Sound Credit Union

I’ve used banking services internationally and credit unions in 4 US states. I’ve helped clients use services at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Despite my more humble accounts, the services I have received at several Sound branches –and especially Shoreline — are as good as it gets.
People writing reviews complaining about waiting should use common sense. If they are in a hurry just don’t come when everyone is getting out of work.
Most importantly, the staff are fabulous. If I were opening another business, I’d be wishing to hire them away.

Owning a small business, I’m VERY aware about how to treat people; and how not to treat them; as well as who and where I bank with. Living in the Pacific NM for over half my life, I’ve consistently banked with BECU and chosen a few other credit unions over the country to place my money in because of the CREDIT UNION SHARED BRANCHING ability.
Today, I went into the Bothell/​Mill Creek branch to get ones, fives, tens and quarters for my business; with cash in hand (twenties so I wouldn’t be hassled about my bills being real or fake).
I had been in previously and been treated decently, so, as I was walking in, j was thinking, «Perhaps I should look into opening an account here…».
This thought was quickly changed when the girl proceeded to tell me she couldn’t give me change «normally» because I wasn’t the PRIMARY account holder on my BECU account and my change was over $ 200. I couldn’t believe it. I stood in front of her dumb founded. Never in my life have I been told that I wasn’t allowed to swap out cash I already had; not had I ever had ANY credit union ever behave so pretentiously in my life.
I could see if the bank was privately owned, or I was asking for a thousand dollars in tens, but I wanted $ 100 of each ones, fives, tens, and some rolled coin. I’ve walked into Bank of America not holding an account and had no problems getting change!
In conclusion, I obviously will not invest my hard earned money with this bank, I will not be back nor will I encourage people to bank with this credit union: Worst credit union I’ve ever experienced. No wonder there was only two employees working each time I’ve been in. A teller, and a branch manager. No cars parked in the parking lot, no cars in the drive thru, no cars at the ATM, and no other employees around. The emptiness surrounding the place said enough. I will be calling BECU to let them know about my experience as I was a referral from them. I will also seek other credit unions or banks to conduct business with and consider investing my money into.

Staff is good, but never enough people working, Especially on weekends. Only come here if you have half an hour to kill.

I had a terrible time at Sound Credit Union’s Shoreline location, returning some items to my safe deposit box that I had taken out to attend the overseas funeral of my brother and last immediate family member. Sound Credit Union’s teller staff made it terrible for me by being evasive in answering my questions about what was needed for me to access MY goods in a rented safe deposit box, and were defending Sound Credit Union’s decision NOT to inform safe deposit box renters/​account holders of new procedures beforehand.
Me: «I want to return items to my safe deposit box. Has it been fully moved so I can use the handprint sensor?»
SCUM (Sound Credit Union Member): «I just have to let you in with a key.»
Me: «Okay.»
[Waits]
SCUM: «What is your account number?»
I give account number, clearly.
SCUM: «Do you have photo ID on you?»
[Presents Photo ID.]
More wait.
SCUM: «We’re having everybody sign this when they want to access their safe deposit box.» [SCUM Presents paper]
Me: «Do I have to present a BLOOD SAMPLE TOO?»
Several SCUM look offended.
Me: «This is much more folderol than ‘I just have to let you in with a key.’ I don’t remember reading about this in the Sound Credit Union monthly newsletter.’»
SCUM: «That’s the way we’re doing things now. We actually didn’t put this in the newsletter.»
Note that before, all I had to do was walk in, type in my box number on the fingerprint sensor, place my hand palm down flat on the sensor, wait for the vault lock release, and head to the vault with my keys. Nothing *I* did warranted this useless harassment, unless mourning credit union members harried and grieving are amusement for the misdirecting people Sound now populates its Shoreline teller staff with.
The only other time I’m going to put up with this folderol is when I remove ALL my belongings from the deposit box and close my accounts. Sound management have some explaining as to how its similarly obnoxious procedural and policy changes are attracting and retaining customers.

I only know the Sound as a customer (post Watermark) and I can unequivocally say that Sound Credit Union has been top-​notch. The Manger and staff are very professional, prompt and service oriented. My wife and I have never felt so comfortable and supported in a bank. In fact, our experience has been so positive that we are moving our savings to Sound Credit Union.
I have read the bad reviews but folks, I am a very demanding person. Sound Credit Union met and surpassed my expectations and I am now a solid and committed member.

