Friday, 20 November 2009

• Credit Unions: A Main Street Investment

  I was reading another article by Nicholas Carroll (who taught us how to downgrade our resumes), and he mentioned credit unions, something I know very little about. But here goes:
  
  Credit unions are not-for-profit institutions, and many of them give out debit cards, which make them a sort of friendly alternative to big banks and credit card providers, although they don't provide rewards. Credit unions tend to offer reasonable rates and loans, and might even be more understanding and forgiving of late payments. Nick also pointed out that credit unions tend to loan money to local businesses, so your money will help invest in Main Street, not Wall Street.
  
  The New York Times covered credit unions in a recent post on its blog Bucks, saying that credit unions are essentially owned by their members, which is why their rates are so good. Nominally, credit unions are supposed to restrict their members based on employer, residence, and other factors, but The Times says most are fairly easy to get into.
  

  
  You can even search for your own credit union on creditunion.coop. Not all credit unions offer debit cards, so I checked "Narrow search by service" so that my search returned only card-providing institutions.
  
  Have you ever belonged to a credit union? What did you use it for?
  
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