Wednesday 23 November 2016

A Customer’s Guide To Credit Cooperatives In Singapore

Looking to join a credit cooperative organisation but confused as to which one? In every financial institution Singapore, you will find distinctive set of rules regarding membership eligibility, profits, dividend shares, liabilities and so on.

Before you join a cooperative, you should know how it is exactly going to serve you, you need to identify your motive behind your membership and be well aware of their rules and procedures and what kind of benefits will you be receiving as a member and how far are they extendable.

Credit Co-operative- Nature And Functions

A credit cooperative is a member owned  financial credit union or co-operative, that is democratically controlled by its members and operates for the purpose of promoting thrift, offering credit at competitive rates and other financial services to its members.

In Singapore, these organisations are never referred to as credit unions, but as co-operatives . There are various types of cooperatives in Singapore. And all of them do not offer same kind of services, for example you shouldn’t be expecting loan and deposit services in every cooperative. Co-operatives are exclusive in nature and allows only individuals to be members of a particular demographic they intend to serve. Some cooperatives allow membership to employees from specific organisations.


Cooperatives are considered to be an interesting alternative for banking institutions  as they offer loans and deposit to their members at the most competitive rates in the current market. their interest rates are extremely competitive compared to personal loans offered by commercial banks.

Co-operatives vs Commercial Banks

When you settle on what to do with your savings, you should never just look at the interest rates to choose the best deal.  First, ask yourself what is the underlying goal behind the money in your account before you decide straight away on the product that best suits your needs.

For example, if a cooperative offers 3% bonus savings annually, then you will have to sign up for “save as you earn” account and commit to a minimum of 2 years of monthly contributions. Such contributions means early withdrawal of your money won’t give you the promised interest or bonus. This might not serve you well if you are looking for an emergency fund withdrawal.

On the contrary, if you plan to build up a retirement home without taking any major risk, the same might be a suitable plan to consider.

If you wish to subscribe for a super saver account Singapore cooperatives have that option too. You will have to subscribe for their original savings account to open a super saver one.

Find The Right Cooperative

If your demographics match, TCC Credit Cooperative is  probably one of the oldest and most reliable cooperatives to sign up for in Singapore with abundant services at affordable interest rates like personal loans, education loans, renovation loans with minimum interest rates especially on education loan for all year round in 2016 at 2.2% flat rate per annum.

The profits earned by the cooperative are distributed to the members in the form of annual dividends. They also cater  to Common Good Funds, an interesting  investment for their members. That includes funeral grant, hospitalisation grant, baby bonus, marriage grant, annual scholarship, loyal membership awards and many more. No administrative charges are applied for subscription to their accounts.

TCC is probably one of the first credit cooperatives to offer fully functional internet banking services in Singapore. To know more and avail their services, you can log in to their website.

Hope this helps.