Best Credit Union

[Creditfan1234]

You are surrounded by ICCU branches then! I also agree with spreading your eggs around. Try a local CU like ICCU and then go to some of the bigger national ones as others have recommended you so you can get to know the CU world. Most of the CUs let you apply for membership and accounts online.

[Revelate]

Don't try to solve everything with a single CU.  If WF is annoying you (not surprising) then look to others but don't try to get every single thing from a single financial institution these days... while I'm sure every lender would love to be all things to you as a consumer, the market just isn't setup that way.

You don't need a local CU necessarily, but having someone that you can walk into a branch and talk to is important especially if your request is somewhat awkward.  Personal interaction counts, even when dealing with the big giant banks... your banker doesn't have to submit your awkward request at all, but if you can establish the relationship, they might even be willing to argue your case with the people who *can* give what you're asking for... and you will almost never ever reach those people on your own even in a CU TBH.

So probably pick two honestly: if you can get into NFCU I've basically never heard anything bad about them here and tons of people use them, and then pick a local one too.  Over time your needs may shift, I'd be fine in most CU's for example but right now Chase is just better for me... whether they stay better is an open question in this day and age, but I also have relationships with various CU's.

Case in point I miscalculated and thought the autopayment would cancel from USBank as it had previously when I overpaid (whoopsie it did not this time) and wound up pending overdrawn on my Chase account when I idly checked this morning... so ninja grabbed the DCU HELOC checkbook and wrote a 1k check to myself to cover the shortfall.  Literally took only 2 minutes to fix from even seeing the rude shock of a problem: that's pretty amazing to me when I think of what banking was like even 15 years ago let alone from before that in my own lifetime even but I digress.

I can't get a checkbook HELOC from Chase when I checked in the past, and almost assuredly not at the same APR where a DCU HELOC has always had one of the best rates in the industry from my cursorily checking every so often... and so I have a product, which honestly is almost always used for a different reason, but I could easily fix my stupid and go on with life with it. 

It's good to be flexible, and multiple lenders gives you flexibility.

[Chache]

I would of said penfed but it seems they have gotten very strict on loans maybe its just me though

[Green456]

I have joined several credit unions. I originally posted my review of them 6 months ago here. Check out that entire thread.

Alliant

This one has a smooth mobile app. Bill pay via checks only and has no ebill support. So kind of feels archaic. Good CD rates and high interest savings. So i may keep it just for that but not for day to day banking.

PenFed.

Mobile experiance is far from smooth with persistent log out notification which annoyed the heck out of me. Bill pay has ebill support but no electronic direct deposit so similarly to Alliant, Penfed will depend on sending a check to their parties. Their checking account requires minimum $500 balance or else you get charged monthly fee.

Fort Knox.

Poor mobile app experiance, no bill pay of any kind. Checking account on the other hand is completley free. I called their cusotmer service regarding their credit card product several times and each time I would get inconsistent answer. Seems like people are not on the same page there. On the other hand their inactivity fee only incures after 12 months and I believe if you keep $500 CD then your account is considered active. Penfed account will charge inactivity fees even with active CDs from what I read on duckduckgo.

Lake Michigan Credit Union.

Poor mobile experiance because their app does not support auto log in and their UI is inconsitent. They require $300 in their savings account unless you have direct deposit. After 6 months of inactivity they will charge you monthly fee. On the other hand they allow electronic bill pay and they dont use checks like Penfed or Alliant. I need to close my account with them but they require form to be printed, filled, signed and scanned and emailed to them which in itself is a process. If you don't care about mobile experiance then LMCU would be closet to the most complete bank replacement.

State Department Fedreal Credit Union.

Good mobile app, customer service is excellent but after they initially claimed that they didn't do a hard pull even thou they did one I kind of lost my trust with them. Also it took almsot 2 months to get their membership. I closed my account with them 2-3 weeks ago.

I just opened BECU, I live in New York and I qualified via these guys. So seems their membership is open to everyone just like NFCU used to be back in the days. So far their mobile app is above average, one issue with them is that each time you log in you are required to answer security questions. Bill pay is sent via electronic payments and not paper checks. Although I havent tested it yet for person to person bill payments.

I also recently opened Chase. Mobile experiance is not smooth, and suffers from the same log out notification just like PenFed. But on the other hand you can log in via iOS Safari to their mobile website so you don't have to use their mobile app. Other than that, I haven't really tested their Bill Pay service. They do support ebills but I had some issues with Wells Fargo CC. Not sure whose fault it is.

So if BECU works out. In the end I plan to use them for my day to day checking and keep PenFed/Alliant for their CDs and high interest savings. I will probably close my checking accounts with them.

[Anonymous]

I’m looking at BECU too. Was it a HP to join? They have Zelle which is mandatory for me to consider leaving my current bank and is the only reason DCU is out. 

[Revelate]

Funny, I don't care at all about the logout notification TBH; Chase's mobile app has everything I could basically ever want and more as a result.

I guess that goes to say YMMV.

[Green456]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I’m looking at BECU too. Was it a HP to join? They have Zelle which is mandatory for me to consider leaving my current bank and is the only reason DCU is out. 

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No Hard Pull. Just soft pull, I didn't have to mail any copies of DL or SS, which was really suprising, although Im expecting that they will email me or snail mail me some form of request.

[Green456]

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@Revelate wrote:

Funny, I don't care at all about the logout notification TBH; Chase's mobile app has everything I could basically ever want and more as a result.

I guess that goes to say YMMV.

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I agree. It is very person dependant. You can just look at their app reviews on iOS, is is basically 5/5. I am kind of OCD when it comes to my accounts and I do like to check them several times a day so the log out notification really irritates me. On the other hand I do like the web app a lot and it has everything I need. I just opened multiple checking accounts with them this month to budget my expenses. I am planning to use them along with BECU. Chase for branching experiance and BECU as online bank. The nice thing about Chase is that they have most branches in the country, so virtually anywhere you go you can walk in somewhere.