Background:
I now have a full time job, my mother-in-law’s estate has been settled, and I got some cash for Christmas. This means I can start a savings account again. Yay me. The checking account is staying with our current bank. Yes, I do believe putting all my eggs in one basket is not a good idea.
Although I am a member of a very small (microscopic) credit union from my prior employer, which I’ll probably leave if I join one closer to home, I’m in the market for another one, one that is near where I live. I live in Lake County, Indiana, which is the Northwestern part of the state. I work part of the time in Porter County, Indiana. Those two facts may affect eligibility for membership.
So - does anyone have experience with NW IN credit unions? How can I do my “homework” on a credit union before joining?
When I lived in LaPorte, I used these guys First Trust.
In fact, even after I moved I had an account with them. I was able to transfer to a credit union out here very easily since it was part of the same network.
I don’t think there was anything I didn’t like about them. I had a car loan through them too with a better rate than Wells Fargo.
I don’t know how conveniently located they are in Lake County, but out here we can do business in any credit union that is part of their network. For example, we could pay on our loan in Indiana from the CU we eventually joined out here with no additional fees. Same for the using ATM.
FYI, these are the only A rated CU’s in Indiana according to Weiss:
CENTRA CU Columbus IN A-
CRANE FCU Odon IN A-
INDIANA UNIV CU Bloomington IN A-
SOUTH BEND FIREFIGHTERS FCU South Bend IN A-
THREE RIVERS FCU Fort Wayne IN A-
WHITING REFINERY FCU Whiting IN A-
OK… since there are, apparently, absolutely no “A” rated CU’s in either the county I live in or the county I work in that I qualify to join… does that mean I’m out of luck? Or are “B” ratings acceptable?
Good point. For us, our main credit union is located across the river in Maryland - but we can get cash at any credit union ATM anywhere without a fee. Many of them even will accept deposits for us (e.g. Pentagon Federal Credit Union’s ATM near us can take check deposits). For more involved transactions (loan payments etc.) we either do it online, by mail, or sometimes go to a smaller subset of credit unions that have a kiosk inside for a specific “service centers” network:
That thing is sort of a “super ATM” and can accept cash deposits, handle loan payments, etc. It may even have a higher withdrawal limit than the standard 300/day at most ATMs.
Anyway - use that link to see if there are any service center locations near you, if you wind up setting up an account at a place that’s not convenient to you. Obviously if there’s a closer place that you’re eligible to join, you’d do that - but you might not be eligible for something convenient.
As a side note: A lot of credit unions that target a specific audience (e.g. NASA credit union) also allow members of other interest groups and employers in. When a new NASA location was opening up, Typo Knig and my daughter were passing by and they really tried to persuade him to join; they said there were several clubs he could join, for free, that would make him eligible. As we had no need to change, we didn’t bother. But if there’s something convenient for you, look into whether you can get in by joining an organization.
Looking at Crane’s webpage, for example, there’s a loooooong list of employee groups:
I wonder how tough it would be to have your employer added to their list? Instructions are here.
Obviously I have no idea whether they’re anywhere near you, but if there’s an A-rated CU that is convenient, getting your employer added would be another option.