Because all my money goes straight to the house payment. Even if there is a CU that would allow me to keep a mostly empty balance, what advantage is there that outweighs the effort needed to get in?
I have to admit that of all the reasons I thought I might see in this thread, “Failure to spend enough money on advertising” was not one of them. Different strokes, I guess.
My credit union was really easy to join. It’s another one that only requires you to work/live/worship/spend time in a particular county, and they’re very loose with that requirement. Very friendly, multiple branches located conveniently around my city, including one half a mile from my house, banking options I like, and excellent loan interest rates. I’ll never go back to a bank again.
I bank with Charles Schwab, who offers the same benefits I see people indicating credit unions offer. Schwab also offers full service brokerage operations, which I haven’t seen available at credit unions. I’m able to manage my checking, savings, brokerage account, and IRAs all at Schwab.
I was in a credit union at my former employer. Used it as kind of a Christmas fund to save up to buy gifts for my husband. $x a week; when Christmas or his birthday rolled around, I’d have cash to spend on him. When I left the company, I had about $100 in the account.
I went in to close it and the clerk talked me into leaving it open, saying it would enable me to finance a car, etc. We had previously used it as leverage when buying a car (“Why, we could get a better rate than that at my wife’s credit union!”) so I took about half and left the balance of $50. For about three years I’d get interest on it of a few cents a quarter, and once they notified me I’d have to have some activity on it to keep it open, so I deposited a few bucks.
Then they hit me with a $25 fee for inactivity, with no notice. That was like half the balance. Cheesed me off so much I closed the account, which I should have done in the first place.
Because BofA has ATMs on every block. I have enough money in my account that I don’t pay any fees. I also get free stock trades. I can pay all my bills online electronically (without fees).
I do major banking (mortgages, lines of credit, that sort of thing) with a credit union, minor banking (chequing account) with a major Bank (TD), and savings with ING Direct.
I don’t see any downside to having multiple financial institutions.
Well, it’s not as though I’m saying “Haha! Pander to me with your money or else!”
More like “Huh? Credit unions? Yeah, those exist, I guess. I don’t know where the nearest one is or how to join or why I’d want to do but I guess this does mark the first time in many months I’ve spent even this much time thinking about them.”
I had an account with a credit union at one point. Had direct deposit of my paycheck (major convenience), except:
Once, they put MY money in somebody else’s account and HIS money into mine! He mad about 1/2 what I do and I’d already written my checks for the month, knowing my paycheck had been deposited (I’m on salary, so I knew how much to expect).
The owner of the company called the CU and told them they would honor all of my checks, no overdraft fees, etc. thank goodness.
Dropped them not long after that.
Isn’t free online bill-pay pretty much standard these days? (Maybe this is a hopelessly naive question.)
I’ve been with US Bank for 15 years and never had a single fee charged to my account. No minimums required, no limit on checks written (as far as I know, I don’t write many). My HELOC is 2.99%, my mortgage is locked at 3.5% and I got $300 off closing costs for opening a savings account with $25 in it (that I don’t use, so the $25 just sits there) plus I got another $900 off because the loan officer was a friend of my dad’s so I got a family discount.
Why wouldn’t I want to use US Bank? Why would I go through the trouble of switching?
That’s not to say that a credit union couldn’t match that…but I’m not going to make the switch for someone to match it. If I’m going to go through the trouble (and expense) of switching, they need to do better. Can your credit union do better then free checking and 3.5% on a mortgage?
No.
I said my mortgage was locked in at 30 years. According to that page I’d have to sign a 15 year mortgage to beat it by .125%. Plus, what are the closing costs? You have to do the math and figure out how long it would take for the savings to pay for themselves. Let’s say I owe 150K. My very quick math says I would save about $15 a month. How long to recoup the closing costs?
You didn’t ask “Can I switch my current mortgage to a mortgage at your credit union and have the savings pay for themselves including closing costs and at same loan length?”
You asked if my credit union can beat 3.5% and free checking. It can.
Fine, you win.
I’m in Ontario, Canada. YMMV depending on your location. I shopped around to see who could provide integrated mixed trust and general accounts, a revolving line of credit, full service internet and 24-hour telephone banking, support for simple international transactions, deposit insurance, and most importantly, an experienced account manager. It didn’t go well when it came to credit unions in my city.
Why did I shop for a credit union before going with a bank? Credit unions made it possible for working stiffs to get homes when banks wouldn’t touch them. Credit unions made it possible for small business to get credit so that they could succeed when banks wouldn’t touch them. The co-operative movement made life a lot better for a lot of people in my city, and credit unions were part of this. I respect and admire that. I am glad that I gave them a chance, but ultimately, what they offered did not suit my needs.
One didn’t have voice mail so I could not leave a message when I called to make my inquiries. Two did not return my calls. Two did return my calls, but had no clue what so ever about how to handle my mixed trust account (I wanted to have them pay the interest to a third party, and bill the service fees to my general account), did not offer internet and telephone banking at anything other than at a Mickey-Mouse level, and did not have deposit insurance. One of these two did not know how to handle simple international transactions.
