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> large banks also neglect real communities that need their services during the good times. Sure, but isn’t that problem solved by credit unions?

• tathougies 8y ago
  To be honest, almost all banking services are solved by credit unions. This begs the question of why we even need for-profit international banks.
  • patio11 8y ago
    They’re really helpful if you want to live in a world with for-profit international companies. (You want to live in a world with for-profit international companies.)
    • frgtpsswrdlame 8y ago
      Total Edit: Banks don't have to be international to support international companies.
  • 1123581321 8y ago
    Ive worked at a credit union. I’m supportive of the idea. However, credit unions aren’t efficient or even capable of providing all banking services people want. They’re especially poor at banking for people who travel internationally, and at providing business banking. Also, most credit unions either use federal (national) credit unions and large banks for services. We bought our cash from JP Morgan, sold our mortgages to US Bank and kept reserves with a federal CU. Without these services, expenses would have been higher or services would have been reduced.
    • Consultant32452 8y ago
      Interestingly, I had the opposite experience. In my area the credit unions have fees equal to our greater than the big banks for personal accounts. However, one local credit union had the best stats for my small business account. It's worth noting I did not travel internationally or do any international business. Also, their ATM was the old green screen style as late as 2015 and did not accept deposits.
      • 1123581321 8y ago
        Interesting! I suppose if in any community enough CUs can specialize in all the necessary banking services, the case for exclusively using them is easier to make. Yes, the lagging technology is a big problem. We were still renting a T1 and two phone lines from AT&T for connecting to online banking on a server in the break room. We did manage to switch from 24 hour to relatively instant reconciliation of things like ATM withdrawals, but our tech was badly lagging state of the art retail banking. In some ways this kept service more personable, but also caused account attrition. And I don’t think we were especially worse than other CUs of our size. And yes, I fought hard for any change we could afford, and yes, the board was disinterested. One member owned a paper supply company and actually pushed back against e-statement marketing so he could supply more paper. It might as well have been a scene from The Office.
    • cowsandmilk 8y ago
      > Also, most credit unions either use federal (national) credit unions and large banks for services. We bought our cash from JP Morgan, sold our mortgages to US Bank and kept reserves with a federal CU. Without these services, expenses would have been higher or services would have been reduced. Sure, but this happens at big banks as well. My company's bank is part of the Santander Group, which literally has trillions of assets, but they use Wells Fargo for many services. Every bank uses other banks for certain services at this point.
      • 1123581321 8y ago
        Yes, but it matters if someone wants local credit unions to make large banks unnecessary, the credit unions need to do things differently. I don’t have a problem with the co-existence and business relations of these different types of financials, but the person to which I replied did.
  • ajdlinux 8y ago
    Do credit unions have the capital to service the lending needs of national/international-scale companies? (genuine question, I have no idea how banking works)
    • tathougies 8y ago
      No, but this is no a bad thing, because these sorts of large financing projects can be funded via direct sale of notes to the public or an issuance of stock. We can still have consulting companies that advise companies on how to arrange these sales, and advertise them internationally (similar to what an investment bank does now).
  • pseingatl 8y ago
    Are there no credit unions in American Samoa? They are relatively easy to create.