That's a legally required quirk of credit unions; in order to get a federal charter/license to operate, they have to define a field of membership[1]. That said

That's a legally required quirk of credit unions; in order to get a federal charter/license to operate, they have to define a field of membership[1]. That said, I've never had a credit union bring up membership requirements post-joining, and have been able to both use existing accounts and open additional accounts at credit unions long after no longer qualifying for their field of membership. A lot of credit unions even participate in shared branching[2], which lets you use the physical branches of one credit union to manage the account you have with another. Which comes in handy for the few things you can't use ATMs or online banking for, such as large transactions beyond ATM limits or depositing cash. [1] https://www.ncua.gov/support-services/credit-union-resources-expansion/field-membership-expansion https://www.ncua.gov/support-services/credit-union-resources... [2] https://www.thebalance.com/co-op-shared-branches-how-customers-benefit-4177758 https://www.thebalance.com/co-op-shared-branches-how-custome...