“Credit Union,” A National Bland?

By Tim McAlpine

Have you ever asked a young person outside of the credit union movement bubble what a credit union is? If you have, then you know that this question will be answered in one of four ways.

 

1. With a blank stare
2. With a blunt, “No”
3. With a feeble attempt to piece together an answer based on the respondent’s basic  understanding of the two separate words “credit” and “union”
4. With a questioning, “Like a bank, right?”

 

I am not overstating or exaggerating here. We’ve asked dozens of our Young & Free Spokester finalists to do just this. What we had really hoped to surface over time was a general understanding of what a credit union is and, ideally, a basic understanding of how a credit union is a better choice for young adults.

Here is a good example of one of these videos. It was created by the 2008 Young & Free Texas Spokester, DeAndre Upshaw.

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