Why does anyone have an account at Bank of America or Wells Fargo? There is a community bank in every town in the country.
I used a credit union for a short period as a means for managing my finances during a rough period. I had to walk three miles to open the account. Same when there was a delay between signing up for direct deposit and I needed to cash my paycheck. I was also doing side gigs in my free time, so more walks for personal checks.
I managed to get through it, but I was lucky. This was during a time of year when the weather was accommodating, but it easily could have happened during the winter.
There is a Wells Fargo less than a five minute walk from me, however. I can easily imagine that some people can’t take the time (kids) or don’t have good enough health to make the sacrifice involved in choosing a small institution over what is geographically accessible.
Having said that, if there’s a Wells Fargo 5 minutes away, then I absolutely get why someone would choose to bank there than walk 3 miles to a credit union. Just because I don’t find walking to be a particularly big deal, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t minimise it if options exist to do so.
They had made some mistakes, specifically saying they could extend the initial certification beyond 30 days when they could not, and couldn't disperse the funds without having the loan re-certified by a loan officer. Unfortunately, it was a Saturday and there were no loan officers on-hand. Double unfortunately, they needed the original bill of sale (pink carbon paper) to certify the loan.
Every single bit of the process of getting this loan was like pulling teeth. That said, they pulled it off even on a Saturday. They realized they had made a mistake, they called in a loan officer who came to the branch on a Saturday and certified the loan. They even stayed open about two hours late so we could drive to the dealership and get the pink-slip and drive back.
While the whole process was kafkaesque compared to dealer financing, unlike dealer financing these people were friendly and genuinely seemed to want to help and they did genuinely everything in their power to actually help.
And, I got a crazy-low interest rate on my loan too.
If they just spent a bit more time on their process, say, a PDF with a list of information on what you need to provide for a loan and when and things like approval expiration timelines they could make the process so much more pleasurable.
In any event, A+++ would credit union again.
But recently I realized that my primary credit union account, opened around 2007 or so, charges an ATM withdrawal fee ON TOP OF the ATM fee of the bank that owns the ATM.
I withdraw cash so rarely that I haven't noticed this when the policy changed (when I opened the account, the credit union was REFUNDING the ATM fee assessed by other banks).
Needless to say, I'm getting out of there. Probably to another credit union, though; I've had less-than-pleasant experiences with banks in the past (especially before the Obama administration outlawed opt-out "overdraft protection" scams that these banks were running).
Once I tried to make two payments because i was late the previous month. They manually decided that I must of made a mistake and failed to make one of the payments (they assumed it was mistake and never notified me). As a result my insurance was cancelled and renewing my policy cost me around $1700. That was at BOA 20 years ago and I've used credit unions ever since. Since I was barley getting by at the time I had no recourse.
In all these cases, I could not get the fees reversed on the phone, but had to visit a branch in person, where the branch manager was indignant that I had the gall to rob the financial institution of their fees. I did get the fees refunded. And two weeks ago, I closed all my accounts with them.
I am fortunate to have a community bank that acts the way my credit union once did. The only quibble I've ever had with them is with the staff not knowing the rules on overdraft fees.
Customer friendliness can vary a lot even within a bank/credit union depending on the customer and personal banker, since a lot of fee waivers are discretionary. E.g. if a banker has a fee waiver limit per month then they can help you at the start but not later in the month.
Part of the issue is that since rates have been so low, the traditional net interest margin of banks has been squeezed so they turn to fees to compensate.
So, you have found it to be true.
The one in my hometown went from carries the bland name of "Commercial Bank" instead of "<Town Name> State Bank".
While the common interest requirements for credit unions have been weakened, the best credit unions are probably ones that still are attached to a strong community of common interest.
Can you elaborate on the difference? I.e. why credit union incentives are different than big banks.
> A credit union is a member-owned financial cooperative, democratically controlled by its members[.]
For many, many years, I used an online-only checking/savings account. Its pretty viable, unless you have frequent urgent needs (like getting paid, and needing cash from that check the same day).