Pros and Cons of Using a Credit Union With Aaron Caid

Have you heard about the change happening across the U.S.? Do you use a credit union, or have you never considered using one?

Maybe you will after listening the next few minutes. Hi, I'm Rob West. Credit union members know the advantages they have, and 120 million of them nationwide can't be wrong. Aaron Cade joins us today with the pros and cons of credit unions.

And spoiler alert, there aren't many cons. Then it's on to your calls and questions at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, our friend Aaron Cade joins us again today. He's particularly knowledgeable about today's topic because Aaron's the chief marketing officer at Christian Community Credit Union, an underwriter of this program. Aaron, great to have you back with us. Thank you, Rob. It's great to be with you again in your audience. So Aaron, it's a question we get now and then. Are credit unions a good place to do my banking?

And we always say yes, but I'd love to hear what you have to say. And specifically, what are some of the pros of joining the typical credit union? Well, a big benefit of joining a credit union is that credit unions are member-owned cooperatives. They exist to serve members, as opposed to banks, which exist to maximize profits for shareholders, tend to be governed by a volunteer board, which is selected from among the member base. That board has voting rights on credit union policies, procedures and major financial decisions. And those decisions are reflective of what members want and need. Typically, they have a common bond that unite all members.

Sometimes it's a specific geography, a select employee group or a common affiliation. Yeah, that's a helpful overview. Now, of course, one of the natural follow on questions we get is, are they as safe as banks?

What do you think, Aaron? They absolutely are. Many credit unions are federally insured by the NCUA, which covers up to $250,000 per member. Christian Community Credit Union is privately insured by American Share Insurance. And the big difference there is that every member account is insured up to $250,000.

And so that's a big difference. And no account holder has ever lost a dime with ASI. So we're every bit as safe as a bank, if not more so. Yeah, and that's a really important distinction, because a single credit union member could have multiple accounts each insured up to $250,000. Now, what about yields, Aaron? Can credit unions really compete with banks?

Absolutely. Because profits that credit unions make, go back to members in the form of better rates and lower fees. So higher yields on deposits on savings products, CDs and savings accounts, lower rates on loans, and lower fees overall.

Yeah, very good. And what about branches, Aaron? Yeah, many credit unions are part of the co-op shared branch network, Christian Community Credit Union is, and that gives you access to over 5600 shared branches across the country. So there's likely one in your neighborhood, and also access to 30,000 surcharge free ATMs. And that's a broader coverage than all the big banks have. Yeah, now that's a great overview of credit unions in general. What about the distinctives of Christian Community Credit Union? Yeah, so our common bond is Christianity. So our members are unified in our faith, and our devotion and obedience to Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.

So we're unapologetically Christian, we invest into biblical causes, and the decisions we make and the things we do are driven by Scripture. So the credit union is led by devoted Christians, and the deposits members entrust with the credit union enable us to provide affordable financing for churches, ministries, and Christians all over the US. This is great information to know about CCCU in particular, but we promised pros and cons.

So what do you have for the cons? Well, there's really only one con I can think of if you want to call it that membership eligibility is required to join a credit union. With Christian Community Credit Union, the one membership eligibility requirement is that you be Christian, you have to agree to our statement of faith in your membership application.

But that's it. If you're a Christ follower in the United States, and you agree to our statement of faith, you're in as a member. That's really helpful. And Aaron, you mentioned that part of the deposits provide affordable lending to churches, Christian ministries and Christians across the US. But you're also sharing some of those profits, if you will, with ministries doing the work in the name of Jesus, right? Absolutely. We give to Christian charities, to missions, to ministries every year.

In fact, we support ministries that help protect vulnerable children, combat human trafficking, and provide disaster relief around the world. That's incredible. Aaron, we're out of time, unfortunately, but we always enjoy our time with you. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. Thank you very much, Rob.

It was great to be with you. Folks, I hope you learned something about credit unions. And if you'd like to learn more about Christian Community Credit Union, go to joinchristiancommunity.com. That's joinchristiancommunity.com. All right, your calls are next at 800-525-7000.

