Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

A few good things DID come out of the car tease of 2012!  Shopping for financing gave us a sneak peek at our credit scores (at an all time high, I think! Our hard work is paying off, slowly but surely). My mom (great money mentor she is!!!) suggested if we must finance to try to do it at a credit union.  GREAT advice, if we would have bought, we would have saved almost 5% interest!!!!  That is as much at $5000 over the life of the loan (if my math is right?)  which I would be happy to spend myself instead of handing over to the BANK!  We had never set foot in  credit union before going for the sole purpose of an auto loan.  What a discovery!  We walked out with a new checking and savings account that should save us some decent money every year by reducing fees our previous bank was charging (to use OUR money, huh?) and paying interest on everything--even checking?! Right off the bat, we will save around $20 this summer when my job as a teacher does not automatically deposit paychecks (and my bank punished me to the tune of $8.99/month for no direct deposits while off work).  Also gone are my pesky $3 fees every time I transfer money from my savings account to my checking account more than 2 times every month.  This was necessary fee at my previous bank because I was paid for the whole summer in full (TEMPTING!) and had to be responsible and transfer my pay to checking twice a month.  So ANY pull of money from savings in the summer = $3 fee.  Discovering the benefit of credit unions was worth the headache of last weekend, and I am hoping some of my readers might take a look at credit unions in their area.