does anyone have their savings and checking with a credit union

vlagrl29

I've been with my bank since I was 17 and now that we have a decent amount in savings I would like to get more money back on it.  I'm thinking of moving us to community america credit union.  It looks like you can get 4% back on the first $1500.  Free online bill pay and free checking.  DH and I are going to go in tomorrow to get more deats.

brij2006

Our regular checking and 2 savings accounts are with a credit union.  However, you have to be employed by a certain group of companies in order to have an account there.

Our savings also only accrues .1% interest. So there aren't any more perks than a traditional bank, but all of them are different.

Erikan73

I have been with a credit union for several years. Easy to deal with & sometimes better rate then a bank. It just all depends on how much money you have in your account on what the fees/interest is. Doesn't hurt to go in & get more details on what their rules and rates are, just like any other bank

vlagrl29

my parents just opened some accounts at the bank I'm looking into and my dad is unemployed at the moment and my mom is not working so I don't think we have to have a certain job.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Xstatic3333

We do! To join ours you just have to live or work in certain counties. We have a deal like yours, with 4% back on our first $3,000. I love it! My only knock on it is that the online technology doesn't run as smoothly as BoA, where I was before, but it's not really a huge deal.

vlagrl29

Xstatic3333 said:

We do! To join ours you just have to live or work in certain counties. We have a deal like yours, with 4% back on our first $3,000. I love it! My only knock on it is that the online technology doesn't run as smoothly as BoA, where I was before, but it's not really a huge deal.

that's great.  I only see our savings account getting bigger.  I was also thinking of closing my commerce bank visa cc and get a fidelity visa.  I heard you get rewards in your retirement.  anything helps!

Xstatic3333

vlagrl29 said:

Xstatic3333 said:

We do! To join ours you just have to live or work in certain counties. We have a deal like yours, with 4% back on our first $3,000. I love it! My only knock on it is that the online technology doesn't run as smoothly as BoA, where I was before, but it's not really a huge deal.

that's great.  I only see our savings account getting bigger.  I was also thinking of closing my commerce bank visa cc and get a fidelity visa.  I heard you get rewards in your retirement.  anything helps!

Yes, the Fidelity Visa sounds great! I want to open one, but H and I talked about it and we may be a little too close to home buying for credit changes (if all goes well!)

With our credit union, we found that they would let us open two high yield accounts, even though one of them is joint. It's something to keep in mind, even if your finances are combined. We did need to do a direct deposit per account to avoid fees, and I know that can be tough if memory serves and you and your H are both self-employeed.

vlagrl29

Xstatic3333 said:

Xstatic3333 said:

We do! To join ours you just have to live or work in certain counties. We have a deal like yours, with 4% back on our first $3,000. I love it! My only knock on it is that the online technology doesn't run as smoothly as BoA, where I was before, but it's not really a huge deal.

that's great.  I only see our savings account getting bigger.  I was also thinking of closing my commerce bank visa cc and get a fidelity visa.  I heard you get rewards in your retirement.  anything helps!

Yes, the Fidelity Visa sounds great! I want to open one, but H and I talked about it and we may be a little too close to home buying for credit changes (if all goes well!) With our credit union, we found that they would let us open two high yield accounts, even though one of them is joint. It's something to keep in mind, even if your finances are combined. We did need to do a direct deposit per account to avoid fees, and I know that can be tough if memory serves and you and your H are both self-employeed.

yeah, we don't really have direct deposit.  If I have students with one of the online teaching websites I work with they DO direct deposit every week but right now I don't have any students with them.  That would be a BUMMER!

what we do now is have a set amount come out of our checking into our savings twice a month.  It's a automatic deposit on the same days every month and then I transfer money from checking into savings as money comes in that we don't need for bills.  I do all that online with commerce bank right now.

HoneyBee973

Not related to your question, but I thought commerce bank closed/ merged with TD Bank? Around here it did anyway. I miss commerce Bank.

blondie42107

Love my credit union. I opened my account my senior year of high school so I would be established for college.

