 This is gonna shock you. What's up, money geeks, Mr. V here. Welcome to another video. So in today's video, we're gonna be examining our big banks better than credit union. So I've gotten a question, people are asking me, Mr. V, my neighborhood credit union is telling me that they're better than big banks, like which one is better? So we're gonna examine that in today's video. So before we even jump into the video guys, so question for you, have you used credit unions and have you used big banks? And if yes, if you've used both, what has been the experience? I wanna hear that in the comment section below. So definitely share with us what you think. So here's my thing about big banks and credit unions. So if you go back maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago, credit unions were amazing. They had all these good features and people love them for their low fees and all the good things that they offered. Fast forward another 20 years to 2020, we have the introduction of online banking with all kinds of online banks. We have banks that don't have any sort of brick and mortar. So they don't have a storefront where you can actually walk into the bank and talk to people but yet they operate and provide all the services or all the products that any other bank or credit union provides. So again, the question is which one is better? So let's examine what a credit union offers and what a big bank or less an online bank would offer and then we can decide which one is better. So let's start. The first thing is that online banks and big banks are full profit organization. Why a credit union is a nonprofit organization? So when I say nonprofit, it's more of the sense like whatever extra money that they make, they turn to invest that back into the credit union or share it with their members. Takes our support. Credit union have members. So usually people in a particular geographical location, maybe in a particular city in a particular state, why online banks and the big banks have customers? You could be anywhere and you can do business with those online banks. Online banks have the exposure, the fact that it can even be global. You can have people doing business from China using banks here in America, whereas a credit union is only limited to a really small region. Like I said, it could be in a community, it could be ex-employees or maybe people that go to the same church or just in a particular neighborhood, you have to live in that neighborhood to bank with them so they don't have that exposure, that global exposure as far as being able to exchange or send money. Now if you go one step further, now you see that these big banks or the online banks, just because they're online banks, don't have any infrastructure or brick and mortar stores, they save a ton of money. So that money in turn, they tend and give you good rates as far as maybe on your checking account, your savings account, your money market account, they provide better rates. They use that money to develop even better products that they can provide to their customers to provide them good services to retain those customers. And so your small credit union cannot really compete with those big banks. Your money that is in your credit union is actually insured by the NCUA. That is the association of credit unions that insure that money up to about $250,000 as well. Whereas your money in your big bank or online bank is FDIC insured up to about $250,000. So in that perspective, they're both insured just by two separate organizations. So if you look at it, just from somebody looking from the outside, again, I'd say credit union have a place in our society. If you are somebody that really cares about the community, cares about that human interaction, you cares about that face-to-face meeting, you care about building your community, you care about working with people that your kids go to school with, you go to church with, then a credit union would be an ideal place for you. Are you gonna be missing out on some really good products? The answer is yes. You can do a combination of both. You can use those online banks for, maybe say like a money market account because they offer a really excellent rate. You can use the online banks for investing because they have products and services that are really geared towards helping you grow your money better than your credit union. But for your everyday activity, let's say your checking account or just your emergency fund, you can put it in your credit union that you can actually go in and use it. Even with your savings account, credit unions still don't offer a better rate compared to online banks. Online banks are offering somewhere between 1.5 up to about 2.5% in your savings account, whereas the credit union cannot offer that kind of amount of money because they don't really have the products or the services to be able to get the rates that low. So that's what I see as far as it goes in fee-wise. Like I said, credit unions, the fees, you could say a little bit comparable, but online banks, because they don't have the infrastructure, they don't have to break a model, they use all that money, they can use it to actually lower their fees. We're at credit union, they have a physical location that you have to go into and they pay for that location. But the fees are kind of comparable. So my personal take, in 2020, I would use an online bank first before I would consider using a credit union. The reason, again, like from what I've already outlined to you guys, number one is that they offer a ton of products. Number two, they operate at a global level. So if I want to do business in China, I can actually do it knowing that I can exchange my money. And number three is that they provide FDIC security on my money, insurance on my money. I know credit unions have some sort of security, but I prefer the FDIC insurance. It's a better known insurance for money compared to the NTUA. For credit unions. Number four is that their interest rates are way better compared to credit unions. Again, sometimes I'll hear, you know, loan-wide credit unions might offer a better rate, but so far shopping online, I've seen more a better rate compared to credit unions. So for that reason, my vote is I'll say online banks win this one. Would you say they win hands down? Probably say they win about 70, 80 to maybe 20% credit union. Again, it's totally up to you as the NTUA to kind of look at what really matters the most to you. Are you looking to grow your money? Do you care about certain things? You care about service? You care about people? You care about your community? You care about really working with, again, the people that your kids go to school with, they go to church with. If those things matter to you, then consider a credit union. If you wanna grow your money, have more options, more products, use online banking. Can you do a combination of the two? Yes, like I said, savings account and checking account, you can have them, your credit union, and then on the flip side, investment account, loans, and all these other things that you can get a better rate from online banking, you can use them, and that'll give you a really good balance. Again, question of the day, what you experience with credit unions and big banks? Let me know in the comment section. If you liked the video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up, and please do me a favor or hit that notification button because YouTube has decided that if you don't hit the notification button, you're not getting notification as soon as my videos come out. 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