Trailhead Credit Union - Old Town Branch - Portland, Oregon

Michael B.

Don't make the mistake I did and trust this company with your funds. I moved to a Trailhead CU account as my main banking account from Wells Fargo after some disappointment with them, but after the nightmare that Trailhead has been I'm scrambling to go back to Wells Fargo. So much wasted time and effort for nothing... Maybe this review can at least prevent others from making the same mistake.

I'll start with the good things that originally drew me to Trailhead that held true - they have good rates and a few nice perks, like how there's no minimum required deposits or associated fees, and you can access a network of CU ATMs for free withdrawals. Also most of the reps I talked to were friendly.

Unfortunately, the negatives outweigh those positives far too strongly to recommend it. Every step of the way from trying to get my account set up to trying to use it, I've ran into problems and frustrations. When I was first setting up the account, representatives gave me bad / conflicting info a few times that led to unnecessary frustration. And a poorly designed setup process led to me encountering an error in the system when I tried to activate my card, which led to me having to cancel a grocery purchase at the store and spend an hour on the phone getting bounced between multiple Trailhead departments and sitting on hold, just for reps to point fingers at other departments and send me in circles.

None of this was encouraging, but I was still willing to give them a chance. Unfortunately the problems have only continued in the months since, and these problems are pretty clearly systemic. Despite setting up direct deposit into my account and storing thousands of dollars in it, they constantly block transactions I try to perform, as their system seems to be paranoid (and stupid) about what it thinks is fraud. And since they don't offer support outside of daytime weekday business hours, this means you can get left unable to access your funds for days at a time. I've called and tried to find out why, and once again I haven't been able to get consistent answers or resolution. One rep even gave me attitude (this was an outlier though, like I mentioned they're usually friendly at least even if they don't know what they're doing). Did I mention that their security and tech is lacking? Their app has decent UI and features, but there's also a lot missing, and they have some surprisingly bad security systems in place (like selecting your sensitive info like SS# and address from a short list of options they read out to you. Someone could get past this with very little info on you, and could even just guess their way through until they get lucky - or they could record the options and use process of elimination to find your info).

I wish I could go back in time and never bother switching to Trailhead CU, I've gone through so much frustrating loss of time and money trying to make things work with them, for nothing. They make Wells Fargo look the shining example of banking, which is saying something.

Susan P.

Amazing!!! We just bought a house and Lou Xavier was our mortgage officer. She was outstanding in every way. From my first contact with her she was friendly, professional, knowledgeable and very personable. I’ve bought a dozen houses in the past and never have I had such an easy, smooth transaction. It was unbelievable. We are delighted with our home and so happy to be pleasantly surprised by a process we absolutely dreaded going into. No reason to fear! Thank you Trailhead and a special thanks to Lou!!

Jay B.

I have been with Trailhead now since July of last year. Elliott in member services opened my account for me and is a great asset to the credit union. He not only opened my accounts but took the time to explain what the credit union membership offers and let me know that if I needed any help at all to just reach out to him. He has gotten back to me promptly time and again and genuinely cares about the members!! Way to go Elliott!!

Walter G. N.

Working with Elliot was a pleasure, not only is he extremely professional, he is courteous polite understanding and extremely patient explaining each step of our process. And for old people that's extremely important.

Trailhead Credit Union is very fortunate to have a quality employee like Elliot. We truly appreciate it working with him he made our life so much easier.

I'm not sure it's appropriate to say this but I'm going to anyway, God bless you Elliott you're an awesome person, and a great resource for trailhead Credit Union.

Barbara and Walter Nino

Rafe H.

I have been banking with trailhead in downtown Portland for approximately 4 years and I wish I alway banked with them. From the managers down to tellers, they are the best people ever. They are always very helpful, personable, kind, and sociable. I would not change to any other banking institutions as long as I am alive.

Heath B.

I cannot recommend Trailhead Credit Union highly enough. The service has been top notch since I first opened my account years ago.

Elliott has been particularly helpful to me with information I needed about my accounts. He is efficient and responsive and pleasant to deal with.

Many thanks to Trailhead for the service over the years and to Elliott for helping me with my queries.

C. W.

I don't have an account here. I went in to use their "shared branch" services that allows me to conduct various transactions with my credit union. Definitely a really nice feature that many credit unions (including this one) offers. What I appreciate is that they treated me like I was one of their members. This is a great credit union, and definitely one I would recommend if you haven't found your credit union just yet.

Beverly J.

Late June prior to taking a trip , I went into this location to do some banking.
I normally use the Mississippi location but this one is close to my job.

I was being helped by an agent who explained to me what I needed could not be done.

As I continued to ask questions of this young man a particular teller whom I’ve chosen to avoid because I didn’t like his energy when servicing me in the past decided to interject , rudely , I should say .

I politely asked him not to interfere in my conversation. Needless to say a unhealthy verbal exchange occurred with us both being rude .

However, this is a verbal exchange with him safely behind his counter and me heading for door.

Well this young man felt it was appropriate to come from behind his counter with Mase and point it directly in my face and threaten to spray me .

I am a 62 y/o black female , surely he did not feel threatened by me and if he had he would have stayed safely behind his counter , but his goal was to intimidate and scare me .

Of course as a black woman, I deal with racism often .

What upsets me the most is I reported this incident well over 6 weeks ago and have yet to be contacted , even though I inquire about it every time I go to the Mississippi location .I have avoided a location that is most convenient to me because their Customer Service manager either agrees with their tellers behavior or I guess I simply don’t matter.

What ever it is , no one has ever followed up so I guess my only option is to find another bank .