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What is one relatively unknown thing that your country does much better than elsewhere, but that most people don't know about? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago by NateNate60@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 90 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

I will start. I'm in the United States.

Credit unions! Nearly half of all Americans are credit union members. They don't seem to be popular in Europe and Asia. A credit union is a not-for-profit co-operative financial institution that essentially provides all the same services as a bank, except it's run as a democratic institution with directors elected by the customers instead of as a profit maximisation machine for shareholders.

[–] ScreamingFirehawk 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The UK has building societies which sound like what you're describing

[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Yes, they're similar, but from what I've heard, most UK building societies are basically the same as or worse than banks in terms of fees, rates, and service quality. In the US, most credit unions will absolutely spank the big banks on at least two of those, if not all three.

[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

The majority of UK building societies turned themselves into banks; maybe twenty years ago when the legislation was passed to enable it. A select few still exist though, but I don’t believe any are that large.

[–] xor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago

There's only really one big building society in the UK, which is Nationwide, but they're awesome

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

*had. They've been swallowed whole by the larger banks

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