Ent Credit Union: 2024 Review

4.0

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Quick Take: Ent Credit Union offers a wide array of financial products to members. The catch is that you must live, work, worship, or attend school within select counties of Colorado.

Ent Credit Union Overview

Ent Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial institution that serves communities in 21 counties in Colorado. Although it was established in 1957 to serve Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, the credit union expanded membership to anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in its service area.

Ent blends some of the features of an online bank — including high annual percentage yields and a mobile app — with the benefit of a decent branch network across Colorado’s front range. Ent Credit Union provides all of the basic accounts you would expect at a financial institution, including checking, savings and money market accounts and certificates that work like CDs.

Key Features

Take a look at some of the account offerings from Ent Credit Union.

Checking Accounts

Ent Credit Union offers three checking accounts: Basic Checking, No Strings Checking and Free Student Checking. There are no monthly service fees, Ent ATM fees or minimum balance requirements on any of the accounts. No Strings Checking customers get free access to a network of more than 30,000 CO-OP ATMs nationwide. 

No Strings Checking and Student Checking are both interest-bearing accounts that pay an APY of 0.05%. The Basic Checking account does not pay interest. Student Checking is available to students younger than 26 and comes with a debit card and no fees for using Ent ATMs.

Savings Accounts

Ent Credit Union offers a single primary savings account and two youth savings accounts, as well as traditional and Roth Individual Retirement Accounts. Every member has a savings account, and it comes with no monthly maintenance fees or minimum balance requirements. Customers also get free online and mobile banking with eStatements and bill pay. 

The Youth Savings Star Saver account is available to customers up to the age of 12, and the Galaxy savings account is available for individuals younger than 18. There is a $5 minimum balance to open and maintain these accounts.

The standard and Youth Savings accounts both pay an APY of 0.05%.

Certificates

Ent Credit Union uses the term certificates instead of the more common certificates of deposit, though they both work the same. It offers a wide range of certificates — including Standard, Flex, and Youth Certificates — with terms from three months to seven years. Other options include Traditional, Roth and Educational Savings Certificates.

The APY for certificates ranges from 2.18% to 5.10%. Depending on the CD you choose, you may need to make a minimum deposit of either $500 or $1,000.

Banking Experience

Member reviews of Ent Credit Union are generally positive. It has a physical presence in 21 counties, and members have access to their accounts through online and mobile banking. Within the app, members can check their balances, transfer money between Ent accounts and accounts at other financial institutions, and monitor their spending. The app has a rating of 4.7 on Google Play and 4.8 in the App Store.

Loan Products

Credit union members can tap into a wide range of lending products through Ent. You’ll find mortgages, home equity loans, personal loans, credit cards, student loans, auto loans, and more available. Like most credit unions, Ent credit union tends to offer reasonable interest rates on most lending products. But it still pays to shop around before committing to a loan through the credit union to confirm you are getting the best rate.

The organization offers six different credit cards, which are issued through Elan Financial Services. If you qualify, you can tap into a range of perks, including cash back, points and cash bonuses. If you prefer a personal loan, the credit union offers terms of 36 to 84 months. For students, the student loans available allow you to pursue a non-degree program like professional training or trade school in addition to degree-seeking options.

How Ent Credit Union Stands Out

Ent Credit Union offers a robust physical footprint in its geographic area, which can be a big perk for eligible members. You can tackle your banking needs online or head to a branch to sort through your situation. With a wide range of financial products available, you might be able to handle all of your banking needs under the umbrella of this single organization. The ability to keep things with one financial institution might make your life easier.

Comparable Credit Union Options

Check out how other credit unions compare to Ent Credit Union.

Navy Federal Credit Union

Navy Federal Credit Union, which caters to active and retired military and Defense Department personnel and their families, gets the edge with its certificates. The APY for certificates tops out at 5.30%. Its savings account rate beats all but the top-end ENT savings plan (an HSA that requires $50,000). Navy Federal has 350 branches around the world.

Alliant

Alliant’s high-yield checking account has an APY of 0.25%, and the high-yield savings account has an APY of 3.10%. The APY for certificates tops out at 5.10%. However, Alliant has no physical branches, which can be a drawback for members who like to bank in person.

Who Can Join?

If you want to become an Ent member, you must live, work, worship, or attend school in one of the 21 eligible counties of Colorado. You can also join if you are cilivian or military personnel of the Colorado Air National Guard, Colorado Army National Guard, or associated with Buckley Air Force Base.

When you join, you’ll need to open a share savings account with at least $5.

Final Take

Ent Credit Union offers many of the features that most appeal to customers, such as no-fee accounts with competitive APYs, community-oriented customer service and a wide product lineup. Beyond the basics, Ent Credit Union offers a variety of loan products, including home mortgages, lines of credit, personal loans, student loans and credit cards. It’s best for individuals who live in Colorado and like one-stop banking, as well as parents of teenagers who want to start saving money.

See All Best Banks

Sarah Sharkey, Vance Cariaga and John Csiszar contributed to reporting for this article.

Editorial Note: This content is not provided by any entity covered in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews, ratings or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any entity named in this article.

To discover the Best Credit Unions, GOBankingRates looked exclusively at the 50 credit unions in terms of total asset size that had available published data. To determine rankings, GOBankingRates looked at the following factors: (1) total assets as sourced from the NCUA; (2) number of branch locations as sourced from the NCUA; (3) minimum deposit to open a checking account; (4) monthly checking fee ratio (percentage based on the minimum to avoid the fee compared to the monthly fee itself); (5) checking APY; (6) minimum to open a savings account; (7) minimum balance needed to achieve savings APY; (8) savings APY; (9) minimum to open a 12-month CD account; (10) 12-month CD APY; (11) 60-month CD APY; (12) customer service options offered (24/7 customer service and live chat with a human); (13) Bauer rating (out of 5 stars); (14) products/services offered (auto loans, mortgage loans, credit cards, investment services and insurance); and (15) the average mobile app rating between the Android and Apple app stores. All factors were then scored and combined, with the lowest score being best. Factors (1), (2) and (12) were weighted 0.5 times, and factor (14) was weighted 2 times. For all savings and checking account data, only the basic accounts/products offered at each institution were analyzed.

Rates are subject to change. Information on accounts is accurate as of July 23, 2024

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