ēCO Credit Union Recognized for Its Community Commitment in Alabama and Focus on Financial Education for All

Feature by: CardRates.com

In a Nutshell: ēCO Credit Union started in 1939 as Jefferson County Teachers Credit Union. It has maintained its founding commitment to teachers and education despite growing its service area to include all of Birmingham, Alabama. This is evident in its many financial literacy programs offered to everyone from elementary school students to retirees. The ēCO Credit Union Foundation provides educational modules to 36 area schools, free online courses for all consumers, and scholarships that help adults return to school.

Credit unions around the country have offered financial literacy modules to their members to help improve their fiscal know-how for years. These modules are sometimes created in-house, but often come from third-party partnerships, and are proven to work.

Many of the institutions we speak to say they have high engagement with these lessons and that their members thank them for the lessons.

But those same kudos show why the modules can be limiting. They’re usually for members only and focus on the skills — saving, budgeting, and balancing, to name a few — that, in a perfect world, we’d all learn at an early age in elementary school.

But that’s how ēCO Credit Union is different. Started as Jefferson County Teachers Credit Union in 1939, the institution is now community chartered as ēCO Credit Union and still maintains its commitment to teachers and their students.

Continue Reading...