Move Your Money, Keep Your Stuff

Leave it to me to end up with a car loan balance of $5.96. No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. Not $596 - but four pennies away from six bucks. 

This could very well be a post about the good feeling of paying off debt or the importance of owning your stuff out right, etc. However, I'm gonna take a different angle.

Paying off anything without a steady income for the past eighteen months would've been damn near impossible had it not been for my credit union. While America has recently been on the "move your money" bandwagon, I've been a satisfied credit union member since the mid 90s.

You couldn't pay me to switch. Seriously. And trust me when I say I get my fair share of low-ball junk mail solicitations from Chase Bank and the like.

I bought my car in late 2007. My credit union financed it with no down payment. My interest rate was a bit high (but considerably lower than the car I bought before financed through the dealership), however I was able to sit down with a loan officer and choose my monthly car payment amount depending on:

1. how quickly I wanted to pay it off and 2. how much monthly payment I could afford.

Let me back up for a second. I had a predetermined amount I was going to pay for a car. I wasn't going over that amount - $10,000 - period. This prevented me from going out and falling in love with a car I couldn't afford. And oh yeah....I did all of my car shopping online. Totally avoided the slick car salesman pitches and gimmicks.

Paying on time was no problem while I was working. It didn't even get too challenging while I collected unemployment. But once that ended, I got behind.

I was proactive with communicating with my credit union, letting them know to expect slow payments from me. Guess what? They listened.

In early 2011, I had gotten behind in payments to the point where my credit union asked me to surrender my car. That means instead of sending a tow truck to my house to repossess it, I scheduled a date to take it in and hand it over. But not without discussing it with the collections manager first.

You see, before we planned the voluntary surrender, we came up with a plan ahead of time that would allow me to get the car back. They kept the car about a week until Baby Daddy got his income tax refund and paid the outstanding balance.

I cried when I turned it in and I cried when I went to pick it back up. Never in a million years would anything like this have occurred if I were merely a bank customer.

Membership certainly does have its privileges.

If you're still doing business with a bank, I strongly suggest you look into finding a credit union to join. Take your bank's fee schedule with you and compare it to the fees credit unions charge. You'll be surprised when you see the numbers.

If you have switched or decide to, I'd love to hear about it. And if you have any questions you can always leave them in the comments below.

I share my experiences as a means of inspiring someone who may need it and to offer general information. Please don't ever mistake it for financial or legal advice.