I've been a member my whole life, so believe I have a good handle on how great this credit union is. While their main location is over off Rice and Pennsylvania in St. Paul (I literally have no set foot there in about 15 years), their online banking and mobile app has made in-person visits almost pointless. I love their app (which has been seriously upgraded in the last 2 years), which has the ability to deposit checks on your device. Super fast and easy. Not to mention, HCFU is part of a national association of other small CU's and banks, so when I lived in Madison I could go into any of their banks utilize their services for convenience. I have used their Auto Loan service a few times and have never had any issues, and their rates (all kinds) are among the best around. I don't know why you would bank with one of the large national banks that charge fees and are difficult to get any personal care. I can't think of a time when I've had issues with any of the customer care I've encountered. I cannot recommend HCFU enough! read more

I have been a member of this credit union for more than 27 years, beginning when it was HiWay Credit Union. During this time I have watched member service go from terrific to terrible. The larger the organization got the worse its service became. With the merger to become Blaze it became terrible. read more

DO NOT BANK HERE ! Would love to give zero stars, even one is too much. I was a member of Hiway Federal and they were awesome but then Blaze took over. Nothing but trouble and their customer service is truly horrible! I can't get my money out of there fast enough. read more

I have banked with Hiway Federal Credit Union for 34 years. They were awesome. 5 stars. At some point that started changing... Now it is "Blaze Credit Uniion and they are a 1 star. Every time I turn around something odd happens. I have two personal checking accounts, 2 saving accounts, a mortgage, a business checking and a business savings account. I am moving it all to another bank. as soon as can. An example of why: for my business, I needed a money transfer to go to CANADA on a Friday. I got all the information I needed. went back and forth with Blaze (by phone) until it was past their 3pm cutoff. So, they tell me I need to go in on Saturday. Will do. So. Saturday came and I went in to the branch immediately when it opened. I get there and they tell me I needed an appointment. And that they might not be able to get me in. Huh, that would have been nice to know. Anyway, someone didn't show up, actually nobody showed up the whole time I was there (it was crickets), and I was able to get in because of the cancellation. sure.... Anyway, I filled out everything for the transfer with a banker. I was assured the money would go out on Monday. I verified again and was reassured. ok. Monday came and I saw the money was still in my account (it was important) so I started calling them to check on it. They started asking me for more information. It went back and forth until after 3pm. So now the transfer was delayed again... turns out, it is now WEDNESDAY and my transfer is still delayed. They now want wire instructions. This is a simple transfer, they already had the information, but they are completely incompetent. I got the wire instructions, which are no different from what I have already provided. They have no procedures to make sure they ask you for the correct information the first time. They do not know how to make a transfer to Canada, which amazes me. They sent me an email, accusing me of not providing the "needed" information! I called and asked for the manager. I was told he is busy. 3 hours go by and he does not call me back. I am going in to a different branch and making the transfer again. I am not confident that they will even do it right. TERRIBLE. Bad for my business. The staff used to be helpful and knowledgeable. Now I feel they are just incompetent, rude and smug about it. I am sorry to go through the process of changing to a different bank, but I need to do this ASAP. read more

I've put off writing this for some time as I hate bad reviews... and I've been a customer for about 28 years.... I stopped in in on 27 June to see if Blaze could assist w a short term mortgage... recast mortgage. Where I buy a house and once mine sells I apply all that sale money to the mortgage; nearly paying it off. I felt there was a lot of back and forth and several "nobody is in the office to help you". It was quite frustrating...this went on for about six weeks. I even lost out on one home as my realtor wanted a Pre-Approval letter...and after several weeks, I still didn't have one. I was taken aback when a month ago my mom went in to her Wisconsin credit union and handed me a letter within a half hour of her leaving home!!! So why after six weeks would my own bank of nearly three decades not be able to provide me with such document? It was a rather disappointing experience. read more

Having an excellent credit rating I decided to apply for a loan at Blaze. Either they are very unorganized, have useless employees, or they just aren't interested in customer service. I waited for my loan disclosure statements for a long time. Never heard anything back after putting all the work into uploading my documents. Stay away from this bank! It's a waste of your time. read more

I really dislike writing negative reviews, but I dislike even more having to raise my voice or argue on the phone, so I'm choosing to express my concerns in writing. I am a cosigner on a loan. When the primary borrower fell behind on payments, I brought the account current myself. However, I later discovered that I am no longer listed on the account. Because of this, every time I try to make a payment, I'm told I cannot--despite being financially responsible as a cosigner. The only person I am to contact to process a payment is James, the Director of Collections. This is extremely frustrating and unacceptable. As a customer, I should have multiple, reasonable options to make a payment. Relying on a single individual is not practical or customer-friendly. As a result, I have incurred late fees--not because I was unwilling to pay, but because James is understandably busy and unavailable at times. I have called month after month trying to make timely payments. This situation reflects poor customer service and an inefficient payment process. Customers who are trying to do the right thing should not be penalized for system or access limitations. read more

