Let me start out by saying that this investigation into credit unions may not take as long as I originally thought in part 1.  Just doing Internet searches, I found 10 in Phoenix metro. My criterion to narrow it down from there was simple geography: the proximity to Central Phoenix and the number of their locations. I did this via the most important investigative step: I found them all on the Local First Arizona website.  Reviewing those I narrowed them down from five to settle on three (the links that follow are to their reviews on Local First): Arizona Central Credit Union, Desert Schools Federal Credit Union, and Marisol Federal Credit Union.

I did all of this before I contacted any of the Credit Unions in person.

I then narrowed it down from three, to two, because Marisol Federal Credit Union wouldn’t pick up their phone. That’s a big deal when it comes to a bank. Before I called, I looked at their website and saw that in order to avoid fees on their accounts, the minimum balance was pretty high. I wouldn’t really save anything compared to my existing account at JPWellsComeriBank in that area. Conclusion: Marisol was out of the running.

I didn’t just pick up the phone, though, and start calling the three before I narrowed it down to two. I started with an Excel spreadsheet, naturally, where I prepared to rate each credit union according to the following categories:

• Number of ATM locations?
• Online system usability?”The online stuff is important because I don’t want to be forced to go into the bank. Who does? Small business owners want to be able to just get it done on their computers.” ~ Me
• What did their bill pay system look like (and did it cost anything)?
• Their security system (if credit card is stolen? How secure is their internal information?)
• Customer service?
• Fee structure (personal and business checking, personal and health savings?)
• Reinvest locally?
• Member of Local First Arizona?

That left two Credit Union’s worth more serious consideration: An actual physical trip to the branch.

I started with Desert Schools Federal Credit Union, before I went to Arizona Central Credit Union. In part 3 of my investigation, I’ll share those two experiences, what I decided and why. (I may even include another humorous link as a bonus. What? You didn’t see it? I’ll give you one guess which link it is…)

To see the next installment, please click here.

I saw a movie recently (“Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?“), which featured our own Kimber Lanning, Local First Arizona’s founder and director since its inception. We got to talking about why it’s important to consider moving to a credit union as your bank of choice.For years, I had been thinking about the prospect of closing my national bank account and opening an account at a local credit union.

Well, it is finally time and I need your help. Allow me to explain.

To start, and for the sake of this series, let’s just say that I bank with “CitWellsiBank of America.”

Like most banks, my bank charges these fees unless I carry a certain balance; difficult for a small business to do. I suspect credit unions have fees of their own. However, that money has to go somewhere, but I’d rather have it go to a local credit union and keep the money in the local economy. Did you know that when you spend your money locally, four times that amount stays in local circulation, than if you spend it on a national chain or, in this case, a bank?

Credit unions, by design, are investors in their local economy (I think you could make the case that we wouldn’t have the same damage to our economy if we were all using credit unions that weren’t too big to fail. The big banks prior to the recession were doing big credit default swaps, bundling loans (great 2-minute video clip explanation from William Hurt film, “Too Big to Fail” at the link), and selling off collateralized debt obligations.

So when I was talking to Kimber at the movie, I got to thinking about the things were holding me back and I realized that they are probably the same things that hold back other people:

Time. This is probably the biggest impediment to making the switch. My suspicion is that it’s going to take a lot of time to research credit unions, narrow it down to one, set up all of my business accounts, personal accounts, savings accounts so that it’s an exact replication of what I currently have and like. Not to mention learning new things like how to navigate their online offerings, their apps (if they have them) and how to move money around between banks the process.

Uncertainty. Will the credit union have a similar setup on its website interface? How easy will it be to get cash from a credit union with, presumably, fewer locations and ATMs. Where will I get cash if I need it? The big banks tell us we have to go to an ATM or a branch to get money, but we’re smart consumers; we know we can just visit the local supermarket and get cash back and there’s no ATM fees this way. Am I to expect the same level of trust/uncertainty when considering a relationship with a local credit unions?

Security. We’ve been duped into believing that big, national banks are the only ones who take security seriously. How often are local credit unions information compromised? We know it happens to the big banks. What measures do local credit unions take and how do they compare to the national banks?

Over the course of the next two months, I’ll be doing a series on my personal experience in setting up and moving from my big national bank to a local credit union. The first one, which you’re reading now, is defining The Problem: time, uncertainty, and security.

I’m going to do it for everyone, putting these posts up. And I’d love to have your comments as we do it. Tell me what you’ve experienced. Please help me get started by answering these questions:

1) Have you ever considered moving to a credit union?

2) What has kept you from seriously considering a credit union? What’s been holding you back? Why did you decide against a credit union?

3) What credit union do you recommend (or not recommend) and why?

I look forward to our journey together. (Read Part 2, “Credit Unions: Funnel it Down”.)

jp