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I will say it 1000 times. Everyone should have an account with a local community credit union as your primary daily expense account If you are living paycheck

I will say it 1000 times. Everyone should have an account with a local community credit union as your primary daily expense account If you are living paycheck to paycheck this is doubly true. Never trust your ability to buy food to a commercial bank

viraptor 3y ago
Is there some report that confirms the higher availability of local credit unions on average?
- bombcar 3y ago
  The smaller the credit union the more likely you can get it resolved during the next business day - mine is small enough that I'm often served by the bank manager just because she's the one on duty - and the main office is only a few miles away. When you can personally talk to someone who has basically "full control" lots of issues can go away quickly. Though I've personally never had an issue.
  - zeroonetwothree 3y ago
    I’m not sure how this is better than WF. The article says they resolved the issue by noon that day, which is pretty fast I would think.
  - viraptor 3y ago
    Sure, that's the impression. But does it actually hold up in practice for everyone, beyond anecdata?
Dalewyn 3y ago
I would trust a bigger bank more than I would a smaller bank, simply because the former has more money (or should, anyway...). Really though, the moral here is to not put all your eggs in one basket. Keep another checking and/or savings account at another bank, big or small, with ample funds so your finances are redundant in the face of freak incidents. And if you are really paranoid or just have bad luck with these things, keeping some physical cash at home for true emergencies certainly wouldn't hurt.
- teddyh 3y ago
  > I would trust a bigger bank more than I would a smaller bank I never understood this concept. Would you trust Amazon and Google more than a smaller provider? I trust big companies to still exist for the foreseeable future, but I don’t trust them to serve me, personally; they are known for disabling individual accounts for little or no reason and providing no recourse. The bigger the company, the less incentive they have to keep any individual customer.
  - rcdemski 3y ago
    That’s what I enjoy about a local credit union. In a worst case scenario there is a building local to me with folks personally invested in solving my problem.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  Credit unions are not "a smaller bank"; they work differently, they are regulated and insured differently, they are closely connected to the local community, and these are more than superficial differences. Credit unions are smaller businesses than some banks, so they may have fewer branches, less sophisticated mobile apps, etc. but it's nice to walk into your home branch where everybody knows your name, like in that TV show about a bar.
  - vel0city 3y ago
    On the flip side, I've literally never walked into a branch of any bank I've ever actually banked at. The only times I've ever walked into a bank was to make large cash withdrawals that most ATMs wouldn't honor, but those were never at a bank I actually had an account with. And those times it was just a large debit card transaction, zero fees. Going to an actual, physical bank location just seems archaic to me. It's about as dated as going to a Blockbuster to rent a movie. Outside of maybe some big business loan negotiations I can't imagine needing an actual person to really talk to for basic banking needs. What banking task would be better handled taking time to travel to the bank, wait in line, talk to a person who may or may not remember you, and have them do it as opposed to just doing it yourself on your computer anytime anywhere anyplace? Note, I'm not talking about investing, as there can often be a lot of questions about how specific investment products actually work. I'm only talking basic banking like checking, savings, CDs, credit cards, and auto/home/personal loans. I don't do any real complex investing at places where I do my banking.
jrm4 3y ago
People should extend this to tech; I don't understand why anyone would e.g. use Google for a business email account. Who do you call and yell at when something breaks? Pay a smaller company for this. Don't actually yell of course, in my case you beg for forgiveness and get pleasantly surprised, like the time when my dad accidentally deleted LITERALLY ALL OF HIS LAW FIRM EMAIL, and I had no idea what I could do. Provider was able to roll back the server a day for a whopping 15 bucks.
zeroonetwothree 3y ago
Is there evidence that a CU is less likely to have technical issues?
- pclmulqdq 3y ago
  They are a lot more likely to not fuck you over if they do. The big bank will have customer service stonewall you until you threaten to sue them enough times.
zippergz 3y ago
Honestly I think these days credit unions are way overrated. The true small independent ones that look out for their members are a rarity, and non-existent in many areas. They've merged, or shifted strategies, and most of them are driving for higher profits the same way that the major banks are. But the difference is that they usually have way worse technology, and fewer branches, so you get the inconvenience of an old school credit union without the benefits. It's often the worst of both worlds. I do still have a credit union account, but I think people need to be really careful about just jumping to a CU and expecting it to be great. You have to do your research and try to find one that is actually still decent, if that even exists in your location.
- phpisthebest 3y ago
  I feel sorry for your community Around here community credit unions are still plentiful. I am still a member of a credit union not in my current community as a moved away, but I use the services of the local credit union like it was own, the credit union here services about just this metro area, and the credit union that holds my account services just the former metro area I used to live in I did have a auto loan shortly with one of the large nationwide credit unions but I did not have the loan long so i can say if they were good or bad. I also have accounts with banks like including those on the "technical edge" of financial system, I find the technology stack of my local credit union to be on par with those more "technical" banks for banking services. Now some of banks also have non-banking services like Wealth management, investing, crypto, etc that my credit union does not have but I dont expect that from a credit union, nor would i want them to expand into that.
  - zippergz 3y ago
    I have experienced this in three states, so it's not limited to a single community, but I'm glad to hear that it can be better in some places.
- xeromal 3y ago
  Yeah, people are quick to recommend credit unions but they are not always the godsend commentors claim they are.
twobitshifter 3y ago
I do this. The biggest drawback for me with this is that many online services are using plaid or equivalent for setting up payments and my local credit union isn’t on their radar. I can do it, eventually, but you have to find the screen that allows the small transfer verification method, which takes days to set up. A lesser drawback is that there are other virtual checking accounts that pay almost 5% interest and that means that the cost of having a credit union account can be bigger than expected. We have just $7000 in one of those virtual checking accounts and it paid over $20 last month. I say this as lesser because it’s always possible to move money from checking into investments, it’s just much easier when it happens without any friction.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

viraptor 3y ago

Is there some report that confirms the higher availability of local credit unions on average?

bombcar 3y ago
The smaller the credit union the more likely you can get it resolved during the next business day - mine is small enough that I'm often served by the bank manager just because she's the one on duty - and the main office is only a few miles away. When you can personally talk to someone who has basically "full control" lots of issues can go away quickly. Though I've personally never had an issue.
- zeroonetwothree 3y ago
  I’m not sure how this is better than WF. The article says they resolved the issue by noon that day, which is pretty fast I would think.
- viraptor 3y ago
  Sure, that's the impression. But does it actually hold up in practice for everyone, beyond anecdata?

