What are the advantages of belonging to a credit union instead of a bank,if any? Are Federal credit unions any different/better than your regular,run of the mill ones?
I belong to a federal credit union, most credit unions have lower loan rates and less paper work.
ILLEGITIMUS NON CARBORUNDUM EST
One thing about STATE-Chartered credit unions-I lived in RI, and back in 1989, the collapse of several large credit unions nearly brought down the whole state banking system. If a CU operates within one state only, then it is exempt from many of the Federal banking laws-so BE VERY CAREFUL! This makes CU’s ideal for crooked management to rape and plunder their assets-and many in RI were NOT federally insured!
My credit union is state-chartered, but fear not: The state it’s chartered in is California, which is the biggest, most bureaucratic state government in the U.S…
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Yes, those Orange county bonds were certainly a good deal, weren’t they 
I happen to like my credit union (and yes, it’s Federally regulated and Federally insured) fees and interest rates are lower and we’ve usually gotten approval for a car loan or second mortgage in a day or less. The only two glitches I’ve come across are that they pay lower interest than the more competitive banks (so we only keep a token savings account)and they only handle personal accounts – so when I wanted to open a business checking account they couldn’t help me.
And my credit union is in a network that offers no ATM charges. Granted, they don’t have that many machines around the area, but there’s one near my home.
I understand all the words, they just don’t make sense together like that.
kunilou wrote:
Cripes, I’ve been putting all my money in my Credit Union accounts because I thought the interest rates were supposed to be higher than accounts at a bank!
I have got to get my head out of the sand.