Credit Unions Recommendations? (refinance, credit card, loan)

[MAD King]

Hello,

I am reday to switch my accounts from BoA (or better known as Bank of Greed) to a local credit union.
I am just not able to find the right one with really good customer service and good selection of ATMs.
There are also no reviews of the local credit unions out there. Not like for BoG or Wells Fargo.

Any recommendations for Nashville area?

Thank you

[bigcitymike]

None of these are local, but thought I'd offer them up.

I really disliked doing business with BofA for reasons similar to yours. The fact they took a bailout, only just to stick it to their customers afterward never set well with me.

If you're military (recent or past) or have immediate family that is, I think USAA is pretty hard to beat. If you're not military, you can still open an account, it's just there are more services they offer to those who've served or are family members of those who have.

or

Alliant Credit Union (been with them for two years)

It's not local (their out of Chicago) as I mentioned, but the ATM network is very impressive. Everything I need can be done online, via smartphone or secure email. I use it for daily banking and recently refinanced a car loan with them (1.49% pretty amazing rate, and a very smooth transaction). I usually use one of USBank locations for free if I need cash (they seems to have a big footprint around here). Plus there are many more locations you can get money for free locally, and across the country.

I've kept my BofA account open, as it wasn't costing me anything (hopefully I'm costing them just by having it and not using it) as a backup to Alliant just in case. I was kinda flying blind trying Alliant out. I've never set foot in BofA since, or needed BofA since switching.

Here's a blurb from a couple of years ago when I started out trying to find a new bank:

"Alliant is one of the largest credit unions in the United States. And while it's located in Illinois, residents in any state can join if they meet certain requirements.

To become a member, you need to either work for one of more than 175 qualifying companies and organizations, including Google, JetBlue and 1-800-Flowers, or simply make a one-time donation of $10 or more to Foster Care to Success.

The credit union offers a checking account with no monthly service fee and no minimum balance requirement.

While the basic free checking account doesn't pay interest automatically, you can easily earn a competitively high annual percentage yield, or APY, of 1.10% on your checking account if you opt out of paper statements and make at least one online deposit per month.

Customers can also access a nationwide network of more than 80,000 ATMs for use without charge."

And this is what Wikipedia has to say. I don't know if these numbers are still accurate:

Founded in 1935, Alliant is the 5th largest credit union by asset size in the United States with $8.2 billion USD in assets, and serves nearly 280,000 members worldwide

For a Credit Union, their asset base and membership level is what helped me make my mind up. I made the switch to Alliant and have been very satisfied with their level of service and customer service. I not terribly needy so your mileage may vary.

[MAD King]

Great, Thank you very much. I will check out both.

[bigcitymike]

I really can't say enough about Alliant Credit Union, and no I'm not an affiliate so I'm not getting kickbacks.

I just notice they've raised the interest earned on saving accounts to 0.896 %, better than most 5yr CDs. It might not seem like much (and compared to credit cards rates it isn't), but .90% is a very rare and high rate considering today financial climate. Their saving account are a liquid asset accounts, so there is no length of time that the funds have to be tied up for. That's free money paid to you each month. If you have an emergency fund that is probability collecting next to nothing, this is a great alternative.

Their Free checking accounts pay .65%. As far as I'm aware of, that's pretty unique rate for a checking account today. BofA never paid me anything for a checking account. In fact, I had to pay them for their checking account up until a few years ago.

Alliant Credit Union's CD's rates are great as well. A 4yd CD pays 2%. Just checked Bankrate's site, and the best 5yr CD was only paying .87.

You can check out all of Alliant's rates here.