
I’ve reported unlawful CUs to the NCUA. They have never taken enforcement action. You cannot rely on them.
Once you start reporting banks and CUs to their respective regulators, you will quickly realize the protections are a façade. They only pretend to protect consumers for optics – to maintain consumer confidence. My confidence in bank regulation from the consumer standpoint is gone.
I have only gotten results when suing in court. But that is only possible in a minority of situations. When it comes to data abuses, the court is mostly helpless unless you can prove actual damages. It’s insufficient to prove data exfiltration.
If you have a paper check in your name, you must trust someone (the issuing bank, the casino, or some dodgy checks cashed business).
So there’s your pros and cons. It’s your choice and no choice is “the correct” choice. It’s a gamble regardless.
I would love it if a bank would respect their customer’s privacy to the legal maximum and really try to earn patronage the same way casinos compete for your business. This opportunity is lost on banks. They all think customers give more of a shit about how many fractional pennies of interest they will get and have the working assumption that all customers will prostitute themselves fully, for mere pennies. And so banks are fully enshitified.