I had a dollarmites account in primary school, I had 20c in it for like 15 years. at some point they switched it to a club Australia account without informing me and tried to charge me a years worth of monthly account keeping fees. I told them to pound sand and close the fucking account and would never do business with them again.
Why anyone is still with a bank is beyond me. Join a credit union.
Could you explain me the difference between the two, please? The concept of credit union, to my knowledge, doesn’t exist in my country.
I don’t understand it either honestly. But according to a quick google, it mostly boils down to this: banks are run for profit (to shareholders, who then pass along some of that as interest), whereas credit unions are non profits that return all their “profit” to members (which I guess technically no longer makes it profit, but I’m not sure what else to call it)
If your country is Australia, we do indeed have credit unions, People’s Choice Credit Union is the one that comes to mind, but I know there are others. I think they’re probably like a super minority - I’ve never met somebody in real life that has banked with a credit union. But some of them are kind of like industry super funds in that you need to be employed in a specific industry to be eligible for an account with them (see: Teachers Mutual Credit Union)
With a bank, they operate to maximise profit for their shareholders (not members / customers).
With a credit union, you buy a share when you open an account which means every member/ customer is also a shareholder. As they run to maximise profit for their own customers, that means decisions and pricing is made that benifits the customer.
The result is cheaper (or no) fees, better interest rates on loans, higher interest rates on savings accounts, and usually way more flexible on things like paying back extra on home loans.
In Australia, Credit Unions (and building societies) are covered by the same government guarantees that Banks are so the old fears of your money not being safe are stupid.
Why anyone is still with a bank
It’s not that difficult of a concept. Credit unions have a lot more restrictions than banks. At the end of the day I use a bank because they offer me services that are beneficial.
For example finding an ATM for your credit union is a lot harder than finding an ATM for your bank.
I have both a bank account and a credit union account. They serve different purposes.
I use my bank account for direct deposit and paying bills. My savings is at my credit union.
If I need cash quickly I go to my bank. If I need to stuff money away and not touch it for awhile then it’s my credit union.
