I too have noticed an inexplicable apprehension about credit unions, even large ones such as Wings. They are almost uniformly better for individuals than big banks, yet people imagine a scenario where they'll need to withdraw cash in the middle of the Mojave so they need WF. Spoiler: 1) you won't and 2) you still can.
> They are almost uniformly better for individuals than big banks
The American financial landscape is too diverse to accommodate such sweeping statements. To many depositors default to the big banks. But that doesn’t mean everyone—or even most—who are under optimizing their deposits is better served by a credit union.
> people imagine a scenario where they'll need to withdraw cash in the middle of the Mojave so they need WF
If ATM access is your bugaboo, an online bank that reimburses everyonea’ ATM fees is the way to go.
I've noticed this apprehension about credit unions, myself, over the years. It's real.
But I've also noticed a stream of unrequested adoration towards credit unions, seemingly whenever any topic of personal banking pops up. A random person may simply lament about some fee their bank has charged, or the rate that their mortgage is financed at, or even mention in passing that they use a bank at all. That's normal-enough; people chat about whatever is on their mind all the time.
But quite often (too often?) upon the utterance of the word "bank," a whole cadre of people then immediately show up to sing a chorus (in unison) to remind them [and eachother] about how amazingly great credit unions are. Sometimes that cadre snowballs into a circus replete with a marching band, a dancing bear, and a trapeze artist.
"Oh, you still have a bank? Why aren't you in a credit union yet?"
"Yeah! Credit unions are awesome! People who don't use credit unions are just dumb or something!"
"Hey, guess what! My credit union even lets me access my money at 3:00AM the middle of the Mojave! These things are great!"
"Oh cool! The dancing bear is here again! I love that bear!"
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The rather uniform predictability of this kind of spectacle can have a very daunting appearance to someone who never asked for it.
And thus the apprehension may be explainable easily-enough with one word: Contrarianism. "This group of people is telling me I need to do this thing; therefore, I must not."
Or, perhaps with a cautious phrase: "If it sounds like it is too good to be true, then it probably is."
We spend a portion of our lives seeking to avoid scams and pitfalls. We aren't always successful at it ("there's a sucker born every minute"), but we still try to seek to avoid being a mark. When see a bunch of guys having a great time playing 3 Card Monte on the corner, we either learn to avoid them or we learn to lose our money.
When an unsolicited and eerily-coordinated group of cheering fans crawl out of the woodwork without deliberate provocation and actively seek to impart change, it's justifiable and sane to turn around and run away. Especially when they haul out the dancing bear routine.
"The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know."
