Patelco Credit Union

I have been with Patelco for 15 years now and will not leave. The Concord Branch rocks!!! Mgmt there is the best (Tammy, Erin, Erika, Jen etc). They are a hardworking crew. Never had any problems. Its the kinda place that you go to and they know your name and treat you with dignity, respect, humor and professionalism. BTW in the 15 years I have been with them they never screwed up on my account. Hats off to them. Also Credit Unions are for us working folks. You get decent deals on mortgages, car loans etc and they don’t eat you alive with service charges like commercial banks.

I have always been hesitant to try to re-​finance my auto loan with Patelco due to a previous experience. Thank the good Lord, I listened to «the feeling» to try again. I got an AWESOME INTEREST RATE (half of what I was paying with the dealer’s finance company)!
KUDOS to Erica (asst. branch manager in SF 2^nd Street office) for taking the time to mention to re-​finance and KUDOS to Lauren in Concord branch who assisted me with making the magic happen!

The employees at this branch are not very educated in finance and/​or consumer banking. I had only been with them for two weeks and they wanted to keep my payroll checks on hold for 5 days! They are payroll checks, even BofA will process those immediately. I sat down with a banker and she told me to drive all the way to citibank and have them cash it and then bring the money back. Why on earth would you tell a customer to do that? I took my money to another credit union and they made my money available immediately by verifying that this was indeed a payroll check.
A week later I get a call from a banker at this branch saying that the new bank I took my money to, had also placed me in chex systems. Chex systems is a place for people who have committed check fraud and such. I was furious and wanted to find out what had happened. I went into the new bank and they said there was no record in chex systems and that Patelco has no idea what they are talking about. I called loss prevention at BofA and they also checked Chex systems and there was no record at all. The manager of this Patelco branch called me and told me there was indeed a record and that I should be concerned about this. Even though my new bank already told me there was no record, the manager should have taken this as a hint, chex systems is a universal framework that 80% of banks in America use. The manager at Patelco said she would call me first thing the next day to follow up. She never followed up, I had to call 6 times and leave two messages and she never returned my call. I finally kept calling and got her on the line, she told me it was an error on their end and that she was sorry. Their loss prevention department made an error of this magnitude? Chex systems is a big deal, that is almost lawsuit worthy. I closed my accounts and the manager did nothing to try and keep me, and I have a large amount of money in another bank that I wanted to bring over. Please stay away from this credit union. If you know more about finance and consumer banking than the bank you are using, that is a definite sign to stay away, far away. The service is horrible too. The error that was made is unacceptable, and unfortunately there will be no consequences placed on the employees who made this significant error. At first they were even trying to blame it on another bank and told me I was in good hands. That is laughable because it was actually their error, and I was in «bad» hands.

I absolutely cannot believe Patelco Credit Union. There has been suspected fraudulent activity on my account which I called customer service about. They cancelled my debit card and told me I could go to my branch and get a new one or have it mailed within 10 business days. I chose mail because I did not think I would have time to go into the branch and wait the usual 1 hour. Today I decided since I have a deposit I will go ahead and inquire about the card. The teller said «no problem, we get that done for you here». After 15 minutes at her window she informs me the «card» machine is empty and I have to wait for someone to fill it. She cancelled my mailed one, now I’m held hostage because one way or another I NEED my debit card! Really???
Of it weren’t such a hassle to change financial institutions I would have left Patelco a loooong time ago! The branch manager here is very nice but that doesn’t make up for the wait!

I love the service I received at Patelco. They are always fast. Don’t have to stand in line for too long.

As far as the others writing reviews go, there concern seems to be with mostly bank itself and other issues such a parking. I am here to give a strict review of what I thought about their customer service because that is my only concern. As you can see I gave them a great rating, I have received two different car loans from Patelco and both times all the associates in the branch were extremely helpful. I came in on a Saturday morning and told them I have little time for work and they had gotten me the the information I needed for my car loan quickly and to my own advantage in front of everyone else. It only took them 5 min and they were able to recognized that so that did what they could. The branch manager (or assistant manager i think?) Erin has been exceptional in helping me with my loans

there is never any parking and they don’t seem to care after I let them know

I needed to close my account with Patelco. There was less than $ 20 left in it so I went online to close it. As I had forgotten my user id, I quickly found out you can’t retrieve it without knowing a password, which I had forgotten as well. Insert infinite loop here! I finally called, waited for the automated call back (a good feature) to be told I can’t close my account online, nor can I say «close the account keep my $ 20.» I have to print a form, fill it out and mail it. I asked about creating a PDF and emailing it (welcome to high tech), and was told «sure, use the following email» … BOUNCE. No such email exists. I’m tempted to let them extract the $ 2 fees each month until it goes to collections when they call me wanting more money. I think «MeThinks Not» describes the appropriate lack of business credibility these guys exhibit.

Patelco, my bank, my credit union. After dealing with the hassle of the big banks, I decided to scale down and take my dough where I felt it wasn’t going to get surcharged out the tookis with hidden fees and sudden…“Changes” So, I made the smart switch from Chase and went with Patelco after hearing a lot of great things about this credit union. But before my review let’s take a moment of silence for the great and now defunct Washington Mutual… you will be remembered as a great bank. Now here is my review.
Patelco’s are very few and far between, not a lot of them around, a minor downside if you’re not near a branch to pick up cash or make a deposit. But, with Patelco being apart of the «Co-​Op» network, any participating Credit Union apart of that network will let you withdraw money and or make deposits, so at the end of the day, it increases your banking potential. Usually most Walgreens or 7 – 11’s have a co-​op atm in them co-​op allows free withdrawals for credit union members at those atms.
Now on to this location, if you happen to need to go inside… be prepared to wait for awhile, this location seems to be one of the busier breaches, I think due to it being in a hub of sorts for all the going ons in the Concord/​Pleasant Hill area. The tellers here are friendly, but they’re very slow. And it seems to always just only be two. No Bueno! When most people just want to get in, get out and get ahead. And forget if you’re in a rush and need to use the single ATM that most credit unions in general seem to have… why does their always seem to be one person that takes forever at an ATM when I arrive?
But in my closing, I still like my bank of choice, they are few and far between, but I haven’t had any problems with them, friendly staffing and being independent aside from Co-​Op I enjoy Patelco. They hold my dough, and give me something to check in for!

