Credit Unions vs. Banks

Hey everyone.

I've got a bit of a dilemma here—hoping someone might know more about this than I do.
Basically, I’ve come into some money and I'm thinking about putting it into gold.
Since this is my first time really dealing with banking and deposits, I'm trying to wrap my head around how things work.
Everywhere I look, interest rates are topping out at maybe 4-5%, but this guy is telling me he can offer 9%. I even called the Federal Reserve to check things out, and they said everything is totally legal.
Still, I'm feeling pretty skeptical—maybe I'm just being paranoid—but if anyone has any experience with this or some advice, I'd love to hear it.
Thanks

From what I understand, those unions aren't covered by FDIC insurance, so...👎
Who exactly are we talking about here?

Charles Ramos7 said:From what I understand, those unions aren't covered by FDIC insurance, so...👎
Who exactly are we talking about here?

Not really following the bold part?
I mean, I know they aren't insured—they've been operating here for 19 years, though...
Anyone here actually dealt with them before?

Henry James3 said:Not really following the bold part?
I mean, I know they aren't insured—they've been operating here for 19 years, though...
Anyone here actually dealt with them before?

My bad, I was skimming too fast and missed who we were talking about. 🙈
I haven't used them myself, but personally, I wouldn't put money anywhere that isn't FDIC insured...☕
If there's a currency clause involved, is the interest rate still the same?

The interest rate on my amount would be 9%.
I mean—they’ve been around for 19 years and their assets back everything up—but I'm still a little nervous, honestly.
Could they just grab the depositors' cash and bail?

I sure can. I actually know a founder—this guy even picked up some "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards 😁—from one cooperative (not naming names) who basically bled everyone dry by exploiting these unlimited interest rates.
I don't know what kind of numbers we're looking at here, but you can pull 6.25% on Euros at a bank in Chicago. Personally, I’d rather sleep easy with an interest rate that's 2.75% lower.

Honestly, you might want to look into a housing savings account. You can get a 15% match from the government, plus whatever little extra interest the bank throws in on top. I think there are some banks out there that even offer additional bonuses if you hit certain milestones... and everything is fully insured by the FDIC up to $250,000, I believe. The only real catch, if you can even call it that, is that it’s tied to a five-year term.

Charles Ramos7 said:I sure can. I actually know a founder—this guy even picked up some "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards 😁—from one cooperative (not naming names) who basically bled everyone dry by exploiting these unlimited interest rates.
I don't know what kind of numbers we're looking at here, but you can pull 6.25% on Euros at a bank in Chicago. Personally, I’d rather sleep easy with an interest rate that's 2.75% lower.

Checking this out right now... it says there's a 6% promotion?
And is it possible to negotiate a higher rate if you talk to them?
Then I saw this down here: "For fixed-rate deposits up to 12 months, the established interest rates are reduced by 0.5 percentage points."
Does that mean it's actually 5.5%?

That looks a bit dated to me. I was checking this out earlier, and the promotion ran through March 31, 2010:

So, if you look at my link above, that promo is highlighted in red.
It shows 6%, but then there’s this table underneath mentioning a 0.5% drop over the course of a year.
Plus, it doesn't say anything about interest rates being negotiable for amounts over $50,000...
I'm a little lost here—kind of confused, honestly.

Good evening.
I am looking for some insight regarding these specific offices. I need to secure a loan of approximately 20 $0.00. If anyone here has experience working with them or can share their thoughts, please let me know—feel free to send a private message as well. Thanks.😉

I am also open to hearing about other agencies or any general experiences you might have.👍

I honestly wouldn't touch either of those companies with a ten-foot pole.

*1. If you look at a loan from Washington, D.C. Services, for $6667 (cash in hand), your monthly payment over 36 months would be roughly $383 = $13800 total payback.
More than half of that entire amount is just interest (at least $200).
It’s actually a direct violation of the Consumer Protection Act because they won't let you pay the loan off early within the first 6 months—the penalty for that breach would technically exceed the loan itself under the law, but they basically just count on people being too clueless to fight back.

*2. Deponent acts as a credit union and operates under Federal Reserve supervision, but even they aren't much better. That said, they are definitely more reasonable than they were three years ago when you could be paying for 24 months and still haven't even touched the principal.

With them, if you want $20,000.00 (that's the net cash in your pocket after fees, though the starting principal is closer to $8000), your monthly payment for 48 months would be about $280 = $13440 total.

But man, there are way worse outfits out there like Walmart, The New York Times, or even former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau types turned current "Experian" or Accenture sharks that I wouldn't recommend to anyone, where you might end up paying $3333 net for 36 months and end up with a total payback of $247 = $26,640.00.