Customer service and communication skills at Blaze are in the dump. I had a legitimate beef and finally wrote to the president after getting no satisfaction. Rather than acknowledging the problem and trying to find a mutual solution, he had a law firm reply to me in writing to go through them and leave the credit union alone. read more

Blaze was created by a merger of Spire CU and Hiway CU. As a member of Hiway CU I always had excellent service for over 30 years. Since the merger, Blaze has failed by denying charges made by me and allowing charges that were not authorized. There is no way to access a person authorized to correct the problems, as their phone lines are clogged, and robot assistants refer one to useless numbers and out-of-country call services. Perhaps a class action lawsuit to retract the Merger and penalize the executives responsible for the atrocious and expensive damage to members will get their attention. read more

Spire was a good credit union. Now that it's Blaze, it's horrible. They make things so difficult. Can't do things over the phone or online, they make you go in. Then you wait for hours for someone to assist you. I submitted POA docs for my parent's- in person, with my parents, per their rules- and waited hours to see a banker to do that. Now that I need to assist my parents 6 months later, Blaze says they don't have any on file. I have the date and bus. card of the banker that received them! Completely incompetent. Oh and why is everyone so rude now? At Spire they were nice. Can't wait to close my parent's accts here, as well as mine and my son's acct. read more

I have been waiting since the merger Jan 2024! When will phone banking be available? Not the non-secure app I want the audio phone banking. I assume it would be available if Blaze was serious about making it available. This is the way I would like to interact with my accounts. I am forced to take the time to call in and today was told when I wanted to transfer $200 to checking I was incorrectly told I have to transfer a minimum of $500???? WHY DONT YOU JUST SAY WE DECIDED TO NOT BRING IT BACK SO I CAN MOVE ON. read more

I originally got my loan through Spire and didn't have one issue with them. I missed a couple payments but they were usually accomodating, as I have often had to be at my jobs. Blaze bought Spire, and as I told a representative there, the wrong management took over. I got a couple months behind because I had to move and was in between jobs. You know, life things. Before I knew it they were charging me $20 late fees and some other weird fees. I pushed them to forgive some of it, and they did. But I was a couple months behind and they threatened to repossess my car if I didn't pay by a certain date. I ultimately paid it and have since paid the car off. Which is a nice feeling. They told me I had to go to the DMV and pay to have the title changed. The nice young lady at the DMV told me I didn't need to do that. So they were asking me to pay more money to get their name removed from the title. I understand companies have their policies, but this one is clearly a very greedy company. Stay away at all costs. read more

Trying to get hold of customer service and remained on hold. Finally hung up after 17 minutes also that you have to have an appointment to talk to someone in person. read more

The people at Blaze Credit Union Blaine was amazing this week. I blew it and fell for a scam that could have cost me $10,000. Instead they returned my stolen funds to me within 24 hours. Luke helped me open new accounts. The cashiers helped me get further info I needed. I'm so grateful. I've been a customer since Blaze was Twin City Credit Union. Thank you Blaze and thank you to all at Blaine office who helped me. read more

FOLLOW-UP: I sent an email regarding my comment and an agent called me within an hour. She explained the technical part of the merger is taking longer than anticipated. They are hoping to get things back to normal soon. I upgraded my one star to four. ORIGINAL REVIEW: Get more agents to answer the phone. Most of us have better things to do than wait on the phone for hours. My elderly mother doesn't have a smart phone or internet so she has to use the phone. Now she has to go to the branch since they don't answer the phone. It's gone really bad since the Hiway merger with Spire. Time to move money elsewhere. read more

I filled out an application that asked for a ton of personal information, including an identity check and routing and account information from my existing bank accounts. I thought that because this information was needed, I was going to get an account right away. Not at all. Instead, the application process abruptly ended with "here's your application number. Someone will be in touch." Days go by. Not a single email or text even confirming that I submitted an application. So I get on hold for an hour today to talk with someone and the response I get is that my identification can't be verified, please email us a picture of your social security card. Yes, let's email my social security card! If they are this insecure with the application process, imagine how secure they'll be with your money. I'd suggest finding another credit union. read more

