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this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2024
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No Stupid Questions
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They're extremely popular in the US, especially in banking (credit unions). I have yet to find any country in Europe or South America with US-style credit unions and it drives me crazy
They're also very popular in Denmark.
Do they have monthly fees? If not, I wouldn't say they exist
Our regular banks in Sweden do have yearly fees, does that count? (No obviously not)
Huh? Maybe I don't know what a US-style credit union is, but the German-language countries have large banking Genossenschaften (cooperatives), often called People's bank. Many of them have origins in farmers lending each other money.
I don't know about Fennoscandia, but it would surprise me if there aren't equivalents, given the cooperationist history in very local economies.
Yeah, I've lived in Germany and those are terrible. Most charge monthly fees.
Some waive the fees if you have direct deposit or a minimum balance, but if you loose your job or leave the country for a decade, they'll fuck their members pretty hard
Credit unions in the US are nonprofit banks that are coops. Everyone who is a member votes on what to do with the excess revenue, which usually gets paid as dividends back to the members (everyone with a bank account) or gets reinvested to cover cool services like ATM refunds (as in, they give you money for fees charged by other banks), free travel/phone insurance, etc.
Its curious that the idea of a credit union was born in Germany but modern German credit unions suck
Yeah, they're for-profit banks and not everyone is a member who has an account.
Not sure about others in fennoscandia, but at least Finland has multiple large co-ops. One of the largest banks, OP ( literally named co-op bank) is a co-op which many own a part of. Many of my friends are part of the co-op.
Also, Finland's largest retail conglomerate (with 48.3 % market share of retail in Finland) is a consumer co-op, which is also causing a very difficult situation for all other businesses in retail, as they're able to undercut practically everyone since they have less of a profit incentive. 2.4 million people have a membership, which is quite a sizable amount in a country of under 6 million (though I'm not sure if the number includes Estonians as well)
American banks offering credit card have the highest profit margin of ANY US industry. In most other countries cash is still king. Hence credit unions in those countries need to charge fees and offer worse services. That is true for other banks as well.
If EU "credit unions":
....then it seems like that's the problem
Credit unions are a type of cooperative bank. The key is that anybody who opens a bank account becomes a member automatically. That is not the case for other types of cooperative banks.
What you're describing is not a cooperative.
The definition of a cooperative is where they're Democratic and decisions are made collectively by all members.
It sounds to me like what you're describing is a for profit company
Customer and member are not the same thing. A member owns a share of the business and has a vote, with cooperatives having one vote per member. That makes it different to company stock. For consumer cooperative like credit unions, most customers will own a share in the company, but it is not a requirement. For example when you withdraw money from a credit unions ATM, you are a customer of the credit union, but are not necessarily a member. There also are workers cooperatives, where the workers of the company are the members.
Also cooperatives are meant to benefit their members, which makes them different from charities.