6:30 pm on a normal weeknight. One of my company's employees cannot check into their hotel, card declined for no reason (again). Broadview/SEFCU - "we don't know why it is declined, plenty of credit, account fully paid.... but the person who can override the decline goes home at 5 pm... call us tomorrow?" Or imagine sitting in a bank branch across the desk from a bank employee who cannot call a business banker within their own bank. They are required to send an email and wait. So if you want to solve a problem, you sit together and wait for an email reply. Not kidding. Truly an awful business bank. Of course many pleasant kind people working there. Myself, I will 100% avoid this bank as much as possible. read more

SEFCU cared about 'us' 20 years ago. Now, they are no different than Chase or Bank of America. You are just a credit score. Nothing else. There was a time, many years ago, that I would not shut up about how GREAT SEFCU was. Anyone who was looking for a bank or loan, I would speak up and recommend SEFCU. Why? Because they worked with you. Treat you like a person, not a SCORE. Look at ALL the information and not just a score. Sometimes, people have lower scores for unconventional reasons. I always used to enjoy being treated like a person whom SEFCU wanted to do business with, rather than a beggar. Those days have gone. I am now treated like a beggar, because my score is not as high as some others. When your score drops below 'Fair', SEFCU staff start treating you like you are not worthy of them. As if they are only for the elite. My, how things have changed. SUNMARK and First New York FCU are the last of the 'Old School' credit unions. By old school, I mean . .they care. They want to HELP YOU. Not just approve or decline a loan. I just got off the phone with New York FCU. They came up with a whole plan for me. To refinance my car, and consolidate all of my debt. Decreasing my monthly bills, while putting me on a path to increase my credit score. I am not just a pass/fail to NYFCU. They gave me a lot of respect, help and wanted to make my life better. Help me to increase my score and then even refinance again - in 6 months with an even better rate (They will refinance their own loans at NYFCU). THIS . . is what SEFCU used to be. Now, you only matter to SEFCU if you have a stellar credit score. Not to SEFCU: The lower credit scores and higher interest rates make you a LOT OF MONEY. My dad, with excellent. credit, pays 2% for his car. You don't make crap off of him. I had a 10% $50k car loan. You make $16k off of me. And yet - you. treat me like the plague and my dad like a hero. MATH MATH MATH. read more

Just wanted to add to my review that I have not, in fact, found a financial institution in the Albany area that people think and speak highly of with any consistency, so I've given up on the local-banking idea and have instead gone with two online-only banks - Wealthfront and Discover Bank - and I couldn't be more pleased with that situation. Neither provides paper checks, so if you're a fan of those, you won't find them here. But I might need one paper check once every couple of years, if that, so I use Wealthfront for my "checking" and (robo-)investing and a Discover savings account (that lets you deposit checks remotely), and that setup really works for me. If it sounds like it might work for you too, I recommend checking out those two banks. And everything else I wrote previously about SEFCU still stands. read more

SEFCU was eager to call me to notify me of a $15 charge they were about to send to collections. The call was legally required to be 48 hours before, so they called me at close on a Friday so they could go through with it. They made no effort to contact me beforehand, even willingly ignoring a legal address change. After 4 years, it is still the only ding on my credit report. I contacted them multiple times for a correction with no luck. I paid as soon as I was aware. They don't care. SEFCU: A Credit Union To Ruin Your Credit read more

I was a state worker for over 25 years. Within that time SEFCU used to be and I quote used to be great. Easy access to my account the tellers were friendly it was a great place to do my banking. However my credit score just went down by 34 points because you decided that they wanted to charge me for a loan that I've already paid off 10 years ago. SEFCU has become the greediest most spiteful Bank to ever do business with they suck hard no stars not even one read more

SEFCU was awful but since being taken over by Broadview FCU they are HORRENDOUS!! If it's even possible they are worse then SEFCU. Run fast from this credit union. It has been one F up after another. From losing my money to reversing an ATM deposit and not knowing what the heck they did with my funds to multiple spam Broadview text messages, I have had enough. I've had this account since I was old enough to open one and hate change but Broadview is making the change easy for me. I cannot wait to get rid of them. You can't make this sh!t up. To tell me they don't know what THEY DID WITH MY MONEY after THEY reversed the ATM deposit was mind blowing! I'm done and if you are smart you won't even think about using them. read more

This bank is horrible I had a cc with a huge balance they closed for no reason always made my payments. after they closed the card they wanted 500 a month minimum payment. payed always. I have paid they way down on the balance and ask if there was any way to modify payments due to a hardship the lost mitigation dept. said they would expect 600 in 3 weeks or they will keep hitting my credit negatively they offer no programs and can care less about a person. read more

Terrible company. Broadview literally is robbing everyone blind with no care. Overdraft fees after returned payments. They don't care they just want what they think is theirs read more

Totally incompetent phone c/s agents. Rude and uniformed branch managers.

