Meriwest Credit Union

If I could give less I would. Been a customer for over 20 years with excellent credit and my mother for longer. Was denied a loan with basically no explanation. Was approved a day later through another bank. They have lost a long time excellent paying customer!

Meriwest just lost me as a long time customer member for over 25 years… time to explore other credit unions and/​or banks. The ‘kids’ they have working there now answering phones are very rude and refuse to transfer members to who you really need to discuss a problem with in a specific department. The Levy Dept prematurely placed a hold on over $ 2,300 that was to be paid to the CA Franchise Tax Board in over 2 weeks, which unfortunately cut my vacation short due to lack of available funds for my wife and I to enjoy our vacation. This was noticed when making an ATM withdrawal when seeing a much lesser balance then what I should have seen after my employer direct deposit hit the night before… and to top it off they even charged me a $ 3.00 fee for my inconvenience… I get home a week early from my planned vacation to see the letter in the mail… there should have been some sort of notice or phone call or email for this but ironically they called me directly a few months ago when I was working in Alaska trying to gas up a car rental asking if it was me or was my debit card stolen… I’ve been a customer for over 25 years now with Checking, Savings, past auto loans, past signature loans, a good paying job with decent credit but refused to give me a credit card so that I can use for work travel expenses… Meriwest has really gone down hill and very upsetting to see what happened :-(

We had to change our home insurance provider in the middle of the year. There was a mistake at the insurance carrier in start date for insurance. It should have been started from June 25^th instead or July 25^th, which we did not catch. after 3 – 4 months, Meriwest sent us letters saying we have lapse in insurance and they will charge us 5x more than a typical home insurance company does for that missed month.
I spent more than one hour on the phone with their customer support with no avail. First time they put me on hold to get a supervisor for more than 30 minutes and no one cameI had to hang up and call again. The second time a supervisor came on line after 10 minutes. she told me that this is their policy and there is nothing they can do about. We had been with them for more than 10 years with no late payments, no lapse in coverage or any thing.
What a policy??: Charge their clients 5x more???
Meriwest uses predatory pratices and gouges their customers in charging 5000% more than a normal home insurance company does?
This is outrageous. We will refi our loan out of Meriwest and I would not recommend getting a loan from them…

Had a duplicate charge go through. Was supposed to be revised in 48 hours because it was the banks error. 6 days later it was not revised. Two girls I talked to at the call center did NOTHING to help alleviate issue. Then I spoke to a guy and he was very understanding and made sure my issue was heard right away. He recommended I leave a message for Kathy, she called back right away and made sure issue was taken of immediately. At first I was very MAD, but the way the guy and Kathy handled situation I am very happy. Great customer service from them!

Shayne Jerome handle my loan at the Chesbro branch he did an excellent job I would recommend him to anyone. If you ever want to loan done fast go see Shayne in my opinion is the best

I used to be a big fan of Meriwest but no longer. I have a checking account, savings, current car loan, previous car loan, previous motorcycle loan, home loan and a refinanced home loan. I also was a big advocate for Meriwest telling all my friends. Two friends did refi’s with Meriwest.
I called re: a Home Equity loan and was approved based on this email from Melissa X:
12÷1÷14 «I am happy to report you’ve been approved for the requested $ 15,000 pending income proof».
I responded to this email asking for the next steps and Melissa X replied:
12÷2÷14 — «We will get your paperwork ready and then have our notary contact you to sign the loan documents».
After waiting two weeks, I emailed Melissa X and got this response:
12÷17÷14 — «We are just waiting on the loan underwriters to get your documents ready. We had to wait for the county to get the title, and that took some time. It should be any day that they will be calling you to sign documents».
I emailed again, now almost a month waiting and received this:
12÷29÷14 — «Let me look into this».
On January 2^nd, I called to talk to someone and I was connected to Shayne Y. He told me he would look into the problem. He called me back and did acknowledged that the paperwork explaining the delay was on Melissa X’s desk for a few weeks and he was not sure why she did not give me an answer. He called with a response saying that since I was part of a 0%, 45 year loan which the City of San Jose offered yeas back which I used as a down payment, I was not eligible for a HELOC. He suggested that I pay off that 0% loan so I could get this HELOC of $ 15,000 for 3+% interest! I was amazed that he even suggested that!
I asked him to send me an explanation in an email and I got this:
12÷2÷15 — «…your Approval was simply letting you know that based on Credit and income you were approved. From there our next step is to order Title».
Really? You don’t order title before you approve a HELOC?
I responded to this email requesting his manager’s name and received this:
1÷6÷15 «My managers name is Melody Z she would have called you yesterday but I was out of the office with a cold and could not explain in detail what had happened she is now aware, and will give you a call asap».
Never heard from Melody X. I called a few days later and left two messages and never heard back.
So, from here on, I will not use Meriwest for anything new. Unfortunately, I am stuck with my home loan and car loan.
So disappointed in Meriwest.

