Bay Federal Credit Union in Santa Cruz, CA

I closed all my accounts with BayFed today after trying to escape Bank of America. However, I'm running back to BofA. I would love to bank with a local credit union but BayFed's poor customer service scared me for good. Perhaps there is a good reason why big national banks are big, they know how to train their employees. My experience at BayFed is one of serious errors and arrogant customer service. If you have the good intention of moving away from a big bank, look to someone else than SC BayFed. We've had a terrible experience from the start. We bought a new house three years ago and my wife still has the old address printed on her CA license. When we signed up with BayFed we asked them to use the new address, which is on my license, for both of us. Their clerk managed to sign me up under the correct address but my wife under the old address. Her debit card (and the PIN) and checks got sent to our old address, twice! Lucky for us the person living there was decent enough not to take advantage of this situation. We continued with BayFed hoping that this was just an initial bump. We applied for a refinance loan there (and elsewhere) but by the time we have even heard a peep from BayFed (weeks after the initial application), our Wells Fargo application was in advanced stages of processing. However, the tipping point came this week when I had to call their customer service to talk about fees they charged me. The person on the other end was arrogant and prissy, using her position of power to preach to me in a condescending voice. Nobody whose salary comes from my hard earned money will talk down to me like that and get to keep my business. So, it's 'sayonara' BayFed! I pulled out all our money and sheepishly put it back into our old good BofA account. Lucky for us, we did not close it yet.

I have called numerous times to speak with a representative to get a mortgage loan for my clients or to speak to anyone and constantly stuck in phone tree. Extremely frustrating and highly unprofessional. ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!!!!!

I was really impressed when I stopped in here. Great customer service and I would highly recommend the advisor who helped me. I will take my business here to support the local community rather than the corporate majority. Love Santa Cruz!

A great bank, I have been with them for over 8 years. They have always been very accommodating and willing to resolve any account issues. All of the clerk are extremely nice and you can expect to see them again out in the community helping out. This is not a credit union that plays with your money, I know that no matter what happens in the economy my money will still be there. Until the dollar vanishes as a currency I will continue to use Bay Fed. They give back to the community this last holiday food drive they donated over 90,000 meals.

Good for car loans. Low rates and handle paper work well. Only 4 stars because they bait and switched on a home refi.