For the 20th consecutive year, credit unions finished first in customer satisfaction in the 2004 American Banker/Gallup Consumer Survey.

This year's survey found 73 percent of members who use credit unions as their primary financial institution said they were "very satisfied" with the service, up from 63 percent in last year's poll. Very satisfied levels for banks, by comparison, rose to 58 percent from 54 percent and thrifts to 59 percent from 55 percent.

"Nearly three out of four credit union members are very satisfied with the service they receive, much more so than customers of banks and thrifts, says Texas Credit Union League President and Chief Executive Officer Dick Ensweiler.  This is for one reason and one reason only: the core mission of not-for-profit credit unions is to serve their members.  People can tell the difference when they are valued because of who they are, not what they are worth.

According to the survey, 23 percent of respondents say they opened an account at a small credit union or small bank in the past year up from 20 percent last year.  More than 8 percent of bank customers said they opened an account at a credit union up from last year's 5 percent.

More Americans trust their credit unions in 2004, the new survey shows. On the question of "trust and confidence," credit unions also topped the list.  This year's survey found 68 percent of those with accounts and banks and credit unions said they trust their credit unions more, up from 62 percent in 2003 and 60 percent in 2002.

Charles B. Wendel, the president of Financial Institutions Consulting Inc. in New York, told the American Banker newspaper that while all banks now claim to be trying to be customer-centric, "Credit unions, by their very charters, tend to be very much more customer-oriented than other players.

The results of the survey, conducted April 5 - May 7, 2004, were published in the Oct. 5, 2004 issue of American Banker. The newspaper performs its survey on consumer attitudes toward the financial services industry annually in conjunction with the Gallup polling organization based on telephone calls to 1,000 U.S. households.