What Is a Share Account? | Cleveland Bradley County Teachers Federal Credit Union

If banking with Cleveland Bradley County Teachers Federal Credit Union is your first experience with a credit union, one of the earliest questions you may have is, “What is a share account?”

This type of account is not unique to CBCTFCU, but it is specific to credit unions like ours, so most of our shareholders are not familiar with them until they start working with us.

The easiest comparison among the financial options most people are familiar with is to savings accounts at banks. Like them, share accounts are deposit accounts that provide returns on the amount held by the institution. The major differences are in what it means to hold one of the accounts and how returns are calculated.

What Are Share Account Holders Entitled to?

One important piece of information that underlies the distinctions between savings and share accounts relates to the differences between banks and credit unions.

While banks are for-profit enterprises typically either owned privately or by shareholders, credit unions are non-profits owned by every member. You become a member and a shareholder as soon as you open a deposit account with us, which gives you a stake in how CBCTFCU conducts its business.

So, our deposit accounts are called share accounts because they entitle you to shares in CBCTFCU. With a minimum deposit of $25, any education professional in Bradley County or Cleveland City schools can start a share account and start earning great returns on their savings. Additionally, having a share account entitles you to use our other products, including loans, draft accounts (our version of checking accounts) and IRAs.

How Do Share Account Returns Work?

While savings accounts typically pay a flat interest rate set by bank officials, share accounts pay variable dividends from the amount the credit union collects from interest payments on loans to our members.

Credit union officials, our board of directors, set the amount paid on accounts each quarter cased on income in that period. Since our board of directors is selected from among our membership, anyone with a share account could be part of the decision-making process.

Dividends for our share accounts are calculated on the actual daily balance and are posted to your account on the first day following the end of the quarter. Members receive a statement at the end of each quarter.

If you are an educator in the Bradley County or Cleveland City schools, we invite you to join Cleveland Bradley County Teachers Federal Credit Union to take advantage of many benefits, including share accounts.