What's the difference between credit unions and retail banks?

They are still FDIC insured unless you have more than 250k in there. And if you trust the government to pay you back.

If you have more than 250k congrats but that's a lot of money to be earning 0.5% on or whatever

My basic understanding is that Credit Unions are non profits that are ‘owned’ by those with deposits. Credit Unions basically just work as a method to loan money out to its account holders.

Banks are out there to make money for their owner/ share holders.

NCUA is the credit union equivalent to the FDIC for regular banks. It also protects up to $250k.

Forth are federally administered insurance funds but separate.

The benefit of a credit union is they don’t get involved with all of the shady investment banking activities that the larger commercial banks do. They’re straight up depositing and lending institutions.

That said, what happened to SVP could happen anywhere based on liquidity. I’m with a credit union that has zero “held to maturity” assets which is about as good as you can get right now….based on my understanding of this whole mess.

Credit unions are owned by its account members. Retails banks are not. Most credit unions serve to provide financial services for employees of a certain industry. They typically offer better rates than retail banks.

Federal insurance works the same for credit unions as retail banks. If a bank or credit union is chartered in multiple states, then they must be regulated by the federal reserve. All banks regulated by the fed are insured by the FDIC (retail banks) or NCUA (credit unions).

Since you're a member of this credit union, they should provide you the information you're asking for, as you're technically part owner. If you know the credit union is in multiple states or if you see the NCUA logo at the bottom of their website, then they are insured by the federal government.

If I have more than 250K in my local credit union, should I take some of that out and move to another account to spread our money around for insurance reasons?

Please forgive my ignorance, I am new to a lot of this after my father passed away.

Ok. This should not be too difficult for me to do I assume?

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If I have more than 250K in my local credit union, should I take some of that out and move to another account to spread our money around for insurance reasons?

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I've never worked for a Credit Union so you may want to double check, but it depends on if you have a co-owner on the account(s) or not. For example, if you have an account with an FDIC bank that has $500K in it, and you have a co-owner on the account (has to be a person, can't be an entity), with equal withdrawal rights, then each person on the account has $250K insurance effectively meaning the entire $500K is insured.

If you have over $250K in an account with an FDIC (or NCUA) bank/credit union, and you're the only person on the account, then only funds up to $250K are insured. If this is your case, then yes, I would take whatever amount is over $250K and open an account at a separate bank/credit union.