Watch you DEPOSITS. For the second time in a year, they deposited my money in the wrong account. The first time, they told me to make sure I give the teller my license and it will never happen again. Gave them my license and it happened again. Hard to believe in 2025 this could happen. Be aware all! read more

So sad. For 15 years I made a call to Hiway and spoke to a person on the third ring. Blaze is a huge disappointment to myself and my family. Hidden fees and terrible customer service. We are looking at moving banks. Hiway was the best!! read more

If the option was zero stars, that is what they would get. As a long time Hiway Credit Union member, this is a disaster. They should spend more resources on customer service and less on marketing. Blaze can't even answer the telephone, yet their Spire CEO can think of more ways to get his face on tv. This is a real kick in the teeth to the HCU members who put their faith and trust in the CEO and Board of Directors of that former institution. read more

If i could rate lower than 1 star i would. The worst service in the world and no one cares one little bit. When they were Highway Federal Credit union - great service. Now - i can't even pay my credit card bill online - and have to call their sum-normal humanoids in a call center. My only consolation is that due to the horrible service - this business will fail and all of the village idiots will be out of a job. My champagne is chilling for that day - and it will not have to chill for long. If you do not want heart failure or a stroke - do not do business with them. read more

Terrible customer service. I have called all their contact numbers for several weeks and no response. I have tried their online chat and frequently asked questions and nothing relating to my financial question. Went to local site and told that "due to high volume" - this isn't true as have tried different times, different days, different venues, etc. Asked for a call back and told 2 days but nothing. Cute truck tv ads but terrible customer service. Very frustrating and investigating other places for my checking and investing. read more

I have money in my account. I shouldn't have . Can't use my account till I know what happened. And it christmas time . And been trying to call and chat .no one ever responded. What a crap show .who rated you number one . Was better as hiway federal .at least I could get ahold of someone .you should be embarrassed read more

it takes days to update transaction history since the merger. I made a transfer on Thursday from one account to another. it didn't reflect in my new balance from the account I transferred it from until now (Sunday) and it shows as pending instead of an instant deduction. I made two deposits on Saturday and the first deposit shows in my transaction history but has not been made available. The second deposit shows covering expenses from a week before. you never really know your balance unless you keep a paper trail on your own. read more

Waiting for the automated service they keep saying its coming back very long waits to speak to someone hopefully this will get fixed soon

So it seems like they do a of lot petty nickel and diming the big banks used to do when they could dictate the market. When people couldn't pick up and move their money in fifteen minutes on the internet. Primarily stall tactics to delay loan payments (so Hiway can collect their interest), shoddy customer service (delay = interest) when two levels of CSRs cant understand the problem or provide a work-around solution except to wait and try again another day (delay = interest), and no direct access to walk-in. I took out an auto-loan under 15k. I purchased my car, which was highly sought after at the price offered, from a husband and wife small dealership that had a friendly relationship with Hiway. Hiway required I buy gap insurance from them. Even though the asking price was 3k under kelley blue book AND my down-payment brought me 7k under KBB! 360 bucks. I got a competitive rate, thanks to my own credit standing not any kindness from them, but it's still adds up to 30 bucks a month. That's nothing right!? Wrong! So I want to pay it down by half immediately. Nope, can't do that online in the app. "Never seen that error message before. Just keep trying for the next few days (talked to CSRs Wednesday & Thursday) and if you can't do it we'll escalate to IT on Monday." Really? Asked about coming in a depositing a check and CSR didn't respond and diverted my attention by having me try again. Whelp that's a buck a day for them. I tried the next day and reduced the amount I wanted to pay to 1k. It worked! But only 3 times, Lol! It's ineptitude that lines their pockets with my money (my time yo! i had to earn that crap carrying some serious water for my bosses!) As is stands they've demanded/earned $380 for fake gap insurance and $50 in interest in the 6 weeks I've used them. Whelp yelp come Monday I'm moving my balance to an 18month interest free credit card roflmao! What idiots. Played the short game and ruined the long haul. Then again maybe they felt it was inevitable I'd leave/pay it down so they had to grab my cash hence the Gap Insr (I did let slip with car dealer that I never carry my car loans to term and he was texting back and forth with them so "friendly relationship" is for Hiway and them that make them money). Whatev, Use them to your advantage, low payments, cheap loan rate, nice term etc. or bounce. Know you're going to have to work to maintain whatever advantage you think you've secured. Imagine how much they're losing on my 5 year loan! Which I wouldn't have minded keeping since this recession is gonna get worse before it gets better. read more

I've waited online twice for almost 30 minutes to do a password reset for my digital banking! You would think that would be something that they would attend to immediately. I even tried to use the chat feature, and I was fifth in the queue and never got answered. I'm about ready to pull my money out and go elsewhere. read more