Horrible customer service. Thay do not even have access to online banking. It is aways down. Need to spend some money on IT and catch up to the other institutions read more

$700 hacked out of my account within 6 weeks. 2 new cards both hacked, had to change out all billing numbers, twice. I.AM.DONE! Since they switched to Broadview there seems to be no security within the system, the last money was taken at a casino in New Jersey without a card, straight from my checking account, how does that even happen?!?!?! read more

Terrible record keeping and banking errors make the low interest rates not worth it. After 6 years of paying an auto loan (headaches of dealing with SEFCU throughout the process) they never confirmed with me that the loan was paid off and continued to make automatic payments from my account. I would highly recommend banking elsewhere. The frequency of mistakes that this organization makes is embarrassingly high. read more

Came into the branch dressed down. Asked to open an account with an expired I.D but I had other proofs of my identity. Jamie Corellis tells me I can't open an account but when I came in earlier and spoke to Maria Henry she was going to accept the other forms of identification to verify me. I was with my mother trying to open up a joint account and now was unable to because Jamie saw 2 African Americans and instantly became a stickler to make it harder for me to open an account. This is very common by people who use the system or policy to deny ethnicities they do not want banking with them. She even said I have to get my address changed on my identification card as well. Just seemed like a discriminative tactic! read more

An estate account was set up by a lawyer, per NY requirement, when my brother died. After all bills were paid, about $27 was in the account. Phone calls and letters to SEFCU regarding closing the account have resulted in their requirement that the Lawyer (who charged us 2 1/2 times what he quoted and who ignores all mail and emails) has to close the account. Now I get a letter saying that since there has been no activity (SEFCU won't let us take it out and why should I be putting money in a dead man's account?) they are going to start charging us fees and turn whatever is left over to the state. Go ahead. Just stop bugging us since you won't work us. read more

The updated SEFCU site might look classy.. definitely changed a lot. My complaints - and I have submitted these online to SEFCU directly with no help. 1. Silly annoying things like the "Chat" button covers a lot of screen area.. I just want to do banking without having to move my screen to have that not blocking info. 2. All that renaming of accounts to account nicknames and sorting them like you liked years ago... gone or not being utilized. my auto transfers to "nicknamed accounts" displays in the transaction details as " transfer to .... X1234" - who knows their nicknamed account last 4 account numbers? 3. Transfer to credit card payments - why not show the last 4 of that number? I hate the upgrade read more

Branch didnt know what a cashiers check is. when I explained its a check from a bank they wanted to call the other bank to verify its a cashiers check. I waited close to an hour while they stayed on hold with a bank as bad as them. I gave up and asked for the cashiers back they got rude and told me i could deposit them and wait for a 7 day hold on the CASHiers check. This is literally the last straw after 20 years of bad service that has gotten so bad its no longer worth the convenience of the many bad branches they have all over. As a second example 15 years ago I needed a loan. my credit was one point away and they would not budge. I went to a small local bank and the branch manager gave me the loan and Ive had all my loans since through them like house, cars, etc. For a credit union they could care very very little for members. read more

SEFCU is the worst! Stay away! I have been trying to make a simple address change... After numerous phone calls and 4 ... count them 4 in person trips to the branch ... the change has not been properly made! Why trust that anything with accounts... payments, interest, etc is being done properly??? Disgusted! Dr John Metallo read more

I do love my credit union. I love that they aren't a bank. I love that I never feel like they are trying to screw me. I love their low-fee coin machine. I love the free Flavia coffee (the kids love the free hot cocoa). I love that they give kids stickers. I love the pneumatic tubes at the drive through. Sometimes the lines can be slow. And I wish they had foreign currency. But I am most definitely a fan. read more

