People's Choice Credit Union

People’s Choice won’t show you the home loan application it prepared for you or the figures it used to gauge whether you could afford the loan or not, even if you suspect it used false information

''I confirm that a written Loan/Overdraft application forms is not required by law, that it is an internal document, that the figures are updated as the application progresses and we do not have to provide to the borrower.''
Direct quote from email written 5 June 2019 by the Manager, Internal Communications & Member Response, Public Affairs, Communication and Planning, PCCU

I have been with People's Choice two times, both for Vehicle Loans. One loan was honorably settled after continuous and timely repayments. The other loan now 2 years is currently being paid right on time every fortnight. I wanted to change the current vehicle to a newer version by borrowing $10k, repaying the outstanding $7k to PCCU on existing loan, and settling the balance $3k as part of purchase of new vehicle.

Having a good credit repayment history on two loans I was declined the credit for $10k loan. They claimed I did not meet their credit guidelines. Probably some guidelines peculiar to PCCU. When assessing the loan they did not understand the logic that when two family members earn, they share the household expenses. What they did was they considered my part of the income (after salary sacrifice to super) against the total household expenses with out removing a portion for the partner. The partner herself earns 4 times myself. I would think their assessing logic itself is flawed.

I would not advise anybody to even consider PCCU if you have any finance requirements. Poor quality organization, poor quality people.

I’ve been with Savings & Loans since the mid 90’s when I was a teen. Now have two properties and business banking with Peoples Choice. I visit the Salisbury Downs branch at least twice weekly. Each time the same staff approach me to encourage me to use the ATM. EVERY time I have to explain why the ATM is not appropriate for my business’ specific needs. Today I actually lost it at the lady, she tells me they have to ask. So when did it become more about pushing people out of branches and into self serve? That does not sound ‘People’ orientated to me. Nor does it demonstrate good customer service when one person is serving and there are a significant amount of people lining up. The demographic that visit the branch are largely the older generation. They do not feel supported. A better option would be to offer concierge during off peak periods and actually have that second person serve at the counter during peak periods. Please DO NOT ask me why I’m lined up. Recognize my face for once as I am there a lot and recognize that your interrogation is neither helpful nor appreciated. And also recognize that your strike rate of take up of the ATM ‘assistance’ offer is so very low that the members money to pay their wages is a complete insult to your chartered values.

2 buses with a walker is too hard for me. Then was told "Take a seat, you will be seen shortly" 1 hr 10 mins later I was still sitting & waiting. Queues were to the door, 1 teller working, many people walked out. Others were told, come back in 1/2 hour, the line shrank to aroynd 10 people lined up. Lunchtime ystrdy. Been with Savings & Loans since 70s.

Have been with them since early 1990's, customer service is the worst with a line of 20 people standing there frustrated (west lakes) , considering closing all accounts and changing to someone else, even home loan and my sons account.
I don't know why the branch has to look like a cafe with a coffee machine (maybe for the precious staff) with no privacy and all customers to hear your private details, maybe the cafe's in west lakes will start doing your banking , might get better customer service.
Should sack the trendy idiots who thought of this concept.
If you only want young people there using atm's we will gladly leave, seems like only certain peoples choice credit union.

Absolutely the worst I can not stress this enough stay clear..they draw you in with low rates but never deliver even though we own several properties and have a credit score of 900 !! And serviceability is overwhelmingly 100% even stated by them.. she wanted a loan for a vehicle but she made the mistake of saying she had a partner and they insisted that both her and I sign omg the vehicle is hers its registered in her name..they just wanted to force another person to be liable and open another account.. and if you do the online application you will have a credit check done and since you will probably refuse their offer like us you will have put an extra mark on your credit file affecting your score all for nothing..

Tried to apply for a personnel loan online to consolidate a two credit cards, rep called within an hour and wanted to know everything about my finances which even my home loan provider did not ask, which I duly provided in the interim rep was trying hard to sell income protection insurance, car insurance and home and content insurance, spent more than 1 hour on this call and she advised will call back if loan is approved or not, few days of chasing up and then they advised they cannot provide the loan without security.
I went to my bank and got the loan done within a 24 hours and all I needed was my payslip.
Even though they have great products, would not bother going back again, staff are trained to push add-ons rather than sell the essentials and never bother to follow up if it is not in their best interest.

The staff were very rude to me and to their customers at the branch also they keep you waiting while you are talking to them on the phone as well.

If you want poor service and to be shouted at by an employee across a busy branch you have come to the right place. Customer service only extends to them trying to sell you products , if you want something from them you had better bring a packed lunch and a chair because the queues can be long and the apologies lacking , your time does not matter. And if you have to deposit cash expect to be treated as an inconvenience/ criminal depending on the staff member. I thought the banks were bad but People's choice takes it to a whole new level. Banking For Peasants . They hope you do not notice.

I went into the Elizabeth branch of People's Choice Credit Union recently and after being scowled at by the woman at the counter (I interrupted her conversation with her co-worker by wanting to be served), I was assisted by a woman who was more interested in planning her own wedding than actually doing a good job. I wanted to change my surname and showed her my marriage certificate, and yet she didn't even change my title from Miss to Mrs. I wanted a new cheque book which was agonising to arrange because she kept on asking me why I wanted a cheque book, do I write cheques often etc, and when I got my new cheque book it said MISS all over it with my new surname. I also asked for my insurance policies to be updated but they weren't. I had to waste time during my lunch break twice to fix up her stupid errors. This isn't the first time they have made mistakes either, and they don't even care when mistakes are made. The only good thing about this credit union are their coin counting machines.

