I belong to a credit union as well, they came to my employer when I first moved to the area and hadn't established a local account so that is how I started. Sure they are in the next town over, and sure that is where the ATM so that means 4 miles away I have to drive to use their ATM. Luckily it is between home and work so when I need to make deposits I do it on my lunch hour. As for the ATM we pretty much never use it...we go to the grocery store and get cash back if we anticipate needing cash for something otherwise we use debit card for groceries/gas and don't usually carry cash because we'd spend it. Fiance liked to hit non-CU ATM's until I pointed out the fees to him quite VOCALLY on several occassions. Now he realizes I'd much rather he spend $1.25 on a bottle of soda and get $$cash back than pay $1.50 to our CU then another $2-3 to the other bank that we have no banking relationship to. You can also go online and find other ATM's that you won't pay a fee to use. My credit union has a link to ATM's that share it's network, so if you go to an ATM not owned by the CU but in network they guarantee you don't pay a fee and if you do they will refund it. If I didn't want to drive to the CU I could go to an ATM at one of the local groceries and it should not charge me a fee, I've never tried it though, I'll just go buy gum or bread or soda or something and get $20 buck is I need cash for something.
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