Sandia Area Federal Credit Union — Local services in Four Corners States

I have been with Sandia Area Federal Credit Union for many years. There was an issue with a transfer that was not completing with my account which I admit is totally my fault because I did not change my direct deposit amount in order to pay the loan and I had not looked on the system to ensure that the automatic payment was completed. However, when I realized the loan was not paid, I also realized that no one called me in order to let me know. I had called Sandia Area FCU several times for other reasons and no one had notified me that my account was delinquent, nor did I receive an email or text about the issue.

The delinqency did not show on the phone app but only when you sign in on the computer (which I rarely do). Furthermore, when I realized the delinquency, Sandia Area froze my account because of the delinquency. I realized the delinquency on a Sunday January 1, 2023 while I was out of town and because the credit union froze my account, I was then unable to transfer the money into the loan account in order to bring the account up to date. Because it brings me anxiety to have a delinquent account, I then had to use the system which allows you to make a payment from a external account to the loan (even though the payment was still being made from my Sandia account). I needed to make a transfer in to make only one payment, however, since my account was frozen, I could not transfer the money so I had to make to payments (with a convenience fee of 10 dollars each, equaling $20). The payment was supposed to reflex on the day I made it which would have been January 2, 2023. The payment was not reflected in that account and still has not as of 2:36 pm on January 3, 2023.

Due to the payment still not being reflected in my loan account, my account services are still frozen and I cannot transfer money at all even if the transfer would prevent an account from over drawing which would cause a fee. I can only transfer money during normal business hours because I have to call in order to get it done. Sandia's reason for freezing my online banking is because the account loan was delinquent and in doing so, the system gave me minimal means to correct the situation which prolongs the payment of the account unless your are within normal business hours.

Again, the original reason for the loan not getting paid was a mistake on my part. However, prolonging the loan not getting paid is an issue in Sandia's system, and if they would have just emailed me or texted me that the loan was delinquent, it would have been rectified immediately.

Lastly, I have also had issues with Sandia's fraud alert system. The system has frozen my card more than once without notification leaving me at stores and on weekends with no means to pay and without an email or text verification regarding if the charge is actually fraud. This is very irritating on a Sunday when you need groceries and your card in not working and you have no one to call until Monday. Sandia then cloaks this information by saying, "The security of our customers accounts are very important." If this was true, then their system would send regular text messages or emails for suspected fraud and the time my card was actually experiencing fraud for charges over $200.00 the card is not frozen on my account. However, for a charge of a little over $13.00 my card is frozen on a weekend.

Sandia Area Federal Credit Union needs...

This is hands down the worst financial institution I have ever worked with. My wife and I purchased a new car from a local dealership who uses SAFCU for their financing. Their rates were too good to pass up. Now I know why. After nearly two months of purchasing the car, we had received no contact from them of any kind, let alone repayment information. I called them and was assured it was in the mail. After two months had passed, I finally received correspondence from them via postal mail informing me of my late payment. With that notice, I received my account and loan number for the first time. I immediately went online and registered an account on their website to tender payment. After setting up the account and adding my external bank account for payment (they don't take debit cards Online), I had to wait three days for their confirmation process to be executed which were small deposits into my external account. In the meantime, they had suddenly begun harassing me via phone, also for the first time. Once I confirmed my account and attempted payment, it declined my payment because they limit transfers to only $500 per day, and my payment was greater than that. So I called them and ended up paying via debit card over the phone, which comes with an additional fee, of course. They then sent me a form for automatic payments, but refused it because I do not have checks, and although the form says explicitly they would take a deposit slip, they rejected that also. In my short experience with this institution, I am appalled at how little communication I received and then how insanely difficult they have made it just to pay my bills. I will be refinancing as soon as possible and discontinuing my...

I'm leaving and I'm taking all 12 family members and 50+ friends with me, including my grandparents who first established a relationship with this credit union back in the sixties. Customer service will not call you back as promised. They will cut off all telephone and online services if you're overdrawn by as little as $35. I have asked over 2 hours on hold with member services today. Estimated hold time is always 4 minutes but actual hold time ranges from 15 minutes to 45+ minutes. At that point they may claim to be placing you in hold but just hang up on you. It has happened 3 times today, twice by member services associates, and once by a branch manager. They will charge you $3 per month to email you monthly statements after they've eliminated your ability to print them for free from the website. Sandia, I hope you're reading these reviews. If so, please call me so that I don't have to hassle my legal team about the minor issues that you seem to be too incompetent to handle on a Monday. If anybody here thinks I'm just some disgruntled idiot, go read the articulately worded sections about this back on their own website. I wish I had done it before opening an account because, as a general rule, if a company can't navigate the English language at least as well as my 5 year old, I don't trust them with...