Is now a good time to put your money in Credit Unions?

[Alexander]

I haven't used banks in years, only credit unions.

Do I have anything to worry about, given the recent collapse of our banks?

[MichiganVote]

1. For starters is it with the FDIC?

[Skittles]

4. from Google

Yes they are government insured. It's not called FDIC. It's a different government program called NCUA.

It's pretty much the same coverage as FDIC with the same limits.

[MissB]

6. Nope. Credit unions are backed by NCUA rather than FDIC.

[Liberal Gramma]

7. Credit Unions have an insurance system similar to FDIC

though they are not covered under FDIC. You might call your credit union and ask about what depositor insurance they carry.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Matresses are looking better these days as well

j/k But the credit unions might turn out to be a good idea. I hope someone who knows about these things comes along.

[CountAllVotes]

3. funds insured by NCUA

>> Your savings federally insured to at least $100,000 and backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government. Traditional and Roth IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts) are insured to at least $250,000. National Credit Union Administration, a U.S. Government agency. We do business in accordance with the Federal Fair Housing Law and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

I have personally banked with credit unions for years. I dislike banks immensely, esp. B of A.

:kick:

[rucky]

5. Well, they're not FDIC insured.

They have their own insurance agency - but that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

Bankrate has "safe and sound" ratings that may be worth checking out...

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/ss_home.asp

[pkz]

8. Credit Unions have different rules but safe

Times have been trying for other financial institutions, credit unions have grown in financial strength. Our insurance fund, the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), is the strongest of all federal deposit insurance funds. Established by Congress in 1970 this fund is managed by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and insures each member's deposits for up to $100,000.00 on deposit than the Bank Insurance Fund.

http://www.centralbergen.org/info/discover/page2.htm

[glinda]

9. Don't know if this helps things or not

http://bankimplode.com/

[eleny]

10. We also use our credit union

But double check on the amount insured. Ours told us that the total of our money in the credit union is insured up to 100K not each account.

Not that we have anywhere near that much in there. But they made it clear that it's the totality of our money that's insured up to the 100K.

[Pale Blue Dot]

11. 11 banks have failed so far this year. 11 credit unions have failed so far this year.

In general, credit unions are probably a better bet, but nothing beats good research.

[mwooldri]

12. Short answer: YES.

They're smaller but it makes their financials easier to understand.

I belong to Summit Credit Union. Here is a summary of their financials: http://www.summitcu.org/ASP/financial.asp

From the link you can easily see that they have about $10 million more in members' savings than they have in outstanding loans. $73 million in loans, $83 million in savings.

These risky banks covered their debt with debt... in other words their assets didn't cover their liabilities... and down south they went.

Mark.

[Holly_Hobby]

13. If a credit union is NCUA, go here for financials:

http://webapps.ncua.gov/ncuafpr/OnlineFPR.aspx?cu_number=