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Credit Unions - A Good Alternative To Most Banks
By Sandy Naidu | June 25, 2008
According to ‘National Credit Union Association Inc, today there are over 150 credit unions, with 3,500,000 members with assets in excess of $34 Billion. Credit Unions offer almost all the facilities of banks but unlike banks they are ‘not for profit’ organisations. Credit Unions are owned and controlled by people who use its services.
The customers of a credit union are called ‘members’ of a credit union. Anyone can apply for membership to a credit union (as long as you meet the age and residency requirements). To become a member of a credit union, you need to purchase shares in the Credit Union…The total value of the shares you need to purchase usually ranges between $2 and $10. By becoming a member you are infact owning a part of the Credit Union. All the profits of a credit unionare invested back into the Credit Union to improve services offered.
Credit Unions offer all the banking facilities…They offer credit cards, debit cards, competitive rates for all loans and deposits and most of them also have a good online banking facility. A lot of them even offer insurance products. They donot charge any transaction or account keeping fees…
They ofcourse don’t have as many branches as banks do…But to overcome this disadvantage they have increased the number of ATMs. They also might not have specialized products/services that banks offer. But then again not everyone needs these specialized products…So I guess it all depends on your needs and requirements…Don’t overlook Credit Unions…If they meet your needs then give them a serious thought.
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One Response to “Credit Unions - A Good Alternative To Most Banks”
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October 22nd, 2008 at 11:27 am
This is great info to know.