A millennial’s perspective on giving credit to credit unions

by: Will Lipovsky

I became a member of my local credit union back in 2008. I joined primarily so I would have a physical place to deposit cash and checks. Mobile deposit doesn’t work too well for depositing cash. I also understood opportunity cost too well to leave much cash depreciating in my sock drawer.

Beyond the need for a physical institution, I wanted a good interest rate for my money. I began checking rates around town. I started with the obvious… Wells Fargo. Then I called the other banks in town. The term ‘credit union’ didn’t mean anything to me at the at this point. But someone told me the local credit union had the best interest rate in town. Turns out my local credit union offered by far the best interest rate! The only drawback I saw was you needed to make a $5 forever deposit that would serve as your one-time membership fee.

A calculator was not needed to know that if I could get 1 point better interest on my checking account, I would quickly recoup those five dollars.

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