August 2015 by Luminaria Sanctuary
AVOID!!! They used an unauthorized and unwanted "service" to steal $350 from me about a week and half ago, and despite many calls and conversations with all the people that they bounced me around to, they refuse to return my money. They said they would meet me "halfway" by giving me a portion of my money back. How do you meet someone "halfway" when you steal their money? Utterly inexcusable! I have been a credit union member with a savings account and checking account for several years with them. I have only a debit card, and I am on direct deposit with limited income from Social Security. I have a debit card instead of a credit card specifically so that I CANNOT overdraft my account. Recently they tacked on some "Service" called "courtesy pay" on my account without my permission or knowledge and used this as a way to create overdraft fees ability on my account and charge me a string of $350 of them, without ever informing me. I am out of state getting health care, and because their mobile site has never worked for me, I have never been able to see my account when I'm gone. I will know if I have run out of money and miscalculated if there is an credit card authorization will not go through. This is never happened to me before with them because I'm careful. However a couple weeks ago, there was an unimportant debit card authorization that suddenly overdrafted my account. This should have just not gone through and come up marked "insufficient funds", and ended. Instead, they used this unrequested "courtesy pay" to force my checking account into an overdraft situation, and following that, a series of PayPal charges came out of my account. I specifically had my PayPal set up so that if my debit card ran out of money, and came up insufficient funds, it would automatically bounce to a family member's credit card. They robbed me of this failsafe system with this supposed "courtesy payment service," and on charges that were five dollars, three dollars, seven dollars, they began charging me $25 each in overdraft fees and didn't tell me, until they had not only FULLY drained both of my accounts with overdraft fees, but also put me in DEBT of $500! Suddenly, I was in a strange place away from my home, with no resources, $6 in my wallet, no food, $500+ in debt, several important payments coming up, like my cell phone which was about to run out of minutes, and my rent back home, which meant I could lose my house when I was thousands of miles away and could do nothing about it. I am disabled, so this is an extreme situation for me. I borrowed $570 to put money back into my account, at not only great inconvenience, but extreme awkwardness, and not having any way to pay that loan back. I called and complained, and removed the "courtesy pay "off of my account, which I remind you, I never authorized. After more than a week of phone calls to the bank, they gave me the runaround, frequently didn't return calls at all or didn't return them on time, claimed that the person in charge was not in the office, and then eventually said they would meet me "Halfway" and me $175 of my money back. Now, I cannot pay my rent. I have a $570 loan I cannot pay back. My account is short $175, and they conveniently made interest off of the money that they charged me in these "convenience fees", plus my $175. Despite explaining my very dire situation to them, they were utterly unwilling to be reasonable or morally upstanding in any way, shape or form. I've had several credit union accounts over the years, and always been pleased with my past experiences.I have never been pleased with HCFCU's customer service, or the lack of convenience of banking with them. However, this is disgusting behavior. I am writing a complaint to the Attorney General and FCC. A small community credit union should not be allowed to steal from its customers. It's supposed to be there to help the people, not take from them.
