I'm all for CUs in theory, but my reality experience has tempered that somewhat. kind of the same with shopping locally -sometimes the delay and loss of quality just isn't worth it, even though the idea of it is far nicer and I'd rather buy from people I know/might know one day.

You funny Americans, as if your US$ were worth anything anyway. ;)

That's so very true.

I switched from 5/3 (and what kind of name is that, anyway???) to my local CU and have been much happier. Way better service, they know who I am, lower fees, free checking and a great on-line service. I do not have to maintain a certain amount in my accounts for these services, either.

5/3 is being sued in a class action suit for re-arranging the way checks and debits hit your account to provide maximum overdraft charges. I joined the suit. Even if it nets me zero I'll be glad to see those bloodsuckers get a wake up call. They've been screwing people over for decades. AND their service is teh suxeth.

Oops. Spoke too soon. Europe just got jittery about debt, went risk averse, and moved into greenbacks*. As a result one US$ is almost exactly one AU$ right now.


*Which indicates by "jittery" I mean "running scared".

Zen: check your PM

I use a large CU for my banking, but it is found in most states so I call it a national CU. My wife uses BofA for her banking because she didn't qualify for my CU until we married. My only complaint is availability. If you're lucky, there is one branch in your city. My branch is almost two hours away by highway. I can withdraw via ATM at any 7-11 without a fee so that isn't too bad. But the CU claims they are looking to open a location on my side of the Metroplex so that will make in-person banking easier.

She wants to change over most of her accounts from BofA to the CU because there are lower/fewer fees and often better service, but at least one account has to stay where it is for technical reasons. My CU offers online banking, online bill pay and just about everything I want to do right in my living room. I like my CU, which I joined twenty years ago and have used for paychecks as well as my pension checks ever since.

I voted national bank however, because there was no option for national CU and since we is a pair now, I do banking through BofA too. But I won't cry to see them go.

Online banking - do not want

That's the way I felt too, until... I had to buy more paper checks.

I set up a few online payments, and it worked so well I added more
Now, my paper checks are just for tax payments and urgency pays.
We still get paper statements, mainly to document payments.

Try it, you might like it :)
.

Yeah, I held out for a really long time. (At least for the bill pay option, I'd been checking my balance and that sort of thing online for years.) But one day I screwed up and had one more bill due and no more checks. So I went ahead and did it just for that one. And then I really wished I'd done it years ago. It's not automated, I still tell it who to send a check to and for how much, but now I just choose the address from a drop-down menu and type the dollar amount in instead of writing everything by hand and licking envelopes and putting on stamps.

We do have various automatic bill payments set up. But we did them the old fashioned way by filling out paper forms and mailing them in. My fears are that I know for a fact that my computers have been compromised by viruses in the past, so I don't want any link between my computers and my money. I can't guarantee the security of my computers.

I admit that I don't know the inner workings of online banking, but that one fundamental fact keeps me away. I don't trust my end.

Her name is Julia Gillard, she's been PM for a year and a bit now. Why?

Oh, P - M .

Nothing from you, though. Uh????