Credit unions are, of course, financial institutions in the US (and possibly other countries) that receive relief from many taxes in exchange for agreeing to serve only certain clientele. Many credit unions were historically set up for employees of specific employers, but many have expanded their membership greatly since then and nowadays seem to give only a nominal nod to the idea of limited clientele. For example, I am a member of a credit union that was originally for local schoolteachers, but in reality their policies state that anyone with a degree from my alma mater can get in, regardless of what the degree is in or whether they intend to teach. In many cases, the membership criteria is mostly the same old stuff and broadly includes people who live, work, or attend school in a specified area, work for one of a long list of employers, have a degree from any of a list of schools, or are related to anyone who matches any of those criteria.
What are some credit unions that have interesting, arcane, bizarre, or just plain odd ways to qualify for membership? For example, I found the San Francisco Lee Federal Credit Union, which apparently requires you to belong to a fairly large family dynasty. In other words, it’s a bank* just for one family. Are there any other interesting credit union membership schemes? For example, are there any credit unions that grant membership to anyone who can beat Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on Hard Mode? Credit unions that grant membership to anyone who owns a full print set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica? Credit unions that grant membership to anyone who can pass a test in cursive writing? Credit unions that grant membership to anyone who is willing to dance a jig in front of other customers?
*Yes, I know that a credit union is not legally a bank, but it does quack somewhat like a duck.
Thanks. One possible way is by joining an organization. Are there any “join an organization” paths that are particularly interesting? E.g. to join the organization, you have to perform X, Y, and Z feats and undergo ordeal A. Afterwards, you can join the credit union as part of your recovery program from the ordeal. I suppose the “get a degree from school X” falls under this in a way, but it’s already been mentioned. Are there any other “ordeals” that one can undergo to qualify for something that grants credit union membership?
Thanks, but what I’m really after is credit unions that have something significantly different from this. For example, credit unions that accept people who neither live in, work in, worship in, nor go to school in one of three counties, but who own at least 1,000 pens, own a vintage Commodore 64 computer and appear in public touting its benefits over modern PC’s, or who, at any time in their life, have painted daisies on a big red rubber ball and then traveled to Boston in the fall within the next year.
I belonged for one that required you to be an employee of a company that make electronic devices. It merged with or was taken over by another one and I’m not sure what the criteria are now.
Was the requirement literally that you just had to work for any company whatsoever as long as that company made electronic devices, or are you simply referring to a specific company that did happen to make electronic devices and only people who worked for that specific company were in? If the first, then I would say it counts. I suppose, in theory, one could start their own electronics manufacturing company as a self-employed person and then sponsor themselves as an employee of their own company as long as the company was actually putting out electronic devices.
You could work for any company so long as that company made electronic devices. It was called the AEA Credit Union which stood for American Electronics Association.
It was taken over by KeyPoint Credit Union. It is for “anyone who lives, works, attends school or worships in Santa Clara County, Alameda County, El Dorado County, Placer County, San Mateo County, Sacramento County, Santa Barbara County, Contra Costa County and designated areas of Ventura County in California” according to their website.
When I was growing up, there was a credit union in my city for residents of German extraction. The rules were very clear - you had to either be an immigrant yourself, be the direct descendant of an immigrant, you had to Altdeutsch and Catholic. If you married into a member family, you could join, but if you came to the marriage with children, those children could not join. And if you left your marriage, you lost your membership.
This was all many years ago when I was a kid, so I’m not sure how it’s morphed since then. I know that credit unions have to have some sort of barrier to membership in order to be classed as a credit union and to realize the benefits that gives. There are three types of credit union - single common bond, multiple common bond and community.
That affected our educator’s credit union, who eventually opened up their membership to anyone who had attended area schools, not just taught in them. This one got taken to court, but they were allowed to make this change as the school system was considered to be the single common bond of all members.
My mom’s credit union (and I guess technically mine, too, since one of the accounts is joint) is open to members of our church. I’m not sure how rare that is, though.
Right, there has been a noticeable effort among many credit unions to expand their member base as much as they can while still retaining at least a nominal barrier. For example, Navy Federal Credit Union had a huge advertising campaign a few years ago that they were expanding their membership community to all military personnel, not just Navy. This sort of thing makes me suspect that there is a credit union or two out there that has come up with outlandish requirements in order to, in essence, engineer their own community. “Oh yes, our credit union members belong to the community of people who have partaken of The Credit Union Elixir at sunset on yonder hill overlooking our fine institution. The Elixir is mostly orange juice with a little Pepsi mixed in, want to try?”
The credit union I’m a member of is available to any current or former employee of the company, their close family (I don’t think it needs to be immediate, but there are some restrictions)…or anyone who pays $10 to join a particular charity.