The absolute most important thing you can do when you call them to check terms is to just ask one straight question:
1. What is my exact monthly payment for a 24/36/48 month term if I need to walk away with exactly $6667 in cash?
Ask every single lender that exact question and then compare them yourself. If they start stalling on the phone with lines like "it's not that simple to calculate," or "we can't give you a firm number until you come in so we can see," just cross them off your list immediately because that's a scam. Also, if they pitch you one set of rates over the phone and then try to squeeze you for more once you show up in person—which happens all the time with these shady places—just walk away.

I've spent a lot of time tracking the lending market, and there are actually some decent companies out there where the monthly payment for $6667 (net) wouldn't exceed $300/36 months or $243/48 months, and the rate stays fixed without those annoying quarterly hikes or "exchange rate adjustments" that most big banks use to bleed you dry.
If you actually vet every offer on the market, you can easily find options that are 25% cheaper.

I know exactly which firms those are, but if I started naming names, people would think I'm just a plant working for them and that this whole post is just a marketing stunt. I don't want to put those good companies in a weird spot because of the dirty tactics used by the bad ones. All I'll say is that I work in insurance, so I know how the financial industry moves and I keep a close eye on everything. Regardless of wanting to make a living, I believe in protecting consumers because I think every single dollar a person saves matters, and I value businesses that actually play fair and show some basic humanity.

*The whole point of me writing this is just to help regular people out and make sure they know their rights so they can pick the best deal. It's about helping an unsuspecting client who shouldn't have to guess what the final price is before they sign anything. 🙂

Marketing departments are living in a fantasy land if they think they can still sell products through fake, sugary advertisements instead of just being honest with their customers.
People are smarter now; everyone has access to the internet and can see exactly what the competition is offering, so it's becoming impossible for these guys to get away with shady business. 😉

They honestly have the best loan terms on the market, period. They’ve always been totally fair, back when they were run by the Gestapo and even now after all that restructuring under the Federal Reserve's thumb. If you want to talk about actual integrity in finance, look at Wells Fargo; I don't think anyone has ever had a reason to complain about how they handle things.
Plus, they work alongside a few other lenders who aren't traditional banks but have always treated their borrowers and savers with total respect, like those old Gestapo long-term loans, the Gestapo ExxonMobil deals, or the Gestapo Client Plus accounts—they all made sure every single saver got their principal plus interest back, and unlike others, they didn't just morph into some massive union entity.

When it comes to your savings, your money is actually way safer there than in a standard bank. Banks are out here approving super risky loans to corporations that go bust every other week and end up writing off the debt—their bad loan ratios are sitting well over 10%—whereas Wells Fargo focuses on individual consumer loans and stays incredibly disciplined with collections, so I'd bet their bad loan ratio is under 5% even with this recession hitting us.

^^ lol.. at a bank, the government actually guarantees your deposits, but here? No one does. Besides, the FBI wouldn't be the first agency to lose money through bad business moves or embezzlement... and who was guaranteeing the principal back then? Nobody. ☕

He only signed up just to say that. What's your take on it?

I see exactly what's going on here....

I’d personally suggest looking into Deutsche Bank, mainly because I just went through their loan process about ten days ago and found their personal loan terms to be quite favorable.

The interest rate sits at 9.99%, and there's a monthly fee of 0.59% applied to the REMAINING PRINCIPAL; that distinction is actually vital, as many other lenders hide much higher costs by applying fees differently, which is where the real price is determined.

A loan for $6000 over a 24-month term comes out to a $297 monthly payment, meaning you end up paying back $7120 in total. To my mind, that feels perfectly fair.🙂

I also tend to think that having these institutions under the watchful eye of the Federal Reserve provides a certain level of stability, effectively weeding out those shady collection agencies, predatory credit bureaus, and unreliable local credit unions that used to cause so much trouble.

Something doesn't quite add up in your calculations. If you are looking at a 9.9% interest rate, your monthly payment should be $829.77 rather than $297, which implies there is an additional monthly charge of $20 factored in to reach your stated payment of $297. This means that over a 24-month term, the total cost of the loan comes to $1.00. You also haven't specified the actual closing costs, or how much was deducted from the principal if the total loan amount is $6.00. What is the APR?

I find myself wondering about their specific lending processes—how much actual security can one truly expect from these credit unions?
As someone currently without employment, my only steady income is my $417 monthly disability benefit
. Given that context, I am struggling to determine if pursuing this is even a rational move.
Standard banks won't touch a loan application given my current financial standing.
The internet is absolutely flooded with endless links promising loans specifically for the unemployed,
but frankly, most of those ads feel incredibly dubious and hard to take at face value.

Thank you!

What are the typical requirements for securing a loan through the local Credit Union?

Has anyone here actually gone through the process recently?
Thanks