Dalewyn 3y ago

I would trust a bigger bank more than I would a smaller bank, simply because the former has more money (or should, anyway...). Really though, the moral here is to not put all your eggs in one basket. Keep another checking and/or savings account at another bank, big or small, with ample funds so your finances are redundant in the face of freak incidents. And if you are really paranoid or just have bad luck with these things, keeping some physical cash at home for true emergencies certainly wouldn't hurt.

teddyh 3y ago
> I would trust a bigger bank more than I would a smaller bank I never understood this concept. Would you trust Amazon and Google more than a smaller provider? I trust big companies to still exist for the foreseeable future, but I don’t trust them to serve me, personally; they are known for disabling individual accounts for little or no reason and providing no recourse. The bigger the company, the less incentive they have to keep any individual customer.
- rcdemski 3y ago
  That’s what I enjoy about a local credit union. In a worst case scenario there is a building local to me with folks personally invested in solving my problem.
NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
Credit unions are not "a smaller bank"; they work differently, they are regulated and insured differently, they are closely connected to the local community, and these are more than superficial differences. Credit unions are smaller businesses than some banks, so they may have fewer branches, less sophisticated mobile apps, etc. but it's nice to walk into your home branch where everybody knows your name, like in that TV show about a bar.
- vel0city 3y ago
  On the flip side, I've literally never walked into a branch of any bank I've ever actually banked at. The only times I've ever walked into a bank was to make large cash withdrawals that most ATMs wouldn't honor, but those were never at a bank I actually had an account with. And those times it was just a large debit card transaction, zero fees. Going to an actual, physical bank location just seems archaic to me. It's about as dated as going to a Blockbuster to rent a movie. Outside of maybe some big business loan negotiations I can't imagine needing an actual person to really talk to for basic banking needs. What banking task would be better handled taking time to travel to the bank, wait in line, talk to a person who may or may not remember you, and have them do it as opposed to just doing it yourself on your computer anytime anywhere anyplace? Note, I'm not talking about investing, as there can often be a lot of questions about how specific investment products actually work. I'm only talking basic banking like checking, savings, CDs, credit cards, and auto/home/personal loans. I don't do any real complex investing at places where I do my banking.

jrm4 3y ago

People should extend this to tech; I don't understand why anyone would e.g. use Google for a business email account. Who do you call and yell at when something breaks? Pay a smaller company for this. Don't actually yell of course, in my case you beg for forgiveness and get pleasantly surprised, like the time when my dad accidentally deleted LITERALLY ALL OF HIS LAW FIRM EMAIL, and I had no idea what I could do. Provider was able to roll back the server a day for a whopping 15 bucks.

zeroonetwothree 3y ago

Is there evidence that a CU is less likely to have technical issues?

pclmulqdq 3y ago
They are a lot more likely to not fuck you over if they do. The big bank will have customer service stonewall you until you threaten to sue them enough times.

zippergz 3y ago

Honestly I think these days credit unions are way overrated. The true small independent ones that look out for their members are a rarity, and non-existent in many areas. They've merged, or shifted strategies, and most of them are driving for higher profits the same way that the major banks are. But the difference is that they usually have way worse technology, and fewer branches, so you get the inconvenience of an old school credit union without the benefits. It's often the worst of both worlds. I do still have a credit union account, but I think people need to be really careful about just jumping to a CU and expecting it to be great. You have to do your research and try to find one that is actually still decent, if that even exists in your location.

phpisthebest 3y ago
I feel sorry for your community Around here community credit unions are still plentiful. I am still a member of a credit union not in my current community as a moved away, but I use the services of the local credit union like it was own, the credit union here services about just this metro area, and the credit union that holds my account services just the former metro area I used to live in I did have a auto loan shortly with one of the large nationwide credit unions but I did not have the loan long so i can say if they were good or bad. I also have accounts with banks like including those on the "technical edge" of financial system, I find the technology stack of my local credit union to be on par with those more "technical" banks for banking services. Now some of banks also have non-banking services like Wealth management, investing, crypto, etc that my credit union does not have but I dont expect that from a credit union, nor would i want them to expand into that.
- zippergz 3y ago
  I have experienced this in three states, so it's not limited to a single community, but I'm glad to hear that it can be better in some places.
xeromal 3y ago
Yeah, people are quick to recommend credit unions but they are not always the godsend commentors claim they are.

twobitshifter 3y ago

I do this. The biggest drawback for me with this is that many online services are using plaid or equivalent for setting up payments and my local credit union isn’t on their radar. I can do it, eventually, but you have to find the screen that allows the small transfer verification method, which takes days to set up. A lesser drawback is that there are other virtual checking accounts that pay almost 5% interest and that means that the cost of having a credit union account can be bigger than expected. We have just $7000 in one of those virtual checking accounts and it paid over $20 last month. I say this as lesser because it’s always possible to move money from checking into investments, it’s just much easier when it happens without any friction.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]