A previous job forced me to open a new account with their partner credit union. I was very uneasy about it at the time, but there wasn't room or time to really argue it. That was four years ago, and I haven't touched the account since.
Now I'm concerned that having that bank account may hurt my credit score in some way. If so, how/why, and what can be done about it?
Savings and checking accounts do not appear on your credit report, and therefore do not affect your credit score in any way.
Credit reports only show debts and your payment history on those debts. If you didn't take out a loan with the credit union, you won't see it on your report.
If you are no longer with that company and don't want your credit union membership anymore, feel free to close the account. Not because it will affect your credit, but because it is a good idea to close accounts that you don't use to simplify your financial life.
The risk to your credit in having an open bank account that you don't touch is that you will eventually incur a fee of some sort, and then end up in collections if you don't pay it off (perhaps because you've moved and you don't get the notice). Simply having a bank account doesn't show up on your credit report or impact it in any way, but the risk does exist that you may end up being charged a fee for having it open.
Sometimes.
Some Credit Unions and Banks can make hard inquiries even for opening a checking account, though I believe this generally not the case. Hard inquiries will cause your credit to go down by a few points.
I learned this from personal experience when I opened just a checking account at a credit union.
For example, this credit union is documented as making a Hard Pull with Equifax for their Rewards Checking account:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/consumers-credit-union-5-07-apy-on-up-to-20000-rewards-checking/
Hard/soft pull: Hard pull (Equifax)
As TTT said, it won't hurt your credit. However, because I didn't see the below mentioned, I thought I chime in as there may be some confusion with the name Credit Union.
The thing to remember is that you are not opening a bank account. You are actually buying into the credit union which makes you part owner with the other members. Your saving's account is actually called a Share account for this reason.
Because they are called Credit Unions, do not think that they are doing stuff with your credit. They are merely community based financial institutions to help the union members get cheaper loans. Mainly this is due to unions being not-for-profit.
