Bank fees help double credit unions' clientele

3/3/2012

LOS ANGELES -- Consumers fed up with the rising tide of bank fees helped the nation's credit unions more than double their number of new customers last year, new figures show.

More than 1.3 million Americans opened new credit-union accounts last year, up from fewer than 600,000 in 2010, the National Credit Union Administration reported.

Activists say that those numbers might swell even further if major banks try to squeeze more fees out of their customers.