Credit Unions?

[aztex]

Hi,

Full time RV'er based out of Livingston TX, currently in NM.

Anyone here using a credit union they like? Can I apply online?

I'm self employed and want to take my business banking with me. I'd love to see if they can offer me a lower APR on a business credit card or line of credit.

Established business, 765 FICO, no derogatory credit marks or red flags. I'd bring my cash savings over with me. I'm a real good bet to do business with!

 

Thanks!

[Twotoes]

I believe that there are several Banks and Credit Unions in or near Livingston, TX, Escapees HQ, that are familiar with Escapees members banking needs , especially full timers. 

[GlennWest]

We use Houston Federal CU. Have for decades. 

Alliant is another good one. 

[trailertraveler]

Not sure about their products for business, but if you are a veteran, you could check out USAA or Navy Federal Credit Union. Penn Federal is also popular with RVers because of their credit card cash back program on fuel purchases. 

[agesilaus]

OK Clark Howard is a radio consumer guy, I occasionally catch him online. His recomendations for online banking are:

Best online banks 2021

 

I have no personal experience with any of them. And for military credit unions:

Military Credit unions

 

I see a lot of folks recomending USAA if you are ex-military. Some on the list allow anyone to join tho.

I want to switch over to a more friendly bank or credit union, ours is a hassel to deal with to say the least and they been sold to another bank for the third or fourth time too.

[Jim & Alice]

We've had good success with Alliant Credit Union over our last 8 years of Full-timing.   We've also kept our long-time local Credit Union as a 2nd one, mainly to handle local expenses of our house that we kept.  

 

[bigjim]

I currently use Navy Federal Credit Union. Not retired but was Marine Corp, Air Force, Air NG, AF reserve, and DOD Civilian.  I also use KirtlandFCU on and adjacent to Kirtland AFB at Albuquerque. Have also used "community" credit unions, Red River Army depot credit union and a few more I can't remember. I much prefer credit unions to banks. I have been with Navy Federal and Kirtland the longest. Navy has a lot more branches around the US. Military affiliated credit unions have a high number of ATM ability through a network that don't charge atm fee's

I think Alliant CU is a community CU.

Edited August 16, 2021 by bigjim
correct typing error

[Ranger Smith]

4 hours ago, Jim & Alice said:

We've had good success with Alliant Credit Union over our last 8 years of Full-timing.   We've also kept our long-time local Credit Union as a 2nd one, mainly to handle local expenses of our house that we kept.  

 

I Second Alliant . . . Very easy to deal with . . . Took no more than 15 minutes for approval of 200k rv finance.

[SWharton]

x2 for Alliant, Excellent service

[whj469]

I have the Dow Employees Credit Union. I am not a Dow employee or retiree. An auto dealer found them for me when I was buying a new truck. They had the lowest interest rate at the time. They are in Lake Jackson south of Houston but you can use any credit union's ATMs for free.

[Shelley]

On 7/19/2021 at 3:24 PM, Ranger Smith said:

I Second Alliant . . . Very easy to deal with . . . Took no more than 15 minutes for approval of 200k rv finance.

 

[Shelley]

I applied for Alliant over the weekend. I got a message that something of my information didn’t match what they had and they’ll have to review it. Maybe it’s because I just moved into my RV.

[Kirk W]

4 minutes ago, Shelley said:

Maybe it’s because I just moved into my RV.

It could easily be an address issue. I would contact them by phone.

[Ranger Smith]

Probably used a different address from what was on your credit report?? I always use the address on the report.

[2gypsies]

4 hours ago, Shelley said:

I applied for Alliant over the weekend. I got a message that something of my information didn’t match what they had and they’ll have to review it. Maybe it’s because I just moved into my RV.

Can you give them a call?

[RV_]

You can't go wrong with the recommends here. Just a clarification. USAA is not a credit union but a Federal Savings bank.

"The bank operates as a subsidiary of United Services Automobile Association. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation records and based on the institution's charter type, USAA Federal Savings Bank is classified as a savings associations, state or federal charter, supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).

https://www.bankbranchlocator.com/usaa-federal-savings-bank/#:~:text=The bank operates as a subsidiary of United,supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).

 

[Pappy Yokum]

On 8/16/2021 at 11:12 AM, RV_ said:

You can't go wrong with the recommends here. Just a clarification. USAA is not a credit union but a Federal Savings bank.

"The bank operates as a subsidiary of United Services Automobile Association. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation records and based on the institution's charter type, USAA Federal Savings Bank is classified as a savings associations, state or federal charter, supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).

https://www.bankbranchlocator.com/usaa-federal-savings-bank/#:~:text=The bank operates as a subsidiary of United,supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).

