I think it’s also worth saying that we’ve had similar problems with the very big banks in terms of an unproductive attitude. We recently tried to switch our company credit card from being tied to Lauren’s personal credit history to our Inc. business and it was the same waste of time. We called ahead for an appointment, asked what we needed to bring, went to said appointment paperwork in hand and were told that we were actually not talking to the right person, that no, no one there could help us and that we’d need to make a new appointment. Beyond the obvious financial ramifications of these scenarios, the thing that really galls me is the wasting of my time. I don’t know that we’ve ever done a business banking transaction (aside from the everyday deposit etc) in an efficient way, and any lack thereof has had nothing to do with us. Typically we go out of our way to make sure we have every last bit of paper and info required before we even sit down with anyone and every last time the person whose job it is to manage all this for us forgets to have us sign something, or has us fill out a two year old form then has to have us back to fill out a new one, or fails to understand what we’re even asking for. As business people, who are frankly most of the time really freakin’ busy, wasting my time with useless apointments that often create more problems than they solve eventually becomes really insulting. And clearly: frustrating.

I’d also like to say that this whole post and discussion of ours is not an attack at credit unions per se. As a personal banker I’ve had great experiences with this same institution. And for the record, the best major banking experience I have ever had was when my partner and I got our mortgage. We used another local credit union and I have honestly never felt so good about going hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt. I’m not really sure that they did anything for us that anyone else wouldn’t have done, but it was the attitude. Never once did they make us feel like what we were asking for was unreasonable, and given that even trying to buy a home in this town is kind of by its nature a bit unreasonable with the price of real estate here that is really saying something. They were helpful, collaborative and this will sound lame but “problem solvers.” It was really excellent, which was good because everything else about buying a home was kind of terrifying.

Of course I also know tons of people who work for this credit union (none of them branch staff, sadly!), so I feel a kind of personal loyalty in terms of wanting to support their work. Oy vey.

Bleh. I hate everything to do with money in business. Which is silly, being a business owner, I suppose.