SRI Federal Credit Union

Fantastic little Credit Union. I have to be honest here, I'm shocked that more people do not use Credit Unions. They are really superior in most way to a conventional bank. Credit Unions for a lack of better term are in theory like a labor union except this is for banking. Typically they represent a group of people like say the U.S. Navy, or other commercial business. They are 'Not for profit" thus tend to offer better rates to their members in terms of savings and loans. They also are much much smaller so they may only have one branch (many have more).

Such is the case for SRI Federal Credit Union. It serves the employees of SRI International in Menlo Park, CA. While it does only have the one branch it more than makes up for things in terms of interest rates and customer service.

ATM's are not an issue. They belong to the Credit Union COOP which allows withdraws at other CU ATM'S. You can use any for that matter and they reimburse whatever fees that particular system charges which makes travel easy.

Customer service is also excellent. The tellers are well trained, friendly and personable. When my father passed away Chris was phenomenal in helping us navigate the handling of his accounts and made the whole process really easy. It was a tough time for us and not having to hassle with a typical banks typically poor service was invaluable.

The only issue with the CU, is that again its small. They have one branch and its closed during a chunk of the Christmas to New years time frame. It also requires a stop at security and a badge before you can proceed downstairs to its location. But with ATM's, ATM deposits, online banking, photo check deposit and the like the number of times you actually need to go the branch are really quite limited.

I have been working with Steve Bowles with my banking needs, and he is very knowledgeable and helpful. the staffs treats their customers with respect and they go out of their way for their customer.

They have an extremely friendly staff. Their online app is great, so I do almost all of my banking through the app. I love the card valet app, which allows me complete monitoring of my credit card.

On line VISA information is very difficult to get. And if they suspect fraud they shut down the account without any notification. This can cause very messy problems especially when the 'fraud' is only an unusual charge and totally legitimate.

Terrible.. they have become petty and trivial, and now seek to scrape every penny they can from their "members" ... they used to be good, [a couple years ago] but, now they play the victim card about being so overwhelmed with operating costs that they now steal your shares until your account goes to zero, at which time they finally reach out to you and ask if you want to close your account... after they have taken all of your money. In plain language, they are THIEFS!!!!! I am disgusted....!!! They are no longer a credit union in the original idea of a credit union. Now, they are worse than the "big institutions" because they basically pulled off a con game, by presenting themselves as a genuine member-centric, safe haven, for your money, to then yank out the carpet and coldly explain they took all your money for operating fees! If someone gave me their money to hold for safe keeping, and I then I told them, "I had to keep it because, holding it was too expensive", they would be rightfully angered and interpret this action as at least unreasonable, but more accurately: T H E F T !!!!!!!! Theft by conveyance, or TWOC, taking without owner's consent...