Went with SEFCU for my mortgage loan. They knew since the beginning that the estimated completion date for our new home was Sept 30th. The builders even completed early, and we had a CO by Sept 25th. Yet here we are almost a month later and we STILL have not even scheduled a closing date. We gave SEFCU everything they asked for in a timely manner, yet they have had zero sense of urgency while our completed home sits empty and ready to move into. Very unhappy. read more

DO NOT USE OR CONTINUE WITH BROADVIEW FCU. From reading posts, I see that very many of us are having the same issue with Broadview: increased and intrusive surveillance of our accounts for "fraud." My recent experience, which now has extended to flagging every single transaction I attempt as potential fraud ("The hold has been removed"--until the next time and a new hold), has shown me that the transition from SEFCU to Broadview was a disaster, and that January 1 marked the beginning of a new algorithm (or something) that targets all users who don't conform to some hidden, unwritten profile. My husband and I have stellar credit ratings, have had only 1 incidence of fraud in the entire 10 years using SEFCU, and pay off the balance in full each month (as my husband points out, this is exactly what a credit card company *doesn't* want: no interest charges being paid). But this "good customer" status apparently counts for nothing now, since there is no institutional memory of a good customer (I was told by the local Albany "help" bureau that they only go back 8 transactions when looking at an account), and as a result, the suspicion of fraud/flagging that they themselves created 8 transactions ago carries forward to all subsequent transactions and ups the suspicion level to the point where they will start disallowing transactions for no other reason than your "past history." They started it, and then build on that erroneous suspicion--this is Catch-22, you can do absolutely nothing about it, but they are playing with an individual's credit rating and standing, embarrassing and inconveniencing customers at point of sale, and basically not allowing you to use your card, for no reason that anyone will give. They are unable to determine who's a fraud risk and who isn't, thus everyone is placed under the blanket of suspicion for every transaction. I got a big song-and-dance from the help rep in Albany about the huge increase in fraud; "you don't think it can happen to you but it can" (but it *isn't* happening to me!), and absolutely no answer to my direct question: Why are you doing this? I was also lied to point-blank about my most current turndown: I had a case number from the Fraud Bureau, but they said oh no, it was a system error, the transaction went through a second time in a few seconds. First of all, fix your system! Second of all, it took a little longer than that: how could I have gotten a case number, which required my making a phone call to the Fraud Bureau in response to their phone call, wait time on hold, hollering back and forth, and finally generation of a case number--in a few seconds? A flat-out lie. Broadview's new unacknowledged policy is a corporate screw job, and possibly defamatory, and because I have other things to do in my life I am ceasing use of my card, paying off my balance, and closing my account. Otherwise I will get hell every time I try and charge my groceries, even if I've charged them 100 times before. You have to realize that according to the new corporate bullshit, *everyone* is a potential fraudster now, and they are clearly weeding out those customers whom they don't want, for whatever reason (don't pay off your balance every month!) But you cannot run a credit union this way for long. I predict someone will get pissed off enough that there will be a consumer fraud lawsuit soon, or even a class action suit; in the meantime, get another card and dump Broadview asap. read more

Whatever you do, do not have a problem on a weekend. You will have to wait until Monday to speak with someone. Also, try not to lose or have an issue with a debit card. 7-10 business days is the turnaround time, once you finally do get someone. They will "expedite" it and get you one in 3 business days...for $36. Don't worry, they are looking into immediate card issuance at certain locations. Now. Finally. In 2022. In their defense, when my card info was compromised and used, fraud services texted me, then called. They placed me on hold for 32 minutes and then hung up on me. read more

SEFCU underwent a significant change to their computer system in the Spring of 2019. By all accounts, this has been a disaster. In our case, my wife and I have/had a joint checking account. We used to receive typical monthly statements of the joint account. After the system upgrade, they no longer send statements based on accounts, but on member numbers. As a joint account, only the "primary" member receives a statement. In our case, that meant my wife had no visibility on an account that she is supposed to be a joint member on. Further investigation online showed that she does not have access at all. My wife called the central customer service who gave her a run-around. Supposedly, a manager was to call her back. Never did. We went to the local SEFCU office and spoke to a representative. The representative confirmed that we were out of luck and that there have been numerous customer complaints following the "upgrade." Apparently, the upgrade and the complete lack of corporate caring have forced this employee to quit their job after more than a decade of work there. We removed all of our money from the checking account that day. read more

