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I didn't have credit when I opened my account with a CU. I don't even think they ran a credit check.

I had little (and mostly bad) credit when I opened my first CU account. Wasn't a problem, at all.

It might, OTOH, be hard with the same kind of bad account history that will stop you from being able to open a regular bank account, but that's different from regular no credit or bad credit.

Most small and medium size banks don't pull your credit report. Its Chex Systems to see if you have any deposit accounts in bad standing. Some also pull fraud scores from experian or equifax as well to see if you information has been used in identity theft recently.

No credit, or bad credit?

I can confirm at least for my union, they had no issue with my very bad credit. They were more concerned with recent debts and rent, things like that.

Background: For the record, it was due to defaulting on a student loan. It's taken care of now, but back then I couldn't afford the 10% interest rate.