City & County Credit Union

I am not a member of this credit union, but I am currently holding an account there as the personal rep of my sister's estate. She was a member there, a recent County retiree. I am writing on her behalf.

The credit union was firm about its rules but also generous when she asked for a home improvement loan. They worked with her and got her the best rate she could get, I believe, given the state of her house, her retirement, and savings history. I have met these employees and I find them to be good people who were extremely helpful to me as I worked with them to set up an estate account and to pay off the house loan. They also helped me to access a safe deposit box under conditions when other institutions might not have been so helpful.

Their phone reps know me and can route me to the right person to answer questions and they can do routine banking tasks for me. Many other staff now recognize me as well.

I was delighted to receive a debit card attached to the estate account. This has given me freedom to make payments out the account for my estate work without hauling around lots of paper material and it has helped me keep track of estate business. Monthly statements are nicely laid out.

I have worked with employees at the downtown office and at the Maplewood office as well as the phone persons. I have not yet encountered anyone who was not very helpful.

The downtown employees worked gently with me to assemble my proper credentials for accessing my sister's assets, which is not an easy process, I learned. The Maplewood auto loan specialist spent some time helping me put a value on estate items. Others there helped me understand the house loan, an IRA asset, and my options for moving living person assets into the estate. They were all patient with me, in my grief, when I had to have repeated explanations to take it all in.

I would give another star if the CD rates were higher--I am keeping to my own CU because the rates are a bit higher. I suspect, though, that this CU serves its target population of city and county employees well and helps them with all sorts of banking issues as well as routine services. I would like to add that there is an interesting mix of ethnicities and backgrounds reflected in the staff. Here's a shout-out to Bibi and her squad in particular.