Joinchristiancommunity.com. Membership eligibility required. Each account is insured up to $250,000. This institution is not federally insured. Frustrated by your health insurance? Confused by the network restrictions and increasing premiums?

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This is where we want God to be your ultimate treasure and money, a tool to accomplish God's purposes. Taking your calls and questions today. 800-525-7000. Looks like we have two lines open.

800-525-7000. All right, Alabama. Hi, Katie.

How can I help? Hey, Rob. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for your call.

Good. So I am 33. Not your typical 401k questions or retirement questions, but I have done everything right. I saved my money. I had a 401k a couple of years ago. My stepdad is an accountant, so he's taught me how to budget. I'm studying accounting right now and in finance classes. I quit my nighttime job, which paid really well in order to gain experience at a daytime accounting position. And after I budget my money with my bills and everything, I barely break even just to cover my bills.

And so my question is like, what can I do? I mean, I've cut my spending. I have no debt. I have no credit card. My car is used and paid off. It's just bills.

I use coupons and I don't know what else I can do in order to like survive or even have an emergency fund right now. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I certainly get it, Katie. Well, it can be frustrating. And especially today, you know, where inflation is up, everything's more expensive now. Obviously, the cost of housing is challenging. I mean, usually we start with if the budget is not working, we start with what we call the big three, which are housing, transportation and food. You know, those are usually the budget busters.

And if any one of those is out of whack, you know, oftentimes we've got to start there. Now, you said in the case of the transportation category, you feel like you're in good shape driving a used car. I think I heard you say you don't have a payment. Is that right? That's right. It's paid off.

We paid in cash with our savings. Okay, very good. And you said we are you married? Yes, sir. Okay, great. And so both you and your husband are working? Yes, sir.

Okay, great. And what about housing? Do you all own your home? We do we after COVID, we had to move back home and rent an apartment. And that we didn't want to waste our money on rent. So we looked for a house and we live in a very small house, nothing outside of our means. I think our mortgages, well, our mortgage is 1200 a month.

So it's 600 for each of us, plus our utilities and everything. So it's within average ish means. Yeah. Okay. Do you think it's less than 25% of your take home pay?

For me, it's more. Okay. Yeah. So do you all divide your expenses up between the two of you? Yes, we have a budget, we know our expenses and everything, but I make about right around $2,000 a month working 35 hours a week, but the other five hours I go to school in the daytime. So I don't have room to make 40 hours a week or overtime.

So I make, you know, right around 2000 a month, and my bills add up to about exactly 2000 with mortgage, utilities, insurance, groceries, and that sort of thing. Yeah. And so when you put everything in and you work through this budget, or you all are able to balance it, you just don't have any margin left over. Is that right? Right.

So if something were to happen to my car, or, you know, any, if anything were to happen, thank goodness, I'm, you know, I don't have any medication or, you know, but I have no room for emergency, you know, if something were to happen. Okay. And why are you all handling things separately? Why not put everything together and approach it that way? Like put what together? Well, it seems like you guys have looked at this like my income, his income, my expenses, his expenses.

Is that the way you're approaching it? Or are you putting everything together in your marriage and your family? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we do put everything together. We split just about everything.

We split everything down the middle for the most part. And he usually covers, if we do have an emergency, he'll usually cover it. But I feel like I, I want to contribute more, I want to have that emergency fund. And, you know, he works a blue collar job, he doesn't have that much to, you know, come out of pocket for.

Sure. But I guess that's my question is, why not take a step back and say, listen, everything that comes into our household, because we're one flesh to become one, including finances, why not put everything in and use that as a starting point, and then build the plan around it, as opposed to saying, Okay, I'll take half the bills, you take half the bills, and I've got this one, and you've got that one. It really is about your finances as a couple. And building the budget that way, I think is the better approach.

