Financially savvy consumers overwhelmingly choose credit unions as their preferred institutions, says a new GoBankingRates.com poll, and that is no surprise, says Paul Gentile, Credit Union National Association executive vice president of strategic communications and engagement.

“For users of financial services, it’s all about trust–and the credit union model, as a cooperative operating on a not-for-profit basis with no shareholders–engenders the trust among consumers and small business customers,” he told GoBankingRates.com (July 17).

Among those polled on the GoBankingRates site and its partner sites–US News, Boston.com, AL.com and The City Wire— more than 73.76% of poll respondents choose credit unions as their preferred institutions. Local community banks distantly followed, being preferred by 14.18%, national banks by 9.93%, and other institutions by 2.13%.

The publication also featured an explanation by Andrew Schrage, personal finance journalist and co-owner of blog Money Crashers Personal Finance, who noted he used to have an account at a national financial institution but pulled it when he ran into bad customer service.  Like 2.2 million other banking customers since 2011, he moved his money to a credit union.

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