Went in here to open an account. Was told 30 minutes and waited for 45 with no apology before deciding maybe this isn’t the best place to open a bank account. A lady before us got skipped and they told her 10 more minutes max and she waited another 20. The wait wouldn’t have been so bad if they had been honest about it or at least said something after the original wait time was up

My wife and I have been with Patelco for years. Nothing but good experience with them, but this review in particular is for the loan officer on our mortgage, James Marasco. Seriously, the single best part of house hunting was how easy it was to work with James. Wanna make an offer? It’s 9PM? I’d email James expecting a tailored pre-​approval letter the next morning or thereabouts to turn in to my agent. James’d have it turned back around to us at 9:05. Amazing. I actually started holding back on my requests because I do want the man to have a personal life, but I can’t say enough good things about him or the Patelco team. So glad I insisted on using them for my mortgage instead of a mortgage broker. Rates were great, process was straightforward, they couldn’t be nicer or more professional. Highly recommended.

I like this branch, the service personnel are friendly and professional.
I really want to thank them for correctly processing my request to use my ATM while I was overseas. The representative who took my information did whatever was necessary for me to use my card.
Seems like a simple request but my other Credit Union completely messed up this simple task and that ATM was denied, but luckily my Patelco ATM card worked.
Can you imagine being O/​S without access to your money. Thanks Patelco for getting it right.

Local Patelco which seems pretty tidy.

I give them an «As good as it gets» because I don’t expect to have fun or enjoy going to ANY bank. I do think Patelco may be as good as it gets! Ha! Recently I came in to talk to someone about direct deposits. I ran out of time waiting, so I crossed my name off the list and left. WIthin 10 minutes, someone called me and apologized for not being able to get to me in time. She scheduled an appointment for me later that day and then everything went quickly and smoothly from there. I was impressed! She could’ve just let me leave and had less work to do that day.

Today Friday ⁸⁄₂₂ went in to complete my loan papers I sign in at 4:05 to speak with a banker I waited 20 minutes patiently the bank was not busy … But behind the counters bankers were busy closing up bags for the day ! I asked a teller if she can find out how much longer is it going to take I already waited 20 minutes ! I believe she asked the branch manager … Teller comes back with another 5 more minutes … Really? Closing up inventory it’s more important than helping your customers? Bad bad I didn’t wait not worth it

Today is 06/​23/​2014. Around 12:50pm
I came in to this location to pay my monthly payment just as how i normally do. There were 3 tellers in the front, but i went to the middle one (a skinny caucasian woman) and tried to pay. I didnt have my account # or social with me, but she kept asking them from me. I told her, i’ll give you my first and last name just how i’ve been doing in the past, she refused to help me. Why didnt she just freaking verify information if she was that concerned about my identity… Its not like im here to take money from someones account, but to pay. Totally retarded

They have «press buzzer for entry» sign on the door. How annoying for the employees and customers! The person with this idea should sit there do the tellers job and push buzzer button every time a client need to get in! I was there for 15 min and client walked in every 30 – 60 seconds. Wow! Can you imagine that kind of distraction when you need to handle money. People are not made to multi-​task.
The teller Jeanette was fabulous. I would give 5 stars for her service.

Patelco has a great new service, where they will replace your credit/​debit card at the branch. No more waiting two to three weeks for replacement by mail. I worked with Lauren. She was happy, helpful and got me in and out of there quickly. Great service. Great rates. Great people.

A couple of months ago I began searching for a new (to me) car. I knew what I wanted and I knew I wanted to finance it to help build credit. I also knew there was no way I was going to do an auto loan with a big bank, I wanted to deal with a credit union.
I chose Patelco and my loan officer was Noelle Noble. From the very beginning Noelle was patient, helpful and kind. Having brought in all my paper work, tax forms, income statements, etc,… she was very helpful in figuring out my unique situation and took the time to file my information, even calling for advice when needed. Since I am a self employed sub-​contractor at a tattoo studio, my income verification was tricky, she took care of everything and was very thorough.
I had a number of questions, concerns and inquiries about the process of choosing a car that fit my scenario. Noelle went above and beyond to make sure I had all the information I needed for my search. I got pre-​approved and she told me about mileage, year and title requirements. It was a challenge finding the car I wanted and in every case of me looking at various options over the past month or two Noelle has made me feel like a valued customer. I now have a 2007 Toyota Prius that I got for a fantastic price and at a good rate. I am very, very happy with my experience and would recommend anyone looking for a new or Used auto loan to go check out Patelco and if you’re in Concord go see Noelle and tell her Jake sent you.

Three years after I paid off my car and I still do not have a title… This will never happen with a private bank.
A good organization, shows its merit when there is a problem. How it is solved and what they implement to avoid the issue to be a recurring sore point for customers.
It took 7 weeks to get the title from the moment I «reminded» the bank that I never got it. Nobody assumed responsibility and said «we are sorry»… The fault belonge to me or the DMV… or whatever.
Poorly managed, avoid the grief and choose a better bank for a car loan.