I was directed to Peoples choice for a small balance transfer. I request contact via email, yet they called daily instead. After calling back and spending 35 minutes on the phone providing detail after detail, I was put on hold to be advised that to proceed I’d need more details. At this point I requested they withdraw my application. I requested a formal email noting my request to withdraw. What I got was an email stating I fell outside lending guidelines. Inaccurate, disrespectful and disappointing. Steer clear if you want an honest and transparent encounter.

We were looking to get a construction loan and had a specific broker assigned to help us. He never returned emails, took weeks to get back to us after being chased multiple times. A complaint was sent to credit union, had no response!!!! This went on for around 6 weeks before he even looked at our paperwork and gave us figures and the ok to do it, with no issues with getting a loan. We then received an email from another broker from People's Choice saying he was taking over because the other guy had "moved to a different area". He told us we couldn't get a loan without selling our house first. Have since gone elsewhere and have had no issues????

I was a customer for over a decade and was treated like a criminal and made to jump through hoops that even the staff couldn't understand why i had to when applying for a $2000 credit card. This is after a $12000 loan and a credit card i had already paid!

I borrowed money from these guys. It was a personal loan and car loan. They have breached the contract that I had with them! I'm talking to my lawyer and we are talking them to court.
I have borrowed money from other banks and never had problems. I wish I did my research on these guys before I borrow money from them !
Beware of these guys ! Go elsewhere for a loan ! These guys are very disorganized next time I will go to another bank !!!

I work weird shifts. Rarely do I get to an atm to deposit funds prior to midnight.
If I do deposit funds after midnight using an atm, and then try to pay a bill it declines due to insufficient funds.
Once deposited, I then tried to withdraw the money and deposit into another bank I have so I could still pay the bill I needed to.
Nope, insufficient funds. My mobile banking app states the funds are in there and ‘available’ but impossible to get it out.

Am now in the process of transferring all my debits to a new financial institute and will be closing my people’s choice account as the service is bad!

On a more positive note. [name removed] from BERRI branch in regional SA is the friendliest and most helpful staff member I’ve ever come across!

I have been a member of Peoples Choice Credit Union for some time now, and have had 2 or 3 loans through them over the past 6 or so years. I have paid off all my loans in less than half of the term period, and never had a late payment etc.

I kept my membership active knowing how easy and friendly the staff were in helping me. However, something must have changed. They must have had a merger with another company or a new set of lending policies put into place. I submitted an online car loan application with a pretty conservative amount ($30,000) and had the other half saved in cash. My Credit Ratings were fine, and they can see I paid off all my previous debt quite quickly.

The lady I was dealing with over the phone was friendly, however came across some what incompetent. I had 2 different jobs over the last 12 months and she had a very difficult time in distinguishing the amount I have made with my new company (From early January 2018), and how much I made last Financial year (JUN17-JUN18). I let it slide and politely corrected her multiple times.

Then she entered my salary and financial details into the servicing calculator and she said she can only offer me $4,000, even with my shift loading included which is 15% Per Annum! I was absolutely gobsmacked, and even a little insulted at how little they would lend me. I earn good money for what I do in the ICT industry, and have a small mortgage (compared to the average) so I could not figure out how a sum of $4,000 could be lent to me over 5 years!

I then told her I wanted to close my membership and was told to go online and search for the documents myself, which was fine. However once completed there was no information on the website to direct me where to send the document to. A work colleague of mine said they visited their local branch and was told a similar story to me, that they were not able to borrow anywhere near as much as they would have in the past.

I have taken my business elsewhere, and what a surprise that I had pre-approval for the amount I wanted to borrow within minutes. I am going to assume the lady I spoke with over the phone has in correctly entered details somewhere, but she was adamant she made none. If she had called me back to let me know she had accidentally put in a typo I would have been okay with it and continued with Peoples Choice.

Very disappointing way to go out, I would seek alternative institutes if you are interested in a personal loan.

Every time I have had to deal with this bank all the people are lovely!!!! Even when I’ve had issues with some things, the customer service is so helpful and has always tried its best to please me or to get the best outcome. Thank you for doing this and keep up the great customer service. :)

I want to do a loan repayment calculation, but you have to start an application do just do a calculation, next minute i think Im just calculating and i click next and it pops up with 'sorry, we can't further your application online' meaning i was about to submit an actual application for credit!!!! I have a b.comm (corporate finance). This is not ok PCCU!!! I nearly made an enquiry by just trying to see how much repayments would be. This is literally the only thing i dislike about you....everything else is fab.

I have been a Credit Union member for over 40 years and went to the Financial Services staff for assistance and a Financial Plan when recently retiring. I was charged $5,500 for a very poor service - lots of promises and when it came down to it I knew most of the stuff they told me.

This is an extremely poor service and they ask for an annual fee of 0.88 on-going to provide you with "expert advice" on your total assets/funds.

I have found out since that I could have got a far better plan for $2,000 and they do all of the Centrelink paperwork for you as well. There is a yearly review done for $300 which is a fixed fee from the cheaper provider and this person has worked previously for ASIC and holds 3 financial degree qualifications.

Be very aware !!! I would NOT recommend this provider to anyone !!!!

We have been with Peoples Choice now for quite some time. There Staff are absolutly fantastic.
I had previous dealings with another bank, whichbank, and went through hell after my Fathers passing. Peoples Choice have now taken on all our accounts and i am more than happy.