<prompt> Human: Okay so I have a job while Im in school. I currently have 2 banks: Bank of America and Chase; chase being my primary bank. I rarely ever use my Bank of America account. I have my direct deposit going to chase so I really dont see a need to use any other bank. But everyone at my job is telling me to open an account with our credit union even if I just put like 5 here or there. They said the benefits of having one is why most people have it. For example everyone who has them just got a Christmas bonus of 100. Im 23 years old with really no debt. I do have a car note that I JUST got into about a week ago and was told I shouldve gotten my loan through the credit union instead of my current lenders cause my apr wouldnt have been as high as it is now 17 So should I open a credit union account? Maybe use it as some sort of savings?  <response>: Im a little biased because I work for a credit union, but I have always preferred them for several reasons. 1. That 5 is your ownership in the credit union, and as a member you get to participate in board elections and get some input on how the credit union is run. That also means that the credit union is working for you, not whatever unnamed shareholder is calling shots at your bank. 2. Credit unions are not for profit, which means they try to spend a ton to reinvest in their membership field. Thats where that 100 bonus comes from. Theyll also often have better savings and loan rates, or might have programs paid for by the cu for you to use like investment planning. 3. You typically dont have as much in the way of fees with a cu. Most dont charge much, if at all, for transfers between accounts, and now that online banking is getting better, most cus will have something decent, even if its not quite at the national bank level. 4. Most employees of a credit union will bend over backwards to help you out of a financial bind. Be nice to them and they will give you the world on a silver platter. All that being said, they do have disadvantages because theyre typically much smaller than national banks. Like their loss prevention will almost assuredly be understaffed. They will still catch pretty much all unauthorized transactions, but it may take them longer to get everything resolved. My cu handles this by portioning out between loss prevention and card services. We also have our area of usage data and individual member purchasing patterns pretty well maintained by analysis software. Plus we pay a boatload for insurance. If you prefer to bank in person, when you leave the area you may not be able to find a branch but possibly a shared branch, which is kinda cool. Personally, I will never bank with a bank again if I can help it. When I first started out as an adult, my bank totally screwed me over in fees for things out of my control think lots of overdraft fees not being returned after proof the transactions that caused them were fraudulent. I paid them up square when I could, and then gave banks the middle finger. If you have a business, thats a different story and I will begrudgingly admit that banks tend to be better equipped to handle businesses, but part of that is directly related to asset size. Tl:dr: credit unions have several advantages for personal banking over banks, worth a try. 