Granite State Credit Union

Why as Americans do we have to prompt 1 for english, disgraceful. This is a great CU if you have no life and like to sit on hold for 15 minutes every time you call

This review pertains to their branch in Tilton, NH. We wanted to open accounts here for convenience. We’re new to this area, and live just 4 miles away. Despite being the only customers in the place, and at least 3 employees working, the one guy who ponderously dealt with us from behind his desk took 57 minutes from the time we entered to the time we left. An hour of our lives, gone, to open up a savings (HA! 0.05% interest) and checking account for me, my wife, and a joint account for us. An hour, for what should have taken 15 – 20 minutes at most. Unless you don’t put any value on your time and just want to enjoy their air conditioning, I would discourage anybody from doing business with this outfit. We intend to close our accounts immediately, and who knows how long that might take. But shame on us if we continue to do business with them. They should have deposited $ 100 in each of our «savings» accounts for wasting our time to such a degree. Terrible service. Banking these days has to be fast. No excuse for anything else. Blame it on apathy and incompetence.

I’ve been a GSCU customer for years because of their customer service, but I’ve been considering switching lately.
GSCU has amazing service, tellers are always friendly, and unlike some banks I’ve dealt with in the past, I’ve never felt a sense of hostility.
With that said, GSCU’s online services leave a lot to be desired. It’s the tail end of 2014, and they’re still lacking some pretty simple features I expect to be standard for online banking.
For one, transfering funds between accounts can’t happen online. Sure, you can transfer from your personal checking to your personal savings, but you can’t do the same kind of transfer from a business checking to personal or vice versa.
[Edit: Apparently, this can be done if you go into the office and link the accounts, which requires paperwork. However, this still creates a huge security risk, as my business checking is managed by multiple people (non-​GSCU account holders, but authorized account users) and linking the business accounts with my personal accounts would allow non-​GSCU members to transfer funds out of my personal account.]
Similarly, the ability to make a deposit to another GSCU account can’t be done online.
[Edit: A friend and another GSCU customer informed me of PopMoney integration, which I suppose mitigates one of these complaints. Unfortunately, it’s still a third-​party service and fees apply, giving it no major advantage over other third parties like PayPal.]
I could see the security implication of allowing transfers into someone else’s account being a reason to not allow it at all, but GSCU will do the same service in-​person, so I don’t think there’s a valid reason for not offering the service on the website.
The online bill pay is good, including the ability to send teller checks to individual using it, but it’s lacking the ability to set trigger-​based events. For instance «pay this amount to this bill every day on the 3^rd and 18^th» or «Send these payments when a direct deposit comes in». Automating personal finance is one really effective tool for budgeting, and I feel that I need to wrestle with GSCU to get things even minimally automated.
Their website is not even a single clearinghouse for all of the services they offer. Their credit cards, for instance, require an entirely different site to manage as does the rewards program (this one doesn’t bother me as much, but still…)
GSCU really needs to update their PIN policy as well. 4 digit PINs are so 2000. I’d be very happy to see the ability to use much longer pins, or even better something along the lines of the system used in Brazil to generate one-​time pins.
GSCU ATM and Debit cards also do not have smartchips, despite a recent change to how they issue the cards. This is extremely annoying for anybody who uses their debit card while in Europe, as nearly every European vendor requires them, and *all* automated systems like subway ticket terminals and vending machines.
Other US banks are rolling them out in time for the 2015 mandate, and I was disappointed to see that GSCU’s new debit cards didn’t have that additional security.
All in all, I am still a customer of GSCU because of their exceptional service, but it could be better. I’m hoping GSCU manages to make some of these changes and improvements before I need to open accounts elsewhere that allow me to do fairly simple things.

You know what I love? I love that I got a car loan through GSCU and it was cut and dry. Not only was it super easy, but they helped me with the car buying process. Sure, I had to find the cars but they gave me the retail value. It was easy to haggle with a bottom line number in my head.
I found about 5 different cars before I found the one for me. With each one, I called the bank and gave them the VIN, mileage and description and they gave me the retail value. This information was invaluable to me.
Love this bank — use them for your loan.

I love our credit union, especially after horrible experiences when Bay Bank merged several times and we ended up with Bank of America .
Nice people and the same staff year after year at all the branches. Have had several car loans with them, easy as pie. Also they work with you to get most affordable option. The only thing they don’t have is foreign currency b/​c they are not a bank.
A few times my business account with them (I don’t use it much so it was easy prey) got hacked and they deleted the charges instantly– since then they have gotten some type of watchdog service over the accounts and no more trouble.
It is such a relief to be able to deal with real people at a tangible location instead of someone in India on an 800 number — there is no comparison. I can’t wait to switch my mortgage to them.