The following article originally appeared on June 21, 2022, on Forbes.com.
Credit unions have long provided a way for their members who had money to lend to put it to work providing credit to members looking to take out a loan. Their nonprofit model blossomed across the United States during the twentieth century as groups of employees from large companies, school boards, local government and the military came together to offer each other competitive interest rates on savings and loans on reasonable terms. Today there are more than 5,400 credit unions in the U.S. with total annual revenue of $91 billion, according to IBISWorld.
Aside from basic savings and checking accounts, credit unions are where millions of Americans turn when they need a mortgage to buy a home, a loan to purchase a vehicle or capital to fund their business. Now that the Federal Reserve is hiking interest rates to fight inflation, that could mean a slowdown in loan demand, although rising rates will tempt many members to add to savings. Keeping clients for life will remain the name of the game for the best credit unions.
To shine a light on the best credit unions in each state, Forbes went directly to their clients, partnering with market research firm Statista to conduct in-depth interviews of more than 26,000 U.S. citizens from all 50 states on their banking relationships.
For every financial institution at which they had a checking account, customers provided an overall satisfaction score and were asked if they would recommend that organization to friends and family. Respondents also answered a detailed battery of questions focused on six separate facets of the relationship: Trust, terms & conditions (including reasonable and transparent fees), branch services, digital services, customer service and financial advice. Based on a 1-100 scale, scores ranged from 74.2 to 93.6, and just 3.4% of credit unions across the country made the cut for the best-in-state rankings.
With more than $150 billion and assets and 11.3 million members, Navy Federal Credit Union was the only credit union omitted from the rankings due to its massively disproportionate scale relative to other credit unions.
Click here to see the full list of America’s Best Credit Unions in Each State.
Congratulations to the following EPCOR member credit unions for making the list:
Arkansas:
- Rank 1: Arkansas Federal Credit Union
Illinois:
- Rank 2: 1st MidAmerica Credit Union
- Rank 3: Scott Credit Union
Indiana:
- Rank 1: Purdue Federal Credit Union
- Rank 2: Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union
- Rank 3: Centra Credit Union
- Rank 4: Via Credit Union
- Rank 5: FORUM Credit Union
Kansas:
- Rank 1: Azura Credit Union
- Rank 2: Meritrust Credit Union
- Rank 3: Envista Credit Union
Kentucky:
- Rank 1: Commonwealth Credit Union
Missouri:
- Rank 1: CommunityAmerica Credit Union
- Rank 2: First Community Credit Union
- Rank 3: Together Credit Union
Nebraska:
- Rank 1: Metro Credit Union
Ohio:
- Rank 3: Wright-Patt Credit Union
Oklahoma:
- Rank 1: WEOKIE Federal Credit Union
- Rank 2: True Sky Credit Union
- Rank 3: TTCU
West Virginia:
- Rank 3: Bayer Heritage Federal Credit Union
Source: Forbes |
