Banks drive customers to Credit Unions

[Will Collier]

I'm an involuntary Chase customer (former Wamu), and after dealing with Chase's bureaucracy this week over a bill payment that they screwed up (but still debited my account for), I'm good and ready to fire them.

I'm a USAA member, think I'll give them a shot.

[OWC Jamie]

At BaO Saturday for yet another FU noticed a sign on the door about changes to FDIC coverage amounts dropping.

[Grateful11]

Our CU uses an ATM system called Cash Points. There's tons of them around here but not sure
about outside the state. They have a lot standalone ATM's.

[Seacrest]

mattkime wrote:
>>If banks hadn't been bailed out and, had been allowed to fail due to their bad decisions, I think we'd all have been better off.

Ug, no no no. As hateful as these institutions may be, they still play a critical role in our economy and one that most consumers don't see.

The real effects of bailing out the banks have only begun to be felt.
There will be more consequences down the line that will leave us worse off, and that could have probably been mitigated had we not bailed out the banks, or at least not bailed them out out in such a favorable (to them) manner. Even if one buys your argument that the notion of "bailouts" is good, this particular bailout was done very poorly -- it rewarded abject failure, and did not set the table for meaningful reform.
Here's another book recommendation.

[mattkime]

>>The real effects of bailing out the banks have only begun to be felt.

I've heard this take a few times before and I'm curious -

Are you aware that the banking system teetered on the brink of freezing up? If lending came to a halt in this country as it nearly did, the recession would have been far more devastating. Lending is an integral component of business.

Yes, it is particularly nasty that the bailouts "reward" failure. I'm not arguing that it was even done particularly well. However, I will argue that we narrowly avoided disaster and whatever mud we're wearing now is a minor inconvenience in comparison.

[ztirffritz]

I throw up in my mouth a little bit every time I say it, but I agree with mattkime. As much as I would have loved to see the banks get reamed for their questionable practices, we can't live without them. What is frustrating is that they only started loaning money again to shut up the US govt. We handed them gobs of money and they just let it trickle out. They are basically laundering the money to make it look legit so that they don't need to repay it. Nonetheless, it had to be done.

edit: I should clarify that it isn't the act of agreeing with matt that makes me throw up. It is the act of agreeing with his statement that the bank bailout was necessary.

[Numo]

A couple of weeks ago, I rolled over a one year IRA CD in my credit union at 2.25%.

My regular bank is offering the same CD at 0.1%.

No lie.

[thermarest]

My CU offers no-fee ATM withdrawl from all Wells Fargo machines. Its a little bit of 'best of both worlds.'

I feel dirty about it, but I'm kind of hooked on airline-branded credit cards for the ff miles, so I'm still in bed with BoA and Citi. Eeeeww.

[Seacrest]

Yes, I am fully aware that Life As We Know It would have come to and end.
It inexorably, eventually will.

That we were able to temporarily forestall the inevitable will only make the day of reckoning (sounds spooky, I know).

Even discounting that, though, there were other options besides giving these institutions GIANT FREAKING Ed McMahon-like blank checks. There were also steps we should and could have taken to prevent the run-up in the first place.

[RAMd®d]

My question is if they had access to a CU why weren't they in it before.


Convenience and qualifications.

Because of previous qualifications, a lot of people didn't have the access to CUs that they do now.

And as kap says, access to ATMs is a factor.

And as Seacrest says, advertising is another factor. And it's huge. Even Savings and Loans don't spend nearly the money on advertising that banks do. That *did* increase after the S&L scandal a few years back when they started calling themselves things like "savings banks" to distance them from the S&L stigma.

My bank, Wells Fargo, isn't charging me any fees at the moment. Their NSF check fees are pricey, but I don't have any problems there.

I'll have to check into my CU's ATM policies. For many, many years, there were about six ATMs on the West Coast. (No, not six institutions, six ATM's. That's probably improved some, by now.