VACU Mobile 17+

Bring back the old app

I’ve been a satisfied customer of VACU for a long time now, but the new, “upgraded” VACU app is a downgrade in every single conceivable way. I have no idea what on earth would possess them to roll out this new app.

First, appearance: the new app looks like a website from 2008. The text is way too small, and everything feels very… angular, for lack of a better word.

APPS AREN’T MEANT TO BE WEBSITES! If I wanted to use the website, I’d just log on in my browser!

Second, functionality: this is where the new app sincerely disappoints. On the old app, I could see my credit card balance and transfer the appropriate funds in like 2 clicks. It took me FOREVER to figure out how to pay my balance in the new app, and I only finally figured it out because one of their “hints” popped up at the top of the screen that detailed the ridiculously unintuitive way to make the transfer.

(Now you have to hit menu > transfers and payments > credit card and loan payments > then enter the information > submit. That may not seem like a lot, but it’s not intuitive and I probably would have never figured it out if not for the “hint” that appeared.)

I sincerely HATE the new app. I am sorry to whomever designed it, because I’m sure it took some time, but I just cannot understand why they would create an objectively worse user experience when the previous one was fine.

Developer Response ,

Hello, Breanna. Thank you for your membership and your feedback. We are committed to improving members’ experience and will make sure your feedback is considered as we continue to improve the app.

0/5 Stars

This new VACU app is so bad that, in conjunction with the VACU Manage Cards app, I am here to write my first app review, ever. I can’t imagine they did any significant user testing. Half the features don’t work, the ones that do are clunky as heck or just take you to a webpage that doesn’t work, the graphics are bizarre. It’s cluttered, it’s crammed. The More button is useless and redundant.

Users often initially react negatively to app changes/upgrades because change takes adjustment. I hope VACU realizes the feedback they are getting is not because of change hate, but because the app truly blows.

I wish we could bring back the old app when you still had the feature to redeem cash back in it. It was simple but it worked and had all I needed in a banking app.

Developer Response ,

Hello. Thank you for your membership and your detailed feedback. We are committed to improving members’ experience and will make sure your feedback is considered as we continue to improve the app.

Functional but obtuse

VACU requires this app for use with business accounts and while it’s mostly functional, there are numerous obtuse and specific things that don’t work and make it annoying to use. The signup process to even begin using it, took almost an entire morning to figure out. Extremely specific information was required resulting in dozens of incorrect signup attempts…despite it all being information they had already.

Numerous other quirks abound: It will not for example allow mobile deposit of official checks like those normally printed by the government or large institutions. It throws an error saying that you must write ‘For mobile deposit at VACU’ but does not recognize it when you do so. Overall, a functional in most regards but poorly designed experience.