Opening A Credit Union Account After Bankruptcy

[bkfamily]

My husband and I recently tried to open an account at a credit union. We were shocked when they denied our membership based on a chexsystems report. The only thing against us was the bankruptcy which was discharged almost 3 years ago. They tried opening the account in my name and in his. He has a previous lien and the bankruptcy but I only have the bankruptcy on my record. He had bounced checks from years ago but I don't have any on my record. I tried to research why they may have denied us and everything I found was about people who had membership before and during their bankruptcy. Does anyone know if they would have denied us because we had a bankruptcy in the past, even though we have no past membership with them or any other credit union? Is this something common for credit unions or could it possibly just be this one? I did call the credit union main office and I was told that they do not know why we were denied and that we should go back to the branch with our reports and ask to meet with a manager to discuss it. We plan on doing that this week but we are just trying to be as prepared as possible before we go in.

[keepmine]

You're the one who said it was denied based on Chexsystems.
Not sure how we can help. Financial institutions have the right to establish a criteria for opening an account.This one may be pretty picky about who they offer membership.
Were I you, I'd try another bank or CU. Why go to extra trouble to open an account with someone who doesn't want your business?

[Pjmax]

Not all crsdit unions are BK friendly. Find one that is.

[bkfamily]

We don't know for sure that is why they denied membership. We are going to find out this week. I was just wondering if this is common with credit unions because I have been in contact with many people who have gone through bankruptcy and none of them have had this issue and we were really kind of shocked by it. Of course we will pursue other credit unions if this one will not work with us but from our research we chose this credit union for a reason. I was hoping to find more insightful information here with info about why we may have been denied. We understand that it was because of a chexsystems report, but the report looks good with many positive comments so that's why we were wondering. Wow keepmine, your comment was somewhat rude and definitely not helpful. Pjmax, we did not know that some credit unions were more difficult, thank you for the insight.

[lillymarlene]

Some credit unions just are not BK friendly. Shortly after I filed my Chapter 13, my old credit union closed down my personal account, and both of my debit cards. I don't know why, but even though it is considered "inactive" with about $10 in it, they left my business account alone.

Right before filing, I also opened another business checking account with another credit union. Then last year I opened a new personal checking account, with a bank where I liked the over 55 perks. I've had no problem so far doing business with either of these banks.

[Pjmax]

Credit unions use their own criteria for approval just like credit cards. If you are looking for a local credit union, call or go in and talk with them and be upfront about your BK status, before they do any hard pulls on your reports. If you are looking at a national credit union, do some online research. Some CUs appear to be BK friendly, but only after say, 2 or 3 yrs., some right away, some never it seems. So ask them first what your chances are.

Also, if you have a copy of your Chexsystems report, and it looks clean except for your BK, that's your answer.

[AngelinaCat]

Our CU was not very happy with us--even though we had informed them of our problems and intentions. We still got the standard 'nastygram' telling us that because of our bad financial handling we had violated the trust of the membership, and basically invited us out of membership. 'Hub had been with this CU since 1964, and wished to remain with them. He talked to a couple of people in their BK department. We had to reaffirm an auto loan--which only had about 10-11 more months to go--and an overdraft protection loan. After that, everything was fine. We Discharged in 2008, and we are still members in good standing.

Earlier this year, I opened up a small checking account at a local bank, to serve as both a savings vehicle and an emergency fund that is local. The CU is in Dayton, Ohio. We are in Florida. I had no trouble whatever opening this account.

Conversely, my God-daughter tried to open a checking account at this same bank and was denied. I later found out that she had over-drafted significantly at another bank, and basically told them where to stuff it, when they tried to get her to take care of the situation. Therefore, they black-listed her, and to my knowledge, she has not been able to open an account anywhere.

[RichM]

Chex Systems has nothing to do with BK. It has to do with bounced checks. Practically any financial institution will deny you for a draft account if you've bounced checks in the past.

However, a sympathetic CU may give you a chance if you appeal to a manager or to the board. So might a bank, although it's less likely.

-Richard

[bcss]

I thought I read somewhere that if you send Chexsystems a copy of your BK discharge they would delete the derogatory items from their report? Since you are discharged you no longer owe these banks anything.

[RichM]

I thought I read somewhere that if you send Chexsystems a copy of your BK discharge they would delete the derogatory items from their report? Since you are discharged you no longer owe these banks anything.

Yes and no. They don't have to remove the entries for the bad checks. They do have to change the balances to $0.00 and note that they were discharged in the BK. Whether that matters or not to the bank or CU is anyone's guess. They're more concerned that the NSF checks were tendered than the reasons why. They consider bouncing checks to be a sign of poor financial management skills.

On the other hand, Chex is considered a CCRA and subject to the FCRA, so you can challenge the entries and demand verification. Possibly the bank won't bother responding to the requests or will no longer have any record or evidence of it, so it's worth a shot.

In any case, Chex entries disappear after five years; so if the most recent NSF was close to that long ago, maybe just waiting it out would be easier.

-Richard

[RichM]

By the way -- my familiarity with Chex Systems came as a result of having had an irresponsible stepson who no sane bank in the world wanted deal with. Pretty much every financial institution seems to use their service. At least, every one my stepson applied to did.

-Richard

[AngelinaCat]

By the way -- my familiarity with Chex Systems came as a result of having had an irresponsible stepson who no sane bank in the world wanted deal with. Pretty much every financial institution seems to use their service. At least, every one my stepson applied to did.

-Richard

*HEH* Sounds like dear God-daughter!

[IBroke]

When I opened my first CU-account a couple of years ago, I also had an issue with a chex systems entry - something about a bounced check from a local supermarket I totally forgot about since it happened years ago. I was told that once I have taken care of it(in other words, paid it), they would open the account. They kept their promise.

Since the matter was a couple of years old, I actually had to run after the CA currently dealing with the matter. I thought that it was funny since it's usually the other way round.

[bkfamily]

Thank you for your insightful comments. We are going to meet with the CU manager today. I forgot to mention that part of our confusion about the chexsystems report was that we have opened accounts at other establishments who use this report and have not had any issues. It was also confusing since the CU didn't seem to have a clue as to why we were being denied because when they run the report is just said we failed and didn't give them any more information which they said was strange because as far as they knew, they always got a reason for the rejection. We did not mention the bankruptcy at the time because it honestly didn't occur to us that we could possibly be turned down for a bank account because of it. So we were wondering if this is a common issue with only CU. We were really surprised by the whole situation. Maybe this afternoon we will bring a copy of our discharge papers too to show if they question it.

[ksgirl38]

I opened a savings account at Community America about 3 months after my discharge without any problems. Just a suggestion, but if you are set on using this credit union maybe you could try opening a savings account and trying for a checking account with them in a few months. It might be enough to build their trust. I guess it just depends on the credit union. Hopefully you'll get some more info on their reasoning. Was it a local CU? I would think with a local one you'd be able to convince them.