Larry and Joyce Goudy were Wachovia customers for over 20 years. When they turned to their bank to save money by refinancing a 16.9% auto loan – they received broken promises and unreturned phone calls.
“We went to Wachovia about trying to get a better rate,” recalled Larry. “They never would get back to us.”
As fate would have it, Larry & Joyce live in the same neighborhood as Barbara Scullion who is also a Loan Officer at Members Credit Union. During a trip to the post office the Goudys crossed paths with Barbara and a conversation about their auto loan situation ensued.
“When I told Barbara that we paid 16.9% on our current loan I thought she was going to fall out,” said Joyce recalling Barbara’s reaction. “Barbara said, ‘Do you know how much money you could save if you refinanced at Members Credit Union?’”
In fact Barbara was able to save them a significant amount of money and refinanced their 2008 Ford Focus for seven years with a rate of 6.75%.
“We saved $10,000 in interest payments,” Joyce exclaimed. “Then we wanted to know what else can Members Credit Union do for us?”
They found out that Members Credit Union could also save them money on their 2007 Palmetto Travel Trailer by lowering their rate from 11.99% to 7.5%.
“What was so great was just how easy Barbara made the process,” remarked Larry. “She took our information and within one day she had all the paperwork ready for us. All of her ducks were in a row.”
Larry and Joyce continued to take full advantage of being a member owner at Members Credit Union. They opened a Checking Account, a Savings account, a Round-Up Savings, an IRA and signed up for MCU@Home and eBill. As they compared Members Credit Union’s service to that of Wachovia’s it just made sense to close their accounts at Wachovia and make MCU their primary financial institution.
“When we started comparing apples to apples-there was a lot more apples over here [at Members Credit Union] than at Wachovia,” said Larry. “Big banks would lose customers if their customers would just take the time to compare,” added Joyce.
Larry and Joyce went to their old bank to close the old accounts. To add insult to injury they were charged a fee to close one of the accounts.
“The Wachovia Branch Manager told us we would be charged $25 because we were closing our Way to Save Account, “ said Joyce.
To Larry and Joyce Goudy taking the time to make the switch to MCU and even paying the $25 fee for Wachovia to close an account was worth it.
“When you can save the kind of money that Members was able to save us you’d be crazy not to do it,” remarked Joyce. And according to Larry, “It’s a no brainer.”
