Arizona Central Credit Union: Complete Review + How To Maximize Benefits + Login Info and FAQ

We’ve got all the details you need to know on one of Arizona’s largest credit unions.

Updated March 2024
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Fact checked by Cathy Gresham

Picture of Arizona's state flag

Are you contemplating becoming a member of the Arizona Central Credit Union? Maybe you’re comparison shopping for new banking services?

 We provide a comprehensive review and look at how hard it is to join, what products and services are offered, what customer reviews say, how their rates stack up against the competition and more.  

Arizona Central Credit Union executive summary

  • After a close review, we won’t be opening any accounts here 
  • They do offer one interesting credit card, with an APR of 10.9%
  • Generally this credit union is quite small, offers limited products and services, does not have attractive rates, and the customer reviews give significant cause for concern 

Arizona Central Credit Union is a tiny credit union that primarily only serves the Phoenix area

They are extremely small for a financial institution by just about any measure:

  • 60K members
  • About $700M in assets
  • Just 5 branch locations in and around Phoenix

They offer an incredibly standard range of products and services including personal banking accounts (checking, savings, CDs, etc.), basic business accounts (checking, payroll services), and loans (mortgages, HELOCs, credit cards, etc.). We dive deeper into their products and services, including looking at an interesting credit card offering, below.

While they are a small institution, they have continued to grow over the past few years. Growth has been steady but slow, last year they only added a net of $15M in deposits. So it does not seem that they will become a larger institution anytime soon unless there’s a substantial change.

Likely due to their small size, they use a non-Big 4 auditor that we had not heard of previously, which gave us some pause when looking at this institution.

Infographic with basic facts about ACCU

Membership is open to everyone, but a couple of types of people may have difficulty signing up

While many credit unions limit their membership to a certain group of people, Arizona Central Credit Union states that it is open to everyone. This appears to be a change in recent years, they apparently used to have stricter membership requirements, including requiring Arizona residency. While open to everyone, they do have a few requirements for those who want to sign up:

  • Be willing to provide a social security number, date of birth, and government-issued ID, as well as your mailing address, email address, and phone number
  • Sign up for eStatements
  •  Maintain a direct deposit to Arizona Central Credit Union of at least $250/month
  • Perform a minimum of 15 “Check Card  transactions within the first 60 days of account opening

Most of these requirements are standard and seem fine, although the last one is a bit odd and could be a pain for some people. We like to run almost every transaction we do through a credit card to collect the points and cash back, so having to do 15 transactions on their checking account card, which has no points, would be a bit annoying.

U.S. citizens can sign-up online, if you’re not a U.S. citizen, you may have trouble signing up

Their website states that you cannot sign-up online if you are not a U.S. Citizen or if you are subject to backup withholding. Unfortunately, they do not provide any additional information about what requirements there will be if you go to one of their 5 branches to sign-up in person.

Arizona Central Credit Union offers standard small bank products and services, but their rates are not competitive

We don’t think it’s worth looking at every single service offered. Suffice it to say they offer the standard personal banking and small business banking products and services you can get at just about any credit union and bank.

Their main verticals are banking, loans, and other. Here’s a sample of the products and services offered:

  • Banking: checking, savings, CDs, money market accounts, and business checking 
  • Loans: mortgages, HELOCs, vehicle loans, personal loans, student loans, credit cards, and business loans
  • Insurance: including auto, homeowner’s, life, accidental death, and debt consolidation

When we surveyed these products and services, we weren’t really struck by anything other than that they we all incredibly standard. It was difficult to find anything that set them apart at all. They all had the same features, benefits, and drawbacks that have become commoditized across the industry. Really, nothing to write home about.

One exception: they do have one interesting credit card that might be worth checking out

We did come across one exception, their personal Visa Gold offering. What was interesting here was that they’re offering a card with only a 10.9% – 14.9% APR (depending on creditworthiness). That is quite low for a credit card. While we generally avoid ever accruing any interest on our credit card, this rate is low enough that it could be a good backup option to get you through a pinch. 

It won’t be enough to actually get us to join this credit union, but it is an interesting and somewhat unique offer. 

