As millions of New Yorkers continued Monday to struggle torecover from Hurricane Sandy's devastation, members of the $1.8 billionMunicipal Credit Union have had to contend with another problem –no cash and no funds in their accounts to pay their bills.

MCU now reports 14,000 members' accounts have not been creditedwith their direct deposits. On Friday, the credit union reported only 1,600 members did nothave their direct deposit funds posted to their accounts.

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Based in New York City, MCU serves about 340,000 members andoperates 18 branches throughout New York's boroughs.

Since last week, dozens of MCU members have been postingcomplaints after reading Credit Union Times articles aboutMCU issues with failing to credit direct deposit checks tomembers' accounts, no phone customer services, inoperable ATMs andproblems with online banking.

However, as of Monday morning, some MCU members reported thattheir direct deposit checks were posted at 9 a.m.

Michael Mattone, corporate communications manager for MCU, saidFriday that members should have their deposits posted by Fridayevening.

But Friday evening came and went, and some MCU members reportedtheir direct deposit checks had not been credited to theiraccounts.

“They stated “Friday Evening” that the deposits should beavailable. I checked and nothing. I even tried to use my cardearlier and it was declined. How embarrassing is this!” wrote MCUmember Stef Delvalle.

“It is now Saturday night and my money still hasn't posted!”wrote Vniles100

“The storm has passed and we are all trying to pick up thepieces and move forward. That becomes more difficult when yourpaycheck and other deposits are not available,” Wknivencommented.

MCU's vice president of marketing, Steve Kibitel, toldCredit Union Times on Sunday night that the credit unionfound that 14,000 member accounts had not yet been credited withtheir direct deposit accounts that should have been posted at theend of the month.

However, Kibitel said because of Hurricane Sandy that causedwidespread power outages, MCU did not receive the direct depositinformation from other entities in order to post those directdeposits to members' accounts last week.

“There are still a number of direct deposits we have notreceived from various agencies because they were closed for theweek after Hurricane Sandy,” said Kibitel. “We were expecting(direct deposit) files to come in and they didn't come in. When welooked at the number (of members affected) again, there was morethan what it was (originally) thought to be.”

Now that the power has been fully restored in New York, Kibitelsaid MCU will be able to resolve the direct deposit issue morequickly on Monday. He also said members will not be chargedoverdraft fees or insufficient fund fees that were trigged by thedirect deposit issue.

Typically, for direct deposits to be posted to accounts on the1^st and 15^th of every month, the directdeposit information is sent electronically from payers to payees'accounts a day or two before the 1^st or15^th.

Hurricane Sandy caused massive power outages on Oct. 29. In manyareas across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, power was lostfor days. Lower Manhattan where MCU has its headquarters and mainIT servers didn't have its power restored until Fridaynight/Saturday morning. Before that, MCU used a backup generator topower its servers and had employees manually process directdeposits.

MCU also said its backup servers in Carteret, N.J. still workedbut were not accessed by MCU employees until Wednesday, Oct. 31.Kibitel said those servers primarily helped operate the creditunion's website and IT support for its branches throughout NewYork.

However, MCU's phone system is still not operating and notelephone customer service is available for members.

“Once Verizon has our lines up, we will have our contact centerup full time,” said Kibitel. “But we have received no assessmentfrom Verizon as to when the phone lines will be back up.”

All of the credit union's branches are open except forthree, the Coney Island, Oceanside and East 70^th Streetlocations, which were heavily damaged by the storm, said Kibitel.MCU said its ATMs are working.

“I know it's really frustrating for members who have been unableto contact us, who haven't gotten money,” he said. “We totallyempathize with them. We want to get everyone back to 100%.”