And then once we do that, we say, Okay, where do we need to cut back? Now, listen, this might be that season of life, you all are young, you're still in school, obviously, you're pursuing a career track that's going to have some upward opportunities in terms of, you know, you being able to work full time, once you're out of school, your income will increase as you get into a position with an accounting firm and, you know, use these skills you're getting. And so we've got to, you know, get through this season of life sounds like you guys are managing it well, because you're not taking a lot of credit card debt on, we just need to trim the budget a little bit so that you can put something in for the long term, but more importantly, so that you can build up that emergency fund. And I can't help but think that with both of you working, not having any credit card debt, not having a car payment, I mean, you should be able to dial back your spending even during these younger leaner years, such that you could free up at least a couple $100 a month that you could automatically put in savings and build up even if it took a year for you to get to 123, maybe even as much as six months worth of expenses. But I think one of the starting points, at least for me is for you all to kind of move away from the mine and yours, and put it all together and build the plan together, regardless of who generates the income.

You know, they're all shared expenses and shared income, but give me your thoughts on that. I think that's a really good idea. We've kind of done that. But we've we put everything together and kind of equally split everything.

He'll cover insurance if I cover, you know, internet, which I do need for school, and that sort of thing. But maybe we could even it out a little, maybe revisit that and even it out a little bit better. Yeah, I think here's the idea.

I mean, let me it sounds like maybe I'm not being clear. I think, you know, we need to go to one account, and that would get rid of all of this. So if everybody's income, regardless of how many hours you work, regardless of how many hours he works, whether or not you get a bonus, maybe you get an inheritance from a lost long lost relative, it all goes in to one account as your increase. It's all God's anyway.

He's providing it to you, it may come by your employer, it may come by a gift, it could come any number of ways, your income will increase over time, his will as well, at some point, you may make more than him, it doesn't matter. You guys are one flesh, I think it needs to come into one account. And then you build the plan around it. You're doing great.

You don't need to apologize for anything. You're doing awesome. But I think, you know, the key is how do we free up enough margin to fund that emergency fund as our next priority? Let's do this.

Stay on the line. I'm going to get you connected with a certified Christian financial counselor to put it all together. Well, folks, so we're going to head into our first break here in just a moment. But let me invite you to become a monthly supporter of the ministry here at Faith and Finance. We bring you this program each day, the stories that you hear, the people's lives that are impacted. Perhaps you've been impacted by it.

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It'd be an enormous blessing to us. And it's quick and easy to do when you head to faithfi.com and click Give. That's faithfi.com and click Give. We are a not-for-profit listener supportive ministry. And so thanks in advance for any gift you make. Much more on the way, plus your calls, 800-525-7000. You can call right now.

We'll be right back. We are grateful for support from the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing. ECFI is an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management that seeks to help Christians understand and practice biblically faithful investing. They do this through their podcast and online journal featuring articles from industry thought leaders and their course called Discover God's Story for Investing. More information is available at faithandinvesting.com. That's faithandinvesting.com. I'm so glad you're joining us for Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today.

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That's faithfi.com and click Give. All right, let's head back to the phones. Let's go to Boca Raton. Hi, Renee. Go ahead. Hi, how are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for calling.

My question is this. I live alone and I'm single. I have about $100,000 in a liquid savings account that I know I need to do something with. And I'm working, 69 years old, collecting Social Security and do not want to stop working. What can I do with this money so that if I ever got sick, the government wouldn't take it from me because I don't have any Medicaid. I just have a Medicare Advantage plan. Yeah, well, Medicaid would step in automatically, Renee, if you spent your assets down below the threshold of $2,000. And so once you get down below that threshold, then Medicaid would automatically kick in.

And if you needed care and you had to rely on Medicaid to do that, then you'd have to go to a Medicaid approved facility. And so there's really nothing you need to do other than just make sure you are well planned with regard to your estate plan. So do you have a valid will, for instance?

Do you have a health care surrogate named? Do you have a durable power of attorney if for some reason you were incapacitated and you needed somebody to make decisions on your behalf? I mean, those are the kinds of things that you need to have in place. And I wouldn't be concerned about, you know, necessarily protecting, quote unquote, your assets. I mean, if you get to the place where you need expensive care and long term care can be expensive, you would have to spend down your assets. And then at some point, once they were nearly depleted, then that's where Medicaid would kick in. OK. OK, so I'll get all this in order and go from there.

