University of Kentucky Federal Credit Union

I am a longtime customer of UKFCU. I first started banking with them in 1998, when I was an undergrad at UK, and I kept my account there after I graduated.
I’ve seen their customer service go on a long, slow, downhill slide over the last decade and a half. The more they have expanded, and the more I’ve grown up, the more I see they aren’t as awesome as I used to think they were.
They are lightning-​quick to freeze accounts at the suspicion of fraud, and not in a good way. By «fraud», that means using your account out of state. My honeymoon was in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Before the ink was dry on our marriage license, my wife and me found our debit cards didn’t work because they had been flagged as «suspicious» by being used in the next state over and we had to spend part of our honeymoon getting that resolved. The next year, we had the same thing happen during a day trip over the Ohio River to Cincinnati.
I got my first credit card through them, many years ago. I was a new college graduate, with no job and no credit history. I got a pre-​approved notice in the mail from them for a Visa card. I filled out the papers and sent it back. I got an irate call from them, wanting to know what my job was, I told them I was unemployed, just as I had written on the application. They were snippy with me about why did I apply for a credit card if I was unemployed and that meant I couldn’t have a card, and I told them it was because I’d received a pre-​approved application in the mail from them. We went around and around about what «pre-​approved» meant, but they eventually gave me a $ 500-​limit card, and acted like I was trying to pull a fast one on them. That card now has a $ 4500 limit and I’ve never been late on it, but I’ll never forget how they treated me when I first applied for it and basically treated me like I was scamming them for responding to a pre-​approved application they sent me. Now paying off that card is the main interaction I have with them.
Their web page for online banking was nice, over a decade ago when it first went up, but its distinct lack of features and very bare-​bones nature makes it stick out compared to the websites of other banks and credit unions.
Generally speaking, they were a great place to start banking when I was in college, but as I’ve moved out into the world the more I’ve seen that despite being a credit union, their customer service and mentality is much more like a regular commercial bank than anything else.

Their call center is staffed with unfriendly, pithy, and unprofessional representatives. Really disappointing. I expect more from an institution representing the University of Kentucky. They need better leadership and higher service standards I think.

I’ve been with UKFCU for almost five years and during that time I received some of the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced — often on par with, or worse than, large corporate banks. I have often times been charged for excessive overdraft fees due to errors made by both UKFCU staff but also problems with trying to transfer funds from external accounts, or — more frustratingly — trying to deposit money into my OWN account using UKFCU services (e.g., nearly ALL of the ATMs either do not accept deposits or seem to never work — I’ve actually never successfully deposited a check at an ATM, including receiving «unable to read check» error messages on payroll checks from University of Kentucky!). One example was a three day deposit timeframe for depositing cash directly using the UKFCU night deposit box (I could have simply went into the account the next day and deposited it in the branch directly if I knew it would take three days for my night deposit to register). The inconvenience of not having non-​local banking services — when outside of Lexington and/​or the state — should be off-​set by good local services and good customer service. Contrary to my experiences with three other university-​affiliated credit unions, UKFCU does not provide even marginal local services, is impossible to use outside of the the state (I had my account frozen on numerous occasion just traveling into Ohio or Tennessee — including trying to get gas while driving on a day trip to Ohio), and — most importantly — UKFCU wields its service fees in with excessive heavy-​handedness that you’d expect from a corporate bank (e.g., Chase or Bank of America), while at the same time providing poor customer service. Other credit unions I’ve used often times reversed fees — even in some cases when I’ve made an error — but certainly when errors were made by other institutions (or a lack of services for off hours deposits). Don’t waste your time — and money — banking with a lousy, limited service credit union. You might as well give your money to Chase — at least you can find a branch outside Lexington or deposit a check at night (using your phone’s camera at home!).

I’ve banked with UKFCU for over 15 years. Throughout that time I have never had a poor experience with them. They’ve held 8 car loans, three signature loans and not once have I ever had to sit and wait on them to get everything done.
My only wish is that one day the north side of Lexington would have an extension branch. I will pay ATM fees at competitors to save time running back and forth.
Keep up the good work!

I have had an account with UKFCU for the last 8 years and haven’t had any problems. I have been coming to this branch only in the last few years since my current job is closer to this location. Staff members are always friendly and helpful with any questions. I’m usually in and out very quickly.

Staff were very nice, but did not honor promises made from a group of federal credit unions working together. I am apart of a different credit union out of state and the promise is that I just present my account information and ID and, I will have access to the money in that account. I went to UKFCU and they would only give me the money in cash. The online promise is that any federal credit union apart of this group will write a check based upon your home credit union’s policy. My home FCU had not problem writing me a check of this amount! I needed over $ 10,000 to pay school tuition and I did not want to carry that amount of cash around! What is worse is that they suggested to me that I hand carry it across the street to my local bank so that they could write me the check. Being a single gal, I was upset that they did not take my safety into account and extremely uncomfortable that something like that would even be suggested. Had I done this and gotten mugged they would have been extremely liable. I went to another federal credit union under the same online promise and they were more than happy to write me a check! They should be kicked out of this joint federal credit union service because they are not following the promises this organization has set for all its members. It even states on the joint credit union website that they could charge me a $ 5.00 fee for them writing me a check. I would have been more than happy to pay because there was plenty of money in that account at the time and tuition was due! Because of this, I will never recommend them to my friends and always reference this experience that I have had with UKFCU.