They started as a way to help people assist each other to save and borrow. By pooling money together, they could lend it to one another at reasonable rates. Because of this, credit unions usually have higher savings rates , lower loan rates , lower fees and better service. A federal credit union is owned and democratically controlled by its members. It means that the members are the driving force behind the demands for better products and services.
Members elect a volunteer board of directors to oversee the operations.
Once you join a credit union, you are a member for life. Credit union history dates back to 1849 in Germany when a depression crushed a small town. The mayor, Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, organized the very first credit union by encouraging people to dig themselves out from financial disaster and help each other. They joined together to pool their savings and lend money out at low interest rates. In 1908, the first credit union in the United States was opened in Manchester, New Hampshire.