I opened a money market account with $1000 at Andrews Federal Credit Union in order to be ready to take advantage of CD offers, if I saw them. Although I never did see an offer better than any of my other banks', I did log in online once in a while to check on the account.
At a certain point, my login details no longer worked. Although I had written down my details, Andrews' site said they were wrong. I clicked the choice for password assistance to emal me a link but no email ever came even though the site indicated it had sent me one. Nothing in spam. I did the same with my username and was met with the same lack of success. I tried this repeatedly on different days and times.
So then I called and was on hold for 20 minutes until I was disconnected. I called back and was on hold for another 25 minutes until I spoke to a lady who said she could not access my account but that she could see it had been locked due to "dormancy." I would need to wait for a call back in order to open it.
Three days later, I received a call from a guy who said I needed to enroll in online access in order to access my account and thus remove its dormant state. I explained that I had already enrolled way back and had had online access until for some reason I did not. However, he insisted this was the way and he guided me to where I could enroll. I enrolled again and then I was able to access my account.
At that point I saw that Andrews had taken $5 from my account on the last day of every month it had been considered by them to be dormant. This added up to $60 and we were nearing the end of another month so I wrote to them asking them not to allow another $5 to be taken.
I received no response. Instead, another $5 was taken. The total was now $65 in fees because apparently, I had not enrolled in online access after having enrolled and having online access.
So I had to call and wait again to speak to someone. This lady offered to refund $20. I explained the situation to her and reminded her that it had been dormant because their site thought I needed to enroll when in fact I had already enrolled. She refused. I asked to speak to a supervisor. She put me on hold for 30 minutes, checking in on occassion. After that, she said no supervisor was available.
I asked her why no email had been sent to me. She said they had sent a letter. I said I had not received a letter. She said that as proof, she could forward me a copy of the letter. I said, that's not prood of having sent a letter; that's proof of having written a letter. What's the number of the registered letter, I asked. We don't do that, she said, because of the cost. I told her that made no sense at all given the fact that email is cheaper than a letter. She then agreed that an email should have been sent.
I asked her to make good on the refund offer but because I was not satisfied yet, I'd like a call back from a supervisor. She agreed.
Days later, I had no refund and no return call. So I wrote a message on the site. The next day there was no response so I wrote again. This went on for 10 days wherein I kept writing messages until I saw, not a response, but merely a $30 refund.
Now there is a new problem: After I log on, within 10 seconds, the page displays a message saying I have been inactive and then it immediately shuttles me out.
I have arranged for an external bank to transfer my entire balance out of Andrews. Once that is done I will send Andrews a message asking that my account and membership be terminated. I am expecting resistance and probably papaerwork and probably their insistence that I fax something. Perhaps there will be no response and months from now, I will receive a phone call from them saying my account is in the negative.