SAFE Credit Union

I am a new account holder and let me tell you how much I love this institution. Right off the bat, I feel like they care about my success. It's so pleasant to be around friendly people who are sincere in providing a no-hassle experience for their members. My father has been with them for a long time, and he loves it here. He admires the no-judgment atmosphere (because let's face it, that's real); we all have some type of hard times feelings he got from them during his tough times. And I get it because at the other credit union I was at, they made me feel unwelcome when I asked for a service they say they provide for free, but now all of a sudden, they charge for it. Not all Golden 1 branches made me feel bad, but all it takes is once, and soon after, I started on a quest to find a place that cares, and that's where SAFE came in. My experience has been great. Josh, who works at my branch, was so accommodating, and even when I was getting flustered, he had the patience and guided me through with no judgments. I seriously appreciate all his help and love my new financial institution. Oh yes, and I also received a 100-dollar gift card for opening an account and making 10 transactions. My dad got one too for the referral. That came in handy. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!! Thank you.

Subject: Beware of Hidden Fees and Poor Customer Service at SAFE Credit Union

I want to share my frustrating experience with SAFE Credit Union regarding their deceptive practices and unfair fees. Over the past year, I attempted multiple times to close my money market account, but each time, representatives convinced me to keep it open, assuring me that there were no fees associated with the account. They emphasized all the supposed “benefits” and repeatedly insisted that keeping the account was in my best interest.

Fast forward to now—I just discovered that for the last four months, I’ve been charged a $12 monthly fee on this very account. The reason I initially wanted to close it was my concern about fees if my balance dropped below a certain threshold. Had I been told the truth, I would have closed it immediately.

When I reached out via email to request a fee reversal before closing the account, SAFE Credit Union closed my account without my approval and only refunded one month’s fee—even though they wrongfully charged me for four months. Realizing what had happened, I immediately called back (less than a minute later) and was initially told the fees should be refunded. However, I was then told that since the account had already been closed, nothing could be done.

Their Contact Center Manager, Amber, was incredibly unhelpful and dismissive, claiming that she had reviewed five months of account history in less than 30 seconds before deciding that I was at fault for not checking the fee schedule—a document I received back in 2010! She repeatedly stated that because the account was closed, they couldn’t (or more likely, wouldn’t) refund the rest of my fees.

SAFE Credit Union markets itself as being “for the people,” but in reality, they are a scam—nickel-and-diming their customers, misleading them to keep accounts open, and then refusing to take responsibility for their own misinformation. They have constant online technical issues, are not transparent about fees, and show zero willingness to correct their mistakes.

STAY AWAY from SAFE Credit Union unless you want to deal with hidden charges, poor customer service, and a complete lack of accountability.

This is really a bank and not a credit union. They charge fees and close accounts without any notice. Savings rates are not good either.

Safe Credit Union safeguards your money. Every time I try to make a non-typical purchase on a Sunday, they block the transaction, even though they use Visa services. It's my money, and I should have complete control and access to it. This is making me consider leaving them, as I've been with them for over a decade.

Safe used to be wonderful, 20 years ago when I first opened an account with them. Nowadays, as I've gotten older and having to deal with moving a large amount of money from my old work 401(k), I've had to change banks to accomplish that. Safe refused to do a wire transfer to my new bank and treated me as though I was trying to scam them out of my money. I took a 40,000 payout from my retirement fund to move the money to my wife's program, which is excellent and provides wonderful returns. But Safe hasn't kept up with the current times, holding on to a 1920s attitude, believing all cryptocurrency is a scam, and even wanting you to provide proof that what you're doing is a legitimate investment. However, if there's any hint of crypto involved, Safe refuses to even discuss it. On top of that, when I took the 40,000 out of Safe and went to Capital One, Safe denied my request for a wire transfer, claiming that I must be scamming myself by stealing my own money.