The rates we were able to see were absolutely dismal

While we were not able to get a quote on every single product, what we did see was a major turn-off to ever contemplating joining this institution. 

On the lending side, loan rates seemed roughly in line with the market, albeit a tad high.

However, on the savings and investment side, the rates offered on their products like money markets and CDs were substantially below current market rates. We don’t plan on putting any money here. 

A look at customer feedback gave us cause for concern

We looked at customer feedback across a number of review sites and were a little bit concerned about what we saw. Arizona Central Credit Union’s overall scores tended to be fairly low, hovering in roughly the 3.5 out of 5 range, which is not great. We will mention that this tended to be set on a fairly low number of reviews, however.

Most of the poor feedback seemed to hover around two topics. The first of having difficulty getting ahold of someone quickly and easily. The second was often having to do with moving money between accounts or out of the institution quickly and accurately.

We did note, however, that Arizona Central Credit Union does have an A+ accreditation from the Better Business Bureau. 

Map view of Arizona showing locations

Their technology stack is not very sophisticated

While Arizona Central Credit Union does offer online banking, it is quite basic. They call their online banking platform “eBRANCH” and it lets you complete basic tasks like paying bills, reviewing statements, and depositing checks. 

However, they do not offer a mobile app at this time, which puts them substantially behind other baking options consumers have. 

Additionally, in our review of customer feedback, we did notice a trend of complaints against the online banking platform functionality not always working properly – which was frequently cited as a source of frustration. 

For us, having a modern, fully functioning, and up-to-date tech stack is a must-have for anyone we keep our money with, so this was disappointing to see. 

ACCU's tiny size concerns us

While individual accounts at Arizona Central Credit Union are insured by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) up to $250K, ACCU is still a very small institution. 

As we’ve seen in recent years, the Federal Government in the USA only cares to rescue large financial institutions it deems important during tough times. Smaller institutions are allowed to fail. So, that has made us extremely wary of keeping any of our money in small institutions. 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Where can I log in to my account?

  • Navigate to Arizona Central Credit Union’s homepage and find the login link in the upper right-hand corner

Who owns Arizona Central Credit Union?

  • Arizona Central Credit Union is a private company owned by its 60K members

What is the largest credit union in Arizona?

  • Desert Financial Credit Union (by assets, with $8B+)

Who can join Arizona Central Credit Union?

  • As best we can tell, in the past, Arizona Central limited membership to various groups at different times. However, they now claim to be open to everyone.

Does Arizona Central Credit Union have Zelle?

  • Zelle payments do not appear to be integrated into their tech stack at this time. Zelle does not list ACCU as an official banking partner and ACCU does not call out if they are compatible or not.

How can I contact Arizona Central Credit Union?

  • You can try calling (866) 264-6421. They also offer a contact form you can fill out on their website. Their in-person branch hours are also listed on their website.

Editor's Note:

At Personal Finance Guru, we want to help you maximize your lifestyle through personal finance. You can trust the integrity of our independent financial advice. Our opinions are our own and have not been provided, reviewed, approved, or endorsed by any advertiser or financial product provider. To support and grow the site, however, we may receive compensation from the issuers of some products.

Meet the author:

Cody Beecham

Cody Beecham

Founder/Owner/Editor/Author

Cody is the founder and owner of Personal Finance Guru. His day job is as a management consultant at one of the Top 3 firms (think Mckinsey, Bain), where he advises Fortune 500 C-suite clients on their most important and pressing business problems. He completed his business education at Harvard Business School. 

After seeing the lack of personal finance education for regular people, Cody started the website with the mission to provide everyone access to information that will help them achieve their financial goals.

Cody approaches personal finance from a maximalist perspective, shunning typical advice around simply not buying a cup of coffee instead of more effective methods like investing in yourself to quickly grow your income. 

He believes in saving money and investing for the future, but he also knows that you need to enjoy life today. That’s why Cody approaches money with a sense of humor and a positive attitude. He knows that if you’re not having fun while you’re growing your wealth, then what’s the point?

Cody approaches life with the same gusto that he brings to personal finance. He loves to travel and experience new cultures, and he is an avid reader and learner. He also enjoys playing sports (especially tennis) and spending time with his family and friends.