Love the online banking (including photo check deposits), online bill payment, great rates. I was able to get an account because my parents were members. I know some you either have to work or live in a certain area, etc. We were going to open an account with a credit union through my husband's work (it's a very large company and it's only open to employees).

The best part of the bill pay is that it's not directly linked to my checking/savings account. For example, the bank that I have my auto loan through requires that you have to open an account to pay online. I refuse so I use my credit union's bill pay and do everything online and they cut the check.

vlagrl29

HoneyBee973 said:

Not related to your question, but I thought commerce bank closed/ merged with TD Bank? Around here it did anyway. I miss commerce Bank.

interesting.  It didn't here.  We have only commerce banks and BOA.

vlagrl29

we went in today to get more info and it looks like we can get the free checking and 1% interest savings without any direct deposits.  We will keep DH's business account at Commerce and have a payroll transfer from Commerce to Community America and then we can qualify for the 4% interest up to $1500 and then 1% on the rest of the money we have in savings.  Then we can also get money back every year depending how much money we have invested with them.  Looks promising.  Just need to get the info from commerce about the payroll transfer and how to do that

sillygoosegirl

I've almost always banked with credit unions.  My parents opened an account for me at our local credit union when I was a baby (they were able to join based on my dad's employer), and I started actually using the account when I was 8.  I closed out my accounts there when I got married and moved to a part of the county where they didn't have any branches, but I opened an account with the credit union associated with my employer.  Stopped using that account when we moved out of state to where they didn't exist, and banked with a regular local bank since I couldn't find a local credit union that I met the criteria to join.  When we moved back to my home town, I was able to re-open my childhood credit union account, even though we wouldn't have qualified to join if I hadn't previously been a member.  

We also have a savings account with Ally Bank.  Our credit union has good service for day-to-day stuff, and some good promotional interest rates (1.7% on up to $10K in our checking account if we make $X transactions each month), but Ally has better rates for anything beyond that.  So that's where we keep our savings we don't have to access very often.  

hoffse

H and I both have accounts with a credit union, though we don't keep much in those accounts.  We maintain them primarily for lending purposes.  Our credit union has great interest rates for car loans, mortgages, etc.  We also have a credit card through our credit union for foreign travel.  

It's definitely not as high-tech as Well's Fargo or Fidelity, but overall we really like it.

Oh and yes, Fidelity has a couple of credit cards that make deposits directly into your Roth account with them.  It gets deposited as cash, so you have to invest it on your own -- but it definitely saves money if you fully fund your Roth each year.  Their AmEx gives you 2% back on everything, their Visa gives you 1.5% back on everything.

vlagrl29

hoffse said:

H and I both have accounts with a credit union, though we don't keep much in those accounts.  We maintain them primarily for lending purposes.  Our credit union has great interest rates for car loans, mortgages, etc.  We also have a credit card through our credit union for foreign travel.  

It's definitely not as high-tech as Well's Fargo or Fidelity, but overall we really like it.

Oh and yes, Fidelity has a couple of credit cards that make deposits directly into your Roth account with them.  It gets deposited as cash, so you have to invest it on your own -- but it definitely saves money if you fully fund your Roth each year.  Their AmEx gives you 2% back on everything, their Visa gives you 1.5% back on everything.

Do they only do it on your Roth?  I only have 2 IRA's with them.

hoffse

No, I know you can also have it sent to 529's and brokerage accounts.  Brokerage accounts are just regular investment accounts that can hold cash or other investments.  H used to have his Fidelity card send cash to his brokerage account, and then he would divvy it up among his other bank accounts however he wanted.  That might an option for you.  I just have mine sent directly to my Roth account because it saves me from having to do it later on.

If you don't have a brokerage account you might want to open one as a depository for rewards.  The rewards will appear as cash you can actually move around/spend/withdraw/transfer to another bank.  That's pretty unusual in the world of credit card rewards.  Plus, you might decide to invest some of your regular savings (outside of retirement), and a brokerage account makes that really easy.

short+sassy

I belong to two credit unions and really like them both.  Both of them offer slightly higher interest on accounts than the typical bank, though it is typically only by about half a percent.  They are great to work with on loans also.  Lower interest rates and more personalized.