银行和信用合作社有什么区别？

Fundamentally, a bank is a business that holds onto your钱对于您来说，并利用它通过投资这笔钱或向其他客户借出钱来创造利润。我们知道，大多数银行业务都可以追溯到古代。世界上最古老的银行是意大利的蒙特·德·帕斯迪·迪·西耶纳（Monte dei Paschi di Siena），该银行自1472年以来一直在不断运作。

When you make a deposit or buy a savings product, you're essentially loaning money to the bank. It pays you back in兴趣对于这笔贷款，但利率可能会因银行和您投入资金的方式而有很大的不同。银行然后将钱借给其他客户并投资，这就是他们赚钱的方式。（嗯，那和您的ATM费用！）

银行是一家与其他公司一样的企业：谋取利润，由回答投资者的人。他们为投资者赚钱的钱越多，他们就越快乐。这意味着该银行从事的所有活动都将显示出利润。像任何公司一样，银行的成功管理意味着在客户服务和利润之间找到最佳平衡。它想要您的钱，但您不希望银行拥有它。您希望您的存款有最大的利益，但是银行希望以任何方式收回这笔钱。由于这些天全球市场的变化如此之快，因此平衡比以往任何时候都更棘手。通常，客户付出代价。

Advertising, lobbying and risk assessment are the key expenditures banks must pay in order to stay on top of the competition. Advertising, of course, is essential to making us believe one particular bank is the best so that we will loan that bank our money. Lobbying, to make sure that governmental regulations don't harm their profit margin or executive salaries, may mean a more competitive and innovative business environment. And risk assessment is the science of making sure that a bank's loans and investments don't turn around on them and harm the bottom line.

信用合作社的弊端之一是您在城镇周围使用ATM时可能必须支付的费用。

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虽然您在信用合作社may be nearly the same as at a bank, the structure and reasoning behind the scenes couldn't be more different. Some of the small details -- calling a checking account a "share draft" or customers "members" -- can be confusing, but the story with credit unions goes much deeper than that.

America's first credit union was founded in Manchester, N.H., in 1908. In that year, Congress passed the Federal Credit Union Act to help create credit unions all over the U.S. All credit unions' membership is restricted to a certain group -- members of an industry, a region or other category -- but the wide array and variety of them makes it easy to find a credit union to join.

信用合作社与银行不同；当您存钱时，您实际上是在购买公司的股票。您不是成为客户，而是您的一部分所有者：这就是为什么您的帐户称为“共享”的原因。没有董事会或公司权益控制信用合作社的选择，因为会员同意一切。甚至高管和董事都是志愿者，通过投票选出。

信用合作社不是为了获利而运行，这意味着大型银行的许多担忧和可怕的决定甚至从未出现过。当然，“不是为了盈利”与“非营利”组织并不相同，因为信用合作社不依赖捐款。任何利润都允许信用合作社提供更好的贷款和储蓄利率，通常会降低费用和其他优势。在今年年底，除此之外的任何收入都通过股息分配给会员资格。

Of course, all that good news comes with a few drawbacks. Because of the small, local nature of the credit union and its concentration on your community, it can be hard to get your money without visiting a branch. Traveling and even usingATMsaround town can mean major fees. Depending on the credit union, new trends and services -- like online banking and bill pay, or even debit cards -- may become available much more slowly.

不过，如果您喜欢成为合作努力的一部分的想法，并且上述不便不适用您的生活方式，那么加入信用合作社就可以回报。不仅在客户服务和更高的财务价格方面，而且在您周围的社区中。

While the differences betweenbanks和信用社很大，我们的日常经历通常是相似的。尽管许多人对大银行及其公司利益失去了信心，但信用合作社通常无法在技术，速度或便利性方面进行比较。那么您如何选择？

Remember that all of these institutions are offering a service. Your needs should come first and foremost in making this decision, and you should feel comfortable making a change at any time to fit your needs. Best of all, you can always choose to split your accounts between multiple institutions.

信用合作社集中于储蓄，并提供储蓄帐户和更复杂的储蓄产品（如货币市场和CD）的更高回报率。因此，您可以选择将紧急储蓄基金和长期储蓄保留在信用合作社中，同时仍在使用银行进行日常支票和现金需求。

通常，您甚至可以将帐户链接起来，从而更容易从支票中转移资金并进入更高利率的信用合作社股票帐户。通过与信用合作社建立关系并显示一个稳定的帐户，您将能够确保更好的贷款利率。当然，如果您认为需要在支票帐户上进行透支保护，那么最好保持储蓄并与同一银行进行支票。

Overall, the main question you should ask is what your current needs are. Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Many of us are, and for that reason, it could make more sense to simplify and go with a large bank that can quickly respond to your needs. If you're trying to keep up with your savings -- as we all should be -- it may make more sense to "pay yourself first" by using a share account that's not as easy to get to. But if your income is stable and your spending doesn't really fluctuate from month to month, a credit union is your best option for watching your balance continue to grow.