I have an ongoing auto loan with DCU for my car. I have remaining balance close to $3k. I am originally scheduled to payoff the balance this November. Can I payoff the amount earlier? Is there a penalty for early payment?

I like to make sure credit unions have good ratings and financials prior to putting my money somewhere. I know sites like weiss ratings give a rating. However it's hard to understand how to read and interrupt all this information.

One example is the asset mix: I'd like to know specifics on what (other) 20% could be. Also not sure if it's possible to get the outstanding debt vs cash on hand ratio. I am trying to find something safe and find an intuition as close to 3/1 ratio if possible.

Maybe I am overthinking this, but figured I'd ask

Right now, I'm a member of a local-ish credit union (Florida Credit Union). I'm not satisfied with them, especially with how annoying their "fraud prevention" was when i was recently travelling abroad.

Basically, I just wanna switch credit unions (or switch to a bank if thats the right move). However, I'm moving from Florida at the end of the summer because I'm finishing school and won't be working in FL afterwards, but i dont actually know where I'll wind up moving to. Its possible i move abroad.

What are some good suggestions for new banks/CUs to switch to, given my situation? I'll keep my FCU account open while i finish paying my credit card off, but would rather start actively using a card from a different institution.

For context I’ve only worked here for 1 year. In that year we have had 19 departures. In the last 3 months VP OF Credit admin has left, VP of marketing has left, VP of lending as left, AVP of lending has left, underwriter of 38 years retired with 2 days notice, head of collections left, 2 branch managers have quit, and head of facilities was laid off on a random Tuesday came in crying saying he loved working us. There has been an increase of transfer fraud so much so that that we have completely taken that feature off of the mobile banking app. Joint owners can no longer do transactions over the phone. They limited the teller wire limit to only 10k and now wires go thru about 3 different levels of leadership before being released. They won’t even look at an application now it’s a credit score is under 690. We have a minimum of at least 15 members who come in DAILY to get new debits card due to VISA flagging them for fraud. We also closed a popular branch about 7 minutes ago due to “no foot track” yet the branch I work at now had excess of +60 members who come in weekly, some almost daily, to complain about the branch being dissolved which in return drains our vaults and ATMs 3x as quickly as it did before. It’s just a shit show.

In my short time I have seen so many drastic changes yet nobody is communicating with us about what going on in the back end. Everything seems off and I have a sneaky feeling I’ll have to find a new job soon..

Just got off the phone w/ my credit union where they told me that shared branching cash withdrawals are now limited to $500. A "recent change" they said. I however, only found out when I had to withdraw funds and was out of town.

Advertising shared branching as a perk if this is the case everywhere is just shitty. L credit unions

So if you belong to an NCUA institution, and you have a joint account, instead of the account being insured for $250,000, my understanding is it's insured for $500,000. What happens if one of the spouses dies? Does the insured amount immediately drop down to $250,000? Is there a grace period? Or does the $500,000 amount still apply?

I’m surprised that there’s virtually zero discussion of Chartway FCU on this subreddit or reddit as a whole. This post is probably the first about them here, yet they seem decently large with a mobile app that has over 5k ratings and physical branches across Virginia, Texas, and Utah. They seem really appealing from what I’ve managed to uncover about them - no fees or minimums, a high yield checking account, $10 monthly ATM fee rebates, an unlimited 2% cash back credit card with no annual fee + no foreign transaction fee + a $200 sign-up bonus, both personal and business account offerings, good rates from what I can see…

Has anyone actually dealt with them? Are there any catches or are they a solid choice?

I’m an incoming college freshman (18 years old) and basically want to know the best and easiest way to get my refunds and paychecks deposited.

I did have a bank account before, my dad opened it for me when I started a summer job about two years ago. I mostly work during the summer, so during the school year I’m unemployed. Eventually, I started getting charged convenience fees for not having regular deposits. So I closed that account and started using online banking (Cash App) to get money from my parents and paychecks when I was working.

I’m planning to get a job on or around my university campus and obviously, Cash App isn’t a sustainable or trustworthy way to manage my money. I’m starting summer semester, so I need to figure out it out soon. I am not opposed to doing either but I would like the connivence of being able to walk to a bank that is on campus because I'm not allowed to bring my car. But I am sure I could find a bank that has locations close to my school.

I also plan to get a credit card (probably discover student card)... so if you could give me any tips on that too, that would be great!!!

Do any of the financial screening websites show I had 22 checking accounts in a span of 9 years? They were closed voluntarily, but 5 were charged off.

Mid-refinance and the dealer where the car was originally purchased gave a VIN that doesn't match what's on the registration. The registration VIN matches the dashboard plate so the car itself is fine.

