At Grow Financial, we serve people, not profit. And that means when we ask for member feedback, we use it to help us better serve you, our members.

Think of all those times you’re asked for just a few minutes of your time to share your feedback, and you do it, but you don’t think your comments will ever be used to impact change. Well, at Grow we actually do use your feedback; and we think it’s important to let you know how it helps us in our efforts to provide the best possible banking experience for our members.

You may have gotten a survey, and we appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts. The comments aren’t always positive, but improvement is what we’re striving for, so we’ll happily take them! Of course, we love knowing you’re having great experiences, too!

Even if we can’t act immediately, we’re always listening.

Overall, we’re hearing that you love Grow’s service. Here are some of the things you’ve said:

“They are always friendly, polite and enjoy what they are doing, and it comes across loud and clear.”

“The employees are helpful and friendly. They make you feel that you are their only customer.”

“I have been a member for over 25 years, and I have always had great customer service.”

Two subjects about which we consistently receive feedback on are the number of store locations and charging fees. We thought it would be helpful to share our philosophy on both.

Store Locations

Because we’re using our members’ money to build and operate stores, we take store locations very seriously. It’s not financially feasible to have a store on every corner, but we do take feedback on where our members desire locations into consideration when planning.

For the store locations we do have, we endeavor to create the most functional member-serving spaces we can. A recent example is the conversion of our New Tampa location to include back office space.

Because we want to be the best stewards of our members’ money, sometimes we have to close a store, as we’ve done with our Lakeland store when it became too costly to continue operating. That doesn’t mean we don’t want a presence in Lakeland, it just means we believe there are better ways we can spend our members’ money.

We are committed to expanding our store footprint where it makes sense.

To serve you better on the go and when you aren’t near a store, we’ve recently upgraded our online and mobile banking platform, which offers user-friendly features to let you take care of your banking business from any device, anytime and anywhere.¹ Learn more about our online and mobile banking experience.

Fees

No one likes extra fees. And honestly, we aren’t excited about charging them. When we charge a fee, it’s because an expense is incurred. And when an expense is incurred, we have one of two options, pass the cost along to the entire membership or pass the cost along directly to the member.

Our goal is to charge as few fees as possible. Here’s how we try to make that a reality.

1. We take every opportunity to educate our members on how to avoid fees. If you’ve ever called to make a loan payment over the phone, you have been charged a fee for one of our team members to process that payment. That is a fee the credit union is charged that we pass directly to the member. However, the last time you did so, you may recall that our team member also took the time to explain how you could make the payment on your own to avoid the fee. This is just one example of how we work to educate our members on how they can avoid fees.

2. Another way you can save on fees is by taking advantage of our extensive network of 70,000 surcharge-free ATMs across the country when you need cash.² A lot of times, we see that other financial institutions are charging our members fees for using their ATMs even when a surcharge-free ATM is close by. Here’s where you can find a surcharge-free ATM.

3. One more way you can avoid fees is by utilizing our online and mobile banking. In addition to the speed and convenience, you’re also able to avoid fees by performing many transactions on your own. In the coming months and years, we will be investing heavily in these platforms to provide the easiest and best experience for our membership.

We’re always here to help! If you’d ever like more information on a fee you’ve been charged or how you can avoid fees in the future, our Relationship Specialists in our stores and our Member Contact Center are available to assist you.

At the end of the day, we’re proud of the level of service we offer our members and are grateful to you all for your commitment to us. Your feedback ensures we continue providing the service our members deserve. Keeping holding us accountable when you need to and lift us up when we’ve earned it. Together we’ll keep growing your dreams.

¹Additional data charges may apply when using apps. Please see your wireless carrier for more information.
²There is no fee for transactions made at ATMs in the Grow Financial, CU24/CU HERE or CO-OP networks. Transactions from non-network ATMs will carry a $2.00 service charge, in addition to any fees charged by the operating institution.

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