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.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
