UFB Direct Reviews 154

UFB and AXOS are the same bank and they are horrible. Poor and disrespectful customer service and they held onto my money when I requested to close my account for 11 days! They laughed when I became upset for a customer service request. Read reviews and STAY AWAY FROM THIS BANK!!! I'm reporting them to the FDIC and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

I wish I would have read the bad reviews before I opened a savings account in March 2023, but I was lured in by the excellent rate. At the time I opened it, I said I'd like it in the name of our trust. I was told that it was too much trouble and that I should simply put in my name and change it later. Why did I fall for this! Anyway, when "later" came, I was told to complete a form and have it notarized. This was trouble since I had to have a notary come to the house since my husband is disabled. My form was returned since it wasn't complete. I phoned (oh, what a nightmare it is to call them) to ask what is missing. I was told I needed to put an EIN on the form. I said I don't have one, and was told to get one. I said I never had to do this for any other accounts. Man was nasty. He told me all banks have their own rules. I asked to speak to a supervisor. I was told I couldn't. Instead he would put in a request for one to contact me. He couldn't tell me when this would be. He couldn't tell me if it would be a phone call, email, or what. This is when I decided to close my account. A supervisor did contact me via their message system. I was told to put my SS# on the form. I was told I don't need to request an EIN. I told her I wish I would have heard from her instead of the man who gave me wrong info. I decided no interest would be better than dealing with this bank.

I was on the fence about opening up an account due to low reviews. I weighed my options over and over and I kept coming back to them. I began to read the reviews and assessed what some of the issues were for some and how they would affect me. I noticed people do not read. they don't understand how banking works. There are rules in place to protect the bank and to be sure they're not doing business with a fraud. So no if you transfer large amounts its going to take a few days to clear and it's not many tbh. Just one example. I also called multiple time and each time got customer service reps that were nice and willing to help although they are not aware of certain practices the bank has.

For example. To verify your account it says someone will call you a couple days but no one calls and you're left wonder what happened. When the bank doesn't do this anymore so that verbiage / copy on their site and email need to be changed and employees need to be aware that it does tell customers that so when they call in about when will they receive their call they're privy to what the customer is talking about. They now email the customer instead. So I was approved for a couple days before realizing.

The reps also were educated on the products and able to answer my questions asked.

I cannot give them five stars because i haven't had any fires needing to be put out so I'm not too sure on how they handle issues that arise. I do not foresee any issues either. I claim smooth sailing from here on out and a high yield percent that stays competitive. That said so far it's been good for me.

I have never dealt with a scarier institution than UFB Direct. They have taken hostage of my funds and won’t allow access to them due to “technical difficulties“ which began to occur over three days ago. The support staff at UFB Direct is nearly unintelligible because English is not their first language. They had me on the phone for nearly 3 hours only to tell me I have to wait two more days. Once this is rectified I am reporting them to the CFPB if not before.

For the last three weeks I have been trying to access my account to see my balances but every time I receive the message "Something unexpected went wrong on our end. Please try again. Thank you." In the past I have not had any problem checking on my accounts.
What's Up?
I tried contacting socialmedia at axosbank and got Axos Bank and there was no info for my account balance or anything else. Again, What is going on here?

Terrible customer service; they are giving me the runaround insofar as deleting my data pursuant to, inter alia, the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, etc. Moreover, Haman, a customer service rep at an offshore call center that I spoke with today (August 23rd, 2024) tried to cite what they were “legally able to do” without him having ANY background in controlling law. But, speaking of law, Axos d/b/a UFB Direct is in the midst of a class action lawsuit for allegedly defrauding and misleading consumers; Case Number: 3:24-cv-00445.
AVOID!

I have had money in UFB Direct for a year and a half. When you first open your account there are some security procedures that some people complain about, but it’s only for your safety. The procedures are not any more difficult than opening a PayPal or eBay account. I am currently making 5.25% on my money. Depositing and withdrawing money once you open your account is a breeze!!!! I simply wish I had more principal to invest in UFB Direct to make 5.25% interest!
Mark Hart

I opened an account 28 days ago and they still have it restricted. I gave them all information, even a selfie with drivers license that I never had to do before for an online account. They are now saying it is not clear enough, (it is very clear) and they want me to resubmit my copies of license and utility bill again!!! Already did it. I cannot access my money. I was planning on leaving it there for a long time but I still want to be able to access it in an emergency.

terrible technology. terrible customer service. their AI can't help. I would never use this bank again for anything.

