SHOULD YOU USE A CREDIT UNION?

Through my blog posts, I always want to encourage you to make conscious decisions in each part of your life. Whether it’s knowing where your food is coming from, taking a moment to think about why one piece of clothing is cheaper than another or looking at the ingredients in your products, the list goes on. Today I’m going to be talking about something a little bit different which is thinking about where you bank.

I feel like we get bank accounts when we are so young and typically our parents just take us to whatever bank they go to, that’s what happened to me anyway. It wasn’t until I was more independent and using a bank a lot more that a few incidents involving shady fees and pushing me into things that just didn’t make sense for what I needed, made me look at other options.

Have you ever looked into the difference between a bank and a credit union? I had heard about credit unions and I got some positive reviews about First Calgary so I made an appointment with an advisor to learn more. The advisor was so nice and gave me lots of information and I found out they had no fees for the type of account I needed. They checked all my boxes and switching over was way easier than I thought it would be. After being with them for many years I’ve had no issues and my advisor and I ended up becoming really good friends.

Recently, I got the chance to chat more with the Credit Unions of Alberta at their #MeetYouIRL event. They hosted a pop-up at Analog Coffee where they gave out free coffees and treats. Their goal was to raise more awareness about credit unions because there are still a lot of people who don’t know what they are.

I was able to talk to Ian Burns, the president and CEO of Alberta Central, who was telling me that credit unions can help people in any part of their life. One of the reasons they are hosting the pop-ups is because they want people to feel more connected with their credit union. He also told me about the amazing ATM-network credit unions have and the app “Ding-Free” which shows you all the ATMs in your location that you can go to without getting charged.

Being with a credit union, I never feel like I’m missing out on anything, I still get to bank online and have all the same features. Plus, I feel good knowing that I’m supporting a local business instead of a huge bank that just cares about making money. A big difference is that banks are for-profit and credit unions are non-profit.

There are a lot of benefits that I haven’t mentioned, so I would recommend you check out their website to learn even more: www.albertacentral.com