 

 

Don't be misled by the "implication" (in TV ads, or?) that USAA is a credit union.  As stated above, it is not.

I just finished talking to a USMC Vet who happened to have some "dealings" with USAA simply over whether she wanted to join  (she did not).  They signed her up w/o her permission.  Apparently she knew the appropriate regulations better than USAA to have that resolved in her favor. (She belongs to the Navy CU, and works for a CU - knew the regs better than USAA)

At one time I requested an auto insurance quote from USAA. I had  relocated from SD to CA. They could not (even) match my current (CA) coverage (apples to apples) and it was not difficult to find an insurer who could - at  a *significantly* better rate than USAA offered.

Of course - your experience and/or preference may differ.

.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Pappy Yokum
corrected a "typo"

[RV_]

USAA bank is terrible. Until the CEO took over ~5 years ago they were great. They have messed up in my credit cards and customer service 10 too many times. We are almost through transitioning to NavyFCU. After that we shop insurance. Way better interest rates/customer service, investment services and on and on.

We loved USAA for almost 30 years. Can't get away fast enough.

 

[sandsys]

14 hours ago, RV_ said:

USAA bank is terrible. Until the CEO took over ~5 years ago they were great. They have messed up in my credit cards and customer service 10 too many times. We are almost through transitioning to NavyFCU. After that we shop insurance. Way better interest rates/customer service, investment services and on and on.

We loved USAA for almost 30 years. Can't get away fast enough.

 

That'a worrisome. We, however, have had no problems with USAA Bank.

Linda

[agesilaus]

You may want to look at Clark Howard Best online banks, he does an radion consumer advice program, he has a page for credit unions too.

[Blues]

On 1/12/2022 at 2:08 PM, sandsys said:

That'a worrisome. We, however, have had no problems with USAA Bank.

I've had a low opinion of USAA Bank for a long time.  At one point, they had a rule that if you wanted to cash out a CD when it came due, you couldn't do it online; you had to call them.  You could move other money around online, but you couldn't close out a CD.  Grrrrr.  I asked why the difference, and was told it was for my protection.  Uh, okay.

I found it interesting that when I would call to close a CD, I was asked, "Why are you closing the CD?"  My answer was always, "None of your business." 

So one time when I made the required call and they asked why I was closing my CD, I said because a nice Nigerian man had contacted me, asking for some money.  The representative just said "Oh" or whatever and cashed out my CD for me, no questions asked.  Thank you for making me jump through hoops for my protection, USAA.

Then there's the time they allowed 65 Uber charges to my credit card, totalling over $2,000 over a couple of weeks, even though there had never previously been an Uber charge on that card.  And when I challenged those charges, they deleted only a portion of them (which I figured out only after making a spreadsheet of all the charges and matching them to deletions) AND they assessed interest on the ones they didn't delete.

In order to get all the Uber charges deleted, I had to sit on the phone with them and go over them according to my spreadsheet, one by one.  I told them that every Uber charge was fraud, and there were no fraud charges other than Uber, thinking the fix would be obvious ("delete all charges from Uber and don't delete any others"), but nope.  They didn't do it the first time, and they still couldn't do it--we had to address each one individually, following MY spreadsheet.

But there was also a time when I made some money off of them.  There was a transfer that was over the maximum amount allowed online, so I had to do it over the phone.  The USAA person mischaracterized it as a cash advance on my credit card.  Why would I pay for a cash advance when I have the money sitting there?  Anyway, they eventually fixed it, but somehow the rebate on the amount they mistakenly put on the credit card stayed.  Made me a hundred bucks. 

[RV_]

I agree Blue!

We finally did it too and are almost ready to shut down our USAA bank accounts and cards, and our Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) accounts are all set up. We waited until our new cards came in and that we were happy with the interest rates etc and love the customer service although they have new folks too, way better despite the pndemic. All our USAA credit cards are put up in the safe and none have been in use since two weeks ago.

So we pulled the final trigger and changed our direct deposits from USAA to NFCU.  All credit cards and online accounts have been changed as well. In 30 -60  days we will close the USAA accounts and start looking for better insurance rates for the same coverage on house and vehicles.

BIG ADVANTAGE OF A CREDIT UNION!

They insure through the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) not the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Both insure individual depositors to $250k and joint accounts to with two account holders to $500k. However back in 2010 I raised the alarm when Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act of January 2010! IT made Banks, not credit unions, take our monies rather than get taxpayer funded bailouts. I had not considered that Credit unions are not included - YAY!

I did know if we had a repetition of any worse than the 2008 market recession, without a Bail in or Bail out the FDIC has nowhere near the capability to pay out for all investors.

