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Comment by pjmorris | Hacker News Reader

Early in 2008, on principle, we switched from a 'Too Big To Fail' bank to a credit union. It was a pain, and is occasionally inconvenient, but that pain is outweighed by the satisfaction in reading the headlines and being glad I'm not funding them anymore.

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Could you explain to a non-american how using a credit union differs from using a bank in the US? And how it's more painful?

No difference, apart from the credit union being local and beholden, primarily, to people in the community. Using the credit union wasn't the painful part, closing our old accounts and opening new ones was. We had too many accounts at one time, a function of having recently married, running my own business, and having a group of investment accounts.

Credit unions are non-profit member-owned cooperatives. You as a customer/member are the owner of the credit union, thus the credit union has an onus to have lower fees/loan rates but higher savings rates. Banks on the other hand are owned by shareholders. This can lead to a race to the bottom in terms of customer service in the name of keeping expenses low.

Full disclosure: I serve on the board of a credit union; although, I also hold accounts at banks.

> that pain is outweighed by the satisfaction in reading the headlines and being glad I'm not funding them anymore.

The lack of simple usage (account, transaction) fees, better interest rates, and better account security features do it for me.

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