Credit Unions

[Anonymous]

Can someone tell me the advantage of a credit union.  I have notice on several post that everyone should be using one.  Why?  What is the advantage?  Does it report differently than CC's?  Which one is a good one to join in IL? 

[MidnightVoice]

CUs don't make profits, so the tend to have better customer service, better rates, and treat people pretty much as individuals and work with them

[Anonymous]

so you guys take out loans?  Or are they issueing credit cards?  How do they calcuate into a fico score?  Sorry, I just don't understand....I am pretty new to all this loan business.  Although I have had small credit cards for the past 7 years.

[MidnightVoice]

Credit Unions are banks that like their customers.  Mt local (Iowa) CU does checking, savings, IRAs, mortgages, CCs, HELOCs, auto loans etc.  Just like a real bank only better rates a lot of the time, and they treat me as an individual.

http://www.creditunionswork.com/why.php

[haulingthescoreup]

If you get a CC from a credit union, it reports like any other CC.

A loan reports like any other loan (and their auto loans rates are often great!)

HELOC's report the same, and so on, and so on.

Credit unions are what banks used to be, like George Bailey's bank in "It's a Wonderful Life."

Sadly, after having always been told that CU CC's are weighted the same as so-called "major" bank cards, I discovered that this is not so. So eventually have a couple of cards from BofA, Citi, AmEx, etc. to broaden your mix, but my two USAA cards will always be my primary cards. Great service and rates beat a couple of score points any day for me.

[Dawn]

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haulingthescoreup wrote:
Sadly, after having always been told that CU CC's are weighted the same as so-called "major" bank cards, I discovered that this is not so.

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I must have missed that story ... what led to this conclusion?

[haulingthescoreup]

It was a surprise little bombshell dropped by Barry on this thread:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=14482

I'm still upset! This is obviously a hold-over from the days when CU's were strictly employee associations making $1000 loans. USAA is nationwide (worldwide, if you think of where all the active-duty people are stationed), and it's a heckuva lot healthier than Citi and the others. It's also a federal savings bank, not a credit union. PenFed, NavyFCU, and the other popular ones here are similar.

I'm really grumpy about this one!

[Anonymous]

i'm surprised no one commented further either.

[Anonymous]

I completely missed that other thread, and I have to say I am floored!

Like most others here, I was always under the impression that the distinction between major cards and store cards was determined by whether the card carried a Visa/MC/Amex/Discover logo.

I don't know what to say.

[Dawn]

Well ... no wonder I would get seemingly "stupid" messages about not having any revolving credit cards when I DID have them and they were reporting.   

I had assumed that my regional CU Visa was a major player (until I discovered it was reporting as a loan instead of a revolving credit card.)  But, I still had a Kohl's (Chase) card that was reporting and I was amazed at the messages I would get when pulling reports.

I think FICO has too much "say" regarding what "type" of cards consumers should obtain! 

Message Edited by denbar2003 on 02-13-2008 08:51 PM