Confessions of a Credit Union Employee

For years I worked as an accountant at a credit union. My official job description was to balance the internal accounts for debit and ATM cards, as well as the ATMs themselves, but I also handled customer service.

Working with the credit union members was a welcome distraction. The accounts and spreadsheets I stared at day after day dulled my senses and put me to sleep. Helping those who were having trouble with their accounts was the real reason I went to work every day. Because those members made my job worthwhile, I want to share some basic information that people who use banks or credit unions might find useful.

Refunding fees

The banking industry earns money through bank fees and interest on loans. I couldn't do anything about the interest, but the fees were another story. Banks charge exorbitant amounts for bounced checks, transfers, and ATM fees. Credit unions charge less, but the fees are still high.

When I resigned from my job, bounced check fees has risen to more than $20. I thought that was a ridiculous amount. People would call and say they made an error in their checkbook and didn't realize they had overwritten their account. No problem. I was happy to refund those fees, especially if I knew the account holder was struggling to support a family on a low income.

Undercharging

Some members had an especially difficult time balancing their accounts. They'd bring their check registers in and, for $10 an hour, a credit union employee would go through their history, correct the errors, and balance the checkbook for them. Most of the time, the checkbooks were off by hundreds of dollars and it would take hours to balance them.

I enjoyed helping people balance their accounts and my specialty was widows and widowers. These were the members whose deceased spouses had always handled the finances and, after months of trying, the surviving spouse was unable to figure it out. I took their old check registers and went through them line by line, for days sometimes. When the account finally balanced, I sat down with the credit union member and taught them how to do it themselves.

After we finished, the member would ask how many hours I worked on it. Forget it, I'd say. Then I'd tell my supervisor I only worked on it for an hour.

Fraud

Identity theft, credit card fraud, and debit card fraud can ruin people's credit and make it difficult for them to get their lives back on track. The credit union where I worked had a policy that members would not be responsible for any illegitimate charges made on their debit or credit cards.

Unauthorized charges only become suspicious if it's a single charge this month and a single charge next month. When that happens, it's usually a family member using the card without permission or the card holder has buyer's remorse. It didn't matter to me as long as it didn't happen consistently. When card holders said they didn't authorize a specific charge on their card, I always took them at their word and credited their account for the amount of the charge.

It's not as complicated as it seems

Financial institutions like to make things difficult. They'll say they can't do anything to reverse bounced check fees or that they'll have to do an investigation before they can refund unauthorized charges.

The truth is, bounced check fees only take a second to refund. All they have to do is type the command into the computer program. Refunds for unauthorized charges on credit and debit cards need to be delayed only when it looks like the card holder is attempting to defraud the system. The money can be, and often is, refunded before the investigation even begins. And most of the time there's no investigation at all except when the card is stolen.

Every bank and credit union has at least one employee who will help out any way she can, as long as it won't jeopardize her job. If you're lucky enough to find that employee, make sure you write down her extension, and don't take advantage of the system.