topic Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation in Personal Finance

You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

MeowingTheCat — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:10:12 GMT

Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) now let's you join with $8 donation to Financial Fitness Association (FFA) instead of Reach Out for Schools for $10 donation but it is still a option. I assume they added this because of recent First Tech and DCU merger. Also the other option with high donation amount was removed.

DCU Member Eligibility

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

Vinjints — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 19:36:25 GMT

What's the draw for DCU membership? What are they known for?

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

crystal626 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 19:39:46 GMT

@Vinjints wrote:
What's the draw for DCU membership? What are they known for?

Their share savings account used to have a 6.17% APY on the first $1K but it's down to 5% APY now. Their auto loan rates are pretty good though, starting at 4.99% before relationship and electric vehicle discounts. Otherwise they're pretty meh. They require you to link your external accounts with Plaid too, a big negative to people who are privacy conscious.

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

MeowingTheCat — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 19:51:49 GMT

@Vinjints wrote:
What's the draw for DCU membership? What are they known for?

They're known for huge list of participating employers thay you can join as a member in addtion to donation because it was started as employees of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) back in 1979.

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

Janneman — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:54:36 GMT

Has it already merged with First Tech or will be merged soon?

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

MeowingTheCat — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 01:37:36 GMT

@Janneman wrote:
Has it already merged with First Tech or will be merged soon?

It is already merged since 7 days ago. It takes some time until around late 2026/early 2027 to integrate together. The DCU will be renamed First Technology Federal Credit Union (First Tech FCU). For now they're operating divisions as Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) and First Tech Federal Credit Union (First Tech).

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

AMJ50 — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 06:15:30 GMT

They seem to post rather quickly, charges, credits and direct deposits. The old savings interest rate was also nice. I mainly use it to get some of my paycheck quicker, or tax refunds quicker, etc.

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

MeowingTheCat — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 07:07:01 GMT

@AMJ50 wrote:
They seem to post rather quickly, charges, credits and direct deposits. The old savings interest rate was also nice. I mainly use it to get some of my paycheck quicker, or tax refunds quicker, etc.

That's the reason why joined them in the begnning of December of 2025 piror to final vote of First Tech appoval merger. I like that they have round-up deposit to the savings.

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

JamesS84 — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 01:06:33 GMT

Nice! I feel like so many people are missing out because they don’t know about these credit union loopholes!!

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

AndySoCal — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 18:59:41 GMT

This is just part of the merger integration. Below is a list of financial fitness association part. First tech credit union was on the list prior to the merger

https://financialfitnessassociation.org/partners

Re: You can now join DCU with Financial Fitness Association (FFA) for $8 donation

Royalbacon — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 02:27:44 GMT

@MeowingTheCat wrote:
@Janneman wrote:
Has it already merged with First Tech or will be merged soon?
It is already merged since 7 days ago. It takes some time until around late 2026/early 2027 to integrate together. The DCU will be renamed First Technology Federal Credit Union (First Tech FCU). For now they're operating divisions as Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) and First Tech Federal Credit Union (First Tech).

Yeah they're legally merged but combining of the two and rebranding DCU won't come until later and will take some time. Perfectly normal and routine in credit union mergers as there is a lot of work that needs to be done to make those things happen. As well as physically rebranding branches and ordering/creating new signage and taking the old signage down and putting new signage up and possible repainting/remodeling costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time. Nothing nefarious or unusual at all going on, not even in the slightest.

Same with Member One and Viriginia Credit Union. Legally merged but still operating independently until they officially merge the two systems and rebrand all Member One branches to Virginia Credit Union.

Same exact thing too at the moment with CommunityAmerica Credit Union and Unify Financial Credit Union.

@MeowingTheCat wrote:
@Vinjints wrote:
What's the draw for DCU membership? What are they known for?
They're known for huge list of participating employers thay you can join as a member in addtion to donation because it was started as employees of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) back in 1979.

One unique thing about DCU is that it was one of the few credit unions still operating with the name of their original company whose employees that they originally served that is no longer in business (and hasn't been in a very long time) Digital Equipment Corporation hasn't existed since 1998 when it was acquired by Compaq. Compaq hasn't been in existence in a long time either, getting acquired by HP Hewlett Packard at some point.

GTE Financial in Florida is another one. GTE was a phone company that merged with Verizon decades ago (Or another phone company that ended up rebranding to Verizon and/or got acquired by Verizon)

Not sure if there are more credit unions still operating with the name of a defunct company, and now with the merger of DCU & FIrst Tech there is one less in existence.