Populardirect
Reviews and Complaints

I've been banking with Populardirect for a while now and I gotta say, they really do offer some solid options when it comes to CDs, especially if you're looking for competitive rates on the shorter-term ones. What's really stood out to me though is their customer service – it's just outstanding. They're always ready to help out and answer any questions you might have.

When it comes to funding your account, it's a breeze. It's quick, it's easy, and there's no fuss about it. Now, when it comes time to redeem your CD, you gotta make sure you're following the instructions they give you. You know, the ones that are in the pages you saved when you first opened your CD? Stick to those and you should be golden.

One thing I found really handy is that PD will shoot you an email or a letter about a month before your CD is about to mature, but that's only if you've chosen to opt into that feature. If you don't, they won't bug you during the term, which is nice if you prefer it that way. But, and this is important, the CD will automatically roll over into a new term if you don't take action.

So, here's a little piece of advice: keep an eye on your maturity date. Mark it on your calendar or set a reminder on your phone or something. You don't wanna miss out on that because if the CD rolls over and you wanted to do something else with that money, you might be stuck waiting for the next maturity date to come around.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my experience with Populardirect. They've been straightforward and reliable, and I feel like my money's in good hands with them. Just remember to pay attention to the details and you should have a smooth experience too.

I've been banking with Popular Direct for a while now and had a 5-year CD that was set to mature on September 13, 2021. Leading up to the maturity date, I didn't get any sort of heads up from them, which I found pretty odd. Turns out, without any notice, they went ahead and renewed my CD for another 5 years. The kicker? The interest rate they set it at was roughly half of what I was getting before.

I only noticed this because I was going through my finances while filling out the FAFSA since I'll need that money soon to cover my kid's college expenses. So, I reached out to Popular in writing right away to ask them to cancel the renewed CD. They told me I could take my money out, but they'd slap me with a penalty close to $880, which is just insane.

I wasn't ready to give up that easily, so I gave them a call hoping to talk some sense into them. But it was like talking to a wall. They claimed they sent me a notification back in August 2021, but I'm telling you, my mailbox saw nothing of the sort. They stuck to their guns, saying if I wanted to withdraw my funds now, I'd still have to cough up the nearly $880 penalty.

Now, I get it, there's probably some legal jargon or fine print that says the CD renews automatically. But to not give me a heads up that it's happening, to just stay quiet and bank on the fact that folks might not remember to pull out their money, and then to renew the CD at such a low rate without even a peep? That just doesn't sit right with me. It feels like they're playing games, hoping customers won't notice so they can get away with offering less. It's not what you'd expect from a bank you trust with your savings.

So I went ahead and applied for a high-yield savings account with Populardirect. The whole process was supposed to be quick, like the application mentioned it would only take 2-3 business days to get everything set up. But man, it ended up taking them a whole 3 weeks just to "approve" my account. I kept reaching out to customer service during that time, and all they could tell me was that they were running behind schedule and couldn't give me any sort of estimated time of arrival for when my account would be ready.

The weirdest part was that, while I was waiting, I kept getting these emails from them telling me to complete my application. But when I checked with customer service, they told me it was all on their end and that I just had to wait. Finally, after all that waiting, they got around to starting the transfer of my initial funds. I thought, "Okay, we're finally getting somewhere," but nope, after 5 days they just cancelled the transfer and shut down my account without any warning.

Trying to figure out what went wrong was a real hassle. I had to call customer service twice just to get some answers. The first time I called, they were pretty much clueless and told me to check with the bank that was sending the funds. It wasn't until the second call that someone actually took the time to look into the rejection reason and give me some info.

And get this, at no point did anyone from Populardirect reach out to me about the failed transfer or the fact that they closed my account. I didn't get a phone call, an email, nothing. Even when I got a message in the "secure message" center on their website, they didn't bother to follow up with me directly.

When I asked about reopening my account, they said it wasn't possible and that if I wanted to try again, I'd have to go through the whole 3-week approval process all over again. That's just ridiculous. I'm not going to waste more time with a bank that can't do things in a timely manner and doesn't know how to communicate with their customers. I'm definitely going to look for a different bank that actually knows how to get things done and keep me in the loop.