Credit Union Shared Branching

[DaveInAZ]

This may be old news to you credit union pros, but I just recently found out about "shared branching" between credit unions - visit any credit union branch that's a member of co-opcreditunions.org and you can deposit cash or checks directly into your own credit union's account. CUs that support shared branching also let you use their ATMs with no fee.

My main CU banking is with Vantage West, which is primarily in the Tucson area and I live in a rural area about an hour away from their nearest branch. I also have a savings account with Penfed, checking & savings at DCU, and keep a savings account at a small local CU in Benson, the nearest town a half hour away - I use primarily for depositing cash I get from a couple (legal) sources and ACH it to another account.

I recently got a $400 check by mail, a "business" check the width of sheet of paper, too wide to work on mobile app deposit. So I was on Vantage West's website looking for a bank by mail address to get it quickly to them without having to drive an hour and noticed the "shared branching" link and checked it out, and there it was - another small CU in Benson was a member, so I deposited the check there and and was instantly credited to my VW account. I checked it further and DCU also has shared branching, so if ever need I can deposit in a DCU account locally. Penfed is not a member of shared branching which is foolish in my opinion, I think one of their weakness against Navy Fed is the lack of local branches. There's a Navy Fed branch around 45 minutes away near Ft. Huachuca Army base. Penfed? About 3 days away in Oregon.

Now I can close the at the small local CU that's not a shared branching member and had no use other than the closest place to make a in-branch deposit.

[Anonymous]

A note that if you ever need to go into a shared co-op branch to do any business, they require (iirc) your photo ID, account number, and last four of SSN in order to process your transaction. But yes, I have also found this useful with both of the CUs I have joined (one national, one local) in recent months. 

[Glen_M]

It's one of the reasons I wasn't too concerned about not being near a NFCU branch.  They co-op with the major local CU.

[DaveInAZ]

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@Anonymous wrote:

A note that if you ever need to go into a shared co-op branch to do any business, they require (iirc) your photo ID, account number, and last four of SSN in order to process your transaction. But yes, I have also found this useful with both of the CUs I have joined (one national, one local) in recent months. 

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Ah yes, thanks for mentioning that. You do need the account # and photo ID, I thought the ID requirement was strange when making a deposit, but not a problem. But the shared branch credit union I went to didn't require any of my SSN. And I didn't mention you can also make a withdrawal at a shared branch CU, the deposit feature is what I needed.

[ptkdude]

Navy told me thy co-op with the ATM network, but not the branches. I can make a deposit through another credit union’s ATM, but not in the branch. 

[Anonymous]

They can be very handy.  Becareful about holds.  Some shared branch deposits get zillion year holds. 

[Fraction]

I have been using shared branches for a long time even though my local branch isn't that far away, it is inconvenient to where I live.

They actually used to have Credit Union Service Centers out here for a long time too, those were great!

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

They can be very handy.  Be careful about holds.  Some shared branch deposits get zillion year holds. 

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Yep... I've never tried it myself, but I've read plenty of others mention how NFCU will put a five business day hold on deposits made at other ATMs... even if the deposit is cash. 

[Anonymous]

Looks like for the first time i am having to use shared branch facility to deposit some money into my consumers cu checking. I have to deposit around 10000$ from local mazuma credit union whose is a member of shared branch , in which my husband has  accounts. But they have daily out going electronic transfer  limit of 2500, and consumers cu is in IL and has a daily mobile check deposit limit of 5000$ . So since i dont have CCU branches here , the best way for me to deposit the entire 10000$ by check is to go to mazuma credit union and do a teller transaction check deposit of 10000$ to my CCU checking account. Mobile deposits can be held for 5 days but i dont know if this shared branch check deposits are subject to hold. Still its convenient.

[Anonymous]

I moved away from my original credit union years ago. 

Where I live now, CUs seem to be a rarity.  The one shared-services CU that is now closest to me, about 20 miles away, decided to stop offering shared services many months ago.  So, there is no guarantee that they all participate in shared services.