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Why Credit Unions Are Important Essay

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A credit union is a nonprofit, member owned, money making cooperative whose members can borrow from pooled deposits at low interest rates. This is so important to communities for several reasons. Firstly, credit unions are much more personal to a community rather than stockholders or a corporate owned bank. Credit unions also provide lower interest rates for people whom may not be in the best situations. Lastly, a credit union helps a community grow bigger, better, and stronger. These are only a few of the many reasons why credit union are important, not only to me but also to other members of the community.
When I say that a credit union is “more personal” to a community than a stockholder or corporate owned bank, I am trying that most people in small, rural towns—similar to where I live—everybody knows everybody. When somebody around here goes into a store, nametags are not really needed. But, when you have to travel to a large bank, the chances are that you won’t know who you are dealing with. In a smaller community like ours, people prefer to know who they’re working with, especially when borrowing a large amount of …show more content…

An interest rate is the portion of the loan charged to a borrower. The interest rate is usually expressed as an Annual Percentage Rates or APR. A lower interest rate is better for a person receiving a loan because you don’t have to pay back a lot of money that you never got to use. That seems like common sense, right? For example, people would rather pay a credit union’s average APR of 2.64% than a bank’s traditional 4.78% APR. For example, say one has borrowed ten thousand dollars. At an APR of 2.64% for a one-time payment is $10,264 versus a 4.78 % on a ten-thousand-dollar loan, which is $10,478. That is over two hundred dollars more! Because a credit union is nonprofit, you don’t pay more than what you

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