My husband and I have been members of Meriwest for over 30 years. It was the Pacific IBM Federal Credit Union then. We are both IBM retirees. We have moved around in the western US, including Canada quite a bit and Meriwest has always been our primary bank. They have always made banking easy for us with professional and courteous service. We just recently applied and got a HELOC. Our transaction was very professionally handled by Shayne Jerome. He clearly explained all the loan parameters and kept us apprised of the progress of our loan application. The whole process was seamless and took only 2 weeks from the time we submitted the application until it was funded. We really appreciate Shayne’s attention and his friendliness.

So, I went into the Hillsdale Ave. office yesterday with my son, and my husband to apply for a $ 3500.00 car loan for my son. I would be the primary and he would be the co-​applicant. I have had an acct with Meriwest for over 9 years, worked for 35 years in the same occupation, owned homes, paid off my car, and have EXCELLENT credit. I am also married to a retired firefighter and as a household, are well off. Since I am a member I thought I would receive some sort of respect, but the gentleman who helped us (Steven) said I was not approved for it, and had my husband open an account and totatlly disregarded me. I felt disrespected, humiliated in front of my son, and feel like sex discrimination played a part in this. Oh, then I get home and I received a letter from Meriwest that I am Pre-​Approved for $ 40,000 new car loan??? I will NEVER go there again to get a loan,

If I could give it zero stars, I would. I applied for a HELOC loan and was told that it was «easy and that they dont ask for a lot.» It took over two months to get the loan with unknown delays and overly intrusive questions (questioning where I got the funds to purchase my current home and wanting old real estate documents from my past home [Huh?]). The customer service was horrible and there were several unknown delays.
Lo and behold, six months later, I am notified that there is a problem with my account. After looking into it, I realized that Meriwest told that me that they were taking payment out of my savings account, however, they took it out of my «holiday» account! Then they went thru their own collections department and took the payment out of my savings account. Despite it being their error in setting up the loan correctly, a manager was demeaning and scolding, while she could not even listen enough to understand what the problem was.
My family has used this credit union for over 30 years. We have never had problems with Meriwest. However, recently Meriwest has been an absolute train wreck. I would definitely NOT bank with them. As a consumer, I regret choosing them to see a loan. I will make sure to pay off the loan early and am considering seeking another credit union to pay off this loan – I just want Meriwest out of my life!

While on hold I was reminded about a Unilocal entry for MeriWest. Well the hold was understandable and what I write about is a much longer relationship with MeriWest. Over 30 years I have been with them. Most recently added a non-​profit acct with them and Kelly N from the Chesbro branch was excellent on getting us setup. Their mobile banking app is quite good and I find it a very smooth way to run a small business acct. Very professional, and easily accessible if you work at a particular 3 letter company. Star network ATM access so no real challenge in the US either.

Jessica Galvan was an angel through the whole car purchase experience. Her sweet personality made the process smooth and pleasant. She got back to us within a couple of hours, handled details with the car seller, and was just generally helpful. When we kept her waiting, she was polite and followed up. I hope Jessica can handle all my car purchases in the future!

I just had the worst experience ever while trying to get an auto loan from Jessica Mauler. First off, they knew what vehicle make and model I applied for and they still came back after they approved us and said they could not finance it because it was a commercial vehicle. How could they come back with an approval if this was the case? Also, the vehicle I was trying to purchase was under a company name. Jessica told me that it needs to be transferred to a personal name, which the seller did at a cost of $ 400, just have Jessica come back after he took personal time off to visit the DMV and say it wasn’t necessary after all. If she knew the title didn’t have to be transferred from his company name, the seller could have provided us with the title thus avoiding all of these issues. Although our situation wasn’t ideal for Meriwest her lack of knowledge made things worst. I ended up getting approved at Patelco for 1.9% which is half of what Meriwest offered and they were more than willing to work with me in order to earn my business.

Really miss this bank. Had to switch due to moving out of state but these guys were always great. Always helpful and friendly. Only thing is I would never buy another used car from their event, only bad experience tied to them but it was really the car companies fault. They may think of not using them since they destroy electrical systems.

Crooks I tell you Crooks. Just because you can be unethical and shady with a smile does not make you worthy of my business. I use my account for checking purposes; one day I noticed that I was going to be overdrawn. So I went to a branch to deposit more than enough money to cover the transaction. Meriwest did not process my deposit until 2 days later, even thought they had my money. They waited until they charged me an overdraft fee then processed my deposit. Crooks. They seem to think its a good way to so business because they did it with a smile. Sorry I don’t keep a balance of 100,00.00 at all times. but I was a loyal customer. I do not recommend Meriwest at all. If your going to deal with crooks you might as well deal with BofA, at least they have better hours and more services available.

I have loved every experience in my last 4 years using Meriwest. It is so much better than using a bank — For example: My overdraft fee is $ 5. That’s just ridiculous! Why aren’t more banks following their example? My husband was just approved for a line of credit here so will have to review again after using their credit services for our next car purchase!

