Last year, I stopped doing business with banks.

For the past several years, we've done more and more business with our local credit union and less and less with commercial banks.

For most of my 30-year business career, I've received less than stellar service from banks. In fact, I've never had a satisfactory relationship with a banker. Some of it may have been my fault. And perhaps I didn't try enough of them, but I've never experienced world-class banking. And most of my colleagues report similar results.

That has changed with the exceptional experience we've had with the New England Federal Credit Union. The services, the friendliness, the rates, the convenience and the professionalism make it a pleasure to do business with them.

In recent years, the laws governing credit unions have changed, and these non-profit, member-owned institutions have become more and more able to fulfill the services previously offered only by banks.

For instance, when we joined our credit union, it was the IBM Credit Union and you had to be an IBM employee or a relative of an IBM employee to be a member. In our case, having a relative retired from Big Blue qualified us. Since then, the name of the Credit Union has changed and the only requirement for membership is that you live or work in one of the four counties they serve. I think you'll find this easing of eligibility to be true for many credit unions.

In addition, they continue to add services, including business checking accounts. We do almost all our business online. We have a car loan, a yacht loan and all of our checking and savings accounts with them. Their facilities and their technology is state of the art.

They've come a long way. And in our community, they're giving banks a real run for their money. I've encouraged a good number of friends and relatives to join.

If you're looking for a better banking experience, better rates and/or to simplify your banking, I encourage you to look into a credit union. We don't see a down side, and I don't think you will either.