How Credit Unions Work

The idea for credit unions came about in late 19th century Europe as part of the emerging cooperative movement. Cooperatives are voluntary, self-governed associations of people that work together for a common goal. The first cooperative was founded in 1844 by a group of workers in Rochdale, England. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, as the group was known, pooled a pound from each member to open a cooperative store that sold butter, sugar, flour, oatmeal and candles.

The cooperative movement evolved into the idea of pooling member money to offer credit to individuals. The first official credit unions were founded in Germany in 1849 to save poor urban workers from resorting to loan sharks for financial help. In North America, the first successful credit unions were founded in Canada at the turn of the 20th century.

America's first credit union opened in Manchester, N.H., in 1909, but the movement really owes its early success to the work of Pierre Jay, the Massachusetts banking commissioner, and Edward Filene, a Boston businessman. Jay and Filene fought for legislation legalizing credit unions at the state level. Beginning with Massachusetts, they established credit union laws in 15 states by 1925.

Credit unions took on a new significance during the Great Depression. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act into law. The law established a nationwide credit union system, overseen by the federal government, to help citizens with small incomes get credit for "provident purposes."

The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) was also formed in 1934 as a national organization overseeing the many existing state credit union leagues. Right after World War II, there were fewer than 9,000 credit unions in the United States. But by 1969, there were 23,876 [source: CUNA]. Due to consolidation and mergers, there are currently around 8,500 credit unions in the United States.

In 1970, the U.S. government formed the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) to regulate all federal credit unions. The NCUA enforces operating rules on all federally chartered credit unions. The NCUA also manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) to insure individual credit union accounts up to $100,000. The NCUA sets a cap on credit union interest rates for certain loans, but does not set specific interest rates -- that's up to individual credit unions.

The World Council of Credit Unions (WCCU) was also founded in 1970 to serve the ever growing international community of credit unions. Today, the WCCU has member credit unions in 97 countries, where it helps support 46,000 local credit unions through development and training [source: WOCCU].

Next, we'll look at the differences between two of the most common credit unions and where, exactly, you fit in.

If you're a member of a credit union through your workplace, church, school or community, you belong to what's called a natural-person credit union. A natural person, is simply an individual human as opposed to a business or corporation.

But even natural-person credit unions rely on larger financial institutions to supply them with enough liquidity (available cash) to run their businesses. These institutions are called corporate credit unions. There are about 30 corporate credit unions in the United States, all owned by their members, which are natural-person credit unions.

Corporate credit unions, like natural-person credit unions, can be either federal-chartered or state-chartered. They're regulated by either the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) or state banking authorities.

Confused? Here's how it works. Natural-person credit unions apply to be members of corporate credit unions. Even though they're called "corporate" credit unions, they're still not-for-profit. The corporate credit unions supply natural-person credit unions with low-interest loans to keep up their cash reserves. Other services offered by corporate credit unions are investment services, credit and loan services, business checking, wire funds transfers and more.

There's even a financial institution that provides financial services for corporate credit unions -- a credit union for corporate credit unions, if you will -- called U.S. Central. U.S. Central, like all other credit unions, is nonprofit and owned by its members (which in this case are corporate credit unions). Similar to the role that corporate credit unions play to natural-person credit unions, U.S. Central provides cash liquidity and investment services, as well as risk-management and analysis services to its member credit unions. U.S. Central boasts that it manages more than $49 billion in assets.

Where do the credit union members fit into the equation? On the next page, learn how you can join a credit union and what services are available to members.

According to the Federal Credit Union Act, anyone can apply to join a credit union if he or she shares a common bond of employer, educational institution, branch of the military or government, church or community. Over the years, the growth of the credit union movement has resulted in nearly everyone being eligible for membership through some connection.

There are several ways to find out if you qualify for membership in a credit union:

To become a member of a credit union, you need to fill out an application, many of which are available online. The first step on all credit union applications is to prove your eligibility, so be ready to provide the name of a relative, employer or organization through which you're affiliated. You'll then fill out some standard personal information questions about where you live and work and how much you get paid. After that, you can choose which financial services you want.

As we've mentioned, credit unions offer many of the same financial services as a bank:

For many people, the main advantage of credit unions is that they charge lower interest rates for credit. The average credit union credit card charges 12.15% interest annually compared with 15.08% for the average bank credit card [source: MSN]. Plus, most credit unions charge no annual fee for credit cards and offer free checking accounts. Another advantage of credit unions is that they require very little money to open an account.

One disadvantage of smaller credit unions is that they may have fewer branch offices and less access to ATMs. Another disadvantage of smaller credit unions is that they may not offer as many services as banks.

If you're looking to join a credit union or learn more about credit, debt and personal finances, visit the links on the next page.