Well.....   1) I'm not banking on the dividend. I have a stupidly low rate, locked for the entire life of the loan and as a bonus I get a 1% rebate.  2) I don't believe the dividend program is going anywhere anytime soon.  

I tried the local bank deal. I love the idea of keeping things "local", but doing so was not good for my business. Local bank terms were awful.  And Farm Credit does a tremendous amount in our local area to support causes. 4H,FFA,etc,etc. So the support local because they are the only ones going to support your community just got chucked out the window.