Great Lakes Credit Union
Easy Live/work/worship Cook + collar counties (and more) · or Foundation donation
Who can join
Live/work/worship Chicago & Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Will (plus other published IL/IN/WI counties) · SEGs · military/federal · or Foundation donation
How hard
Easy
Fees / share
No published membership fee · open Share Savings (confirm current minimum on glcu.org)
ATM notes
Confirm ATM / network fees on GLCU site (not invented here)
- Official name
- Great Lakes Credit Union
- Charter / type
- NCUA-insured credit union (confirm via NCUA locator).
- Field of membership (summary)
- Published geographical FOM includes live, work, or worship in Chicago and Cook County, IL; DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, IL; plus other published IL/IN/WI counties (Clark, Edgar, Vermilion, Country Club Hills surrounding area, Fountain & Warren IN, Kenosha WI). Also SEGs (e.g. CTA / S&C Electric / City of Chicago employees), military/federal paths, and a GLCU Foundation for Financial Empowerment donation path for people outside the local geography (labeled association/donation path).
- Join steps (as published)
- If you live/work/worship in Cook or a listed collar county, use the geography path. Otherwise use a published SEG/military/federal path or the Foundation donation option. Open a Share Savings account — GLCU publishes that joining itself has no membership fee; confirm the current share minimum on the application. Apply via glcu.org.
- Fees (only if published)
- Published: membership itself does not cost a fee. Share Savings opening minimum: confirm on current glcu.org application / fee sheet (some product pages mention as low as $1 — not invented as a guarantee here). Other product fees: confirm on fee sheet.
- ATM / network notes
- ATM / shared-branch network details: confirm on GLCU’s current site and fee schedule before relying on them.
- Branches serving Greater Chicago
- Northern Illinois / Chicagoland branches (e.g. Chicago, Skokie, Gurnee, Waukegan, Crystal Lake, Berkeley) — use glcu.org locations..
- Caveats
- County list includes core Greater Chicago counties but also farther IL/IN/WI counties — not a claim that every Chicago ZIP has a nearby branch. Foundation path is labeled. CIP always applies.
- Join difficulty rationale
- Easy — published live/work/worship path covering Cook and major collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Will).
Sources
Not a guarantee: Meeting the published field of membership does not mean you will be approved. Credit unions still run identity checks (CIP) and their own account rules.
Last verified: 2026-10-26 (America/Los_Angeles). Confirm eligibility and fees on the credit union’s site before applying.