I’ve been a credit union member since I was a small child. My father got us all accounts in a newly-formed company credit union back in the 60′s when it was being started.

The idea of a credit union is important in many ways. It’s community money, deposits get lent back out to people right in your neighborhood. When my grandfather ran a local bank many years ago, it was the same way, the money went back into the local community, and they in turn deposited profits, fostering new opportunities. My grandmother’s funeral in the 90′s was “on the house” because my grandfather had set the founder of the Funeral Home up with a loan to get started when he came back from WW II when no one else would. The owner came over to tell me personally at the funeral, it was important to him that we understood his gratitude for having been given a chance.

The situation today is that banks have been merging relentlessly for many years. You may know the folks in the local branch, but the HQ of any national chain is probably several states away from you, is concerned more with global issues than local issues. If you use your ATM card out of their network there are hefty fees for doing so. There are also fees that they charge each other when you do that, and these you also pay via other fees that big banks impose on their customers. That’s what the $5 Debit fee uproar was about, paying those unseen-by-the-consumer transfer fees between competing megaliths. Now that the furor has passed on that fee, banks are more quietly adding additional fees to checking accounts. None of my credit union accounts have “maintenance fees”. I don’t remember ever paying any fees at all.

However, banks are national in many cases, isn’t that an advantage if you travel? It used to be. Many credit unions are now part of a network called Co-op (for ATM’s) and the CU Service Centers (lobby services). So many local credit unions can now have branches all over the USA, tens of thousands of them.

So the advantages of community finance are now combined with 28,000 free ATM’s, 9000 of which take deposits, at most 7-11′s and many Costco and Walgreens, plus 6700 locations for lobby services.

There’s a certain good feeling associated with not aiding and abetting corporate malfeasance like racial targeting of subprime loans, misrepresented derivatives, illegal foreclosures, and the ever-popular awarding executive bonuses from TARP funds. For now the $5 debit card fee has been retracted. The next fee will appear, it will just be stealthier.

In Douglas there’s a branch of the American Southwest Credit Union, which also has branches around Cochise County, including Bisbee and Fort Huachuca. They will happily help me with my accounts with another credit union, and I have had great financial service wherever I go with the networks mentioned above, it really works and works everywhere.

On the other hand, there’s this story…Wells Fargo Nightmare, card cancelled, closest branch 106 miles away

And here’s one about Bank of America taking fees out of state unemployment benefits and charging recipients a fee to call customer service for help with their card…Bank of America Charges Debit Fees