“When you join Santee Cooper Credit Union,” Kathy explains to me, “you’re not only a member, you’re also an owner. Unlike a bank, we do not have stock in our company. And our board of directors, who are making the executive decisions, are volunteers who are voted in by our members.”
Anyone who joins Santee Cooper Credit Union deposits $5, which opens their savings account, called a share account, so named because when you deposit that $5, that’s your share of ownership in the credit union.
“When Santee Cooper Credit Union first began,” Kathy tells me, “everyone put in their $5, and that started the pool of funds for people being able to borrow money with low interest rates.”
Today, any extra profits that the credit union makes, means greater benefits for members. So the more people who join, the greater the rewards for all.