my credit card i explained to him that i am unemployed and i still have not received an unemployment check and that i have been waiting for a check for 2 months and that the unemployment dept is having me wait longer and i have no money at this time. The guy did not care he said that they will just continue to call me. Then today i spoke to another guy i explained again that i am unemployed and have not way of paying right now because i am waiting for my unemployment check he told me that since i am refusing to pay them what i owe then they will be taking me to court. The credit card is 27 days late. I have also asked them to stop calling me so much because i start getting calls from them since 8am up until 9pm everyday 10-20 times a day and that no matter how many times they call it will not change the fact that i have no way of paying and i have also explained to them that i am 6 months pregnant and they are stressing me out by calling me so much.

Ryan of silverdale, WA August 27, 2009

I applied for a home loan back in June, and procceed to start looking at houses. I was told by my loan officer that I was approved and I could make an offer on a house. Me and my fiance found a house, did the inspection..paid for the appraisal and got to ONE DAY BEFORE CLOSING and was told "uh oh we made a mistake." I was told "everything is ready except this one thing." It took them a week to "verify my income" one more time, and then I was basically told tough lucky, we're not honoring your loan anymore. This MISTAKE apparently was made by our mortgage brokers "underwriting" and she refused to take blame. According to Jenny, they didnt verify my income properly and are now refusing to honor the loan they promised.

Angel of Boynton Beach, FL August 26, 2009

I have been receiving harassing calls from the collection department (NFCU) in which I have already have made arrangment with one of the financial counselor and I have made that very much aware to the person calling me to seize from calling me 2-3 times daily even when I'm at work early hours of 8:30 and 9:00 then again in the afternoon hours.

Today was a different scenario. A staff member called me and was very ruid and disrespectful to the point of using profanity language at the conclution of the conversation. I don't know why but I'm realy fet up with this whole thing and when I try to address it to the department supervisor I either get placed on hold for a prolong period of time or the person will hang up on me upon request of a supervisor.

As a consumer, I know I have rights and those rights will not be violated by any credit agency under no circumstances, shape or form. I've tried addressing this at the supervisor level with them but it continues to occur.

Mae of Havelock, NC August 14, 2009

My husband and I have been customers for 15 years. We have gotten great loan rates, I love their new online features. They have, for the most part, been wonderful. We have a new Navy Federal Building with a drive through. When you want to make a quick deposit, because most spouse's work for company's that don't have direct deposit, it takes at least an hour. It takes forever for the teller to make your deposit and get the line moving. I was in line for 45 minutes and I was only the 3rd car back. I am patiently waiting. I have a deposit slip filled out, I have signed the back of my checks, and I have my (stupid) access card. I am ready!

I get up to the teller, I send the tube, I wait and she comes on the screen and says, "how may I help you?" I thought about saying "I want a coffee, light on the cream" However, I said, deposit my checks please. It took an additional 5 minutes for her to complete this task.

Here's the thing about Navy Federal. It takes forever for their tellers to do anything. It's like they have sucked all of the life out of their tellers. It's almost like they are not able to think for themselves. The amount of "guidelines" they are required to follow make the tellers rude by being stressed and they waste the customer's time and make the customer's upset by having to deal with the now rude teller. Get back to basics and let your teller's think for themselves. I have read quite a few of the complaints on variouse boards and Navy Federal has a big problem and they don't seem to care. If they did, you would be able to email them about it from their website.

Ronnie of Hoboken, NJ July 10, 2009

I would like to start by saying I have been a loyal customer to Navy Federal Credit Union for about 5 years now. Throughout that time I have had mixed results, and I do hold a somewhat emotional attachment to the institution. They were my first "grown up" checking account. I opened the account while transitioning through boot camp. A mile stone in my life, something I'll never forget. After boot camp NFCU gave me my first credit card, and my first loan. Both for 1000, a relatively small amount, but at the time enough to make me hold my head high. Such large sums of money being entrusted to me by a such a large financial institution!

As time went on and I began using NFCU more and more in my day to day life and I noticed how strange their checking account service was. It takes an extraordinary amount of time for a transaction to post to NFCU's accounts. I watch my money VERY carefully, checking my balances at least once a day. Throughout the transaction clearing process transactions will actually appear, disappear, and then reappear to the account, along with the money you spent, making a graph of your account balance look like the rocky mountain peaks! This was an especially irritating problem while still on active duty. To go to an ATM and see your available balance at one number, and withdraw money based on that number, well let's just say for young sailors living paycheck to pay check overdraft fees from NFCU are VERY common and crippling. They also have no sympathy, when confronted with the problem their response is to tell you to balance your checkbook and not rely on their software, but shouldn't you be able to rely on your bank to tell you an accurate account balance?

The most perplexing aspect of the scenario is how they handle the problem and how it continues without being addressed. I wrote NFCU directly and threatened to go to their regulator. In return I received a phone call from someone at NFCU. It was a man who seemed very angry and annoyed that I would question NFCU's account practices. He explained that they knew about the problem, and he was surprised I noticed. Especially the part about the transactions disappearing and reappearing. He said most people never figure that out. He told me I should balance my check book and that was that.

I am no longer on active duty and overdrawing my account is no longer a major concern, but a bank operating like this is. I have read other post like mine and asked myself why is this person complaining, why don't they just use another product? Why doesn't everyone stop using NFCU? Up until today I couldn't figure out why their was not more outrage over the largest credit union in America doing business this way. Then I figured it out. It is the emotional attachment. They have a monopoly on the military, and on emotions.

After being in boot camp for 3 weeks we are all miserable and marched into a room to choose a bank. We have 3 options. Option 1, use our bank from home. To do this we need to have a blank voided check. The catch is on night of arrival they take everything, I mean everything, including your underwear, away from you and ship it back home. So most people do not have a blank check from home. Option 2, Armed Forces Bank. Option 3, NFCU. While it is not a complete monopoly, there are three choices, one of those choices is not a plausible choice. While the other two are plausible choices, it is still a joint monopoly. We are miserable and lonely and we are brought into a room filled with beautiful bank tellers selling their banks to us. At that moment we become emotionally attached to that bank for the rest of our lives. We automatically associate them with something good, wether we realize it or not. No matter how terrible the service, or product, the bank has a steady stream of ready and willing customers marched in daily and handed the paperwork. How can they ever fail? Why would they ever change?

Gail of Raleigh, NC April 6, 2009

Gail of Raleigh NC (04/06/09)
I only wish I had read some of the bulletin boards sooner about the problems with NFCU. I just wasted almost three months with these people. I have done business with them for many years and made several mortgages and home equity loans over the years. They have always been slow, but never such bungling as now. They keep making the excuse that the economy has had to make them very careful. I gave them every detail up front and they knew it all, yet keep asking the same questions over and over.

I am on my third loan officer now and am still getting the run around. I got the exact same loan approved and completed in a few days at Coastal Federal Credit Union, which is also very conservative group. The difference is that Navy has its business handed to them on a plate. They do not need to be competitive. I guess military folks do not mind because they are used to the huge juggernaut of the military and do not expect knowledeable, courteous efficient staff. Therefore these people stay in business in spite of themselves. Unless you have nothing at all to do with your days and enjoy aggravation, please look elsewhere for your mortgage needs.

I wasted a very long time and have repairs that need to be done to my house. I paid fees and have nothing to show for it. I have lost sleep and been extremely worried over this.

Raymond of San Antonio, TX October 29, 2008

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