CU's are not for profit and owned by the members who can vote on certain issues. Banks are for profilt and you live by their rules. Of course finances over FICO. CU's have lower APR's on mostly all products. But ATM's are spread out more and not as many as a big bank if you needed $20. Alliant to me is like the Chase of CU's IMO. That one card they have is for the heavy heavy spend and a high FICO score. In the Approval Section you dont see many Alliant approval threads. But thats JMO.
@Cory88 wrote:What are the plus with having a credit union? For most of them it seams to me that they only good thing is that they have a high savings account rate and their credit cards are really lacking in the terms of rewards. PenFed and Navy are the exceptions they have a good line of credit cards and are bigger then most of them. I think that their credit cards are good if you don't care about rewards and only like a low rate for me if a card does not have rewards that have some value to me I will not use them. Is that fair to say? Can any one point out anything that I'm missing?
I have DCU, Alliant, Affinity.
Alliant was hard enough to get 1k credit line much less 10k to get the rewards card. I have good income and very good credit (790) but they did not want to give me even 1k.
In my experience credit unions (a) are less likely to do things to harm you, (b) have more attractive interest rates and fee structures, (c) have better customer service, and (d) have more useful websites. But that's a general observation. Not all credit unions are alike.
In my opinion the biggest advantage at CU's is the lower cost of loans across the board. Some of my frustrations with the numerous credit unions over the years are.
Highly fraud sensitive especially for POS transactions
Limited and outdated tech on websites and apps
I would echo what many have already mentioned. And it seems odd to me that if you are already an Affinity member, you would think the rewards are lacking. Affinity has one of the most generous CU rewards cards on the market and some of the lowest loan rates out there.
When I look for CU's, I am looking at their CC's, Checking/Savings APY dividend rate, and their Loan rates. (Of course there are the big boys....NFCU, Penfed) But there are many out there that get overlooked. Some of the top contenders that have stood out to me are:
Affinity FCU
AODFCU
Alliant CU
Abound CU
Consumer's CU
Lake Michigan FCU
Evansville Teachers FCU
UnitedOne FCU
Nusenda CU (I include this due to their CC alone)
Vantage West (I include this due to their CC alone)
PCMCU (I include this due to their CC alone)
Some of these have geo-restrictions, but you might want to check some of them out. Another point to make....I have read somewhere (and I'm sorry, I can't remember where it was) that the newer FICO scoring systems are putting more weight into CU products as opposed to major banks. And with CU's being less prone to AA, and more customer-friendly....I very much prefer them to major banks. I will soon be dropping my main bank once I've financed my new truck with one of my CU's, switched my DD, and have moved my money.
On Deck: No Plans Currently
@Cory88 wrote:What are the plus with having a credit union? For most of them it seams to me that they only good thing is that they have a high savings account rate and their credit cards are really lacking in the terms of rewards. PenFed and Navy are the exceptions they have a good line of credit cards and are bigger then most of them. I think that their credit cards are good if you don't care about rewards and only like a low rate for me if a card does not have rewards that have some value to me I will not use them. Is that fair to say? Can any one point out anything that I'm missing?
I have DCU, Alliant, Affinity.
Alliant was hard enough to get 1k credit line much less 10k to get the rewards card. I have good income and very good credit (790) but they did not want to give me even 1k.
Difference between CU and Reg Banks >>>>
CU are crooks that you can have over for dinner and share a meal with but still don't trust fully v. Reg banks are where you better not turn your backs on them or you might get shivved 
...but these are times and you have to learn to navigate through them. But really on the whole, CU aim to maintain the neighborhood friendly bank type of relationship of days past, and Reg banks have a bigger footprint hence more offerings generally.