I’ve been a Meriwest member since I moved back to the Bay Area in September of 2013. I just had a bit of misfortune while out of the country and Meriwest was there to not only get me sorted with a new bank card, but they also waived the rush transaction fee to get me the card IN ANOTHER COUNTRY faster than it would have happened in the United States. Because of this I’m now able to continue with my trip and access my funds (which were also compromised). They’ve turned an otherwise seriously problematic situation into a minor blip which I can brush off and move on from. There may be awkward reviews on this site for them, but I for one can say I am a customer for life, as NO other financial institution has been able to assist me this quickly.

So this morning I’m drinking coffee and talking with my wife about how meriwest repoed my jetski for no reason. So she tells me to call them and ask why they did it. After they got over the whole that was 14 years ago thing and that yes, it was a long time ago but I didn’t forget, they told me the story.
We opened the archive files. It turns out that Norm, meriwest’s collections guy at the time, has this whole writeup justifying his actions. What is true; in the archive records it said the jetski was 20 days late and that I’d made the November payment and was talking with them — and that on December 20^th they decided to repo it anyways. So this is what Christopher the new meriwest collection guy explained happened. As for pulling all the funds from my bank account to cover the car payment — though I often made payments 15 to 20 days late and they never pulled any funds — he claimed they do that automatically; it is an automatic pull that happens on the 11^th day after the payment is due, they pull everything they can from your accounts. He said that yeah, it really pisses people off because then they bounce checks and it screws them all up, but unless you call and ask us to cancel it, then it is automatic — so it is not our fault and was not Norm’s fault. The gist to me, we can think of the snowballing effect of having your account wiped clean one clear sunny day as a type of financial stress test jack in the box surprise — you fail, and don’t have a shoebox of money or a ring you can quickly pawn, well you shouldn’t have a loan. Then, he said that they don’t repo anything until it is at least 30 days late, but because they are a credit union, they are required to issue a repo order the day it is 30 days late, real banks have more discretion on this –same for the 11^th day account clearout. And, last, you cannot pay the repo guys your payment when they are in your driveway — they are contracted to hook the item and take it. Plus, they like to hook and go because they often get possession of the item when you can’t pay the impound fee. Philosophically, Christopher could not answer why the credit union would want to do this to their members — so, we all know that we live in a free market and they can do whatever they want if it keeps them in business. How they stay in business doing that, who knows, but I still have a account with them, so hey, they are.
So, I gave these guys +1 star for Christopher taking the time to explain that I was in the wrong, they still do the same thing today, through they are not quite so brutal about it. Back then there were still a bunch of nepotistic and sadistic IBM era managers. And if we all remember the good ol days at IBM, there was a fair bit of drinking and cronyism.

Officially my favorite bank! I had a fantastic experience working with Kristine H. in connection with multiple financial products. She is professional, knowledable, efficient, lightening-​fast, responsive, friendly, and just a delight to work with. Truly, my best fiancing experience to date. Thanks Kristine!

I just opened up an account with Meriwest based on a suggestion from a friend that has worked in the banking industry. I am fed up with big banks and feel more confident investing my money with a credit union. Khanh Nguyen assisted me and I cannot thank her enough! She was very thorough and made sure to answer all of my questions. I called her after leaving the branch because I had a few other questions. Khanh called me back within an hour of leaving the message which I thought to be very impressive. She even helped me with logging onto the on line mobile app as I had a little trouble initially. Her service is outstanding and she is an absolute pleasure to work with! Thank you Khanh for everything!

I’ve had an account here since I was a child, when it used to be the IBM Employees Federal Credit Union. However, sometime in the late 90’s they changed to Meriwest and began to allow more than just IBM employees and family to have accounts here.
The building itself is somewhat hidden behind a Marie Calendars off of Blossom Hill road and Chesbro, and the parking lot is small, which nine times out of ten isn’t a problem, but when they do their car financing specials it becomes almost impossible to enter this place.
Two drive up ATM’s and one walk-​up ATM are available, though they have a tendency to run low on funds or be «out of order» I’ve found, especially on late night weekends.
As far as the checking and savings accounts go, my only other comparisons are Chase, where I used to have a checking for a few years when I lived on the east coast and I hated Chase, and my wife’s Citibank account, which honestly seems to function about the same, though her overdraft fee is $ 35 per day where as mine is $ 29 per transaction. Both charge a monthly maintenance when you don’t have a certain average amount in your checking, though mine is $ 6, I do not know what hers is.
The only two things that have ever really bothered me about Meriwest is that one, they aren’t competitive at all on home loans, as I had to go to First Horizons to get a 6% interest rate where Meriwest had offered me almost 9%. Secondly they don’t let you transfer money from your business account to personal account without having to write yourself a check or do a withdrawal and deposit.
In any case I’ll still be keeping what little money I have there with them.