SDFCU without ACA?

I'm currently a member of Americans Abroad, but the only real benefit I've experienced over the past year was membership in the credit union SDFCU. I have a loan that will ONLY accept payment from US banks, so this works perfect. Question is two fold:

1. Do I have to continue my membership with ACA to continue to be a member of the Credit Union?

2. If so, can I switch over to another member site? I saw elsewhere that you can join the American Consumer Council as a lifetime member for $15 (rather than ACA's $70 a year).

The only one able to answer your question would be SDFCU.

ACA negotiated their tie-in with SDFCU specifically for USCs abroad seeking new US based accounts with no address in the US. Another group, The Association of Americans Resident Abroad (AARO) in France have a page on their site dealing with US banking access for USCs abroad which states:

"Members of the American Consumer Council, an organization open to all American citizens, have access to membership in the State Department Federal Credit Union (SDFCU). Based in Arlington, VA, SDFCU provides members with basic banking services." [bold mine]

AARO look to be attempting a similar tie-in to that of ACA, but it may be that SDFCU would allow services via American Consumer Council membership. The question relates to verification by ACA or AARO of your foreign residence, but surely that is more accurately determined by SDFCU.

Email to SDFCU?

https://www.aaro.org/banking

TD Bank had the following info from 2014, offering accounts (possibly requiring opening in a US branch) to those resident abroad, yet they are rumoured to have been somewhat unkind towards USCs in Canada since FATCA.

https://www.tdbank.com/tdhelps/default.aspx/opening-a-us-bank-accout-us-citizen-living-abroad/v/39470942/