BB&T acquired the failed Colonial Bank in 2009, which had branches in Texas. As a result, BB&T now has 22 branches in Texas with expansion plans for more. In fact, they just recently came in second in the running to acquire Sterling Bank, which was acquired instead by Comerica.
In the past month, I’ve had two reminders of ways in which the credit union is better than the bank.
We refinanced in mid-December, through our credit union. Though they charged a loan origination fee of 3/4 of a point, I was quite annoyed at some tricks the bank had charged when we refinanced 2 years ago - including taking nearly 3 months to complete the deal (though they did honor the rate, to be fair), and telling us at the last minute that the deal required that our HELOC be frozen.
Anyway… early January, I noticed that the escrow account with the credit union had been credited with interest for the portion of December where they held our money (the bigbank mortgage company had never done this). OK, it was 12 cents… but still - it was INTEREST. Similarly in early February. A whopping 32 cents this time :).
Then… last week we got an escrow disclosure statement showing the expected balance in the escrow account with anticipated disbursements over the next year. Usually the low point must be 2 months worth of escrow payments. So if they think our taxes and insurance will total 6,000 for the year or 500 a month, they don’t want the escrow to drop below a thousand. That’s cool.
The credit union, however, has a minimum figure of zero dollars.
So they’re refunding the “excess” escrow.
Of course, we’re going to toss that right at either the HELOC or the primary mortgage, but still - that’s THAT MUCH MORE they’re saving us.