25 years ago, I received a letter from my bank telling me that in order to keep getting free checking, I’d have to maintain a minimum balance of $2500. in my checking account.  I decided that if I had that kind of "spare change" laying around, it would be in an account that earned some interest.

I switched to the municipal employee’s credit union, & never looked back.  The only things I’m not happy about is ATM fees; my CU doesn’t maintain any ATMs, & when the branch in my neighborhood closed.

 I’ve used my CU ATM card all over the country & all over the UK with no problems.

Credit Unions are the way to go!  I worked in both banks and credit unions for several years, but there is such a vast difference between the two business philosophies.   A credit union is a not-for-profit, member-owned financial institution.  Their Board of Directors are volunteer and make their decisions based on the good of the credit union and its members.  The Board of Directors at a bank may also make decisions for the good of the financial institution, but 5 will get you 10 that self-interest reigns.

Bank employees often have sales quotas for financial products.  Most credit union employees are encouraged to sincerely help the member - sales or not. 

Because of a recent move, I opened a bank account at Washington Mutual a couple of years ago in the absence of a local credit union.  Since their collapse and Chase’s takeover, Chase has taken away benefits -which I should note, is understandable in light of their need/desire to conform the new accounts and cut costs, but in addition, they’ve taken this opportunity to raise my credit card interest rate.  I recently received new savings and checking account disclosures and I’m half afraid to look! 

Thanks, by the way, for this article as well as to Jim for his useful post.  I’ve always believed that a business nets more by giving customers things they want or need, not by taking things away and yet, Banks seem to know just how far they can push people and still keep them as customers - probably out of complacency more than anything else. 

Frankly, I’m still amazed we’re at a place where we have to pay a fee to speak to a person! 

what about the government?? don’t these same principles apply to them? they’ve quadrupled our debt in 5 months—wake up and smell the coffee

wow

OK, Ladies of WOW: Try this one on for size——————-We have corporation credit cards with TD bank, formerly Commerce, and we have a corporate/company checking account with Chase Bank. We pay our credit cards every month with  checks (separate checks for each account) in person at TD bank. For the past 2 months the teller has taken the checks as well as entering a bank transfer from our Chase account (literally doubling up on the payments for each account). This was brought to my attention by my accountant who asked "why are you making double payments on the credit cards"?

Well, you can imagine how shocked I was. Don’t get me wrong we did owe the money, but I was paying what we could manage for the said months. In one instance, I paid $3000.00 and they took $6000.00 for that month. I was not aware of this and we could have been bouncing checks all over the plaece.

OK, now for the good stuff: Went into TD & asked why etc. They said since they had my routing # and account # (via the checks) they could access my account without my written permission. Of course the teller who did this is not in all week, but I’m not thru with him.

I also contacted Chase and they told me that since TD had the info then they could certainly go ahead and withdraw the money electronically from my account. They said they did not need signed permission from me.

So, I asked them since people pay us with checks all the time, can I get into their accounts as well? I was told of course not. I am still fuming over this and have not finished with either bank.