Deposits at credit unions are also a liability to the credit union. The nonprofit and local angles, however, are germane.
For businesses, they might have the most attractive product and so you go with them. For example, they have an entire practice finance department that lends on favorable terms without SBA fees. However, they require using their checking account as a term of the loan. You could just fund the account and leave it, or use it.
The worst thing that has happened to me with them was they once allowed someone to cash a fake check using my account number. They put the money back but closed the account and I had to change over all my stuff to a new account number. I was a little disturbed that they didn't check the name on the account to the account number before approving the check.
But all of the other horror stories seem to happen on the consumer side.
I suspect for most consumers they don't know or notice the difference, but I wish they did.
Credit Unions FTW!
it's completely, undeniably worth it. unless you're a real big shot (worth millions in assets to the bank) who doesn't have to deal with the dehumanizing aspects of corporate "customer service", there is zero reason to be with anything other than a small local bank/credit union.
My credit union on the other hand could not understand why I wouldn't give them my card number over the phone whenthey called me.
That convenience sucks to give up out of principle but it's long overdue in my case.
I tend to have operating funds in my credit union checking account. This is where most bills are paid from. Savings moves to which never institution has the best rates.
Of course, trust would be a huge issue, but assuming that could be resolved, I feel like switching banks should be something people do all the time.
You're leaving money on the table during a time where interest rates just keep going up and banks are becoming more and more competitive with each other on rates. You should be earning at least 5.15% on a market savings account today. I doubt WF would pay anywhere near that.
It's seems crazy to me that that's so difficult in the US.
In the UK, you can open an account with a new bank and just tell them to switch over all your direct debits and give them the account number/sort code.
They'll contact your old bank, get everything moved across and get your old account closed on your behalf. The old bank is also obliged to reroute any payments from your old account for 6 months afterwards too IIRC
There is a good chance a credit union might offer that, but they aren't available to everyone as they often have membership requirements.
What others have suggested is the better route, minimize direct debits by using credit cards (which gets you 'free' CC points).
The other thing is to just use multiple banks... I have my 'debit' bank and then I move my savings around to whichever bank I can find with the highest savings rates (either cd's or money market accounts). I link just those two accounts together and can transfer funds as needed. I find that to be pretty easy now, but it took some getting used to.
I think a lot of people are afraid of opening a bunch of accounts in various places and having to track it all. The open account friction is pretty high... you generally have to do a two small deposit dance, which can take days. I have a theory that part of the fear could also stem from the fact that we penalize people's credit scores for opening too many credit card accounts... but the reality is that we don't do that with bank accounts.
We also have a culture of being afraid of touching our money. You're supposed to just put it in an account and forget about it. I think the mental barriers override the actual barriers.