Sure, I'm scamming myself by stealing my own money. Then, when Safe refused to do the wire transfer, I went ahead and took a cashier's check for 40,000, left Safe, went directly to Capital One, and deposited the check. I was informed that the deposit was on hold for 9 days due to "confidential reports" that the check might not be paid. You don't need to guess where that came from. Since I'm moving to Ohio, I will be closing out my Safe account soon. The frustration of dealing with this group just has me baffled. It seems that you can't move large sums of money; 5,000 is the limit, regardless of how much you have in your account. And never mention crypto to Safe; they've missed learning anything about new currencies and just believe crypto is only a scam. My wife's program, set up through a respected hospital, uses crypto to manage some incredible returns, 15% two months ago. So Safe is missing out on good opportunities, and I, for one, am happy to be done with this useless, non-forward-thinking excuse for a bank.

Stay Away From Safe Credit Union; They Are the Same As a Disease

Safe Credit Union is stealing interest from your account by manipulating your account type and tricking you.

I would stay 100 miles away from their employees and the con leadership of their CEO, including the professional con, Faye Nabhani.

To all wonderful, hardworking SCU customers, take your money elsewhere as the executives at this bank will throw you under the bus.

Ali

Both my wife and I have the Platinum Rewards Credit Cards. We have tried to use the points on purchases of Apple electronics 3 times and have gotten the run around with customer service and after years of waiting and calling the items never ship and we are left with trying to get the points refunded. This is a very frustrating and dissappointing program. I will gladly cancel this card once its paid off as the rewards program is highly dis-organized and does not communicate very well at all. Huge dissappointment because we love banking here!

DUMBEST RULES EVER TO CLOSE OUT A CAR LOAN! -- wont let me pay thru my bank, online, or over the phone my last 56 dollar payment--can only send a check or visit a bank but I live in SoCal and no banks around--they say they blame it on "system upgrades" and "cant take a last payment as anything but a manual check"--WHAT A DRAG! I have been auto debiting the entire loan length and now I have to do all this work!!?? Total inconvenience!

Literally the most ridiculous policies I've ever heard of. You can't withdraw certain amounts of money even through directly going into the branch without calling days in advance. Your daily withdrawal limit on your card can never be over $500. (My starting limit has been at 750 at other banks.) They take days (PLURAL) to process a cashiers check that is literally guaranteed funds (that's the entire point). I was told my best shot at taking out a down payment for my car was to write the dealership a cashier's check, which is a quick way to get guilted into buying a car you don't want. And to top things off, they indefinitely locked my online account for TWO mis-entered login attempts until I verify a number I NO LONGER HAVE, (Yes, I updated my number with the bank and an employee even confirmed this, but it never updated my portal for whatever reason.) so I currently can't access my online portal AT ALL. To make things worse, their ONLINE CHAT is limited to branch hours, so I have to be awake at a ridiculous time for myself (I work graveyard???) just to get ahold of someone. This place literally treats you like a little kid about your own, hard-earned money. Will definitely be finding someone else long-term.

3% on groceries, restaurants and gas, with a rotating categories each quarter. 10% on charitable donations on a special day and 1% on everything else. Probably the best kept secret, hard to find any major bank cards that are better. Cash back is unlimited by the way.

The worst Credit Union among all I ever saw. Beware of SAFE. They falsely advertise cashback (forget about 5%, it doesn't work). There's even no option to pay a balance automatically. You have to come every month and enter the amount manually. If you're late they will be delighted to charge you 20% of interest. Customer service is just one big LIE. They promise but never fulfill.

Safe has very low CD rates and misleading folks when they say safe customers first. Management at safe credit union only care about profit and how much money they can make off from Hard working Safe credit customers. To all safe credit union customers, highly encourage to look at other credit unions where you can actually earn more money. Thank you

Safe credit union claims that Safe customers are first but it is misleading. Golden 1 offers more than double the CD rates than Safe credit union does. Golden one is offering 2.3 % cd for 11 months. I will release emails from Safe executive that leaves safe customers or average Joe on the side of the road.
Your deserve more for your money but safe CD rates are very very low. Loosing money at safe credit union.

You need to move money to their savings plan and then pay the loan. No real autopay. This is not necessarily a terrible thing but it is pretty typical for a credit union to do it this way

It has been trouble ever since it was opened. First they never sent a bill and then said we were a month late and issued a late fee. Also is adding insurance for our car when we have provided proof of full coverage on our end. Super frustrated with this loan.