Reasons To Get A Mortgage From Your Credit Union

3 Minutes

There’s no shortage of mortgage lenders in today’s highly connected world. As a credit union member, however, there are four highly compelling reasons you don’t need to go any further than your local credit union to originate a mortgage.

Key Takeaways

Unlike large national lenders, credit unions typically reinvest their profits back into their local community.
Credit unions are more willing and able to do things for members that non-local lenders can’t or won’t do.
Taking out a mortgage is a long-term relationship, but large lenders are forced to treat it like a transaction.

Profits stay local

Credit unions are member-owned, meaning the people who do business with the credit union are the shareholders. Membership requirements usually ensure that those people live or work in the same area as the credit union. When the credit union profits, that money doesn’t have to leave the community to be paid out to shareholders, like it does with other financial institutions.

Credit unions succeed by reinvesting in their members, sharing profits with them through higher savings dividends, lower loan rates, or other potential benefits like foreign ATM fee reimbursements.

Flexibility

Credit unions offer greater flexibility than most lenders in the marketplace since they’re so focused on helping their members succeed financially. Because they’re local, they’re willing and able to do things that non-local lenders can’t or won’t do. An example of this can include special portfolio loans that have many of the same positive features of the standardized programs, but have more favorable approval requirements or sometimes don’t require costly mortgage insurance.

Long-term relationship

The process of getting a mortgage is the first step of a long-term relationship. This is often overlooked by people shopping for a lender. They wrongly assume that a low interest rate is all that matters, forgetting that they’ll be paying off their mortgage for a long time. There’s peace of mind working with someone you trust, not just someone who undercut the market to get your business and then vanishes to originate the next loan with little or no care for what happens to you once your loan process is complete.

Even when credit unions don’t do everything in-house, if they partner with Member Advantage Mortgage, we understand the credit union difference and work closely with credit union staff and management to service the loan for years to come.

Better potential rates

Credit union members on the whole are amazing people. They understand the impact “shopping local” has on their community, and get to watch first-hand the impact their credit union has on their community.

Members seem to understand that defaulting on a mortgage obtained through their credit union has a negative trickle down effect on the area they call home. Because of this, credit union members are less likely to default, and the credit unions know it. That can translate into better mortgage interest rates, especially on loans where private mortgage insurance (PMI) is involved.