Switching to a local credit union took 6 weeks, my old bank did it in 2 days

I finally got fed up with my big bank's fees and decided to move my checking and savings over to a credit union here in Columbus. I figured it would be a simple account transfer, but the credit union needed proof of address, a voided check from the old bank, and two forms of ID. Then they held my direct deposit setup for 3 weeks because their routing number system kept glitching. The old bank would have just done it online in minutes. What convinced me to stay was the teller calling me personally to fix the routing issue on a Friday afternoon. That never happened at my old bank. But man, 6 weeks vs 2 days is a real tradeoff. Has anyone else had a slower switch to a smaller institution that was still worth it?

1 comments

1 Comment

janaw119d agoMost Upvoted

Did you see that Consumer Reports piece about credit union customer service beating big banks for like the 10th year in a row? That's kind of what I thought of reading this. The wait sounds brutal, honestly, but it seems like you got the human touch that a big bank just won't give you, you know? I've heard of people having this exact issue with routing numbers at credit unions, especially the smaller ones that use third party processors. Six weeks is still a long time, but if that teller is going to be there for every future problem, that might be worth more in the long run than a fast transfer.