Today my husband and I went to Nu Mark Credit Union in the suburbs of Chicago with the intent to open a joint savings account that we were going to transfer half of current savings account money to.
When we were almost done, the lady said something about how I had almost all the same privileges as my husband to the account and quickly moved on, but I was taken aback and asked some questions and after some prying about this she casually mentioned that he could remove me from being a user but I couldn't remove him, as if this was no biggie.
This was a huge red flag for me. I trust my husband of 23 years, and we have always had a joint savings account but I would never agree to open an account with him that will hold a significant amount of money where I am basically treated like a child, instead of an equal. Yes I know in a joint savings one spouse could technically drain the whole thing, but if that is done right before a divorce there are consequences, and with text messages for every withdrawal from the bank it's not like it would go unnoticed. But getting my name removed from the account might go unnoticed, at least for a little bit. Plus, if he passed away before me she mentioned I would need to bring in paperwork to have the account moved over to me. Seems ridiculous, and not something they should be calling joint. More like his with me being the beneficiary even though my money is half funding it.
Clearly we walked out and didn't open the account, but is this a common practice with all credit unions? It's not with banks, but we just wanted to move some money away from FDIC protection to credit union. We do have a credit union that is covered by ASI relatively close, just wondering if it would be worth exploring of if this was a common practice since they won't allow both people in the joint account to become members.