We moved from a bank to a CU a few years ago and are so happy with them (except when their cards stopped working at ATMs, they didn't post anything on their website and we were stuck in a country town in the Czech Republic with no access to cash and no one took CC -eek!). We only get charged for what we use basically. We pay 75c a month for internet banking (don't have phone banking), pay per message for text banking (20c a msg I think), $1.50 for a debit card and that is all. As were travelling a lot, they also had the lowest international withdrawal rate we could find (still ridiculous though!).

As long as we deposit at least $500 in there every month we only pay for what we use. We also have a credit card with them with fairly low interest rate and low annual fee. I like them because if I transfer money from account to account it is INSTANT. If someone transfers money into my account it is there straight away, cheques take a few days to clear of course. At the bank we used to be with they held our money in cyberspace for a long time. At one stage I was having to pay bills 10 days before they were due via Bpay because we were getting slogged late fees by paying them 3 days before. The funds had left our account but the bank hadn't paid them yet! Even transferring between savings and cc took a couple of days.

In saying all of this, we don't have a mortgage or any other loans, no large term deposits or shares etc etc which is why being with the CU suits us to a T. If you had more complicated finances you might find a CU a bit limiting. If your bank is giving you the best deal, stick with them! Just do a bit of research every couple of years to make sure you're still getting bang for your buck!