Canadian Credit Unions FAQ

Written By: Traci Dillon on September 28, 2010 No Comment

There are many reasons to choose credit unions rather than banks or other financial institutions and Canadian credit unions are no different. They offer better rates, a membership rather than a client relationship, and more free services than you see at other institutions. Also, members of a credit union have a different set of rights than those of other financial institutions.

Credit unions are different from banks as people are actually members rather than clients. This allows for certain privileges that banks do not afford their customers. Credit unions also does not get to choose to refuse service to just anybody that they want to.

Being a member of a credit union means that you are there to stay unless you go before a board and are legally removed from the union. If this does happen, the member is even afforded an appeal process to try to explain why they should be allowed to stay within the credit union as a member. This whole process has to go before a board to make everything legal and finalized. Something pretty drastic has to happen though for this process to even begin.

There are many financial benefits to joining a credit union rather than a bank. There are fewer service fees that are incurred upon your account for joining a credit union. This means no checking fees and/or lower check prices. If you happen to get a debit card from a credit union, their membership fees will usually be lower than those that you would get from a bank.

With a credit union, interest rates on all of their types of loans are typically lower than those from a bank. This includes house and home equity loans and car loans. Through the year, this could save you hundreds of dollars and over the course of the loan, thousands of dollars could be saved.

Credit unions also offer better interest rates on your deposit accounts so that you can earn more money throughout the year. Different credit unions will determine the amount that you earn in different ways. This amount could come from the average amount that you have in your account throughout the month or from the amount that is in the account at the end of the month.

There are many different reasons why people join credit unions. There are legal, financial and social reasons that each person looks at differently. Whatever the reason that you may be considering, it must be looked at carefully before you come to a final decision on deciding your financial institution.

If you are in need of loan visit this credit union guide to find out more.