Did you know you’re an owner of Alliant Credit Union?
June 17, 2010
Want to tell somebody how credit unions differ from banks? Here’s how.
How can credit unions like ours offer unbeatable savings rates and below-market loans?What’s involved is the basic significant difference in mission and operation between a credit union and a bank. A bank is a for-profit business owned by shareholder investors. A measure of a bank’s success is how much profit it makes from its customers and distributes to its shareholders. To maximize profits, banks pay lower rates on deposits, charge higher rates on loans, and assess more and higher fees.
Credit unions operate on a totally different principle. For one thing, when you join a credit union, you’re not a customer – you’re a member and an owner. Credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives owned and operated for the benefit of their members. In a credit union, all income after expenses and capital reserves is distributed to its members. In fact, a credit union’s mission is to maximize the returns to its members through high savings dividends, low loan rates and low fees.
In short, while banks take money from their customers, credit unions, such as Alliant Credit Union, make money for their members and give it back to them, too.
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