[conduct]

What is the deal with Credit Unions? My current company helped develop the current credit union I have accounts with and it seems to me they raise everything.

Well I bought a 2005 Trailblazer about 2 years ago and got a nice loan 6.9% APR on a used vehicle I thought was a great deal. I also have open line of credit with them at 8% APR.
But when I went back about 3 months ago to get another small loan for $3000 They wanted to charge me 16% APR. :icon_conf So I was like what the heck you have me down for 16% when my other loan and open loan are lower. They said my credit score is not high enough and that they base all loans "now" on your credit score. They even wanted my Dodge truck as collateral which is 3x the price of the boat.

Now this is interesting I thought for sure me being the good payment guy and establishing something with my Credit Union would help me and not hurt me. I don't even see the money for the loans as it goes from Employer to Credit Union right form the check.

Oh and then last year the Credit Union in December you could deffer your loans for 1 month to help out on x-mas no cost. Got a letter week ago now they charge $15 per loan to deffer and you still pay interest on the month. So let me get this right... You say I can deffer and you gain another month of interest and you want me to pay another $15 for processing fee.

I know 5 or the 6 members on the board for the credit union as I work with them daily. I noticed lot of these higher interest rates and fees after the credit union voted to allow other local companies open accounts.
I also noticed a high volume of car repo in the 2 years and none before that. I would say 1 or so a month. Would this cause higher rates for other members getting loans and trust in the local credit union?

Sorry I am just venting and seeing if anyone else has issues with credit union?

 

[lauraleellbp]

Welcome to our current Default economy.

Everyone is used to people letting their mortgages and car payments go (or having to let them go after getting laid off)... so it's gotten pretty hard to get loans these days.

 

[mistergreen]

they're playing the risk game. Shop around for a better deal. You don't have to stick with those guys.

 

[mgamer20o0]

each one is different the one i am in i find refreshing from the helpful staff to the great rates. when i got my car loan though them the dealer wouldnt even look about even trying to match it. that was then this is now..... companies raising their rates to get in before laws change plus higher rate of loans defaulting. in the end the people still paying into the system are the ones who get screwed from the ones who dont.

at least the credit card with them is under 16%....

 

[redfalconf35]

I havent dealt with my CU regarding loans, but i found them to be the most reasonable RE: savings accounts. I have a basic student checking account paired with a basic savings account at both a regular FDIC insured bank and a CU. The one with the FDIC bank only allows 3 online transfers a month while the CU allows me to transfer at will. The FDIC bank has a tendency to put my withdrawals in front of my deposits, causing me to run into overdraft fees every once in a while. I've never had that happen at the CU. My FDIC bank charges $2 for any other bank's business done at their ATM, the CU charges nothing. Honestly, I'm very happy with both (my FDIC bank just caught and handled a fraud on my account with nothing more than needing me to sign at the bottom of a paper), but the CU is much more customer oriented IMHO. By the way (not to get too off topic), it's always good to have more than one account/card to draw from. I was lucky when one of my debit cards was declined (i had deposited some money by check and it hadn't gone through yet), so i used my other card and was good to go. Otherwise i wouldn't have been able to get dinner that night.

 

[jake]

I like my CU for the most part. 6 something % credit card with them, but it was a bit difficult to get a vehicle loan with them. They go by NADA " loan value" on a vehicle and not retail value, so I had to keep calling with the make/model, etc. to get the loan value ( have to have expensive subscription with NADA to see it for yourself). Their loan value was pretty close to trade-in values on vehicles, but I finally found one that was close enough from a private seller. No way on earth I would have found a vehicle at a dealers' that I would've been able to buy through them unless it was almost new.

All banks/CU's have their good and bad points. I just shop around until I find one that has mostly good. I have been known to just up and cancel accounts and move my money if I don't like my relationship with the bank.

I look for a bank to be 1) very friendly... why not... you have all of my money - you should at least be nice to me and not act like you're doing me a favor. 2) Honest - if one person there tells me something, another should be able to back that up. I don't want to hear " Yeah, that's no problem." from one person and then hear " Yeah, that's a problem." from another. 3) Helpful - I want a bank that is trying to give me that loan, doing their best to figure out what is right for both of us, and finally 4) Not full of so many fees that you can't possibly hope to make it through a month without feeling like their fees are similar to a bill.

I want a bank where I know most of the people, can call them up and tell them what I'm looking at and they can say " yeah, go ahead" or " No, we can't do that at the moment." while I'm still on the phone with them, without the paperwork.

If you're not happy with them on many counts, just shop around. No sense dealing with people you aren't happy with.

 

[mgamer20o0]

sounds like a lot of work. i loved car buying with my CU. i walked in told them what kind of car i wanted 30 mins later i had a check. sure made life easy when walking into a dealer waving a check.