What I’ve Been Up To

Credit Unions and ATM convenience

This morning on Today, when discussing ways to avoid banks’ growing fees, I mentioned switching to a credit union as a possible alternative to a large national bank. In talking about credit unions (and small banks) I pointed out that they tend to have lower fees and mentioned ATM convenience as a drawback.  This isn’t always the case.

There exists something called the CO-OP Network, which includes over 3,000 participating credit unions. Through this network, there are 28,000 ATMs that offer surcharge-free access to accounts for all participating credit union members. If you don’t know where to find an ATM like this, you can look it up here, at CO-OP’s ATM locator. (There is also a surcharge free network of ATMs you can use no matter where you bank.  Here’s the website to find machines near you.)

In regards to physical branch locations for these credit unions, the CO-OP Network has a similar set-up: members of participating credit unions can go to any of the 4,400 participating branches across the U.S and use that branch as if it was their own. These are called “shared branches,” and you can locate them using this link here.

Thanks to my readers who pointed this out!