NORTH CAROLINA, USA — More than 400,000 North Carolinians will soon have limited access to their bank.
Come this time in 2024, customers with Local Government Federal Credit Union will lose the ability to access a physical bank branch.
News of separation has come out in recent months. LGFCU members have received letters and emails that made them do a double take.
"We don't know. It's just the unknown. You don't know what's going to happen," said LGFCU member Dan Spence.
The letter says Local Government will separate from State Employees Credit Union. This means hundreds of thousands of North Carolina members will no longer get serviced by SECU staff.
According to their website, LGFCU will soon partner with Civic Federal Credit Union to offer digital banking.
“Over the past six months, we have worked closely with our members across the state to hear from them first-hand on how to build the best possible organization to meet their financial needs. We've been pleased by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from our members, whose input has helped us refine our plan," CEO of LGFCU and Civic FCU Dwayne Naylor said.
However, other decades-long customers like Jerry Prillman are not in favor of the change.
"Seems like everybody wants to do online this, online that, sometimes I just want to talk to a person. I want to see your face, not just a screen," said Prillman.
Prillman has similar concerns to Spence. Both wonder about how the bank will offer things like large cash transactions and safe deposit boxes without a brick-and-mortar space.
"There are just some things you can't deal with without having someone there in customer service," said Spence.
The bank's website says it is working to develop partnerships with popular branch services to provide these options.
LGFCU says this transition won't happen until March 2024.
In the meantime, some customers are considering taking their money elsewhere.
If you are an LGFCU member, you won't have to worry about transferring your accounts, the letter from the bank says they will do that for you.