New members this week shared their reasons for switching to credit unions.

In an Oct. 18 broadcast, the PBS Nightly Business Report talked to several consumers who closed their bank accounts and moved over to credit unions. 

“The tipping point was just the announcement of these new fees for debit cards. The debit card fee is really a fee that they shouldn`t be charging, said Gabriel Albarian, a CU member.

Another new member, Rob Bedell, told PBS that the nickel and diming “got out of control.”

“I was seeing more and more charges coming through and you know, nickel and diming here and there, $5, $10. And they started to increase to $29 to $35.”

PBS also talked to Kam Wong, CEO of the $1.7 billion Municipal Credit Union in New York, who said historically, the cooperative increased membership by 5% on an annual basis. Wong projected an 8% increase this year and up to 10% in 2012.

“We have to have a special relationship, so to speak. In our case, it`s the city, state, federal government workers as well as the health industry employees. So not everybody can just walk in to our branch or branches and open an account,” Wong said.

The PBS report mentioned culookup.com as a “good place to start” to find credit unions.