Credit Union Checking Accounts

Searching for Free Checking Accounts; why not try a Credit Union?

Credit Unions are a great place to open a free checking account. As reported by CNBC in a report posted on Friday February 25th, free checking is still alive and well. While there have been the doom and gloom crowd who tend to only see the negative side of things, OpenFreeCheckingAccount.com would like to commend CNBC on searching for the positives that still exist in the marketplace today.

So, the answer is yes, to the question of “Is there still free checking?” It appears that while many banks have done away with their free checking account offers, there is one area of banking where free checking accounts continue to thrive. CNBC cited a survey that was conducted by Bankrate on the existence of free checking accounts in credit unions. The result from the survey was that out of 50 credit unions surveyed, 38 of those credit unions still offered free checking to their customers. 38 of those credit unions still had “no strings attached” free checking accounts.

Bankrate is a personal finance website. What Bankrate.com found is that even with credit unions that charged a fee for their checking account, if the customers were able to meet certain conditions, they could get their checking account fees waived. The survey revealed that a large of percentage of credit unions don’t even require often quoted minimum deposit in order to open a checking account. For the fees and ATM rate increases, those increases were minimal at best. This is primarily due to the fact that the bulk of credit unions are not-for-profits.

The percentage of credit unions that that offer free checking accounts with zero conditions compared to those that don’t offer free checking is amazing. Based on the statistics of regular banks that have stopped offering “no condition” free checking accounts, it is absolutely staggering. What CNBC noted from their research is that although many banks have pulled back on their free checking offers, free checking accounts are still widely available and you may already be enjoying the benefits of one of these no fee checking accounts. That being said consumers have noticed greater restrictions and/or more conditions being placed on their free checking accounts, by their current banks.

CNBC also notes that credit unions all over the country have seen a lot of positive press over the last few years. While banks have been experiencing a lot of turmoil, credit unions have been the recipients of a lot of positive attention. Credit unions offer have typically been known to offer higher interest rates on savings accounts, higher CD rates and lower interest rates on loans and more. While it is true that credit unions may not have as many features as large banks, not as many ATM locations, or offer quite as many services as larger banks, they have a lot going for them. And now we can add one more thing to their list...the possibility of a free checking account.