Silvic
Gold Member
It must be a Washington State thing. I had it out with Boeing Employee's Credit Union a couple of years ago when they demanded that I bring in my social security card.
Long story short. I was born John Robert Smith (not my real name) I was always called Robert and did not ever use John. (Did not even know my first name was John until I was 8 years old) When I was in the military for 25 years I never had a problem with the fact that I was Robert not John Smith but paperwork always had first name, middle name so I filled out paper work as John Robert Smith. Fast forward many years post 9/11 and I was now a civilian and there were so many issues with my name I got a court order and dropped the first name John and became just Robert Smith.
Had no problem with the regular bank (BOA), VA, Military retirement, Insurance, Investment accounts, etc but not the Boeing Credit Union in Washington. They jerked me around "three ways to Sunday". I brought in the court order, passport, drivers license, etc all saying my name was Robert Smith not John Robert Smith and they said they could not change my name with the Credit Union without seeing my new social security card. Told them I was not going to make another trip just to get the card after I brought in all the documents they had told me over the phone that I needed. They could not verify my corrected name without the SS card they stated. I asked them if that was the case if I could make a complete withdrawal of all the funds in the account with the ID that I had and they said yes. I emptied the account of all the money in it and walked out the door never to look back.
It was not until the early 2000's that they converted the savings and checking account numbers from your SS number plus a digit to a random number.. I really hated having everyone that got a check from you knowing your SS number just by looking at the account number on the bottom of the check. When asked about the security issues that brought up they denied it was a problem. They did eventually change their policy but it took a long while. Not exactly customer oriented service.
It is the only credit union that I have ever dealt with but it soured me on them forever.
Your experience Travelover confirms the opinion that I have.
Between your anecdote and mine with Washington credit unions it certainly makes it look like they march to a different drummer.
