Credit unions are a safe harbor for consumer savings.

• Savings at credit unions so far this year have grown nearly 7%. In today's economy, consumers are increasing their savings in response to concerns about their economic future.
• More people seeking to put their money in a stable source offering good rates are turning to credit unions.
• As not for profit cooperatives, credit unions typically offer higher savings rates than banks. For a daily rate comparison, go to this link: http://www.creditunion.coop/ratedex.php
• Consumers saved $10.9 billion last year by using credit unions rather than banks. The savings come in the form of lower fees, higher savings rates and lower loan rates. That works out to about $126 per credit union member or $239 per household.

 

Federal insurance covers credit unions, too.

• Virtually all credit unions are federally insured by a fund that, like the FDIC, is backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
• As the FDIC does for banks, the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) insures a person's savings up to at least $250,000 -- with higher total coverage available if the member has a combination of individual, joint, trust, payable-on-death and other types of accounts; there is also separate insurance coverage of up to $250,000 for individual retirement accounts.
• The NCUSIF is administered by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), an agency of the federal government. To determine insurance coverage, see the NCUA's insurance estimator at: http://webapps.ncua.gov/ins/
• The NCUA recently reported that the NCUSIF at mid-year remained strong, with an equity-to-insured deposits ratio estimated at 1.24% as of June 30 and projected to rise to 1.28% by year end.
• For more information on federal share insurance, see the NCUA brochure ìYour Insured Funds,î available at the link here: http://www.ncua.gov/Publications/brochures/insured_funds/funds.pdf
• A relatively small number of credit unions (less than 170, with under 2% of all deposits) have opted for private deposit insurance. Private insurance funds typically have an equity ratio even higher than the federal fund, and state regulators oversee privately insured credit unions just like any other state-chartered credit unions. A credit union opting for private insurance is required to disclose this to its members.

 

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