General Credit Union Information

What Is A Credit Union?

A Credit Union is a not-for-profit, cooperative financial institution that is owned and run by its members. A credit union’s members are groups joined by a common bond, generally through employment or their community. These members pool their funds together as deposits into a variety of savings and investment accounts. From this pool of funds, the members make loans to one another. The interest income earned from these loans is used to pay for the credit union’s operating expenses and reserve requirements. The remaining funds are returned to members as dividends on deposits and services. As a result of this streamlined process, the member-owned credit union is able to pay higher dividends on deposits, offer lower rate loans and maintain low-cost or no-cost services.

A credit union is democratically controlled, with members forming its board of directors. The board of directors are volunteers chosen for specific terms by the members in annual elections.

Credit Union roots developed in the 1800’s in Europe and started in the U.S. in 1908 when the first credit union was established in Manchester, New Hampshire. Today, more than 13,000 credit unions serve over 70 million members in the U.S. to a total of more than $316 billion in assets.

Why Choose A Credit Union?

A Credit Union is owned by the members that it serves. Unlike a bank, it exists only to serve these members, not to pay an outside group of stockholders.

Each member, being an owner, has an equal vote in the board of director elections, regardless of how much he or she has on deposit at the credit union.

A credit union’s income is returned to the members, allowing for higher savings yields, low or no cost services and lower loan rates.

At Sierra Point Credit Union, a member’s funds are insured up to $100,000 by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), with the possibility of more protection through joint accounts. This fund is stronger and more secure than the insurance provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC). Not one penny of insured savings has ever been lost by a member of a federally insured credit union, like Sierra Point Credit Union.