liz warren? i hope it's more than a congressional bull session. where's the ag? and how about the ceo, stumpf? his father was of german decent, it's vdub all over again!
Or.... I can pay my 4 utility bills with said credit card, and just write & mail ONE check each month. Or make the payment online. (And they credit my account with rewards money back, every month.) I don't know how you guys feel about Hollywood movies, and all that, but the DVD movie "Too Big To Fail" is really excellent. And I agree with ETC. I've been a credit union member for 31 years, with no acct fees, with excellent service. I'll never go back to Big Banks.
Congress members gave the CEO a pretty good grilling yesterday. I saw it on C-SPAN. They are shocked that nobody has been fired, disciplined, no bonuses taken back, etc. But that's not surprising... it's 2009 all over again.
Don't forget the collapse of the Savings & Loan industry back in the late 20th Century. Clarification: 5300 people were held responsible, and fired. Unfortunately, they were the low level whistleblowers and employees who were being forced to meet quotas, not the high level mangers who caused the problem. The highest level executive is retiring with a 9-figure bonus.
and those 'shares' have no more value than the money kept in any bank. it's a scam of the highest order. the only things that matter are savings and loan rates. there's nothing else a bank can do of value for its customers, despite the marketing hype.
If by "scam" you mean that they keep my money safe, safeguard my PII (identity), offer fee-free services like ATM and checking, pay market rates for interest and charge market rates for loans???? They can 'scam' me anytime. I belong to 2 CUs and I've never EVER been unhappy about it. Once upon a time......when I was an active duty squid the Gov'mint decided that they wanted to redo Gov'mint travel, and those of us who traveled were forced to get a "government issued" credit card through one of the banks that pay graft money to our legislators. (Their initials are BOA.) Unfortunately, the only thing that the government does less efficiently than save money, is process paperwork for travel claims, which led to some of our lest well paid troops getting shanked for interest and late fees for travel reimbursements that exceeded the payment terms of the credit cards (roughly all of them!) Credit scores were effected, Paychecks were effected. Some of our most vulnerable troops and their families were taken advantage of by these slimy bottom-feeders! Me? I slow-rolled them for as long as I could, since I was able to cash flow my various travels but eventually I was forced to let one of the slimy bastards issue me a credit card. I never used it. I never even activated it but OMG!!!! They probably denuded 50,000 acres of pulpwood forests sending me out unsolicited offers from every entity on the planet that they could sell my information to. Wells Fargo should be investigated for crimes and held to account for them. Instead? They paid a fine that amounts to sooo much less than a parking ticket, that if you and I were forced to pay the same proportional amount that we would not be able to because you can't get change for a penny. Their CEO got a tongue lashing on TV alright, but he probably laughed all the way home knowing that six weeks from now chances are very good that everybody will have forgotten about it and the SAME Congress Critters will be peacocking in front of the SAME cameras about another issue that will result in the SAME action (not) being taken against whatever crisis that they're not doing anything about at the moment. Like I said earlier.....unlike a certain senior Senator from the Bay State, I know that I cannot do much about it except vote regularly, and not bank with institutions BOA, W(T)Fargo, Chase, City...etc. I'll continue to get scammed by Credit Unions instead.....
bisco, did you not have your coffee this morning??? Why do you hate credit unions so much? What happen? It's just a building with four walls, and a door, and young, pretty (low-paid) women working there. I was with the UCLA credit union in my younger years. Now I belong to a Police & Fire CU. Great service, never crowded, no acct fees, no ATM fees, savings rates on par with other places, and a friendly "small town" feel. What's not to like?? (And it's always well protected, with most of the members "packing heat!" )
i think you misunderstand. i'm talking about all banks. yes, some are better than others, and i avoid the big ones like the plague. but i get the same rates and services at my local bank as my local credit union. i have accounts at both, and there is nothing special about the c/u.
....there's also nothing really "special" about a Prius (anymore). They've been around for what, 15+ years??? But here we sit, hours upon hours, debating and sometimes arguing about silly stuff like interior colors, a small glove box, tire pressure, license plate frames, should we take the plastic hubcaps off, ugly tail lights, the SUN VISOR , and the Mother of all threads... what kind of friggin' oil to use!
There is a difference with having shares. They give you voting privileges in the direction the CU takes.Just like stock shares in a corporation, and like those voting rights, many choose not to precipitate in such votes. Yet it is an avenue a CU customer can take if they are displeased with what the CU is doing. Our tiny one at work has a board made up of account holders. This is lot more than what you can do at a large bank. There, all you can do is close your account and open another one somewhere else when unhappy.
How did CUs going public make them like banks? Did they stop being not-for-profit? Is the board of directors no longer volunteers voted for by account/share holders amoung themselves? If yes to either of those questions, they are no longer a credit union. Credit union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://web.archive.org/web/20090509071709/http://ncua.gov/RegulationsOpinionsLaws/fcu_act/fcu_act.pdf
they are like banks in that they don't offer anything special. i'm speaking locally, i've already stated that workplace c/u's maybe different, and i have had accounts across many of each over 40 years, and one has never proved better than the other. ymmv.
"Too Big To Fail." Great movie, based on actual events. (Fred's House of Pancakes is making me hungry.)
I just had lunch, but yeah...... I'm always up for a big old stack of REAL GLUTEN FULL buttermilk pancakes....with REAL SALTED BUTTER, and REAL SYRUP!!!
Yes, they won't provide services much different than what a bank does. If you don't partake in any of the meetings and votes, they will also appear to be no different than a bank. The difference is in how they are run. Banks are operated to make money for their owners/stockholders, who don't have to be customers. Which, as we have seen here, allows them to actively screw over their customers in order to maximize profits. Since the customers are the stockholders in a credit union, they will feel any policies that aren't customer friendly directly, and unlike stockholders at a corporation, credit unions are one person, one vote. So one or a few people with a majority of shares can't call the shots.