A little bit of you dies as you wait in line, each time at this branch. Must be a training location as the tellers take at least three times as long as other locations. Often they need to double up to figure out things like "withdrawals " and " deposits " and other complicated stuff. Expect to spend anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to reach a teller regardless line length. Terrible experience I try to avoid. read more

Every single time you call Sefcu's customer service, you have to wait on hold for AT LEAST 10 minutes. EVERY SINGLE TIME

SEFCU was fine when we lived in the Albany NY area. We moved out of state in August 2020 and I called to close our bank account. The rep convinced me to keep it opened but idle with a small balance. In May 2021, I started being charged $6 a month for an iPay service I don't use, which is supposedly based on your account balance. I didn't notice until June, and when I called to close my bank account, not only was I not reimbursed for those charges, but I was charged an additional $2 for closing my account. Add to that being on hold for a long time with every call. Would not recommend SEFCU. read more

This is the most stupidest bank a client can deal with. I personally walked into a branch on 05/02/2021, in Binghamton, requested a bank card since I had missed placed it. After 1 month and two days later I still haven't received card. Such a disgusting bank they cannot even process the most simplest transaction. I called back again today & spoke to a Melony in customer service & she promised to expedite & keep my fingers crossed & pray to the lord that I receive one. They have NO tracking system or case number for me to follow up if I don't get it even after another three months, which I'm sure I will NOT. This is a laid back, stone age bank where they have NO sense or clue of how today's digital world works like. DISGUSTED!! read more

Absolutely atrocious. Worst bank I've ever used. Their website is terrible. Customer service is somehow even worse. Opposed to most credit unions, when given a choice, they make policies which benefit their bottom line instead of their customers. Worse than any commercial bank. I've had minor issues which have taken a dozen times contacting them to get it resolved. I'd avoid them at all costs. read more

Sefcu Albany, beware when setting up personal loans with automatic payments that are supposed to be the amount of the loan. BEWARE they bait and switch you to the wrong amount so you rack up unnecessary bogus late charges. My 3rd personal loan with them should have been set up just as the previous loans with the amount of the monthly payment being deducted from my checking account. JOIN CAP COM INSTEAD! read more

On my seventh birthday, I opened up my first bank account. My mother and grandparents took me to the Northstar next to the post office, it was the only bank I knew existed at the time. When Northstar was purchased by Fleet, they became my bank. Fleet became Bank of America and I continued to go with the flow. For my entire life I had never had to think about my bank, it was picked and I just went with it. This fall, that changed. Money has gotten tight, we have been looking for ways to cut unnecessary spending where ever we can. Month after month I found nonsense fees. Then came the fiasco with debit card fees. It was time for me to finally decide what it was I wanted in a bank. After a lot of thinking and planning we went with SEFCU. On November 5th, we opened up the account with a nominal deposit into checking and savings. We walked in and were offered a great cup of coffee until someone was available. We went through what we wanted, what the costs were. I had done my homework and pretty much decided before we walked in but the process was polite and quick. There's offices everywhere, one next door to my wife's office and 1/2 mile away from my home. The online banking does not feel as secure as Bank of America (password of exactly six characters?) but it is convenient. My wife has taken to it right away, everything is pretty convenient. What I like the most however is how fast transactions are completed. Both of us are able to receive our weekly pay a day earlier as SEFCU processes the transactions immediately instead of waiting for the next business day. When I put in a large deposit, I was alerted in 8 minutes, not hours or days later like Bank of America. We made the move to save money, and we have not had a surprise fee yet. We completed moving everything over yesterday and I do admit there was a bit of sadness leaving what had been my only banking experience before. But in the end, this was the only one I had ever chosen for myself and didn't just let circumstances decide for me. And it doesn't hurt knowing I am supporting my local community in the process. read more

My wife and I originally belonged to the HEFCU credit union ( Saint Peter's Hospital and Albany Medical Center) for many years until SEFCU took them over. We stayed on, and SEFCU has been a fantastic financial institution, infact we have our checking account and two other accounts with SEFCU, and we've never had any kind of issues whatsoever. We would highly recommend SEFCU to everyone, very nice and accommodating people. read more

