Ball State Financial - Muncie, Indiana

Fluminense E. E.

As an international student, I recently graduated from BSU and I am extremely disappointed with the unprofessional treatment I received from Laura, an employee at Ball State Financial. She flat out denied helping me with notarizing a legal immigration document, despite being a Ball State Financial client for almost three years. However, just 10 minutes later, when I went to the Old Nations Bank located next to Walmart, I was promptly and kindly assisted by a Bank Manager who notarized my documents without any hesitation, even though I didn't have an account and they didn't charge me anything. This experience at BSF was truly disappointing.

John M.

After the credit union merged, we've had nothing but issues. The bank is fine if I have to do anything at a branch; simple account to account transfers, deposits, etc. Any service that requires you to contact their "main" branch (call center), is absolutely abhorrent. Currently going on a 30 minute hold trying to figure out a wire transfer to my mortgage company.

We're about to pay it off, which should be an easy, happy moment. However, everything to do with this process has been a nightmare. We filled out the form correctly. Gave the exact information stated on the payoff form. We were told we would get a callback in the morning.

We never received one. We reached out through their chatbot, since we can't get ahold of a real person (still waiting after 30 minutes to talk to someone.) The chatbot stated it needed more information. Wonderful.

With the advent of AI, expect more businesses to look like this. Little to no help when it comes to complex issues. I have no ill will towards folks who work in call centers; they're just doing their jobs. However, the people at the top are conveniently shielded from all the fallback from their horrible decisions. But hey, as long as it saves them $$$$$, right?

After this, this is the final straw. We will be finding a new credit union in town. We actually have a credit union in my hometown that just said they can help us wire transfer online. Wish I would have called them first! Goes to show how horribly unhelpful Ball State Financial has become.

Andrew H.

Great local credit union with great products and service! Don't pay attention to older negative reviews, they are just a result of all the growing pains that they have since ironed out!

trejea

I want my old Ball State Federal Credit Union back! Online banking is less convenient than it used to be & I can't get anything done by phone after the long waits on hold. The changes due to the merger which I did not vote for do not benefit me at all. For now, I'll stay around, but I may be shopping for a new bank soon.

Marty K.

I've been a Ball State Credit Union client for almost 40 years. Since they merged with a new "credit union" the service has been terrible. Whenever I try to call the phone goes to an "center" somewhere. They did not know who Ball State was. When I finally became angry they finally gave me the direct number to Ball State. The online banking is confusing. I still cannot pay my Ball State Credit card from the account. I put most of my money in another bank, but due to the loyalty I had for Ball State University I have not totally withdrawn everything. I was one of so many who did not vote to merge. This is the main reason. Impersonal business.

krystn C.

They did a hard credit check knocking my really good credit down 15 points JUST for opening a checking/savings account, which I did not agree to. I've called 3 different times this week and been told conflicting stories. They don't call back when they say they will, no one can give me a straight answer. I'll definitely be reporting it as fraud to the credit bureau, but I think they should at very least take some accountability.
Update: I was forwarded to the Oakwood Muncie branch where the branch manager Cindy rudely told me this is just what they do, and that the hard credit check and points should bounce back/return within a month or two. This was a year ago. Thankfully I don't actually bank here and would not trust them with my money after the treatment and not having any sense.

Carl J.

I've been a member for 20+ years. They have started stealing from me. They changed my checking to a charged account. They also charged me 5$ a month for not having a current address, even though I get junk mail from them bi-weekly.
Finally, they signed me up for their scam insurance (Trustage) and have been deducting 30$ a month from my account without ever notifying me or sending me a bill.
They stole hundreds from me. And their customer service and web interface is sub par.
Follow up - Customer service did not help. I filed a fraud claim and they still let that same company take money out of my account without permission. They still charge me for monthly checking when they said that they were going to change my account to free checking.

Charles T.

I'm sad to have to give this review, because my wife and I have banked here since the early 90's. However, the level of customer service has hit an all time low. The merger that is happening is being done on the first of November, which coincides with our mortgage payment. I called to ask about the chances of issues with that, I was forwarded around until I hit the voice-mail queue of the president. I left a very clear and easy question, and received no call back at all. I tried again and that time got the answer that there would be no problems with existing transfers.

Then through the conversion evening we received messages about issues with automated transfers, of which we have exactly one on the first of each month. Yep, the mortgage. The message said to sign up online to review, as did the other messages sent to us in the regular stream. Online sign-up is however not working, it keeps throwing an error, and Financial Center First apparently didn't value their incoming customers enough to schedule any customer support to be working during the time they told the BSFCU customers to try to set up their new information.

So here I sit trying to figure out how to make sure that THEIR lack of ability to carry out a merger AND inability to return a phone call to decades-long customers with a legitimate concern doesn't impact our mortgage. The ONLY reason this isn't a zero star review is that I have a shred of misplaced loyalty for the institution - Financial Center First in my opinion has thoroughly botched a conversion and abused us as customers even before there's even been a chance to establish a relationship. Basically, one reason credit unions were formed was because banks are impersonal, and don't tend to care much about the individuals. I'm trying to figure out the difference between that generalization of banks and the actual behavior of the credit union. We plan on closing things out ASAP. Their service fees are higher than Chase's anyway. Thoroughly disappointed. You guys NEVER fail to withdraw your fees, but you can't return a phone call, and now you're potentially interfering with our mortgage. Duly noted.