Wright-Patt Credit Union (WPCU) is a US

credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including depo ...

or financial

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

headquartered in Beavercreek, Ohio. The credit union was originally headquartered in

Fairborn, Ohio Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 34,620 at the 2020 census. Fairborn is a suburb of Dayton, and part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the only city in the world named Fairborn, a port ...

; however, it relocated in early 2014. WPCU is registered as a state-chartered credit union, is the largest member-owned credit union in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, and is one of the 50 largest credit unions in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. , WPCU has over $7.1 billion in assets, and over 446,000 members. WPCU is federally insured by the

National Credit Union Administration The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is a government-backed insurer of credit unions in the United States, one of two agencies that provide deposit insurance to depositors in U.S. depository institutions, the other being the Federa ...

(NCUA), which insures accounts in federal and most state-chartered credit unions in the United States. Deposits with Wright-Patt Credit Union are insured to $250,000.

History

The

organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

that is now Wright-Patt Credit Union was founded in 1932. It was during the national

economic depression An economic depression is a period of carried long-term economical downturn that is result of lowered economic activity in one major or more national economies. Economic depression maybe related to one specific country were there is some economic ...

of the early 1930s (the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

) that federal employees at

Wright Field Wilbur Wright Field was a military installation and an airfield used as a World War I pilot, mechanic, and armorer training facility and, under different designations, conducted United States Army Air Corps and Air Forces flight testing. Loca ...

(now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) recognized the need for an “every person” financial institution. Since that time, WPCU has become Ohio's largest member-owned credit union and one of the largest in the United States. Today, WPCU serves thousands of members from numerous employer and community groups and associations. WPCU has been known by the following names since its inception: * In 1932 – F.E.U. Local 148 Credit Union * In 1948 – Wright Field Credit Union * In 1951 – Dayton Federal Employees Credit Union * In 1962 – Wright-Patt Credit Union

Membership

As with all credit unions, membership in Wright-Patt Credit Union is limited to individuals sharing the common bond defined in its credit union

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

. WPCU primarily serves the Greater Dayton Area in the Miami Valley Region of Ohio, but other select areas are also eligible to join. Membership in WPCU is limited to the following: * Individuals who live, work, worship or attend school in

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...

, Champaign,

Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...

, Clermont,

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

, Darke,

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, Fairfield,

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

, Greene,

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

, Licking,

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, Montgomery,

Pickaway Pickaway County is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,539. Its county seat is Circleville. Its name derives from the Pekowi band of Shawnee Indians, who inhabited the area. (See List of Ohio county ...

, Preble,

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

, or

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

Counties in Ohio. * Military and civilian employees of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB). *

Military personnel Military personnel are members of the state's armed forces. Their roles, pay, and obligations differ according to their military branch (army, navy, marines, air force, space force, and coast guard), rank (officer, non-commissioned officer, or e ...

residing in a 14-county area adjacent to the Fairborn area who do not have a credit union available. * Retired United States Government military and civilian personnel. * Government employees residing near WPAFB who do not have credit union facilities at their places of employment. *

Wright State University Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in honor of aviation ...

students, faculty, staff, and

Alumni Association An alumni association or alumnae association is an association of graduates or, more broadly, of former students (alumni). In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, schools (especially independent schools), ...

members. * Select groups made up of people associated through employment, geographic location, or other organizational affiliation. * Spouses, children, and certain other relatives of those eligible for WPCU membership.

Organization

Wright-Patt Credit Union is a state-chartered credit union in Ohio, federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Like all credit unions, WPCU is governed by a board of volunteers, elected by and from its membership. WPCU also owns a separate subsidiary, myCUmortgage, LLC, which operates as a

credit union service organization Credit union service organizations (CUSOs) are corporate entities in the United States that are owned by federally chartered or federally insured, state chartered credit unions. Under US federal law and the National Credit Union Administration ...

(CUSO). CUSOs were established by NCUA as a way for credit unions to offer products and services that would normally be outside of the credit union's scope.

Services

Wright-Patt Credit Union offers a full selection of products and services typically found at most financial institutions, including

savings accounts A savings account is a bank account at a retail bank. Common features include a limited number of withdrawals, a lack of cheque and linked debit card facilities, limited transfer options and the inability to be overdrawn. Traditionally, trans ...

, checking accounts,

consumer loan Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), ...

s and certificates of deposit. Credit unions are financial cooperatives so their savings accounts are referred to and recorded as “shares” because they represent members’ ownership of the credit union. Anyone eligible for membership can become an owner of the credit union by opening an account and depositing $5.00 into a “share” savings account. Additionally, WPCU offers its members

small business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...

loans, auto loans,

mortgage loans A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any p ...

, student loans,

credit cards A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

, lines of credit,

health savings account A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal inco ...

s, IRA accounts,

direct deposit A direct deposit (or direct credit), in banking, is a deposit of money by a payer directly into a payee's bank account. Direct deposits are most commonly made by businesses in the payment of salaries and wages and for the payment of suppliers' acco ...

(through ACH),

telephone banking Telephone banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution, that enables customers to perform over the telephone a range of financial transactions which do not involve cash or Financial instruments (such as cheques), without ...

, online banking, mobile banking, and

remote deposit Remote deposit or mobile deposit is the ability of a bank customer to deposit a cheque into a bank account from a remote location, without having to physically deliver the cheque to the bank. This was originally accomplished by scanning a digital ...

as well as many other services.

Member Center & ATM locations

, Wright-Patt Credit Union operates 34 member centers (commonly called branches) around the Greater Dayton area, Cincinnati and Columbus in Ohio. They also partner with other ATM providers giving members lower-to-no-fee access to any Alliance One,

CO-OP Network CU Cooperative Systems, Inc. doing business as Co-op Solutions (formerly d.b.a. CO-OP Financial Services), is a company that operates an interbank network connecting the ATMs of credit unions in the United States, with locations also in Canada ...

, or

STAR A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

ATM. WPCU has also partnered with other credit unions in the United States through the Shared Service Center network ( CU Service Centers), which allows WPCU members to conduct most of their financial business at other credit union locations as if they were at their own local WPCU member center.

Recognition

* ''#3 Most Convenient Credit Union in the U.S.'', 2018 by MagnifyMoney * ''Best Bank in Ohio, 2017–2018'' by ''Money''.com * ''Top 10 Best Mobile Apps in the U.S.'', 2017 by MagnifyMoney * ''Top 10 Best Mobile Apps in the U.S.'', 2016 by MagnifyMoney * ''Top 10 Best Mobile Apps in the U.S.'', 2015 by MagnifyMoney * ''Ranked #1 in Best Ohio Credit Unions'', 2019 by Forbes * ''2020 Gold Fee Lender - Dayton-Kettering, OH'' by OriginationData * ''Best Customer Service Business'', 2021 by Dayton Business Journal

References

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External links

Official Website
Credit unions based in Ohio Companies based in Dayton, Ohio Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Mortgage lenders of the United States American companies established in 1932 Banks established in 1932 1932 establishments in Ohio