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(Nettavisen) – For me it was out of sight, out of mind. “The money was just sitting there, but since it wasn’t in my checking account, I couldn’t just use it,” Christine Meisterlin tells Nettavisen.
Over two million Norwegians are members of Coop and many Norwegians have large sums of money in their member accounts.
When Meisterlin received the annual report of her Coop membership for 2023, she experienced a big surprise. She had NOK 11,000 in her Coop membership account, but had only earned NOK 35 in one year. That corresponds to an interest rate of around 0.3 percent, just a fraction of what she could get on a high-yield account.
Get something back from your purchase
When you are a member of Coop and shop in their grocery stores, you save an amount of money that is deposited into your own member’s account.
At Coop you get a return of at least one percent on everything you buy.
The 2023 figures show that Coop paid out a record dividend of NOK 1.4 billion to its members.
Coop has over 2.1 million members. They themselves estimate the total membership benefit to be NOK 2.8 billion in 2023, half of which will be paid out as a pure purchase dividend to the individual’s membership account.
Members received the remaining NOK 1.4 billion in the form of discount vouchers and member offers, reports Coop.
– Profit sharing is the basic idea of the cooperation. The members are the cooperatives’ best and most loyal customers and the increasing member trade and good member offers mean that this year’s purchase dividend once again exceeds the payout of the previous year, says managing director Philipp Engedal of Coop Norge.
In addition, Coop members earned well over 9.6 million reuse rewards on shopping networks in 2023, an increase of 13 percent compared to the previous year.
React more
Meisterlin published a post on X and Facebook in which she expressed her frustration with the low interest rates at Coop. In the post, she writes that she will withdraw all the money in her member account and prefer to put it somewhere where she can earn more.
The post has caused a stir, with several people particularly reacting to how little interest it has generated from Coop.
– After publishing the post, I received a number of comments. There were some people who were surprised at how little you get at Coop. Then there was a little debate about whether it made sense to save the money, says Meisterlin Nettavisen.
She also has a membership with Trumf, from which she will now also withdraw money.
Over the past year, Meisterlin has become more aware of his own finances and the ability to save where he can. Therefore, she was not happy with how little she got from the 11,000 crowns she had with Coop.
To make the most of her savings, she decided to invest the money somewhere that would give her a higher interest rate on the money.
– Coop has a good interest account with good interest that you can transfer to if necessary. “I wanted it in stocks with better returns,” Meisterlin tells Nettavisen.
Competitive interest rate
Although Meisterlin decided to withdraw her money because of the low interest rates, Coop believes they have a competitive interest rate.
– In contrast to customer clubs, with Coop you receive interest on the balance in your member account, at a competitive interest rate. Many of our members therefore use the member account as a savings account. The interest rate can vary depending on which cooperative you belong to, but banks also have different interest rates depending on how much you save and whether you tie up the money for a longer period of time, communications director Harald Kristiansen tells Nettavisen.
Hopes for 2024
The number of Coop members has increased by 131,878 members, meaning Coop has gained 2.1 million members in the cooperatives.
Of these, 35 percent are under 30 and 58 percent are under 40.
– It is motivating that the cooperatives gained so many new members last year and we see that Coop’s unique ownership model appeals to many, especially younger customers. Coop in Norway will have well over 2.2 million members in the cooperatives by 2024.
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