A credit union is a group of people who save together and lend to each other at a fair and reasonable rate of interest. Credit unions offer members the chance to have control over their own finances by making their own savings work for them. Every credit union is owned by the members — the people who save and borrow with it — People like you.
When you become a member and start saving with your credit union you will have access to fair and reasonable rates on savings and loans.
Your savings contribute to your credit union’s loan fund. So your savings are helping other members. Members like you.
A credit union exists only to serve its members — not to profit from their needs. Surplus income generated is returned to the members by way of a dividend an/or is directed to improved or additional services required by the members.
Credit unions are non-sectarian and non-political, and continue that Irish tradition of co-operative self help.
It has been shown throughout history that by working together people can achieve far more through co-operation than by individual effort. The success of the credit union movements worldwide is a clear illustration of this. Credit unions have served their members well in Ireland since 1958, and as long as there are active members, they will continue to do so.
This flow chart demonstrates in very simple terms what a credit union is all about.
Money flows into credit unions in the form of savings – that’s people like you and me saving money on a regular basis.
From this pool of money, the credit union lends money to members in the form of loans. This might be a loan to buy a car, for home improvements, to finance going to college etc.
This money is repaid to the credit union over the term of the loan with an added piece called interest which is the cost to the member of getting the loan.
At the end of the year, the credit union assesses how much income as been generated from loan interest and after deducting the costs of running the credit union, the excess is paid to members in the form of dividends at the end of the year.
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