# Credit Union deposits



## alwaysonit (20 Jan 2020)

Can somebody shed some light on how these work and how safe they are?
The website states "The return on savings will vary from credit union to credit union, depending on the surplus income available at year end" - doesn't sound like it's a fixed rate or 100% risk free from this?


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## Zebedee (20 Jan 2020)

Basically the credit union pays out what it earns on it money (less costs etc ). The deposit is covered by the DGS up to €100k.

Some credit unions are turning away deposits (or at least limiting them) because they are getting zero or negative returns on risk free investments. These days there are more people wanting to save rather than take out credit union loans. So a lot of credit unions have excess cash. They’d probably be better of just returning the funds to the depositors.


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## alwaysonit (24 Jan 2020)

Thanks for the response!

So once under 100k is invested, they can't pay a negative return as it's covered by the DGS?

Do they just state the returns at the end of the year and depositors have no idea what return they get until then?
And does each branch end up having a different return?
Thanks.


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## RedOnion (24 Jan 2020)

alwaysonit said:


> each branch


Credit unions aren't branches. They're individual companies. They can only distribute their own profits as dividends.


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## Rosjohn (24 Jan 2020)

They are Member owned private companies.


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