I began my relationship with this business when it was still a credit union (called MECU). It has recently changed its structure and name, and is now a community-owned bank called BankMECU. I won't go into details about its structure and ethos here; if you want to know more, click on the link above, then select "Why bank with us?", then "Corporate". In this review I'll concentrate on my own experience with them.

I discovered MECU when I was looking for a fee-free credit card. My bank had just written to me saying they were increasing the annual fee on my credit card yet again, and I'd had enough. Time to give that bank the heave-ho.

After a brief appalling experience with the credit card application process at yet another bank, I discovered MECU's website. They were offering a fee-free Visa credit card. And - oh happy day! - unlike that other bank, MECU were thoughtful enough to ask me what credit limit I was looking for, rather than telling me what limit they were going to give me whether I liked it or not. So I submitted the online application, specifying the amount I wanted, and was promptly approved.

I then had to send them the relevant documentation, which potentially could have been a bit of a pain. They wanted me to send it all to Kew; I think that may be their head office. (It wasn't where the loans officer was located, though; she was in Moe.) I did not want to go all the way into Kew, nor did I want to entrust original documents to the mail, nor did I want to go to the hassle of making certified copies to send to Kew. However, MECU have a branch in Kensington, so I called in there. They made copies of everything for me, certified it, verified my ID, and sent it all to Kew.

The overall experience was generally pretty good, although there are aspects that could be improved.

On the plus side:

(1) the approval process was swift. My application was approved within 48 hours.

(2) I dealt with the same loans officer by email and phone throughout the application process, and she always responded promptly to my emails. I had been concerned that because this was an online process, rather than a face-to-face one, I might get shoved around from one staff member to another. Thankfully, this didn't happen. That same loans officer dealt with my application right up to the point where all the documentation was in order and my account was opened. From that point, my queries (in relation to getting my hands on the actual card, and getting internet access activated) were dealt with by a second officer, and then by a third one when the second one went on leave. It does seem that they make an effort to have the same person deal with your query from start to finish whenever possible.

(3) the staff who served me in person at Kensington were friendly and efficient. It's a tiny branch, with no queues. I rarely need to call in these days, but each time I do, I'm the only customer there.

On the minus side:

(1) Switching my periodical payments over was a giant pain. I had hoped that MECU would give me my new credit card - or at least tell me its number - before I closed off the old credit card. That way I could give this new number to the organisations who debit my account every month, and once I was satisfied all payments were now coming out of the new account, I could close the old one. No such luck. MECU wouldn't come to the party; they wanted my old credit card, cut up, with the outstanding balance, so they could do a balance transfer and then issue the new card. This effectively left me in limbo without a card. To make things worse, this transition period took place over Easter, which stretched it out even more. It was seriously inconvenient. It meant I was forced to contact each organisation and make an advance payment to them, to cover the transition period. Fortunately there weren't too many such organisations, and the transition period wasn't excessively long, but it was still very inconvenient. I can fully understand why some people loathe the conditions imposed by their current credit provider - the interest rate, or the annual fee, or the penalty fees - but stay with them regardless. This transition period is a colossal nuisance if you have periodical payments, and I really think not enough attention is given by the banks to making the process easier.

(2) I had a minor disagreement with MECU over the wording of the automatically generated email they sent that contained instructions on how to get my internet access activated. I have a pretty good grasp of my native tongue, yet I had to read the email several times before I was certain of the order of operations, which I finally deduced were: FIRST sign and return the form, THEN wait two working days, THEN try to log in and change the access code. A person who doesn't speak English fluently might well struggle to understand MECU's confusing email. I sent MECU an email pointing this out to them. I even drafted a plain English version with the instructions in the correct order, to get them started. I was astounded at their response:

"unfortunately this is a standard computer generated letter which I am unable to change."

Excuse me?

I picked my jaw up off the floor and wrote back:

"I didn't suppose that you had composed it personally, but computer-generated letters don't write themselves. They are written by programmers according to given specifications.

"Somewhere within MECU there exists either an IT department, or a management team which contracts out the IT work to outside IT companies.

"If a customer is prepared to take the time to explain how a given communication can be better worded to avoid misunderstandings or ambiguities, the least you can do is forward it on to your IT department or management team. A good organisation, keen to improve its business practices, will welcome any such suggestions it receives. The material I have already received from MECU suggests that it's a socially responsible organisation that seeks to actively engage with its customers, so I'm a little surprised that your response is merely to say that you didn't personally write the mail. I trust you will pass on my suggestions to your IT department or management team."

To their credit, that person then mailed back to say they had done that. I'm glad to hear it. I have no way of knowing whether the IT department ever did act on my advice, but I hope they did.

After that slightly rocky start, I now have my fee-free Visa credit card, and I'm satisfied with it. On the few occasions I've needed to phone MECU since I received the card (related to minor internet banking issues), they have answered my call promptly without keeping me on hold forever, and have resolved the problem promptly and efficiently.

I've been sufficiently pleased by their generally good service, and their competitive term deposit interest rates, to have recently transferred some of my investments to MECU as well. (Take that, Other Bank; if you'd only been prepared to be a bit more flexible, you could have had my business, but MECU has it instead.)