Credit Union Share Account

Key Features of the Lewisham Plus Credit Union Share Account:

• You will need £5 to join the Credit Union and set up your adult share account. There is a one-off, non-returnable joining fee of £4 and the other £1 will be deposited into your Share account as savings.
• Savers may receive an annual bonus payment known as a dividend, but dividends are not guaranteed. The dividend rate, which is expressed as an annual percentage, is determined by the Credit Union’s board based on the Credit Union’s financial results for each financial year ending on 30th September, and approved by the members at the Credit Union’s Annual General Meeting which is normally held the following March. The amount of any annual dividend that you may receive is calculated by multiplying the dividend rate by the amount of your savings at the end of each calendar month in the previous financial year. The bigger the savings, the bigger the dividend. Dividends are normally added to savings in March, after the members have approved the dividend rate at the Annual General Meeting.
• You can pay money into your Share account online, at our branches, by standing order or by transfer direct from your wages or benefit receipts. For instance, quite a few of our members save using their Child Benefit payments.
• Subject to an overall balance limit of £35,000, you can save as much or as little as you like, as often as you want.
• Savings up to £85,000 are currently protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.  Further details of the scheme can be found here.
• The more savings you build up the better chance you have of borrowing more money should you require a loan from the Credit Union. In some cases, some of the savings in the Share account will be transferred to a secured savings account (also known as 'Secured Share 2' or S2 for short) to act as security against the loan.
• Life savings insurance is included at no cost, subject to terms and conditions, a summary of which can be found here.

Individuals can open an account on-line or you can print and complete this application form and return it to your local branch.

Share accounts are also available for certain corporate entities - see here for further details.