Excerpt: "25 Billion - FDIC - Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Fund

FDIC insures 7,181 financial institutions. The FDIC is funded by financial institutions that pay for deposit insurance coverage. During the 1980's/1990's savings and loan crisis, a parallel insurer- the FSLIC (Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation) went bankrupt. The FSLIC replacement named RTC was merged into the FDIC. The savings and loan crisis cost tax payers $150 Billion. The FDIC takes control of failed banks and financial institutions, where it first moves to find a buyer of all the bank's assets, including the toxic ones. After the sale of assets (including toxic, usually at discounted prices) the FDIC attempts to cover losses. The FDIC will first pay-out all insured accounts, followed by applying “hair-cuts” to uninsured deposits. Safe deposit boxes, bond holders, stocks, money funds, etc. are not insured by FDIC. Due to bank failures during the 2008/2009 bank crisis, the FDIC fund fell to $0.648 billion by August of 2009. Subsequent bank failures almost bankrupted the FDIC, so it demanded a 3 year pre-payment from banks to shore up its capital. Wikipedia - "According to the FDIC.gov website (as of March 2013), 'FDIC deposit insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.'" This is less than clear, since there are no laws binding the U.S. government to make good on FDIC insurance liabilities. The details of FDIC are found on Wikipedia | Source Wikipedia" Source: https://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/fdic/fdic.html

It also says only funds over $250k. So under certain conditions banks can take your money, not mine, as I no longer use any bank. USAA is a Bank not a Credit Union.

Excerpt:

"The financial crisis of 2008 ushered in the term "too big to fail," which regulators and politicians used to describe the rationale for rescuing some of the country's largest financial institutions with taxpayer-funded bailouts. Heeding the public's displeasure over the use of their tax dollars in such a way, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act of January 2010, which eliminated the option of bank bailouts but opened the door for bank bail-ins.

Bail-Ins Become Statutory

The provision for bank bail-ins in the Dodd-Frank Act was largely mirrored after the cross-border framework and requirements set forth in Basel III International Reforms 2 for the banking system of the European Union. It creates statutory bail-ins, giving the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the authority to place bank holding companies and large non-bank holding companies in receivership under federal control. Since the principal objective of the provision is to protect the American taxpayers, banks that are too big to fail will no longer be bailed out by taxpayer dollars. Instead, they will be 'bailed in.'

Source:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets-economy/090716/why-bank-bailins-will-be-new-bailouts.asp

Although my post is oversimplified for the sake of clarity, "ASSUMING" one has less than $250k in accounts at their bank, and "ASSUMING" in a crisis the government would not do what Bush did, bailing out the banks and the car industry with taxpayer dollars, that have not all been paid back as claimed in most news (Google GM payback under George Bush's 2008 TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program,) you might not be as vulnerable/YMMV.

So aside from paying little interest to depositors, USAA is not even competitive with other banks:

USAA savings rates

Here’s a breakdown of USAA’s savings account rates as of Jan. 5, 2021.

Account name/APY/Minimum deposit

USAA Savings/0.05%/$25

Here are the tiered savings account interest rates for USAA Performance First.

Account name/APY/Minimum daily deposit to earn APY

USAA Performance First/0.05%/$10,000 – $24,999

USAA Performance First/0.05%/$25,000 – $49,999

USAA Performance First/0.09%/$50,000 – $99,999

USAA Performance First/0.13%/$100,000 – $249,999

USAA Performance First/0.15%/$250,000 – $499,999

USAA Performance First/0.35%/$500,000 – $999,999

Savings account interest rates for USAA Performance First are tiered, but balances up to $24,999 will earn an APY of only 0.05 percent. The maximum rate you can expect is 0.35 percent for balances of $1 million or more. You’ll need at least $10,000 to open an account — a big requirement for a yield that isn’t top of market.

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/usaa-savings-rates/

 

NFCU

Product Minimum Deposit Term Dividend Rate APY Share Savings Account $5.00 None 0.25% 0.25%

		NFCU Money Market Savings Account (MMSA) Rates — Savings, IRA & ESA
		Minimum Deposit Dividend Rate APY $0 - $2,499 0.00% 0.00% $2,500 - $9,999 0.40% 0.40% $10,000 - $24,999 0.45% 0.45% $25,000 - $49,999 0.45% 0.45% $50,000 and over 0.45% 0.45%
		https://www.navyfederal.org/checking-savings/savings/savings-resources/savings-rates.html To get just .35% at USAA you have to deposit $500k! Do the math for depositor earnings for a year on $100 k for both. Credit unions for me from now on. As well if you qualify for NFCU it is the largest and serves us 24/7 worldwide. Perfect for RVrs.

Edited January 21, 2022 by RV_

[Dutch_12078]

We've been using the Pentagon Federal Credit Union for about 10 years now, and have zero complaints. Customer service is excellent and their interest rates are quite competitive with other cu's.