We had an auto loan through Spire that got moved to Blaze after the merger. we paid off the loan early, got the lien release and closed the associated account we had to open when we purchased the car to finance the loan through Spire yet somehow they still took a $300 pay from us yesterday for a car we now OWN OUTRIGHT and after we CLOSED THE ACCOUNT!!!! My wife contacted them and they claim the money will be returned tomorrow. We're fortunate enough that we'll face no hardship from missing that money but everybody is not that lucky. I know we'll never use Blaze again and we'd certainly never consider them for our banking needs. read more

Mediocre. The worst at response time. Oh but super quick to add additional fees to your quotes although you provide all the documents they need! Such scammers the worst credit union I ever had to deal with. Don't recommend. read more

this Bank has went downhill since merging and becoming blaze. You get locked out of your account for no reason whatsoever the personal banking part of it's no longer there. You're just a number and they hope to hold onto your money. That is why I'm leaving this bank. read more

Not only will these people lose your your loan payoff but threaten you with negative credit report unless you pay a loan payment for a vehicle that you sold a month earlier. They had the check and refused to wait 3 days for the dealership to send another check. Absolutely terrible. They openly admit their computer systems are NOT compatible between spire/hiway. Stay clear. read more

I've been a member of Hiway Federal Credit Union for over five years. Recently, I updated my telephone number during their transition to digital banking, but it hasn't reflected on their site. When I called to resolve this, they verified my information but insisted that I needed to drive down in person because they couldn't verify me over the phone. I found this frustrating, especially since I have a verbal passcode and they already have my contact information. It doesn't make sense that I have to make a trip just to update my phone number. This is disappointing service. read more

There isn't a zero rating. I'm really disgusted with the service since the merger of Spire with Blaze. I had excellent service since 1988 with Spire. Now I can't access any of my accounts by phone. Talked to a rep who was very short with me telling me to google my account and hung up. Haven't figured out how to do this. I'm seriously considering a switch to another credit union. Doubt they care about a long time customer. read more

So not only do they tack on money to your account they raise your monthly payment with no notice...... Stay far away from this credit union.

Ever since Hiway merger with Blaze, they have dropped the ball on paying my property insurance. Now my insurance company is charging me the unpaid insurance balance when blaze deduced this payment out of my account. They need to get their stuff together. Horrible service. Their mortgage company hides behind a desk and only call you at the end of clocking out for their shift. I'll take my money else where. read more

In the last months we have been receiving terrible customer service. We've used this branch for years and it just keeps getting worse and worse. We get threatened they will hang up on us and told they don't need customers like us... Today I was on hold for 22 minutes then told "my manager can't help you." Where has the HiWay we used to do business gone..? read more

I have one loan with Blaze - a transfer from another credit union they gobbled up. Today I received a vague security alert email. I called the number provided and after 30m finally got a human in the fraud department. This person kept forgetting which bank I was calling about - apparently they support a number of banks. Because I don't have a credit card with Blaze, they were not able to tell me anything about what the alert means, and because they are an external security provider, could not transfer me back to Blaze. So. I started over, calling to talk with a "customer experience provider" (god bless the people who have these atrocious jobs) who also was unable to give me any information about the security alert. So. Some account somewhere is compromised ... but I still don't know which one or how much or ... anything. read more

why in the world is this credit union even allowed to stay open anymore!!!!! poor service, most of the time down poor customer service! dishonest all the time ! read more

This was the worst experience ever, I simply have tried to open a checking account and was dismissed not once but twice. I have never seen an establishment "so busy" that they could not assist a new customer. I am glad to get a glimpse upfront of what to expect, now I know that I will never bank with them. My husband is a member there as well as my child however, the way I was treated, I refuse to return. The service has always been awful that's why my husband doesn't use them as a primary bank anymore due to the way you are treated.... The front desk representative deserves that position she fits right in and displays exactly pure pessimism! read more

Complete garbage!!!! Got a car loan from them through the dealership and making a payment is turning out to be beyond miserable!! Their website is garbage, can't get logged in. They don't provide an address to send a check in. It's 2024, paying a loan should take 30 seconds. I would have rather paid a higher interest rate than deal with this. read more

they need to fix their call system because every time i try to call it always end up with the robot saying "contact your financial business" or something and ends the call . how the fuck is it suppose to tell me to contact the bank when i AM contacting the bank but im on the phone with a robot. fix your robot ai system cause it's really stupid and infuriating . i have called 16 times and not a single option to where i can talk to a agent/person. read more