Anthony Padron: Racing to Care for Members

What do you do when your credit union has a dormant account with $318,000 in it? And you only have literal hours left on the clock before the account is shut down and the government takes the money? And you’ve tried everything to get in touch with the account owner? Well, almost everything? Here’s a thought – ask Anthony Padron for help.

As manager of member care for Arizona with GTE Financial Credit Union ($2.2 billion, Tampa, Fla., about 230,000 members), Padron has approached his job, particularly a recent dormant account, with incredible persistence.

This story about Padron, 36, actually ends in Arizona, but begins in Tampa with a man and his 2006 Toyota Corolla.

CU Times spent some time with Padron recently to talk about a story we noticed a few months ago that was originally reported in the Tampa Bay Times. We talked about his life, his soul, his credit union and what turned out to be one of the most rewarding days of his life in April 2019.

CU Times: Four years ago you were looking to change jobs. What change were you looking for?

Padron: I was in the medical [insurance] field previously. I had always alternated between financial and medical; those are the two largest employers in the Tampa Bay market. The medical field was not good for my soul. I wanted to get to someplace where I could impact people in a positive way.

CU Times: What did you notice when you started working at GTE Financial, as far as your soul?

Padron: The department that I started working in, now the department that I’m over, is customer service. I was three or four months into the job at GTE Financial and I thought there would be a good product that we could offer our members. We want to be valued and we want to be heard, even if the idea can’t come to fruition. And that’s what I really appreciated; GTE has allowed me to express my ideas, express what I think could be beneficial and really heard me out.

CU Times: You deal with dormant accounts at times. One account in particular was … unusual?

Padron: So, the dormant account in this situation was a report that went to Tanya [Pratt, vice president of member care and experience]. We typically send letters out, we figure out what address there is and we make phone calls. She got a tough one where letters weren’t doing anything and the phone calls weren’t doing anything. We weren’t able to get in touch. I saw that look of frustration on her face and I was like, “Hey, what do you got for me? What’s going on?”

CU Times: When Tanya hands this to you, what are you thinking?

Padron: We’re looking at it in her office and we’re trying to figure it out. And it’s by far the largest amount of money I’ve seen in a dormant account – it’s not even close. Maybe 10 bucks, 15 bucks, maybe $100 or $500 on occasion; this was not that. This was a significant, life-changing amount of money, especially for a member who has been with us for such a long time. We were just looking at the options. There’s an address that’s linked to them that’s nearby and our phones are pretty amazing so I just threw it into Google Maps and wondered, how far is this address? It’s 15 minutes away! [I said,] you [Tanya] keep calling and I’ll drive over, and worst case scenario, we did everything could. We sent the letters. We sent the letters everywhere. We made the phone calls. At least we can say that we crossed everything off.

It was the last day. We were hitting the five-year mark that day. If we don’t get in touch with the member to claim the money, it goes to the state.

$318,000 for my family, that’s a whole house. That’s a lot of money and I couldn’t in good faith not try everything to get that one done.

CU Times: What did you do?

Padron: I’m driving over and it’s a residential neighborhood that I eventually arrive in. And I think it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon; again we are getting to the last few hours of the day, and there were kids outside this house … and I’m just like, this is the house!

So I got out of my Corolla, walk up to, you know cautiously walk up … I’m not a big fan of just walking up to people’s houses. [I asked,] “Hey, I’m from GTE Financial, are your parents home? Can I just have a moment to talk to one of your parents? I just have a quick question.”

So they go inside and get dad, and dad comes out and he’s on the phone and I can already hear Tanya’s voice coming out the other end of the phone because Tanya had been calling the whole entire time, [it was] the only number that we had. And I just remember the look on his face and he said, “Well, I guess you guys are pretty serious. This number has called me 10 times today and I was about to shut this phone off because I was tired of it ringing.”

Then we kind of go through the process of, “Hey, here’s what’s going on.” He was listed as the beneficiary on the account.

CU Times: What was his reaction when you said the amount out loud?

Padron: He was shocked. It’s one of those things where if I told you, “Hey, I found you 50 bucks. Hey, that’s awesome!” Once you get into $318,000, that’s just too large of a number and he had that look on his face like, I don’t believe this is a thing. I can’t believe that this is actually happening. It’s not like I’m showing up with some oversized check and some balloons like Ed McMahon. He’s just like, “Wait, what? What do I do?” And then we just kind of went through the steps with him.

CU Times: At that point are you thinking, “Hurry up! Hurry up!”

Padron: Yes! I tell him, “Look, we need a deposit into the account. Do you have a dollar? It doesn’t have to be anything big, just any dollar amount.” He said, “I don’t have any cash, but I think there are four quarters in the truck.” As soon as he hands me those quarters I give him my information and say, “Look, I’m going to leave you on the phone with Tanya and I’m going to run back to the office and get this deposit done.”

Then I jet back to headquarters to get that deposited in before 5 o’clock.

CU Times: How much time did you have to spare?

Padron: Probably an hour.

CU Times: Once you made that deposit, how did you feel?

Padron: Oh, I am not athletic at all, but I was trying to do cartwheels. It was just awesome! Again, I didn’t think there was a chance that this would work out. And then it did, so it’s awesome. It’s like your team hitting a full-court shot at the buzzer. You don’t expect it. You’re just excited! I was on cloud nine for a while there.

CU Times: Do you have any advice for others in your position at other credit unions?

Padron: Keep the perspective of, how would you want someone to fight for you? How would you want to help you if you were in that situation? Put yourself in their situation and in their shoes. Just follow that. We forget to refocus back on the really basic principal of, help them out if they were your grandmother on the phone, your grandfather on the phone or your parents on the phone, or if it was you on the phone.

In November 2019, Padron was promoted to his current management position and moved to Phoenix from Tampa in January to run a new GTE Financial Member Care facility that’s currently under construction. His family will be making the move soon. He said, “I can’t see myself ever working for another company.”

Unfortunately, his Toyota Corolla died a few months ago. He said sadly, “I couldn’t be happier with that car.”