Best Credit Unions to use (Austin: mortgage, credit score, equity loans)

[phone man]

Austin telco for me since I am a telco worker. Remember cashing my first paycheck at their little branch that used to be inside the Southwestern Bell building at 1616 Guadalupe.

[malone7384]

I use University Federal Credit Union and love them. If you have direct deposit, they make it available to you a day early. You can also set up email alerts to let you know when your direct deposit has been posted to your account.

[goodlucksandiego]

Another vote for University Federal Credit Union.

The walk-in "drive up" concept took some getting used to, but everything else I like. They have smartphone apps (iphone much better than the android one as usual :-( ) for things like check deposits too.

FYI, it seems like most of the credit unions have a way of getting in if you don't qualify the usual way. Often they are not posted, so ask them on a visit in person. In UFCU's case I joined the longhorn association (whatever that is) for $30. Randolph-Brooks had a similar way to join, but I didn't join that one because I don't like banks doing credit checks on me just to hold my money - it's none of their business!

[salmuabe]

Greater Texas Federal Credit Union has earned my business over and over again since 1991. I can't speak highly enough of them.

[visajet]

Another vote for UFCU. Been with them for almost a year (since we moved to Austin) and only positives so far.

[texasboi]

wow thanks...alot of great choices...i'm going to look into A+ and UFCU...I think from what i'm reading are both great choices. They have online bill pay as well? With my iphone I can take a pic of a check and have it deposited in my chase account same day as available...do credit unions offer that app or same service too?

[texasboi]

I found the mobile app and reading up on the two...thank you all for your help

[Adamson865]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

You have to be a member of one of their support 'groups', although the number and variety of groups has grown exponentially over the past few decades. Anyway, some will require you to be a resident of a certain county, etc.

You're absolutely right. Here's Austin Telco's membership guidelines:

"Membership is open to anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in Austin's five county Metropolitan Area (Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell Counties) and members of their immediate family (parents, grandparents, spouse, children, grandchildren and siblings)."

Hard to not fit in that definition! I was a big fan of Austin Telco, and used their little branch at my old workplace at 1616 Guadalupe. That's long gone but I was always happy with their service.

[TexasHorseLady]

We've been with University Federal Credit Union for over 40 years now and see no reason to go elsewhere. They've done everything from suggesting we get a different kind of loan than we were asking for because it would save us a LOT of money in interest (that they would have received!) to dealing with an identity theft situation promptly and as painlessly as possible. We made sure our kids had accounts as early as possible so that they would be sure to have them when they were older, and they both still have them as adults. If you qualify for membership, I can't imagine that you could do better.

[buffettjr]

I was like you in considering switching to credit unions. I did a search here in the Austin forum and turned up some pretty informative threads on the topic. I was considering two in particular, and everyone kept raving about RBFCU's customer service. I ended up going with them, and so far I can back up the claims. I ended up opening accounts with them and then refinancing my house. They went the extra mile to get it done fast and I ended up locking in 30 years at just 3.375%! So far, so great.

Edit: And they do have an iphone / android app that lets you deposit checks by taking pictures of them.