Benefits of a Credit Union

[RBOD]

If you're set on buying a house, PM 13SECSS, he's our resident mortgage guy. He will get the ball rolling and make sure everything goes smoothly.

This. Steve is the man. He got me in my house and did my refi less than a year later to get me into a lower rate.

 

[wrath]

Either have debt or deposits at a financial institution. Avoid it where possible, but never do both at a credit union. They don't play by the same rules as a bank. Cross collateralization is the worst part of a credit union.

Credit unions are great and all (I'm a member of three) but they behave entirely differently from a bank. And in reality, credit unions rarely have better rates than a bank anymore. Go wherever is best for you.

 

[BigWheelinBubba]

You are right about the cross collateralization clause in the loan contracts. Funny you mention it because most people don't know unless that clause has been used against them at some point lol.

 

[wrath]

You are right about the cross collateralization clause in the loan contracts. Funny you mention it because most people don't know unless that clause has been used against them at some point lol.

I stumbled across it in the fine print about 10 years ago when I was living in Wisconsin. There was also a clause in there about arbitration and reaffirmation. Ever since then I've really paid attention to financial institutions.

I'd say since the economic downturn half a dozen years ago credit unions lost a lot of their clout. The big banks like PMO Harris, Chase, etc usually have better rates on both deposit and credit accounts. And we won't even go to credit cards.

 

[Beigg]

The question anyone with a buck to invest, where to park it?
Today there is no simple answer. You have to gauge the risk
factors & go with what you can live with - its pretty ugly out
there these days!

Short or long term investing is habitually successful by being aware of market signals (trends) catching the opportunity bull and exiting before the taper (contraction) begins to occur.
If that's understood and tracked right, parking the $ is not hard to do. It can be very stressful though.

It'd be like parking you're ZR1 with the windows down, keys left in it, on a side street... in Detroit to go to a Tiger's game. No real good place, but how long can you get away with that?