At your credit union, you're a member-owner. You and
other members collectively own the enterprise. A not-for profit credit
union doesn't make money to pay shareholders, but to benefit members.
That means you benefit from breaks on loan rates and better savings
rates. Fees help services pay their way; they don't enrich paid members
of a board and shareholders as at a bank. Credit unions are cooperative
businesses.
If you become a customer of a bank, you have no control
of your financial institution. As a credit union member, you and other
members can help nominate and elect your credit union's volunteer
board. They supervise the CEO who runs the credit union. At a bank,
you have no say over its board of directors or its CEO, or any other big
decision. Unless you are a stockholder, the only vote you can cast at a
bank is to take your business elsewhere.
Because a credit union is democratically controlled, each
member gets one vote regardless of how much business he or she does with
the credit union. At a bank, a well-compensated group of stockholders
make all the decisions that matter - like appointing the board of
directors and selecting the CEO.
Ok, now you're not sure you want all that responsibility
that ownership implies. Think about that for a minute. You don't have
to be a board member...you don't even have to vote if you don't want
to. But the point is that at a credit union, unlike a bank, you make a
choice whether or not to participate in the process. At a bank, you
have no choice - and no say.
The most current Credit Union National Association
(CUNA) fees survey confirms that credit unions offer more favorable
terms than banks for debit and ATM (automated teller machine) card
transactions:
*Credit unions are somewhat less likely than banks to charge a
per-transaction fee for PIN-based (personal identification number) debit
transactions at the point-of-sale, and many credit unions allow a number
of free transactions before charging this fee.
*Credit unions are less likely than banks to charge members for using
non-owned ATMs, and the average per-transaction fee is lower for credit
unions than banks.
*Credit unions are less likely than banks to surcharge nonmembers for
using their ATMs, and the average surcharge is 20 cents lower. Many
credit unions belong to a surcharge-free ATM network.
How can credit unions afford to do this? Bill Hampel, CUNA’s chief
economist, sums it up this way: “Credit unions are a better choice
because they’re true cooperatives, owned by members. They exist to
please members, not some outside entity, as banks do. A significant
‘expense’ that banks have--and credit unions do not--is to keep
stockholders satisfied. This frees credit unions to offer members more
attractive terms in the form of lower loan rates, higher interest or
dividends on savings, and fewer and lower fees.”
Copyright 2005 Credit Union National Association Inc. Information
subject to change without notice.
Terrorists, money launderers, computer hackers,
counterfeiters--it’s enough to make you stay up nights worrying if you
and your money are safe.
Credit unions play a role in helping the government bring these types of
bad guys to justice. Some of your credit union’s actions to help law
enforcement may be apparent, but credit unions take other
“behind-the-scenes” steps to help protect you and our nation.
All financial institutions must have systems in place to generally track
if there are unusual flows of funds into or out of both personal and
business accounts. A financial institution must have some idea of what a
person does or how the person normally uses the account to assess what
is suspicious activity. The Bank Secrecy Act requires credit unions and
other financial institutions to periodically look through their
membership and customer names for matches against a list of names under
federal investigation.
Credit unions also are required to comply with “OFAC.” OFAC isn’t a law
but rather stands for the Office of Foreign Assets Control, also part of
the Treasury Department. OFAC is responsible for making sure that
Americans comply with about 10 laws involving foreign trade sanctions,
money laundering, and terrorism financing. OFAC maintains a list of
people, organizations, and countries that are prohibited from receiving
or sending funds or from opening accounts. All financial institutions
must check the names of people who want to open accounts, take out
loans, wire money, purchase money orders, and conduct other transactions
against the OFAC list. If there is a match, a financial institution is
required to block or freeze property and payment of any funds, and to
report the action to OFAC. The “OFAC list” is publicly available on the
Treasury’s Web site.
Your credit union is committed to complying with all these laws designed
to help assure that America’s financial sector remains safe, sound, and
serving the financial needs of families and businesses.
Your savings federally insured to at least $250,000 and backed by the full faith and credit of the United State Government. National Credit Union Administration, a U.S. Government Agency.
Branch:
846 Commonwealth Avenue - Boston, MA 02215
