We keep hearing in the news that 2010 is going to see record bank failures, more than we saw in 2009 and last year we saw 140 banks fail.  It is said that there are over 900 banks on the government's watch list.  There have already been 30 bank failures this year.  Although it appears that the economy is slowly coming out of the recession, mortgage foreclosures keep climbing which means that the losses the banks have already taken may only increase.  Is your bank among those experiencing problems?  There are any number of different ways to find out if your bank is suffering financial issues.  One such company is BauerFinancial.
 
BauerFinancial is an independent, unbiased, third party rating company that has been well-respected for its fair evaluations since 1983. They assign a star rating to financial institutions each calendar quarter.  Star ratings are assigned on a scale of zero to five stars (5-stars being the strongest) and are based on the current overall financial picture of the bank or credit union.  You can go to their web site www.bauerfinancial.com and look up any bank or credit union in the country and find out their star rating.  I encourage you to visit their site. 
 
Gulf States is a 5-star financial institution and has been for 79 consecutive quarters.  There are only 5.6% of the financial institutions in the entire country that can make that claim.   We are a credit union with a sound business philosophy of protecting the member's money and most of our staff have been with the Credit Union for more than 10 years...you can't find a better place to do your banking.  Check out our Member Testimonials on our web site.  I invite you to come do business with us. 

We have all seen the credit card company ads that ask the above question. A more appropriate question to ask nowadays is what interest rate is in my wallet? If you haven't checked out the interest rate on your credit card look quickly, because it will be changing soon. Almost every bank is changing your credit card to a variable interest rate that is tied to the prime rate.  The prime rate is low now but it won't be for long. The best of the best customers are being charged a rate of 11.0% over the prime rate.  The prime rate is now at 3.25%.  What's going to happen when the prime is at 6% or 7%?  Most customers are not the best of the best and their rate can be prime plus 20% or higher.  New fees are also coming.  Gulf States is still offering a fixed rate credit card with rates as low as 9.9%, so it really doesn't matter what the prime rate does.  Why wait? Apply today!