I am looking for a bank, but after reading this poor reviews, eek methinks not!

I would say they are a joke except I’m not laughing.
Ever since Watermark got swallowed up by Sound Credit Union the service has been absolutely the worst.
And now they are connected to an insurance scam to where they offer you some «free» life insurance. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS! They will automatically enroll you into additional coverage without your knowledge or permission.
And the won’t help you fix it either. You have to call Affinion benefits group at 877−607−4376 to get the «additional coverage» canceled. (which by the way, is a total pain in the rear).
More info on the scam here:
I’ve canceled my account with Sound Credit Union because they refused to help me and also would not refund me.
So long, Sound Credit Union. Hope if was worth the $ 16.50 you yanked out of my account, plus the $ 5 «low savings fee»

I just opened a joint account with a family member. Overall, I am very disappointed with Sound Credit Union. The three people I have worked with (mostly at the Madison Branch) and one person at the Shoreline branch have been helpful and had good service, but the services the bank itself offers, are pretty poor.
I gave the customer service rep a check and it was supposed to be deposited today, but it has not shown up on on-​line banking. Also, the entire process of opening an account took nearly two hours, much longer than I had expected.
The CU is so inconvenient and not user friendly. I also have accounts with Harborstone CU, US Bank and Bank of America. This by far is the worst bank I have dealt with.
NOTE: If you open a new account or work with a customer service rep, make sure you get their business card. You can’t leave a general message at the number listed for Shoreline and you need a first and last name in order to reach their mailbox after hours.
Just another frustration with this CU.

Full disclosure: I am a Sound Credit Union member, originally a Watermark member.
I’m writing my review based on customer service experiences and comparisons to BECU, WSECU, Chase and Bank of America.
Facility:
Very clean and tidy. But I don’t know where the ATM went but I remember one being there. The center table that use to house deposit slips etc. should be removed and replaced with a table that does not have slip cubbies to confuse you if you need to fill out a slip and they forgot to restock sort of feel.
Ease of making a deposit:
If three people ahead of you are making a simple checking/​savings deposit with two tellers helping a customer each, the wait time is about ten minutes which is actually significantly faster than compared to their Tukwila Branch which I don’t recommend ever going to if any of your service can be done via shared branch.
Customer service:
I have had a terrible experience that sullied me ever going there. For the most part, it’s relatively business casual. If you’re waiting to get something notarized, put money towards a ROTH IRA certificate, it’s relatively easy. However, the wait can be understandably long if a customer is ahead of you and they’re doing something like loan paperwork. Overall, the experience is okay, non-​insulting.
Products:
Auto loans and ROTH IRA certificates have been very good with either low interest or a competitive rate. For mortgages, I’d get expert opinions and advice before committing to anything.
Overall:
It’s average compared to the other financial institutions with BECU having the best customer service and ease of access to an ATM.

Just like others have reported — sneak attack fees. I was charged a $ 29 overdraft fee even though I had sufficient funds to cover the purchase. This led to a cascading series of insufficient funds fees, none of which would have occurred if the initial one when there were funds had not been made.
Also, they appear to have put a hold on my direct deposit payroll funds? Now the $ 5.00 transfer fees have added up because my paycheck is not available. What is the point of direct deposit if the funds are not available?
I will be taking my money back and putting it somewhere else. Anywhere else would be an improvement. I work to hard to watch my hard earned money to shrink away to nothing.

Yet another Sunday when it’s difficult to impossible to log in to the online banking system. Keep it up, Sound. I’m sure no one really NEEDS to pay bills on a Sunday. :(

Disclaimer, I loved Watermark. Never once had a problem with them. Now that Sound has taken over it has become a disaster. When I run my debit card as a credit card transaction, they hold the amount, then withdraw the amount from my account, but still keep the hold. So until the hold is removed, which they refuse to do, I am charged double. Bring back Watermark’s excellent customer service. As a followup, The hold is supposed to be released after approximately 72 hours or when the transaction clears, whichever comes first. The transaction clears but the hold remains. Watermark never did this.

