ROANOKE, Va. – On April 20, MemberOne Credit Union and Virginia One Credit Union merged. Since then, dozens of people have had issues with their bank accounts.
One man, Chad Baldwin, says he went to MemberOne for a home equity line of credit at the beginning of the year.
Because of the merger, he was moved to Virginia Credit Union. While the equity line
“The merger wasn’t completed until April the 20th and then when I had to make those payments, I had to transfer wire money from member one to Virginia Credit Union,” Baldwin said. “I had set up another checking account with Virginia Credit Union and it was just a complete disaster.”
Others, like Amanda Haley, almost lost money.
She told 10 News her husband had to threaten a complaint to get the profits - around $40,000 - from a house sale due to the bank losing a wire from their closing company.
“Wednesday morning call back again and basically tell them that we’re going to report them and put an official complaint in because it’s ridiculous that in 48 hours, our money has not appeared after we have confirmation that’s been sent,” Haley said. “Basically, they said, okay, well, we’ll find it within the hour you should have it. We get off the phone and then miraculously in about 30 minutes, it appeared in our checking account.”
MemberOne customers say that got a letter in the mail a few months ago telling them a merger was happening.
For some, this was enough to get their affairs in order ahead of time.
“I’ll just follow all the instructions they sent out, you know notices in the mail,” Deena Hodges said. “I said I’ll follow all of the instructions as they wrote them and everything went off without a hitch for me.”
10 News reached out to Virginia Credit Union for comment, and they provided the following statement:
With the transition of Member One members to Virginia Credit Union now complete, we remain fully committed to ensuring our members are set up for success with our products, services, and resources. Direct deposits and payments are processing as expected, and our contact center and branches are available to assist members with questions or concerns. Some members have reported issues that are primarily related to online banking enrollment and debit and credit card activation — both of which are easily resolved by contacting or visiting the credit union.
Today, 98% of members attempting to enroll in online banking have been successful. More than 35,000 members have successfully enrolled in online banking this week as part of the transition. Members enrolled in our online banking platform can view and access every account in which they are a verified owner or co-owner. The most common reasons for unsuccessful online banking enrollments are name or address discrepancies — following a marriage or move, for example — both of which are easily corrected by contacting us directly.As part of this transition, we mailed 55,300 debit cards and 14,000 credit cards to members. As of April 24, 69% of new credit cards and 58% of new debit cards have been activated, and members have already completed more than 50,000 transactions using their new Virginia Credit Union debit cards.
We are aware that approximately 1,200 members did not receive their new debit card due to mailing address discrepancies. This can be resolved by calling our contact center or visiting any branch location, where we can issue a replacement debit card instantly. As a reminder, Member One-issued cards are no longer active. Members who have not yet activated their new Virginia Credit Union debit or credit card are encouraged to do so as soon as possible.
We acknowledge that members experienced longer-than-normal wait times for our contact center and at our branch locations on Monday and Tuesday, despite our deployment of additional staff across our Roanoke Valley, New River Valley, and Lynchburg locations and more than 190 representatives dedicated to contact center phone lines. The average contact center wait time was 5 minutes for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Branch wait times averaged 23 minutes on Wednesday, 19 minutes on Thursday, and 18 minutes on Friday. For assistance, members can reach us through any of the following:
• Phone: 800.666.8811 (7 days a week | 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.)
• Branch locations: vacu.org/locations (Monday-Friday | 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Saturday | 9 a.m. - noon)
• Merger resources: vacu.org/merger
Virginia Credit Union also provided 10 News with the following information via email:
What Members Should Know:
- Issues accessing online banking or an account? Contact us to ensure your personal and account information is up to date.
- To ensure timely processing of direct deposits and ACH payments, use your Virginia Credit Union-issued account number.
- Missing a payment or deposit? Contact us. Most issues are linked to outdated account information.
- Be sure to activate your new Virginia Credit Union debit and credit cards. Member One cards no longer work.
- Didn’t receive your debit or credit card? Call us or visit a branch location for instant-issue debit cards. We can expedite mailing for cards.
Service Area Results Since April 20
- Branch Traffic – 6,370 members served; average wait time 27 minutes; average assist time 12 minutes
- Contact Center Volume – 28,299 calls taken
- Online & Mobile Banking Enrollments – 37,645 (98% of members successful)
- Debit & Credit Card Enrollments – Credit: 70% activated; Debit: 64% activated
- Debit & Credit Card Transactions – Credit: 27,000 transactions; Debit: 83,000 transactions