Business ProfileforEast Texas Professional Credit Unions

This bank has been repeatedly locking out our debit cards, despite our attempts to coordinate with them. We do not own personal cellphones and depend on email and their online support to help us when problems arise. At first I was told I could inform the bank ahead of time whenever a charge might occur that could possibly lock the card for fraud (repeating international transactions that were previously validated apparently still cause them to lock your card) and then later I was told I can only inform the bank the day-of the charge. Well, two international services we rely on occurred during a holiday weekend and the bank was not available. I tried to message them via their online system. I have not had a reply for half a month. Their chat feature says agents are supposed to be there 9AM-5PM. That has been offline for SEVERAL months. I had to call in on a work phone (something I'm technically not supposed to do) only to speak to an agent who on two occasions said they couldn't hear anything I was saying due to a bad connection. After finally getting it fixed, I've discovered that again, my card was locked because of a charge (a repeated monthly charge, mind you) from an EAST TEXAS BUSINESS FOR LESS THAN $20 that caused them to lock down my card ******** of this moment, I still have not heard anything from the bank in writing either online or via email. We asked if there's anyone that can help us at all and have not received any written replies to anything since the start of the month.If you rely on any international services or make international purchases (such as ****) or get unlucky and happen to make the wrong purchase from an East Texas business (one that you've repeatedly been making for several months) then ***** is absolutely not the bank for you. Unless you enjoy having your debit card locked for all kinds of pointless reasons, especially when you need to get gas or buy food. ***** knows better than you about how to protect you from fraud, after all.

**** has been in contact with East Texas Professional Credit Union regarding the ongoing issues with their debit cards. The day after this review was submitted, we received an email from **** with specific instances of their debit cards being inactivated. The Credit Unions **************** responded to **** within the hour with an explanation of what caused the most recent instance of the card being inactivated. All debit card transactions are scored through a fraud detection algorithm by the card processor for the financial institution. With fraud being so rampant, technology is used to mitigate fraud losses. International transactions are typically treated with greater scrutiny by these fraud detection algorithms. Unfortunately, M.J.s card activity triggers a fraud score which will prompt the cardholder for a confirmation for the validity of the transaction. Since **** does not have a cell phone, they do not receive these alerts. The Credit Union will work with **** to find an alternative solution to this debit card issue.Regarding emails not being answered, the Credit Union prides itself on responding to member inquiries quickly. We searched our archives for the past three months to locate any emails from **** The only emails we located were on 10/16 and 10/18. We will reach out to **** for alternative email addresses to assist with our search to resolve these issues.