Instead of Your Mega-Bank - Support Your Local Credit Union

While I do not normally indulge in political or financial controversy, I am supporting an effort among certain financial people to get more people to join their local credit unions

I support local sustainable agriculture, and credit unions run along some of the same principles.

Credit unions aren't perfect, and I am going to blog about that too...but first a blast from my past.

My family was considered "disadvantaged" growing up.  Sometimes there wasn't much between us and a square meal right before payday.

What saved us was my Dad's credit union.  Literally, I know on more than one occasion he borrowed money so we could pay bills.  No, I am not being melodramatic here.  The credit union trusted him-and he paid the money back.

I don't know what credit union it was.  But what I can tell you is, I've belonged to credit unions since 1976.  Back in those days there were no community charters so you had to join through a job or an association of some sort.  I would have been a member prior to 1976 if I could have been.

And, I still am.  In fact, I belong to two Binghamton area credit unions-one since 1986.

In future posts, I will explain more about what makes credit unions great-and a couple of recent practices that have me a little concerned.