Jazmin Garcia, Community Relations Officer for the San Diego County Credit Union, spoke with us about the past, present and future of SDCCU. The Aliso Viejo Chamber of Commerce is honored and excited to speak with Jazmin about SDCCU’s differentiators and who they are as an organization.
What makes the San Diego County Credit Union special?
San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU) is one of Southern California’s largest locally-owned financial institutions. With over $10.7 billion in assets, SDCCU is a not-for-profit credit union wholly owned and operated by its members. Unlike most other financial institutions, like big banks, SDCCU does not issue stock or pay dividends to outside stockholders. Instead, earnings are returned to members in the form of lower loan rates, higher dividends on deposits and lower fees.
Originally chartered in 1938 as San Diego County Employees Credit Union, SDCCU was formed to provide for the financial needs of local county government employees. During the 1970s, SDCCU expanded its membership to include all San Diegans, and today is open to everyone living or working throughout Southern California, including Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
San Diego County Credit Union serves more than 425,000 members and continues to thrive as one of Southern California’s largest premier financial institutions. With over 40 branch locations and more than 30,000 surcharge-free ATMs, SDCCU proudly serves consumers with its competitive product and service offerings. SDCCU has 6 branch locations in Orange County, with the first opening in Laguna Niguel over 12 years ago.
SDCCU is proud to have been voted BEST Credit Union 22 years straight in the San Diego’s BEST Union-Tribune Readers Poll. SDCCU has also been voted BEST Mortgage Home Loan Lender, BEST Financial Planner, BEST Auto Loan Provider and BEST Place to Work multiple times. We are also proud to have been named an honoree of The Civic 50 Orange County by OneOC and Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service. The award recognized SDCCU as one of the most community‐minded companies in Orange County, California, as determined by an independently administered and scored survey. We’ve received numerous other awards, including Top 4 Best-in-State Credit Unions, Forbes 2021; Los Angeles Time’s OC’s Best Poll, Favorite Local Credit Union 2020 and 2019 Community Business Leader Award, Orange County LGBT Pride.
Additionally, San Diego County Credit Union is a proud community leader. SDCCU and our community crew, Team SDCCU, support many different non-profit organizations, including the CHOC Children’s Hospital, YMCA of Orange County, Southern California Blood Bank, Home Free Animal Rescue and Sanctuary and many more. At the local level, branches also support community charitable organizations and events through sponsorships, volunteerism and activism. At SDCCU, we call this Feel The Teal!
What are the overarching community goals of the San Diego County Credit Union?
Improving the financial future of the communities we serve is a key focus of SDCCU’s overall community outreach. We do this by offering financial resources and free financial wellness to our members, partners and the community. One of the programs we are most proud of, especially over the last two years when many have faced financial hardships, is our Financial Wellness Wednesdays webinars. In 2020 alone, SDCCU proudly delivered over 250 financial wellness presentations to the community, and in 2021 we have delivered 160 presentations. SDCCU’s financial education efforts are further supported with blog articles on a variety of topics available at sdccu.com/blog.
What are the main differentiators in “going small” for your bank and how does that serve the community around you?
By banking with a local community credit union, you can feel good about where you place your money. As a not-for-profit financial institution, SDCCU works hard to retain low fees and great rates for our members and gives back to our local communities.
SDCCU has become one of Southern California’s top credit unions; why do you
think that is?
Consumers throughout Southern California continue to choose SDCCU as their primary financial institution because of our competitive product offerings. SDCCU retains members by staying true to our founding philosophy of putting people first and profits second. Our members, employees and the community remain at the forefront of all our decisions.
How does San Diego Credit Union connect with local communities?
SDCCU is an engaged community partner and proud to support non-profit organizations throughout Southern California. Our partnerships with these philanthropies allow us to help shape the lives of those in our communities through volunteerism, financial support and creating public awareness. Given the unprecedented circumstances of last year, SDCCU was proud to continue to positively impact the community by providing support for many non-profits and participating in more than 250 events and activities. Some of our biggest community events and programs include our sponsorship of the SDCCU OC Marathon, Stuff the Bus school supply drive, blood drives and Biz Kid$ financial literacy.
What can we look forward to seeing in the future from the San Diego County Credit Union?
With the changes over the last few years and our new growth into all of Southern California, SDCCU is committed to enhancing our digital services so members can easily access their accounts from anywhere and bank on the go. We are invested in continually improving our digital experience to not only offer breakthrough banking products and services but also enhance the member experience to make lives easier and banking more convenient.