Serving low-to-moderate income households is credit union reality, not a slogan
Banks serve plenty of customers who have low-to-moderate incomes or low-to-moderate net worth. They just rarely serve the ones who have both at the same time. Credit unions do.
That is the central finding of a new America’s Credit Unions analysis of the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances , which segments households headed by adults aged 25 to 54 into quartiles based on both income and net worth. When you map those two dimensions against each other, a clear pattern emerges: credit unions claim their strongest market share where modest earnings and modest wealth overlap, while banks draw their less-affluent customers almost exclusively from households that are wealthy on at least one dimension.
Curt Long, vice president of data and research and chief economist at America’s Credit Unions, noted that the data reinforce a key distinction: credit unions serve households that are low-to-moderate income and low-to-moderate net worth. Banks do serve households that are low-income or low-net-worth, but not both. Their low-income customers tend to be high-net-worth, like business owners or people from wealthy families, while their low-net-worth customers tend to be high earners, like recent medical school graduates.
Better rates and lower fees back up the mission
Federal data from another source helps explain why working families gravitate toward credit unions. According to the National Credit Union Administration’s Q4 2025 rate comparison , credit unions offered an average rate of 5.44% on a 60-month new car loan, compared with 7.41% at banks. On a 48-month used car loan, the gap was even wider: 5.53% versus 7.73%. Credit union credit card rates averaged 12.58%, versus 15.27% at banks, and 30-year fixed mortgages averaged 6.26%, compared with 6.50%.
The fee picture is just as telling. WalletHub’s Q4 2025 Banking Landscape Report , which analyzed more than 3,300 deposit accounts nationwide, found that credit union checking accounts are 76% less expensive than those at national banks and carry interest rates 11 times higher. Monthly fees averaged $1.54 at credit unions versus $15.04 at national banks, and 79% of credit union checking accounts charge no monthly fee with no minimum balance, compared with just 20% at national banks.
For a family in that second quartile stretching to finance a car, buy a first home, or simply keep a checking account open without bleeding fees, those differences compound quickly.
An open door in a shifting economy
The findings land at a moment when moderate-income families face growing pressure. Industry analysts have noted signs of a K-shaped economy in which households connected to booming sectors prosper while those on a more modest footing contend with inflation and slow wage growth. NCUA data through Q3 2025 show more than 145 million Americans now covered by federally insured credit unions, and a WalletHub consumer survey found that 51% of Americans plan to open a new account in the next 12 months, with 35% saying their current bank is taking advantage of them.
For credit unions, the strategic takeaway is straightforward. The Survey of Consumer Finances confirms what the movement has always believed: the cooperative model resonates most where it is needed most. Credit unions that lean into that identity with financial education, community partnerships, and accessible products are not just fulfilling a mission. They are competing in the exact space where banks are weakest.
Families who are of moderate income and moderate net worth do not choose a credit union because of a slick marketing campaign. They choose it because the rates are better, the fees are lower, and the institution belongs to them. The data make the case in black and white: serving people of modest means is not just a credit union talking point. It is a measurable, federally documented reality.
Data sources: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (2022), America’s Credit Unions analysis; NCUA Q4 2025 Credit Union and Bank Rates; WalletHub Q4 2025 Banking Landscape Report.
