CAPITAL CREDITS
What is a cooperative?
A cooperative is a unique type of business that is owned by the members it serves. Additionally, a cooperative is organized for the purpose of providing quality services to its members at a reasonable cost. SRT is a cooperative owned by its members. Capital credits are one of seven cooperative core value principles.
How is a cooperative different from an investor owned utility?
Investors own an investor owned utility. These are located anywhere, and are not necessarily near the customer that it serves. Investor-owned businesses are for-profit businesses which pay dividends to their shareholders, when profitable.
What are capital credits?
Capital credits are the excess revenues after the cost of doing business has been factored in. Capital credits are an amount allocated to each member from the cooperative’s profits. The amount of your allocation is determined by the amount of business you do with us each year and SRT’s profit for that year. Allocations have no cash value.
Capital credits are an opportunity for the cooperative to return an investment to those contributing to the cooperative through the purchase of internet and/or telephone services.
Can my capital credit allocation be applied to my telephone account?
No. Capital credit allocations are not cash until the Board of Directors chooses to retire them. At that point, checks are issued and distributed to all members who had service with SRT in the year, or years, being retired.
When are capital credits paid to members?
We allocate capital credits annually. At the discretion of the Board of Directors, allocated capital credits may be retired. At that time, the allocated capital credit balance becomes available to the member as cash. Until the Board of directors choose to retire the credits, they are not available to the member as cash. One exception to this is at the death of a member, member’s spouse, former member or former member’s spouse.
Do I receive interest on capital credits?
Interest is not paid on capital credits, because of the regulations according to the Articles of Incorporation.
Unclaimed Capital Credit Retirement
In an effort to get all of our capital credit checks to our members, each year we publish a list of unclaimed capital credit checks. We mailed the checks, and they were returned by the Post Office. In accordance with North Dakota Law, we have published this list for four consecutive months. When individuals or their lawful heirs are identified on this list, they may claim their checks by contacting SRT at 858-1200 or 1-800-737-9130.
