What is a Credit Union? A Phroogal Answer.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - May 19, 2013 - PRLog -- “A credit union is a union of sorts, right?” or “I think they give out credit cards?” These are just some examples of how people have tried to explain what credit unions were to me.  In fact, I learned of credit unions not as a full fledge financial institution but a place I could get a car loan.  My first car was financed by American Airlines Federal Credit Union.  I never thought of them as anything more than a place to get loans and I remember other employees at the airport talk of them in terms of personal loans or car loans…nothing more.  I still had my checking account and everything else with my bank.

Let’s start with the first difference between banks and credit unions.  Banks have customers and credit unions have members. You got it! You are a member of a cooperative not a customer of for-profit company.  That alone changes the way credit unions deal with its “customers.” When it comes to being frugal with banking you should consider joining a credit union. Visit http://www.phroogal.com

I never imagined that 7 years of my work experience would be in credit unions.  I started my career working for a bank but was persuaded to join New Jersey’s largest credit union by a friend.  I never looked backed.  I couldn’t believe that a financial institution wasn’t just marketing customer service they were delivering it at every point possible.  There was such a focus on member satisfaction.  In addition, they offered everything a bank offered with slightly higher savings rates, lower interest rates and little or no fees.  I remember asking myself, “Where have you been all my life?”

So there are 93 million people who are members of credit unions. Yet, many of those members themselves do not know much about credit unions.  And credit union folks have not done a good job in explaining who, what and how they relate to a person’s financial picture.

Visit Phroogal http://www.phroogal.com for a simple chart to help you figure out the differences between credit unions and banks.