650,000 join Credit Unions!

[POS Racing]

Was reading where an estimated 650,000 have joined Credit Unions in the past month. This is pretty interesting and seems to show a lot of people are getting fed up with big banks. Has anyone joined a CU recently?

Wife and I switched to TCCU (Tarrant County Credit Uniion) earlier this month because our old bank (of 20+ years) was making noise about more & higher fees.

http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/11/system110311-10.html

[boisking]

Not recently. I have been a credit union user for about a decade now. I actually left one for another CU when the board voted to change it's organization and become a bank.

Navy FCU here.

[POS Racing]

Yea our old bank was originally a credit union and became a bank... At first we didn't have a problem with the change but then they just kept wanting to change things to help themselves to more of my pennies and that's why we decided to make the switch back to a full blown credit union.

[OZMDD]

We've used CU of Texas (formerly Dallas Teachers CU) for loans for years, but recently moved some other accounts after BOA got greedy.

[Squid]

I am thinking of dumping BofA for USAA.

[cone-cerned]

We have been members of credit unions for about 40 years. First it was AtlanticRichfield CU, then we joined the local teachers CU when I started teaching about 25 years ago. I barely remember when we had our money in a bank in Duncanville.

[MiataProtege]

I recently switched to Navy Federal with suggestions from my father. He works for Bank of America... and uses Navy Federal.

[Majik]

I have really been considering it.

[jeepinbanditrider]

I've been an EECU member since I was 14 when I got my first (tax paying) job. I also have an account with Navy Federal which is my "fun money" account where I keep money for parts and what not. I have insurance and a personal loan though USAA but no bank accounts with them. The biggest bank I'm part of is Navy Federal.

[goofygrin]

We had (well still have) a cu account that was my wife's forever. We switched to Chase many moons ago for closer branch locations.

Chase has been good to us and we don't have any fees (I do have a bunch of accounts there including business accounts though) so we're not interested in moving.

I also don't have/use a debit card, so the recently talked about debit card bs doesn't affect me.

I do have a Penfed account that I use for CDs (I have some @ 6%+) and auto loans as needed.

[Rob®]

I'm with gooygrin - I have no desire to move my checking accounts from BoA. I use my card as a "credit" card and don't pay any fees. A person at the counter told me this is how it would stay too. I honestly didn't think anyone used their cards as a debit card since random places charge you like 50 cents to enter your PIN anyway. And it's just annoying to have to enter your PIN.

I don't pay a monthly fee on either of my checking accounts there, and no minimum balances are needed. I have student accounts though, so maybe that's it?

The only reason I have a BoA savings account is for their Keep the Change thing, which I will leave in there all year till they match it, then dump that couple hundred into my checking account. There are no fees on that service either. My actual savings accounts are through ING, which also have no fees or minimum balances.

I do have a loan through EECU, so if BoA suddenly wants to get feisty I will jump ship, but as of now I don't see what the commotion is/was all about.

[jeff_man]

Get USAA, never have problem again.

[goofygrin]

Not joining the military just to get a bank account. Sorry.

[altiain]

We have all of our bank accounts through BoA for convenience. Moved from Wachovia last year when Wells Fargo took them over and suddenly I could only get my accounts serviced at certain branches (stupid bank mergers).

I maintain 6 different accounts at BoA and don't pay fees on any of them. However, one of those accounts is our mortgage, which is quite lucrative for BoA even at ~4%.

[trickyrix]

Not joining the military just to get a bank account. Sorry.

You don't have to join the military, you just need a family member who's been in at some point.

[jeff_man]

Not joining the military just to get a bank account. Sorry.

I never served, there is more then that way to get in.

[trickyrix]

I've been with Wells Fargo ever since they took over the old First State Bank in Denton - way back when I was a student at UNT. I've never paid fees, the Tom Thumb branches are convenient for me if I need them, and their online interface kicks BoA's ass all over the place. My only complaint was with WF's mortgage branch. When I started shopping for a loan, WF was my first thought, but they didn't have a good enough deal. Even though I turned them down, they kept calling and sending me crap in the mail and basically being pushy bastards for a couple of weeks.

I've dealt with BoA for credit cards and, given that experience, I hope I never have to deal with them on any level again.

[Rob®]

We have all of our bank accounts through BoA for convenience.

That's why I switched to BoA when I moved to Florida - there was a branch/ATM every few miles. But now BoA is about the most inconvenient bank to actually get to out here. Luckily I very rarely need to deposit a physical check or go to a counter for any reason. But yeah, the rare time I do need to I ask myself why I haven't switched to a bank that has a location within 30 minutes of the house.

I've been thinking to switch my checking accounts to ING so everything is in one place, but the thought of switching the direct deposits and all that crap doesn't seem worth the effort to me. But since I will more than likely need to find a new job in the next few months, I might have to revisit this.

[SirHustlerEsq]

I have Regions and don't mind the $4 fee to use a magic card to pay for things and get a team of bank peoples to watch my account for thieves. Also, the bank was nice enough to drop this charge recently.

[Rob®]

get a team of bank peoples to watch my account for thieves.

BoA does this too . Last time I was in Mexico (few months ago) I had to call their fraud protection number to confirm it was me using the card out of country. First time, thanks for making sure. Fifth or sixth time on the same day for like $20 worth of drinks, really? I also had to call it from a dive shop in Grand Cayman (any amount of account history data should have prevented me from having to make that call). They do it in country too, especially around the holidays or if you suddenly start spending dumb amounts of money when/where you usually don't. There was never a fee for this.

They were also incredibly easy to work with when my fiance filled out one of those fake BoA email things (yes, I was shocked she fell for it too).

Not defending BoA at all, just saying that they have the same free service as well.