Banks vs credit unions in socal (ie Washington Mutual vs Wescom)

[Anonymous]

I moved here about a year ago and currently plan to stay here. anyway I have wamu now. I don't plan on changing now because I'm ok with the bank for now. Wamu is considered pretty good for a bank. won jd power associates award for highest customer satisfaction in west and midwest. no fee no minimum checking, free checks, no atm fees for using a non wamu atm(there may be fees from the other bank). wescom seems to one of the notable cu's around here. anyway i know some of the basics of why cu's are better. service, home loan rates etc and better credit cards. i just got amex blue so not looking at any new cc's for a little while. need to bring up my fico.

[Anonymous]

This is all opinion.

For banking, it really doesn't matter, which ever branch is nicest to you. I have found that a branch at one brand was better than their other branch. So I go by closest and nicest.

CUs are good because they will extend credit in more cases than bank might. However banks seem to have better primes sometimes.

I have accounts at all the banks in my area so where ever I am I have a place to make a deposit or draw cash. If you want to put a lot of money in a bank, it starts making differences between brands. Some banks clear funds faster than others. Some are more forgiving of small mistakes. Most things that will effect you are right at the local branch. This is something you will have to walk in and test. How fast do they help you, do they know what the are talking about. Do you have to wait long. Ect...

I could not get a loan anywhere for my first car. Credit Union said Definitely and gave me a really good rate. If you don't have a prefect credit score CUs are good to have sometimes.

Then there are bad banks. My most recent bank hurt my credit by mistake, added fees to my accounts, and never answers the phone. When I go in I have to wait forever and they still don't fix problems. I plan on canceling my account. I got the same mess from the 800 csrs and other local branches. I hate to spread bad word so I won't name the bank.

Wamu is a decent bank. They have been around for a long while and have it together. They are good for personal accounts up to $25,000 in my opinion. If you plan on keeping larger amounts of money you might want to find a commercial bank. However Wamu is FDIC $100k per social account holder. Just that Managers loose authority over $25k from what I was told. Getting help could be difficult for larger amounts of money. Wamu has CSRs over seas and US. I prefer US CSRs. Wamu has not ever made a mistake on my account that I know of in 6 years. My branches are slow, and that's why I opened accounts at other brands. But Wamu is friendly!

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 01-15-2008 01:34 PM