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Does'nt a member have to pay some sort of "Subscription" fee to become a Member?
It's usually something nominal like a $5 deposit in a share (savings) account that you can't withdraw until you close the account. You are buying a small position of ownership in the credit union by doing so.
I am a member of the nation's largest CU, I have been a member since about 1985 when they were consolidating with other small CUs that all served the same employer. Before that time each of my employer's regional locations had it's own local CU. Now since they combined, they are world wide.
I like how friendly they are for buying new vehicles.
And home mortgages.
they have always been a bit less formal about doing things. If a member writes a check for more then they have in their checking account [okay I know these are the wrong phrases], they check and if you have funds in other accounts, they will automatically transfer funds to cover the check. then they notify you of their action.
They also sponsor college scholarships [for the children of members], and disaster relief funds [for members].
It doesn't matter who is the "biggest" CU is because you can withdraw and deposit from your account through "most" CUs without any charge.... I have an out of state CU that I have had for about a decade and have withdrawn and deposited at different CU's throughout the country without any charge... I tried to do it once at a corporate bank and they wanted money... CU's don't charge a lot of fees that corporate banks do and if they do, its almost always cheaper than what a corporate bank charges... unfortunately most people go to "brand name" banks because they "think" its "better"... most of the time its not.. what I would do is have a "main" account with a CU and do most of your transactions from it, then have a "corporate" bank if you want to earn money with higher interest rates (unless you want to go with IRAs, CDs, mutual funds, etc etc)... seems a lot of "older" Americans prefer saving in a bank account then investing it...
I was just looking into credit unions today in search of a better return...
US Bank is now paying my 1/10 of one percent on a checking account and I told them I just about to the point of taking all of my money out in cash and putting it my mattress... because at least I would get something out of it
Provident is big in my area... comments anyone ???
Cdelena gave you the right answer! Often times Credit Unions can offer better "deals" than the big banks simply by virtue of being smaller & having less political (shareholders,board members,etc) to deal with
Credit Unions are also much more "user friendly" due to their smaller size & "family" attitude
I don't you'll go wrong
Ed at Genesis
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Credit Union
