Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

Advantage of credit union or local community bank over larger nationwide banks such as BOA, Chase, etc.?
Banks, the big ones, have shareholders and the board to answer to.  Credit Unions have members and the board to answer to.  You become a member by joining a CU. Banks' prime objective is profit maximization, a credit union's prime objective is members' welfare.   Personal experience: I didn't mind that the banks charge fees, what was frustrating was keeping up with the policy changes.  Have X amount to avoid Y fees.  Once you fulfill that, do something else to avoid some other fees.  You miss one notice and you'll pay dearly!  This constant jumping of hoops was enough to switch. Not saying CUs don't change rules, but in my opinion, not as frequently as big banks.  On fee, for instance, my overdraft with my CU is $5.  With BofA it was something like $35 before regulations put a cap on such ridiculous fees.