A bank, on the other hand, has only limited ability to do so, and will not do so if it will compromise the institution's profitability. Increased likelihood of loan approval All these advantages make more likely that your loan will be approved at a credit union. Because you are a member – and not just a customer – the credit union will be more incentivized to work with you, even if your situation doesn't easily fit within their lending guidelines. For example, credit unions are known to be more flexible when it comes to people with credit problems. At banks, it's all about your credit score, and your loan application will generally be rejected if your credit report shows a serious credit problem, such as a bankruptcy, foreclosure, or tax lien. A credit union is likely to show more flexibility in any of these aspects. such circumstances, if it can be demonstrated that the derogatory credit annotations arise from past events and have since been corrected. While this doesn't mean that a credit union will approve your loan even if you have poor credit, it does mean that they will do everything they can to give you the loan.