Is My Credit Union Safe?
October 16, 2008
With the recent bank, and some credit union, failures lately, I’ve been hearing this question a lot:
Is my credit union safe?
There are several ways for you, the consumer, to get the answer to this question.
- Go to the NCUA Website and look at your credit union’s quarterly financials. This can be found in the 5300 Call Report.
- Ask your credit union for a copy of their Annual Report.
- Look at your credit union’s financial rating on Bauer Financial. A 5-star is the highest possible rating and a ZERO is the lowest.
You can always call the credit union as well and ask to speak to someone who is knowledgable on the credit union’s financial standing. Usually, and hopefully, the first person you speak to when you call will have this information.
Higher Insurance Limits
With the recent passage of the Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, both FDIC and NCUA insurance limits were raised from $100,000 to $250,000. This is temporary, through December 2009. This means that an individual account, with no beneficiaries, can now be insured to $250,000. If you have a trust account (with beneficiaries) you may be insured for more. Raising these limits will hopefully allow consumers to gain more confidence in their financial institution and feel safer knowing their money is federally insured. Worst case scenario – if their financial institution should fail, as IndyMac Bank did, they will hopefully not have any uninsured funds, depending on how their accounts are structured.
If you would like to find out how much your credit union accounts are insured for, you can use the NCUA’s Share Insurance Estimator, found here.
Questions or Comments? E-Mail me at blogger@matadorsmoneymatters.com.
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