To open a savings account or apply for a loan with Sheffield Credit Union, you also have to sign up as a member. By signing up you are agreeing to the conditions of membership.
On joining, we will automatically open you a Membership Share account (see below). £4 of your £5 joining fee will pay for your ID check and other administration costs to process your application. £1 will go into your Membership Share account, and must be kept there for as long as you wish to remain a member.
Sheffield Credit Union is a co-operative. Your membership share enables you to vote at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and help to shape the services we offer.
We will also open you an Easy Saver account, so you can start to build your savings.
Membership Share
When you open an account with Sheffield Credit Union and pay your £5 membership fee, £1 of this will be put into your Membership Share account. To keep your account open you will need to keep this £1 in your Membership Share account.
This share gives you the right to participate in our Annual General Meetings (AGM) and any Special General Meetings. At these meetings you will have a vote on key decisions about the future direction of the organisation. Members can also put themselves forward to be nominated for our board of directors.
Dividends - Key Information
Dividends are a share of the organisation's surplus, which is the money we make each year after we have paid our operating costs, and which we pay to members with savings. It is a bit like interest, but the amount paid will depend on how the organisation performs. Sheffield Credit Union is a not-for-profit organisation. This means that our main focus is helping people, not making money. In most years though we do make a small surplus - and we use this to reward our savers as well as continuing to invest in the services we provide.
We aim to pay dividends at least equal to the interest rates on building society instant access savings accounts. We cannot guarantee that a dividend will be approved at our Annual General Meeting, and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The dividends paid for the last 5 years have been:
2019: 0.0%
2020: 0.2%
2021: 0.2%
2022: 1.0%
2023: 1.5%
Your dividend will be calculated based on your average savings balance over the year, and paid the following March, shortly after the AGM.
If you also receive dividends from other companies, you may have to declare this to HMRC. Find out more about paying tax on dividends.