IMPORTANT ADVICE FROM AN AMERICAN: Why Credit Unions are much better than BANKS

[This is from an email I got from an American lady. I think this is critically important. Maybe many Americans know this, but for those who don't this is very important. We in South Africa function on the British system so we don't know about things like Credit Unions. I wonder if a Credit Union is more like what we used to call a "Building Society" or a "Savings Bank". Probably not really. Anyhow, this is important stuff that was told to me. Jan]

The lady wrote:

Also, I have not had a bank account at a regular commercial bank in over 35 years. I have always had my account at a Credit Union since the middle 1980s. One reason for this is because during the Great Depression of the 1930s (before our time) most regular commercial banks failed, went bankrupt, and then closed without reimbursing their customers -but not one Credit Union in the entire U.S. failed. That’s because Credit Unions are owned by their members (that’s me) and the members have a say in how the Credit Union is run. We members elect the Board of Directors of each Credit Union.

I would suggest you become a member of a Credit Union. All you have to do is open a share (savings) account. They are called share accounts instead of savings/checking accounts. One thing though, Credit Unions do not allow business accounts generally. So the accounts at Credit Unions are personal accounts.

Another thing about Credit Unions is that there are two types of Credit Unions – State Chartered Credit Unions and Federally Chartered Credit Unions. State chartered Credit Unions are rare. Most are federally chartered to do business. In my state of Wyoming, state law prohibits State Chartered Credit Unions – only federally chartered Credit Unions. If there were, I would prefer to be a member of a State Chartered Credit Union. I can go into the reasons why if you like. It has to do with the interest rates the charge and the interest rates they pay on savings. Just let me know and I will give you the details.

Here is a link to the difference between State Chartered and Federally Chartered Credit Unions:
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/100314/what-difference-between-state-and-federally-chartered-credit-union.asp

Here is a list of the State Chartered Credit Unions in the U.S.:
https://dfpi.ca.gov/credit-unions/directory-of-state-chartered-credit-unions/