Most of the major national CU's are going to pull a hard to join. I just joined DCU, waiting for my membership packet. Pretty good rates and a free FICO monthly, the free FICO is what put me over the top to join them. My local CU I am a member of sucks. Unless you have absolutely spotless credit they won't loan, they are even tighter than PedFed. None of my co-workers have a loan with them. On top of that they have a monthly maintance fee for checking.