They are great so long as you dont need ANY service. The customer service chat and people on the phone while accessible, are VERY HEAVILY accented english and they have almost no power or control. No supervisors exists. If a problem arises as it has for me no one can help and my money which is rather significant sum, is tied up. If you want to scream and lose your mind, then they are fine.....like calling Dell for support good luck

I just wanted to open a savings account (nothing else!) to join good APY. However UFB Direct accepts only customers with a SSN to get this benefit. I am a investors in US with good money but no SSN (only got ITIN from IRS to pay my taxes). For more than a decade I am customer at Bank of America without problems but UFB Direct doesn not want my savings.
The worst thing: When I called the service center I was told that there is a way to open an account but of course I will not get same APY as others. Instead an APY of up to 5.25% I was offered an interest rate of 0.25%!
I didn’t expect that an aspiring company like UFB Direct discriminates against foreigners.

UFB direct failed to execute a transfer request; customer service was of zero help in rectifying the problem.Unfortunately this is the second time this happened; they love to blame server issues on the problem.TRUE customer service would assist the client in doing whatever it takes to satisfy the client needs. UFB direct fails this test over and over again. I NEVER have this issue with Discover savings offering similar interest rates.

If it wasn't for high interest, it would be terrible. The online banking glitches all the time. Adding external accounts is close to impossible and in most cases requires the manual process that takes 5 days. Money transfers take much longer as the bank holds the money for few days.

Similar to other reviews I have read, I attempted to open an account after seeing the 5.25% rate advertised, however I did not complete my application in one shot. When I came back I went into an endless loop of user ID, password verification code. I called customer service and Indian who barely spoke english said she reset account and I still could not log in. I feel like I dodged a bullet not putting money here. I will stick with capital one 360 at 4.25%. I may call customer service again during normal business hours to have them purge my data as I am not comfortable with this 'bank' having my SS#

Very competitive yield, however, if you cannot log into your account because UBFDIRECT.COM has computer or internet issues your money is not available to you.

This happened on 4/17/24. No one could log into their accounts and if you did not have an original order to wire funds with Axis in California you could not wire your money anywhere.

Axos Senior management has not publicly addressed this issue.

Additionally UFBdirect provides customer service from India and I coukd not understand their English.

Customer service representatives are poorly trained and were not capable of problem solving,

The yield is good but the anxiety caused by not having access to your money is not worth the yield and the risk of loosing your money.

They say they are FDIC covered but I question if they follow their statuary and regulatory requirements.

Easy to work with, I can call them to help (IE raise money market rate if it raises). They help with I call (staff do not seem from America and can be hard to understand at times but still help). The interest is paid with no problems and the rates are competitive. Website works perfect.

Opened an account with $5,000 for the advertised interest rate. Account was put on restriction, they asked me to send selfie holding driver's license and utility bill, which I did. The next day I received an email saying they closed my account and the banking relation was ended and they reserve the right not to tell me why. They say the sent a check with my funds but have not seen yet.

UFB does give out 5.25% APY for a little bit, but they've changed their offerings quite frequently (at least seven times from 2022 to 2024). That way, they can lower the APY on older accounts (which they do silently and without discretion as stated per their disclosure) and continue to advertise high rates on their website which only applies to their newest accounts. This isn't listed anywhere on their website, and I only found out about their practices via Reddit posts and NerdWallet. To their credit, if you look at the details of your account, the APY is listed, so if it drops below what's advertised you can give the reps a call to match the highest rate. Recommend checking at least once a month, but far from the "just let it sit" types of accounts. Someone else called it a bait and switch scheme and I agree, but the rates are pretty appealing if you don't mind the extra work.

I was a little apprehensive at first when I first signed on and signed up for both the High Yield Savings and the High Yield Money Market Account. Both were approved but the Savings took a little longer so that’s when I began to wonder as I wanted to get both at the same time and did not want to wait. But the next day the Savings got approved so I was off and running. I did talk to Customer Service and they were excellent at answering all my questions so I’m am pretty confidant that I can start utilizing both accounts soon exactly the way I intended in the first place!!

Awful experience with UFB direct. Opened an account, but could never access it online due to an atrociously glitchy website that doesn’t work much of the time. Customer service is awful. With that kind of service and low quality website, don’t trust your money to this bank. I closed my account promptly.