BMI Federal Credit Union Blog

In his State of the City Address on Wednesday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that New York would seek to deposit $25 million of its municipal tax dollars in neighborhood credit unions.

And it’s right in line with Move Your Money’s focus on shifting resources away from too-big-to-fail banks toward institutions that invest in their communities. If individuals can make an impact by moving their money, how much more can cities do?

Read more about this at the Huffington Post.   And don’t forget to Move Your Money to BMI Federal Credit Union.

Consumer Finance Guru Suze Orman continues to tout the benefits of doing business with a credit union instead of a mega bank.  Orman told CNN‘s Campbell Brown that she is upset because banks continue to reap profits while charging consumers high fees and interest rates. Orman advised consumers to find a good credit union credit card.  You can watch the brief video clip here. 

The CBS Moneywatch.com Web site featured an interesting article about the advantages of using a credit union today. 

“Given public opinion about banks right now — the label “vampire squid” was recently slapped on one particular investment bank, but it sums up the Q rating for the whole financial sector — this is a good time to be offering an alternative. But the nation’s 8,000 credit unions have more to recommend them than the mere fact that they are not banks. They also offer a fairly good value proposition, with higher savings yields and lower rates and fees. That may be why credit unions, which now have 92 million members, are seeing their fastest growth since 2003.”

You can read the entire article here. 

This is a great time to transfer your business to your credit union.  Give us a call and we’ll be glad to help.  After all, you are more than a customer at your credit union; you are a Member/Owner!

Here is a brief excerpt from the Newsweek Blog about how consumers can help prevent another banking crisis.

“There’s a new idea being pushed by some progressive activists: individuals with accounts at banks like Citigroup or Bank of America should take their money and move it into a local bank or credit union, where they are likely to pay fewer fees and get better service.”

Credit unions, for instance, offer lower fees, longer grace periods, and competitive interest rates.

Read the entire posting here.   This is a great time to go ahead and move your deposits (and loans) to BMI Federal Credit Union.  You are more than just a customer here; you are a Member/Owner!  And that makes all the difference in the world.

Read those disclosure letters that banks and credit-card companies are sending you in coming months!

“New legislation and Federal Reserve rules that go into effect in February and next summer will force banks and credit-card companies to give more notice of significant changes in card terms, limit some interest-rate hikes and require more detailed billing statements. But the rules will also require us to decide whether to opt in or out of rate increases and programs such as “overdraft protection” that we may have been automatically enrolled in previously.”

The letters may be easy to miss, since some of them look like junk mail. And don’t expect reader-friendly prose. The banks’ approach is: “It’s not our job to teach you the law; it’s our job to comply with the law,” says Adam Levin, co-founder and chairman of Credit.com, a credit-information Web site.

When you open the envelopes, here are some details to look for and moves you may want to consider:

Is the Credit-Card’s Interest Rate or Annual Fee Changing?

Many companies have been aggressively raising rates as high as 29.99%. But you now have the right to “opt out” of these changes before they become effective, essentially canceling the card for new purchases, though you can continue to pay off the balance at the old interest rate.

Read this whole article here.  And then transfer your balances to your BMI FCU Platinum VISA.   Don’t have a BMI VISA yet?  Apply now!