Federally Insured by NCUA

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), a U.S. Government Agency, insures deposits of North Alabama Educators Credit Union up to at least $100,000 per account holder. Higher insured amounts are also available for joint accounts. Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA's) are insured separately up to $250,000 per account holder.


The NCUA has good information on their site about share insurance. Here is a direct link to the Share Insurance Toolkit page of the NCUA: http://webapps.ncua.gov/ins/ .

HERE IS A GOOD NEWS STORY THAT RECENTLY APPEARED ON CNN:

CNN, Forbes on CUs: 'Grab them while you can'
ATLANTA (9/19/08)--"If there's a calm in the economic storm, it may be credit unions, whose investors are sleeping through the night," reported Susan Lisovicz of CNN Thursday during an interview with Neil Weinberg, senior editor of Forbes Magazine.
"We've had mergers and bailouts and a lot of us are nervous. Tell us why we should take a second look or in some instances a first look at credit unions," asked Lisovicz, amid banner headlines that said, "Credit unions weather rough seas."
Weinberg's answer focused on two reasons why "credit unions are a safe harbor":
Credit unions are operated as a "stable and profitable business, taking deposits from you and me through our savings and checking accounts, and lending out money for car loans, which earns a spread that is profitable."
Most credit union accounts are federally insured by the government up to $100,000.
"They tend to be conservatively managed and federally insured, which in this day and age is what you want," advised Weinberg.
He explained that through lobbying in Washington, credit unions have "managed to open the doors of membership quite a bit" and in many cases a person related to someone in an affinity group can join a credit union.
"You want to jump on board," Weinberg advised.
When asked what is it about credit unions that doesn't lead to the same kind of forecast for other commercial institutions, Weinberg said credit unions haven't got into the same trouble as commercial banks that specialized in mortgages and made risky home loans.
"Typically, credit unions have federal charters and federal inspectors, with strict, tougher rules. Because they began as agricultural cooperatives, they are run conservatively. You want to go for those credit unions."
"I got the message," said the Lisovicz. "You want to go for a credit union. Grab them while you can."

No decline in value at North Alabama Educators Credit Union!

The national financial news has not been very good lately. Failed investment firms and declining values among traditional banking organizations has generated concern among consumers nationwide about the safety of their money. North Alabama Educators Credit Union has not seen a decline in stock value because we don't have stockholders. We don't issue stock and we are not part of the New York Stock Exchange. Our owners are our members who deposit their hard earned money into their accounts at the credit union. Our primary investment objective is safety over yield to protect the assets of the credit union's members. This is the reason why the credit union has not engaged in sub-prime lending, commercial lending, exotic adjustable rate loans, speculative land investments, or any other number of asset investments that have created the problems being realized by these other institutions. Our net worth has increased throughout the year and is expected to continue increasing as we move forward.

Credit unions largely began their popularity after the Great Depression because consumers were eager to deal with institutions that were more concerned with the consumer's best interest than those of the institution. Credit unions are financial cooperatives that are owned and directed by the very people using the credit union. It is this unique structure of credit unions that translates into a very safe haven for member deposits.

Correct information on Member Accounts

The Credit Union is required by federal law to have a correct "physical" address on all members of the credit union. Members can have a PO Box for their mailing address but a correct "physical" address on record is also required for the Credit Union. Please keep your contact information up to date with the Credit Union. Correct home and cell phone telephone numbers are also helpful in contacting members quickly if fraud or other suspicious account activity is present. Please note that changing your address with the Post Office is not sufficient as we cannot accept a forwarding address from the Post Office due to concerns of account takeovers utilizing a change of address from the Post Office. If you are moving to a new address, please provide the new address and any new contact information directly to the Credit Union.

If you are in one of our offices for a transaction, you may be asked to verify if contact information is correct on your account. This contact information is not used for telemarketing or any other purpose other than what has been stated above.

New ATM at Main Office

The new ATM at the Main Office is scheduled for installation this week. This new ATM will be installed through the wall of the building in the first drive thru lane, near the rear of the building. A canopy will be installed and the curb will be cut back 6" to allow for easier access to the machine. The curb cut will take place this weekend. (09-13). Please keep this in mind since access to the ATM would be not available while the curb is being cut. This is expected to take approximately 5-6 hours on Saturday.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the downtime on the ATM. We do anticipate faster response times on the ATM and less future downtime due to mechanical problems.