Yeah, I think that's right. And I would find a godly estate attorney there in Boca. If you don't have one, you can reach out to a certified kingdom advisor and ask for a referral. They would all have a Christian estate attorney that they work with.

This is a key part of helping their clients just manage their financial affairs. So you could go to our Web site at Faith Fi dot com. That's Faith Fi dot com right there at the top of the pages is find a professional and you could put in a zip code search. And any one of those men or women, you could call them and say, I listen to faith and finance. I need a godly estate attorney.

And they'll give you a name and number. Well, many thanks. I appreciate it. You're welcome, Renee. Thanks for your call today. Let's go to Kirtland, Ohio. Hi, Millie. Go ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call. This is in regards to a long term health insurance policy that I have with John Hancock. I took it out several years ago and it had gotten up to, at this point, twenty nine thousand one hundred and forty seven dollars in paid up policy. When I purchased it, it was three hundred dollars a quarter. And I remember him saying it hadn't gone up in years and years and years.

And I know everything is going up now. But in the past couple of years now, it's gone up to three hundred and eighty eight dollars a quarter. Now, I just got a paper saying that as of July 1st, it's going to go up to four hundred and eighty dollars a quarter. And that's not that's not even the worst of it. When you're on a Social Security and a pension, then in twenty twenty five, it's going up to five hundred and ninety three dollars a quarter. And then July 31st, twenty twenty six, it's going up to seven hundred and thirty four dollars. And it's like obviously they're allowed to do this legally. But what they're doing is they're getting people at a certain age in life where it's like this is crazy. You know, you either drop it or you you go broke paying it. You know, as far as I can see, that's why I'm calling you because I I do listen to you every day.

So my son was telling me that I do not even have an option to sell this to somebody because it's not that kind of insurance that most insurance is you can. But this one is not. So I'd like to know what you have to say about this.

What do I do? Yeah, well, it's a real challenge, Millie, and I get that. And, you know, the cost of of health care, as you know, is just rising dramatically and these policies are increasing along with it. And as a result, a lot of folks are in the same position you are. They're not able to, you know, underwrite these. Once you have them, they can't increase the policies policyholder by policyholder.

They have to do it in the aggregate and they petition the state for the increases based on their real costs, which are real. I mean, the cost of health care is going up dramatically and you're bearing the brunt of that. So what do you do?

Well, at some point, I mean, I would I would keep it as long as you can. What are your options? Well, if you're able to pay the increased premium, then you keep your current level of coverage.

No other action is required. Option two is adjust your coverage. So you could call them and say, listen, I can't afford this.

So let's talk about, you know, something is better than nothing. And so how could I have less coverage and reduce my benefits and therefore reduce or maintain my premium? And, you know, that's going to allow you to, you know, maybe, you know, these are often measured in the terms of, you know, the daily benefit amount or the waiting period before benefits kick in or shortening the duration of the coverage. You know, so instead of paying out for four years, it caps at three years. So I think, you know, that would be the second option. The third is you just tell them that you want to, you know, pull out the the paid up value. And so a lot of folks, when it gets beyond affordability, they'll choose the payout option, lapse the policy, and then they'll send you a check for the paid up option. And then you could just kind of stick that on the side and have it there. Unfortunately, there's not a great choice here.

So I think you need to sit down, crunch the numbers, contact the insurance company and see by reducing benefits what that would mean in terms of your ability to at least hang on to something to offset this need if you have it down the road. Thanks so much for your call today. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us. We covered a lot of ground today. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to come alongside you to talk about our role as stewards, to look to God's word, to encourage one another and realize that as we see God as our ultimate and true treasure. Well, money changes its entire focus.

It becomes a means to an end to accomplish God's purposes. And that's what we want to encourage you in as we gather together on this program each day. Hey, check out the Faithfi app. You can download it today and set up your spending plan. Faithfi.com.

Just click app. On behalf of my team, Jim Henry, Devin Patrick, Robert Youngblood, I'm Rob West. This has been Faith and Finance. Come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.