Lake Michigan Credit Union
Is This Your Business?2.5
2.5
Author: Kaitlyn Short
LAST UPDATED: June 27th, 2019
Lake Michigan Credit Union has been providing checking accounts, home and refinance loans and saving accounts for the citizens of Michigan since October 1933. To gain membership, there are a few criteria. While there aren’t many LMCU ATMS to choose from, the credit union does refund ATM fee charges at the end of each month, up to $15.00 per account. Currently, there are 575 employees throughout approximately 40 branches in Michigan.
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The Good
- Membership
- ATMs
- Online and mobile perks
- Checking interset rate
Membership
Lake Michigan Credit Union (LMCU) is solely for people who live, work, worship or attend school in lower Michigan along with their immediate family. However, they now allow eligibility for those who are willing to make a one-time $5 donation to an ALS foundation. This means that basically anyone can sign up for their credit union. While some credit unions have strict requirements to join, Lake Michigan Credit Union opens its door to anyone (who is willing to make the small donation).ATMs
LMCU has 38 locations which is about the average number of most credit unions, but members have access to more than 55,000 ATMs worldwide. This isn't limited to the Lake Michigan Credit Union ATM network. Customers can also go to any Allpoint ATM to access their accounts. Allpoint is one of the world's largest surcharge-free ATM network, this is a huge advantage over most other credit unions.Online and Mobile Perks
For questions, Lake Michigan Credit Union has provided an online chat option. During typical business hours, there are online agents available for live chat. This is a nice feature that can help speed up the process of answering any basic questions you may have. Also, one unique feature to LMCU is the fact that consumers can open accounts online. This isn't all. Checking accounts offer all the new standard features including online and mobile banking as well as mobile check deposits and mobile wallet storage. This puts Lake Michigan Credit Union in the forefront with other top credit unions when it comes to mobile financial management features.Checking Interest Rate
LMCU has pretty good checking interest rates at 1.50% APY. Typically, any rate for checking accounts over 1.0% is a better than average earning. This isn't the best rate we have seen, but it is still a good one. Lake Michigan Credit Union's rates for automobiles, savings accounts, and personal loans aren't as good. We found that most of the rates for these only fell average. LMCU's best rate they offer is definitely through their checking account.The Bad
- Average rates in other areas
- No overdraft protection or EMV technology
Average Rates in Other Areas
As mentioned above, Lake Michigan Credit Union's savings account interest rate falls short in comparison to what they offer for checking accounts. Savings account rates only earn 0.25% APY which isn't great when the average is approximately 0.45%. For their automobile rates, they start at 2.25% which is actually very good for the lower end of the range, but there is no information as to how high that rate range can go. The personal loan rates start at 10.25% which is average with the rest of the industry. Overall, most of Lake Michigan Credit Union's rates are pretty standard. Customers should continue to shop around if this is the focus of signing up with a credit union.No Overdraft Protection or EMV Technology
LMCU does not offer overdraft protection. This is a feature that automatically moves money from your savings account to your checking if you don't have enough funds for a transaction. This means that you would automatically be charged the overdraft fee which is $30 each time. That is a costly fee, especially if it happens more than once. Overdraft protection is a really nice feature to have and about half of credit unions now offer it. EMV technology is a chip inserted into a card that is supposed to help transactions be more secure and to hopefully limit fraudulent activity. A lot of credit unions are transitioning to this technology, especially for debit cards, and Lake Michigan Credit Union still hasn't done that.The Bottom Line
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Benson Poort Dallas, TX
This Credit Union is worse than a bank. I am a former banker, and they have several things they do poorly. First of all they have a terrible Online banking website and app, that is difficult to understand, and easy to overdraw your account with. I still do not understand it fully, and I have a BA in accounting, an MBA in business administration and 15 years experience in banking. It seems they allow pending transactions to overdraw your account, and then when they receive the "receipt" for the transaction, they send it through again as "posted" and allow that to overdraw the account as well. I paid more than $100 dollars in NSF fees monthly while I banked there, and now that I have switched, I have paid none in six months at the bank I now use. The staff is nice, and want to help, but the administration and management really do not know what they are doing in terms of banking. I also had a credit card, and due to a loss of my job could not pay it. Every other Bank and credit card company worked with me, reducing my interest rate to 0%, allowing me to not pay anything at all for several months until I found work etc....everyone but LMCU. They called family members, including my ex-wife whom I had a PPO order against, looking for money, and after just 6 months, filed to take me to court. Even banks that are known for their fees, and poor customer service treated me better than this Credit Union. I wanted a credit union barbecue I heard they were local, part of my community and cared about me as a person, as opposed to a bank that is just out for my money. Perhaps that is true of some other credit unions, but not this one. Despite their not-for-profit tax status, profit is all they care about, and even more so than the typical nasty banks so many of us dislike. Stay far away from them if you ever fall on hard times, because they could care less about you.
8 years ago
Lindsy Hammer Muskego, WI
After 4 banks in 4 years, LMCU has held my business for 6 yrs with no intentions of switching.
8 years ago
