TIAAReviews of tiaa.org

TIAA has provided me with the absolute worst customer service experiences of my entire life. The TIAA customer service experience can best be described as abysmal. Because of restrictions that they impose (and blame on my previous employer), it is going to take me 17 years to get my retirement savings out of them. I'm not certain I will live that long. Nothing was disclosed at any step of the process. This is an unscrupulous company, with no regard for the customer. Please, stay away from them.

My personal id information was leaked/stolen from TIAA in 2024. My social security number, birthdate and other identifying information showed up on the dark web, linked to TIAA, according to Microsoft. In addition, their customer service is particularly poor. They are not available on weekends or late night. Their website is frequently unavailable or rejects my valid logon. TIAA often forces me to change investment funds in my retirement accounts at TIAA. I suspect to get larger fees. Their fund choices generally have higher fees than others. I was forced to use a TIAA retirement account because I worked for a University.

Put the wrong amount of contribution and didn't fix it.

TIAA CREF is borderline FRAUDULENT. There should be a law against holding your money hostage for months! A transfer of funds to a new employer should not take 6 months. It took them 3 months to verify that I no longer worked at the 3 district in South Carolina from 2008-2023, Even though I have lived in Florida for 2 years! LOL They finally sent checks a month or so ago, but they must still be in the TIAA-CREF mailroom. Anything to hold onto that money so that they can make 'FREE' interest. This began in February or March. It is annoying!

The funds are OK but their back office service is abysmal. Last Tuesday I tried to sell and transfer to my checking account some of my assets there and it is going to take at least a week though I need the cash now.

A close relative spoke to a representative, opening an IRA with 5,000 by the April 15th tax deadline. She had money directly deposited in the newly opened account and received an "account opened" notice from TIAA. She just checked yesterday, looking to allocate the 5,000 -- and found 0 funds in the account. The rep failed to tell her that she'd need a picture ID sent to TIAA, as per the "Patriot's Act" -- and that the funds were sent back to her along with a letter -- to the very address they were trying to confirm, apparently! She never received any communicaiton from the company on this and would never have known that she had an empty account. So now she will need to amend her taxes and pay the taxes she thought she had saved by opening the IRA. What a gigantic hassle -- all because the representative didn't do his job effectively. Of course, she spoke to two different people over 40 minutes to get any information at all -- and no one apologized or assumed any kind of responsibiity for this huge omission and ensuing problems caused by this company.

Absolutely the worst company to communicate with. I lost my mom in March 2025 who had TIAA as your retirement and i am still getting the run around about her benefits. Even though i am the beneficiary I had to hire a lawyer to get anywhere with them, and they are still dragging there feet. It's bad enough dealing with the death of a loved one then u have to deal with this company. I wish I could give them 0 stars

TIAA Contacted me today. About their CREF. I hadn't thought to much about them lately. I have an account with them after working for a company. The interaction was amazingly rude for someone who wants my business. I have interviewed many people in my work, I expected a professional.