If you have a bank account...

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A credit union is sort of like a co-op bank, like its owned collectively by employees and members rather than a regular bank. But might just be a U.S.A thing, not sure if other countries have them.

Isn't interest banned under Muslim law?

I live in California, my bank is Bank of America, I don’t pay fees, I have to have 1,500, I think in my account or pay a fee. The people there are really nice to me, when I deposit a check, they write the receipts or slips or whatever it call, they do it for me. I also have a non-bank, I’m having trouble with it now.

What is credit union?

Well that is the trouble I don't usually have an amount like 1,500 in my account. I initially had a Wells Fargo account because when I tried going to college they had a free student account option. But I ended up dropping out of college and after a while they started adding on fees without any real warning. I ended up angrily cancelling my account there.

Also a credit union is like a bank but more community based, and no fees regardless of how much you have in your account, no overdraft fee if you go a little over...ect. But to really get a better I'd suggest looking it up, because I am not sure if I can describe it very well. But I know I have had a better experience over-all, for one they don't treat you like a low-life when you don't have a lot of money to keep there like wells fargo did to me.

Same here, there is a regulated deposit safety for amounts up to €100000. Also, most banks take security more seriously, mine uses several layers of authentication, some of the smaller banks i've heard about have poor web login that are compromised regularly and people lose money because of lax security.

My bank has a poorly designed web portal without much css and bells and whistles, but it is secure. That is my main criteria for selecting a bank, anything else is subordinate to security. Including fees.

Is personal banking in the US very different from the UK? It is very easy here to find bank accounts which are effectively free to use and which don't charge for debit card use. Also, the majority of ATM machines are free to use even if they belong to a different bank than your own.

It is, except not every Arab country follows Muslim law, only the Gulf states do if I am not mistaken. The banking system here is not Islamic, there are only few "Islamic banks" here but are still regulated by the Central Bank (which is not Islamic).
http://www.bdl.gov.lb/statistics/table.php?name=t5272-2
http://www.bdl.gov.lb/statistics/table.php?name=t5271-9

I hold most of my money in a building society which is similar to a credit union in that it is also owned by its members as a mutual organisation. In the UK, they compete with banks as a provider of mortgages, savings accounts and other retail banking services. I certainly prefer dealing with them than a standard bank for ethical reasons.

In the United States, credit unions ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_un ... ted_States ) offer:

--30,000 CO-OP Network surcharge-free ATMs nationwide ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CO-OP_Financial_Services )
--Savings are federally insured to at least $250,000 by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_ ... nistration )
--While credit unions charge a low, one-time membership fee, most account fees are surcharge-free
--Most credit unions offer the same financial products and services as most banks, but provide lower rates and higher yields than banks

Credit unions in the United Kingdom ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_un ... ed_Kingdom ) were first established in the 1960s. Credit unions are member-owned financial cooperatives operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit and other financial services to their members.

In more than 60 other nations, credit unions ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_union ) exist with the assistance of the World Council of Credit Unions ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Cou ... dit_Unions ).

I have two bank accounts at seperate banks, I don't pay fees for either. One is already free to begin with, the other waves my bank fees because I have my RDSP's with them.

I switched from Chase to an online bank called Simple for along the lines of this reason. One job I had in the past didn't do direct deposit, and for some reason Chase seemed to start penalizing me with a fee for doing paper checks. My current bank won't even charge me fees for using a non-affliated ATM. Good security and it has a built in budget creator in its app, too.

Big banks like Chase and Wells Fargo are first and foremost commercial lending banks. Their primary business is lending billions to big businesses. The fact that they also offer personal accounts (checking, savings and loans) is to satisfy those individuals who bring their business accounts to them. But, the business owners get their personal account fees waived because they have millions parked in their business accounts. Let's call such service "freebies."

So, unless you own a big business, having financial accounts with commercial banks which charge you to give them even more of your money (depositing or cashing checks) is plain stupid. Credit unions and cooperative member banks don't do commercial lending. So, they can focus on keeping your fees low or nonexistent.

I don't like online banking certainly, it has it's uses in that it's quick/convenient, but unlike while handling physical money, I find I tend to spend more without keeping as strict a tab as I should on what I can and really can't afford. It's all made too easy, I suppose.
In any case I merely have a debit account and no credit cards whatsoever - at least, none that I created.
A lesson for being a gullible, loving daughter here: put off cards for life by the walking financial disaster that is my father, who committed child identity theft against me and both my older siblings. Now that was a wonderful thing to discover, I can tell you!
Money abuse by the selfsame git as mentioned above also led to my parents getting equity release on the house as well, not the best end result when one's had a mortgage for years and had hoped to own the house you intended to live the rest of your life in.