They are not perfect (their professional org is supporting the debit interchange hysteria) but credit unions, in my experience, are friendlier and more humane than banks, and interested in helping their customer/owners manage their financial lives reasonably, instead of nickel&diming them for profits.
The chief disadvantage of credit unions (limited branches/atms) is less of a factor these days, since many credit unions do online banking, and, for the purposes of withdrawing cash, many belong to some sort of ATM network (and possibly also shared branching, so you can do things like get cashier's checks at some other credit union, if yours is inconvenient for some reason.)
The thing that is currently very frustrating about credit unions is that a lot of them, for reasons which I do not understand, are really opaque about who is eligible for membership. It's usually geography or affiliation (often employer-related) that determines eligibility.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-04-23 05:03 am (UTC)The chief disadvantage of credit unions (limited branches/atms) is less of a factor these days, since many credit unions do online banking, and, for the purposes of withdrawing cash, many belong to some sort of ATM network (and possibly also shared branching, so you can do things like get cashier's checks at some other credit union, if yours is inconvenient for some reason.)
The thing that is currently very frustrating about credit unions is that a lot of them, for reasons which I do not understand, are really opaque about who is eligible for membership. It's usually geography or affiliation (often employer-related) that determines eligibility.