I have been a sefcu customer for over 20 years. As long as we were the Albany, they were great! Even after we retired and moved they were OK. But for the past few years they obviously have involved lawyers in making business decisions, because it has become harder and harder to do business with them. iTeller is a farce compared to competitive services from other institutions (yes, I have open with a bank). Trying to deal with them on the phone is impossible. Their rates are not as good as many other institutions. I'm migrating to another institution. read more

Can a person sanely love a bank? After 20+ years as a member of SEFCU I remain a contented and even happy customer/member. Great service, competence, cor troys and few if any hidden fees. Free checking. Free online bill payment. I love this bank! read more

I have been a member of this Credit Union since 1993. As they grow they become less and less member focused. If you have a problem no one is willing to properly research it for you. If I did not have as many auto payments form my account , I would change to a different Credit Union or Bank in a heartbeat. I am sure with the pending merger service will only get worse. read more

If you have payments that are pending they will somehow always make sure to process the payments before the money "deposits." That way they get their $25 fee. It's how all banks work. It's a scam. read more

I would give this bank negative stars if I could. They cashed another persons check out of my account. I have called several times and the money has not been put back into my account. They keep telling me to call back. Why am I doing all the leg work for SEFCUS mistake? Not one employee even apologized for this mistake! Every time I call the representatives are so rude. Time to switch banks. read more

I never write reviews but this experience with SEFCU Mortgage Services was horrible. We financed our mortgage through SEFCU last summer. We thought we would go with our credit union, being loyal members for a number of years. What a TERRIBLE experience. They were slow and antiquated with an attitude of "take it or leave it" and sorry we can't help you at every turn. We had to email the same forms over and over because they kept getting lost.. It was frustrating and left us feeling regretful for using them. At one point we felt as though it wasn't worth starting over with someone else but I wish we had because it angers me to think about their poor service. We actually want to pull all our funds from SEFCU after this experience, and others over the years. read more

It is still an adequate banking institution, with decent rates, but it has really gone down hill. In the past, I would have given it five stars, but after having accounts with them for decades, including multiple mortgages, home equity loans, savings, checking, I will be moving my accounts. I just bought an investment property and the mortgage process was a nightmare. (Mind you, I was already familiar with the process, I have a pristine credit rating, and they still made a hash of it.) It as if now that everything is computerized, they think any untrained clerk can process mortgages and not all of the people at the call center really understand how the regular systems work. They also sent tax documents to an address I haven't lived at for years (even though they processed all the mortgages when I bought/sold and moved to new addresses). When they first tried to change the address on my account, apparently they didn't change the address on all aspects of my account, so while statements showed my correct address the tax forms didn't. It took me calling several times to get it fixed. They may still be as good or better than other banks, but I remember how they were before, and it is time to see if some other bank will do better. read more

The worst credit union ever. If you bank with them just prepared to be giving the run around when you ask simple questions other banks answer in one call. This bank requires 18 calls to get the answer right. read more

I have wasted many hours trying to get this bank to remove a tax refund that was put into my account when it belonged to someone else. I was given the run around and wrong information on several occasions. I had to leave my office and walk to this bank three time and still the issue is NOT resolved. I was told yesterday it would be taken care of in 24 hours, today when I went there I'm now told it will be 3 business days to take care of it and was asked for documentation that the previous agent didn't request. The representative on the phone do not know what they are doing - this bank has turned into a complete and utter disaster. read more

I have had it with this credit union these people are so un-professional and they don't care their response to every thing is I'm Sorry for. At one point they I called to make a transfer from my single account to my joint account and they transferred my money to another account and when I was unable to pay a bill I called to inquire about where my funds were and was told they transferred it to the wrong account and I had to wait until they could contact that individual and let them know they were going to deduct the funds from them and I had to wait until they were able to do that which took 2 days. all they could do is say was were sorry and I was charged a late fee for paying a bill late. my second incident I called and was told I could put my card on hold temporarily until I called back to either cancel it or remove the hold I called once I found my card and was told that It was cancelled. I just received a promotion and moved to a whole different state where I have no access to sefcu branches and now I have no card or access to my money once again to pay any of my bills. and the response again was I'm Sorry. and my response is yes you are. Shame on you. read more