This is almost certainly a dealer data entry error but it's worth understanding what the right VIN is and which one lenders will actually use before submitting anything. Would be good to know if anyone else has run into this mid-process and how it got resolved, because holding up a refinance over a clerical mistake on the dealer's end seems like the kind of thing that shouldn't be this murky.

So I received this email from TruStage with life insurance offers. It has the credit union logo from which I am member of. Is this normal? Never heard of TruStage.

I'm a member of NFCU and new to credit unions. What made you decide to join a credit union, I was just curious? Similarly, SoFi's introduction of a subscription service is why I joined.

So im looking to get a personal loan without having any credit to get to work and back home since its a long drive. Which credit union would help(never had credit and im in oregon)

Does anyone have experience changing jobs from one CU to another in their area? I work for a Credit Union but there's an opening for a similar position to mine at a different CU. It would be a substantial pay increase, and a shorter commute. However, I know the CU world is tight, and my boss is at the AVP level and knows some people at the other CU from meetings of our regional credit union association. I'm worried one of them would reach out and tell my boss I'm looking. Am I being paranoid?

Skyla Credit Union is an excellent place to join if you’re looking to grow your savings. They offer a competitive APY of 4-5% on savings accounts, and even better, they offer 4% on checking accounts!

Hey All,

I recently opened an account with Fairwinds Credit Union. It has been nothing but a nightmare to say the least. I did the initial transfer to fund the account, and a few days later sent more via external transfer

Fairwinds locked my account as I could not do anything. It took me several calls to customer service and the compliance department will never contact you. They told me it was flagged as fraud since it's a new account.

Now over a week later, they rejected the money I sent in via external transfer and sent it back. At least I have the funds.

Anyhow is it common practice with new accounts that any activity with external transfers can be flagged as fraud? I never had this issue before.

I am considering closing the account and opening one in my local area. At least I can go in if I have an issue

I am open to suggestions.

Before going through any application, wanted to know if refinancing was actually worth it or just something that sounds good on paper. Most calculators only show the new monthly payment, which doesn't tell the full story because extending the term can make the payment look great while costing more overall.

The situation was a $31,000 balance at 11.8% with 54 months remaining. Plugged that into caribou's calculator alongside a realistic new rate for the good credit tier, which is averaging around 7.59% right now based on actual funded loans, and it shows total interest saved not just the monthly figure.

Total interest saved over the remaining term came out to well over $4,000. That's the difference between what stays in the loan and what stays in the bank. Monthly savings alone felt abstract but the lump sum made it concrete. That number is what moved me. Went through prequalification the same day.

I wanted to make a post here for someone thinking about switching from the likes of Chase, Bank of America, etc. to a credit union. Its been roughly 3 weeks and its been the best banking experience in my entire adult life.

I moved from Chase to Coastal Federal Credit Union at first for checking account to build relationship for a future home mortage. After joining, I was reward 5% interest in my checking account and stelluar customer service with almost everything. This alone prompted me to move my auto loan as well and too my surprise I got a 4.24% rate with them calling to assist me with the entire process.

When growing up, I was falsely taught that national large banks are "safer" or have better deals and life has taught me this is not true.

Hope this helps someone on the fence to just do it! You will not regret your decision

Was a credit union member for six years. Checking, savings, credit card, all of it. When it came time to refinance the auto loan, went to the CU first out of habit and loyalty.

Ran the numbers. The credit union rate would have cost about $2,850 in total remaining interest. The competing rate: $1,940. Over $900 difference.

Brought the competing offer back to the credit union. They wouldn't match it. Refinanced with the other lender.

The CU relationship is still valuable for other things. But auto refinancing is competitive enough that loyalty to one institution has a real cost if the rate isn't the best available.

I used to have a bank that gave $20 after you direct deposited $2500 a month. anything similar or just a nice bonus you wanna brag about finding?

I'm not asking for a referral signup, thanks

Had no idea this was even a real thing until someone in a finance thread mentioned it. Figured writing out exactly what happened might help someone else in the same fog.

Step one was checking what the current rate actually was. Pulled up the original loan paperwork and it was 13.7% from dealer financing two years ago.

Step two was figuring out what rates were even available. caribou shows competing lender offers without a hard inquiry upfront, which is useful for anyone who doesn't want to commit to anything just to see numbers. Offer range in that credit profile came back around 7%.

Step three is accepting an offer and submitting the actual application. That's where the hard inquiry happens. New lender pays off the old one, paperwork gets signed electronically, and the new loan starts the following month.

Total timeline from first check to new loan is usually around 10 days. Old loan paid off, new rate, same car.

hi! we are looking to get our first home. we are looking in the range of 200-250k. have good sized downpayment. looking for credit unions (North Carolina) that do FHA loans that would also accept my husband being at his job only 7 months? before that he stays home with baby while I worked. we’ve had approval from wells fargo but their rates suck. hoping to use a local union but not sure who, if any, would accept his work gap. 😬