Your credit union savings represent your "share" in the financial cooperative, which is what a credit union is.  Thus, you have a Share savings account, or, for a fixed-term account, a Share Certificate account. 

 

And if you have an account you use, for example, to pay bills and finance daily recreation, you have a Share Draft account, so named because you're able to draw on your shares. 

 

In all respects, these accounts work the same way savings, certificates of deposit, and checking accounts work at other institutions.

Dividends, Rates and Fees

Dividends are the share of earnings Coosa Pines Federal Credit Union distributes to shareholders -- members.

Fees and borrowing rates are lower, and savings rates higher, because credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives.  Profit-driven financial institutions like banks must make money to pay stockholders in proportion to their holdings.  All credit union members benefit from the credit union's financial success, but bank income bypasses customers to pay a limited number of stockholders.

Deposit Insurance

Your credit union shares are backed by federal share insurance through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) up to $250,000.  And Coosa Pines FCU undergoes rigorous examination by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) to assure sound operation and management. 

 

Deposits are additionally insured to $250,000 by Excess Share Insurance, Inc., a division of American Share Insurance, which is the nation's largest provider of private share insurance to credit unions since 1974. 

 

Depending on how accounts are structured, they may be insured for more than the combined $500,000, and IRA accounts are insured separately.

 

Coosa Pines received its original operating charter -- permission to do business and the rules it must observe -- in 1950.  The credit union charter and field of membership changed in 2003 to include all who live, work, worship, or attend school in Talladega, Coosa, Clay, Shelby and St. Clair Counties.  The charter expanded again in 2010 to include Jefferson County, with the merger of Jefferson Community Development Federal Credit Union.    

The directors and management comply with the charter and also with the credit union's own bylaws.  These are rules that members and directors adopt to define the credit union's field of membership (who's eligible to join), set the par value of shares (in other words, each share is $5), and describe common credit union functions.

Now that we're all speaking the same language, call or stop by your local branch for information about membership, our many loan products, or financial services -- on your terms, of course!