Posted on 11/17/2008 6:16:36 PM PST by RKBA Democrat
My recent article on the advantages of credit unions versus traditional banks and savings institutions generated a lot of reader interest. One of the interested readers was Benson Porter, a former Washington Mutual executive, now chief executive of Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union.
In a recent interview, Porter reinforced some of the differences between credit unions and their banking counterparts, many of which were captured in my previous article. See related column.
Then he shared several important ways credit unions are breaking old molds and evolving faster than some may realize:
Practically anyone can join. In the old days, most credit unions were organized around one or a select few employers. You had to be an employee to be eligible. By law, today, you still have to belong to something, but that's gotten a lot easier. For instance, you can become an Addison Avenue member simply by joining the non-profit Financial Fitness Association. The membership fee is $5.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Agree, Credit Unions Rock, they seem to always have better rates.
SCSECU here and my money is pretty safe.
“You don’t “survive” socialism..it progressively gets worse until everyone is a slave to the government.”
And you’re telling us....?
There will be relative winners and losers when the day is done. Key word: relative. I intend that myself and my family will be on the winning side of the ledger. I hope you’ll choose to be as well.
More become dependent, more socialists win elections.
More socialists win elections, more become dependent.
I think, going forward, we need people to keep alive the memory of the prosperous "old America" of the 1990s and 2000s. We need to strike down - immediately - the lie that that old America is somehow racist or inadequate: it is neither.
Opponents will prey upon the false notion of inevitable progress: "Oh, you just want to turn back the clock!" We counter this by merely presenting the objective comparison ala Ronaldus Magnus: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Obama's "change" mantra, four years from now, gets turned back onto his own head. "You like the 'change' so far, America?"
SoCons need to get out into the Hispanic communities and demonstrate our kindred values about the family: valuing life, honoring our loved ones, keeping families together. It's pointless now to be stuck on "woulda shoulda coulda... if only!" with regard to immigration reform. I believe Hispanics will be a key component of our future success. And they DO share socially, if not economically, conservative values.
We have a great advantage over the Twentieth Century societies that crumbled to socialism: we remember the "good times" since they are not yet that far in the past. Yes, there will be a time of wandering in the wilderness as we must eat the bitter fruit we've sown, but YES WE CAN rebuild, with God's blessing and our perseverance.
Credit unions are full service banks that Savings and Loans could not be under the Glas-Steagle Act. They are depositor owned and responsive. Check out of your mega bank and hit a Credit Union as soon as you can. The only exception might be your home mortgage..where you can shop around. But car loans, credit cards, checking accounts and deposit accounts and stocks..they are the best deal.
There will be relative winners for this generation...the next will have an entirely different meaning of winning and it will be much more difficult to obtain. As you get older you tend to think ahead with an eye on what has happened in the past. They don’t call commies “progressives” for nothing.
Thanks for the advice. Already ditched my bank earlier this year for a CU because of dishonest on the part of the bank with regard to the “true” balance and spurious overdraft charges. The CU is a very lean, low-overhead operation by comparison. So far, have been happy with them.
Also, for many credit unions, they are linked into a network where you can do basic services like get cash out of any of the members, not just your own. I haven’t been to my credit union branch in five years, because I now live across the country.
I must be the only person who doesn’t have any issues with bank fees being levied upon me. I go out of my way to avoid them and have rarely if ever had any problems with them being assessed to me.
Bookmark
I never ever pay any bank fees, because I carefully avoid them. I stick with a bank as opposed to a credit union mainly because of the convenience of many branches everywhere, including when I travel in other states.
Plus my bank (Wells Fargo) is solvent. They were one of the banks in the forced meeting with Emperor Paulson who were all forced to sign a paper permitting the goobermint to buy up stock in their banks if they chose to. The Wells Fargo CEO was one of the few CEO’s who objected because WF is solvent and doesn’t need or want any “bail-outs”. I don’t know what Paulson threatened the CEO’s with in that meeting, but they all signed, even the ones who were reluctant to do so.
Thank you for pinging me.
ping
When I was in the Army, we had an awesome Credit Union on base. In fact when my Mom was in her 40’s and wanted to go to school and couldn’t find the money, I took out a loan from that CU to send her back to school.
She became an X-Ray Tech, and had a great career. She’s retired now, but I’m still so proud of how she got that chance at a career (other than just being my Mom, which WAS a full time job, LOL!) and ran with it. The CU made that possible, because they took a chance on us. :)
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