Over the past 4 months, our alerts have been turned off, which caused us over $ 1000 in NSF fees. When I spoke with the branch manager she said I should check my account daily and thanks for paying her bonus.
This month, we reset the alerts, but now we were seeing that they weren’t clearing a large withdrawl, so our actual amount was not accurate, with us again going into an NSF situation.
We have switched banks. Even BofA wasn’t this bad.
BTW — when we called corp, they didn’t care.

Lynette has followed up, suggesting that Sound’s new hold policies were necessary to mitigate Watermark’s «hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud losses each year.» I asked for documentation, but if fraudulent ATM deposits are indeed that significant, I’m willing to reconsider my position on deposit holds. She has offered to reimburse the NSF fee, and forward my concerns to senior management. I am going to upgrade my rating to three stars for now and give Sound a few more months of probationary membership because they finally seem somewhat responsive. Hopefully member services will improve, but current and potential members should be aware it may take significant effort and the threat of internet shaming to get a real response from Sound member Services.

I want my Watermark Credit Union Back! I have nothing but negative points for these guys. First the roll-​over to the new site was on a holiday weekend. I had no access to my accounts for that weekend, online bills were late. I could not even talk to anyone on the phone, just some stupid recording telling me to use their website, which was completely useless!
Watermark took only a few days to get their checks mailed. What is with Sound, that it takes 10+ days to reach their destination? I also do not like that transactions do not show up on your account in real time. I cannot keep track of my accounts with this delay in recording transactions. It is archaic. I am going to switch to BECU.

I am another unfortunate customer who was absorbed by the takeover of Watermark credit Union. SoundCU is terrible. Absolute opposite of Watermark. Feels like a big corporate bank. CS agents are much less educated, more scripted, and very patronizing, might as well be BofA. Hold times are much longer, IVR makes it much harder to get a person, and the icing on the cake with these fools, online banking has been down for over a week now and as I write this review it is still down.
The Mobile access still works so here is a trick to use it on your PC. Download and install the google chrome web browser if you don’t have it. Then install this UA switcher which will trick sound CU into thinking you are using an iphone or android phone. Here is the link for the UA switcher add-​on for chrome:
…
Now at least I can check my balance from my PC like I could do way back in 1995 at BofA with this work around for these pathetic losers.
Also, transactions now take days to post so your available balance is always out of sync with your transaction balance, simple stuff like debits at Albertsons takes days with these losers… soooo annoying, I am shopping for a new CU, this is just beyond any level of incompetence I have ever seen in a bank. Even the big evil banks that screw you on fees have their s*** together more than this.
I almost forget, this is a big issue, their online billpay — it takes 10 days!!! My rent was actually late after being 3 to 4 days early to my landlord for 14 months straight since I starting the billpay account after renting the house. Now I have to mail a paper check to pay rent, pathetic.

I used to LOVE Watermark credit union, they were very convenient, one in Lynnwood and another close to my house in Shoreline, then they were sold to Sound, and they have gone downhill so fast, I cant believe it. The weekend they changed over, we were unable for 3 days, (memorial day weekend) to find out how much money was in our account, and anything else. Their site is often down, and Watermark never did this crap, we are going to change soon, to BECU because we just can’t take anymore of Sound’s stupidity, seriously, I hate banks, and I used to tell people to go to Watermark, but not anymore, I hate their new website, it very user unfriendly too, God help you if you have to find a transaction back a few months ago, they need to crash and burn. Another problem, is that you put in your user name and password and it act’s like it dosen’t know what you are doing! This has happened all day on 6÷25÷12 You cannot access your account! I
cannot find out how much is in my account, they pulled this shit over Memorial Weekend, but I would figured that they would of fixed it by now, apparently it’s doing it again, what fucking losers! I had nothing but good reports with Watermark, but these idiots with Sound are so fucking stupid, I will not continue using them! I would leave sinking ship as quick as you can

We finally made the switch from a big bank to a credit union. And after checking out our options, we settled on Watermark. The telephone representatives were friendly and so were the employees at the location. Plenty of ample parking and surprisingly decent coffee while you wait. We opted for the linked «First 500» accounts. The first five hundred dollars earns a tiered dividends at a higher rate with no monthly fee and no minimum balance!
You do have to have a recurring direct deposit and opt out of paper statements. This was an easy choice since we already had that at our other bank. I’m quite pleased at the service we’ve received thus far. I highly suggest switching from a big bank to a credit union. If not here, then another one.