 | Mark Kolarik is the President of the Kansas Teachers Community Credit Union, located in Pittsburg, KS, since 10-2002 and is a board member of the Kansas Corporate Credit Union located in Wichita, KS . He has been employed in the financial service industry for the last 31 years, having worked in several credit unions for 21years and 10 years in the banking industry. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and is a Certificated Credit Union Executive. |
Banking & Finance
2012-11-19 11:49:47
What is the difference between a credit union & a bank?
Q- There are several credit unions located in my community. Can you tell me the difference between a credit union and a bank?
A- Credit unions have been around for a long time. The first credit union in the USA was chartered in 1909 in Manchester, New Hampshire. A credit union is a nonprofit, cooperative financial institution owned by the members of the credit union. A volunteer board of directors oversees the credit union and is elected by the members. Each savings account holder has one vote, when the election of the board is conducted. The board employs a president, which oversees the daily operation of the credit union.
Credit unions offer many of the same financial products and services offered by a bank, such as savings and checking accounts, certificates of deposit, auto loans, mortgage loans, debit and credit cards, and much more. Since credit unions do not have stockholders or are owned by a for profit corporation, profits are given back to the member owners in the form of low loan interest rates, high deposit rates, and low fees. Deposits in a credit union are federally insured up to $250,000 by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.
There are about 8,300 credit unions with over $1 trillion in assets serving more than 93 million people in the United States. To join a credit union, you must be eligible for membership. Each credit union decides who it will serve. Most credit unions are organized to serve people in a particular community, group or groups of employees, or members of an organization or association.
More and more people join credit unions every year and they are pleased with the service. Year after year, credit unions’ national customer satisfaction ratings far exceed banking institutions’ ratings (as reported in the American Bankers annual customer service survey). Call your local credit union to find out if you are eligible to become a member. Then compare your bank’s product pricing to the products offered by the credit union. You may be surprised by what you could save by joining a credit union.