A couple of years later, I had a car loan through a credit union (they offered the best rate at the time). When the loan was paid, they kept taking money from my bank account. I called and left a message, but they did not return my call, so I attended in person and closed my credit union account.
Bottom line: credit unions did not make the grade for me. Yes, I realize that banks also screw up. I deal with banks and bank related mortgage companies all the time, and never cease to be amazed at just how severely they can bugger things up, but even then, banks have a greater knowledge and experience base to draw upon when they screw up, and offer the services that credit unions in my region simply do not offer.
I think that credit unions in my region do nicely for wage earners who want a chequing account, a home mortgage, and a car loan. I would not use a either a credit union or a local bank branch for investment advice, for in the conversations I have had over the years with various credit union and bank branch managers, they are managers, not investment experts, and they are blissfully unaware of how to handle investments to minimize tax and protect against creditors. Banks tend to push their own products exclusively, which is not a good thing. Neither credit unions nor bank branches at the local level have a clue as to when there are advantages of investing through an insurance product (it’s an Ontario thing – YMMV). I would not place significant funds in a credit union because they have far less ability to take a major hit, they tend to make a greater proportion of their investments locally (resulting in the risk not being spread about as much), and (here in Canada) they do not have government backed deposit insurance for nest eggs.
I joined both BofA and the hospital’s employee credit union when I moved here. I joined the credit union because my coworkers said I should, but it had weird hours and no ATMs anywhere other than the hospital, so I opened an account at BofA, because there was a branch close by and it seemed convenient. The credit union sucked - besides the weird hours, the customer service was absolutely abysmal. So I mostly used BofA.
When I got married, we opened up a joint account at my husband’s credit union, where he’s had an account since childhood. They seem to be a decent place, with good online banking, a good number of branches, and pretty good customer service, so I think that I’ll be moving everything over there soon, to get away from BofA’s new fees. My main problem with this credit union is that I can’t have two accounts there. We want to have a joint account and our own separate accounts, but this place only lets you be the “primary” account holder on one account. That’s a pain in the ass.
The mention of Chase, and having access to a local bank almost anywhere, is one reason I can think of to not use a credit union (or at least not exclusively).
On the other hand, with some CUs waiving / reimbursing ATM access fees, and with the ability to do at least some transactions via other CU’s ATMs, it’s less critical.
I don’t think I’d be comfortable being CU-only if I didn’t live in an area that’s reasonably well-saturated with other CUs, just because of the ATM / deposit situation.
Another reason to not use a CU (not exclusively anyway): few of them offer safety deposit boxes. Interestingly, one branch of one local CU does, but we don’t happen to have our household accounts there (the kids have accounts there).
The only bank deposit account we have anymore is at a bank that has boxes near our house; we keep just enough money in a savings account there to keep from paying monthly account fees. We could have the box even if we didn’t have the account, but it would cost twice as much.
Antigen, interesting about not being able to have two accounts. We have a joint account, and I have a separate “me only” account at our credit union, but my husband never bothered. I wonder now if they’d have let him do so. I’m also on joint accounts with both of the kids and it was never an issue.
Asked and answered :).
Ours requires you to maintain a minimum balance in your share account (the savings account). That’s all.
The minimum balance? 5.00
Yes - five dollars.
And for that we get free checks. Free ATM transactions at pretty much any credit union ATM anywhere in the US (at least I haven’t been charged at any local CU, and when I got money last year 3 time zones away, no fee either), better rates on car loans (I could get a 5-year loan for 2.5% right now), OK if not stellar mortgage loan rates (the one area our CU doesn’t compete all that well), no fees tied to failing to maintain a minimum balance, etc.
I admit that it’s a hassle to switch, and you might well be doing just as well with whatever your current bank is - or at least close enough that it isn’t worth the effort. But with all the griping I hear about some of the Big Banks, an awful lot of people could do a lot better by switching.
Airman and I keep our joint accounts at a large local credit union that has three branches in our town alone, and boatloads of other branches in the area. When we travel, we can use any ATM at any credit union for free. I’ve never had bad customer service ever, and the tellers actually know what they’re doing. I even get free notary service when I’ve needed it. I’m also eligible to join several others based on school affiliations, military service, or previous membership, but I see no need to open accounts there mainly because they’re a) virtual branches only, so I’d have to mail in deposits or do all of my banking through an ATM, which doesn’t make me happy; or b) they’re out of state, which also makes things difficult.
That being said, aside from local ownership, I no longer see the benefit in the distinction between banks and credit unions. The bank where I keep my separate account has most, if not all, of the same services as the credit union. This may be because our current credit union is large relative to most credit unions.
Don’t know about Chase or Wells Fargo , but Citi has 3200 ATMs in branches, another 6000 in 7-11s and customers have surcharge-fee access to 17,000 Money pass ATMs and 900 ATMs at Publix stores across the country . My credit union ( MCU) gives me surcharge-free access to under 100 ATM’s , all in NYC.