Smart Relationship Choices

Guardians Credit Union is a cooperative financial institution. The idea behind cooperatives is for people to join together to help one another meet social and economic needs. Co-ops are in business in many ways like any other business. But a cooperative belongs to the people who use it, and it operates solely for the members' benefit. Members invest in shares in the cooperative to provide capital for a strong and efficient operation. Co-ops are successful when the cooperative is supported and financed sufficiently by the members to create an efficient operation and when its members are committed to do a majority of their business with the cooperative.

Credit unions are cooperative financial institutions, owned and controlled by the people, or members who use their services. Credit unions are not-for-profit and exist to provide a safe, convenient place for members to save money and get loans at reasonable rates. Banks and savings & loans provide similar services to the consumer, but unlike credit unions, they are in business to make a profit. Credit unions must make a profit too, in order to stay in business. The true difference is what credit unions do with that profit—return it to the membership in the form of better dividends, lower rates and fewer fees, while banks distribute profits to their stockholders.

Account structures & benefits

As you know, Guardians Credit Union practices the philosophy of "people helping people." Because we're all about people, not profits, we have a relationship pricing program that helps all of our members achieve their financial goals. The program is called Smart Relationship Choices and it provides a variety of benefits based on aggregate account balances.