Banks & Credit Unions
First West Credit Union
About First West Credit Union
A credit union answers to its members rather than to outside shareholders, and that shows up less in the products than in where the branches sit: working neighbourhoods and smaller towns that the national banks have been steadily leaving. First West Credit Union has a branch at 110 Highway 33 West, on the arterial that carries traffic east through Rutland, one of Kelowna's largest residential districts.
Day to day, a credit union does what a bank does. Chequing and savings, mortgages, loans, term deposits and business accounts all work much the same way, with the difference that opening an account makes you a member with a share and a vote in how the organisation is run. Anything involving paperwork rewards a call ahead. Mortgage and business staff usually work by appointment even where the teller counter does not, identification requirements for a new account are stricter than most people expect, and branch hours across the valley have thinned in recent years. The branch page on the valleyfirst.com site covers the particulars for this location.
Rutland fills the northeast quarter of Kelowna and holds some of the most affordable housing in the valley, which has given it a genuine town centre rather than a commuter feel, complete with its own busy commercial strip. Having a branch out here matters in a city built around driving, where the alternative is a run across town into downtown traffic. Highway 33 West is among the better addresses in the district for that, close to the shops and easy to reach from Black Mountain and the subdivisions climbing above it.
Visiting First West Credit Union
Getting there
In the Rutland neighbourhood of Kelowna.
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