As a member-owned, not-for-profit organization, your Bandera Electric annually allocates margins back to each member who had electric service during designated years, based on their total electric bill. The Co-op then pays capital credits, above what is required to operate the Co-op, back to each member based on their share of patronage capital. Since the inception of BEC, your directors have approved and returned over $33.3 million in general and special retirements to members as of December 31, 2023.
Patronage capital is retained in order to maintain a sufficient level of equity that will enable your Co-op to continue effective and efficient operations, until the board of directors determines the financial condition will allow for a refund. Their goal is to authorize maximum refunds consistent with maintaining the financial soundness of your electric cooperative.
How Capital Credits Work
- Member Usage: BEC tracks how much electricity you use and pay for throughout the year.
- Net Income: At the end of the year, BEC assesses the finances to see if there are excess revenues.
- Allocation: BEC allocates the excess revenues as capital credits to members based on how much electricity they’ve used.
- Retirement: If financial conditions allow, the board of directors will pay out the capital credits to members in the form of a bill credit or check.
- Notification: BEC will notify you how and when you’ll receive your capital credits.
Unclaimed Capital Credits
Find out if you have unclaimed capital credits.
Unclaimed Capital Credits List (PDF)You or someone you know on the list? Fill out the Unclaimed Capital Credits form to let us know.
Donate Your Capital Credit Check
You can also choose to donate your capital credit check to help disadvantaged members in the community.
Frequently Asked Questions
Capital credits are necessary in order to fulfill the third Cooperative Principle, Members' Economic Participation, in which each member contributes to the capital of the cooperative and allocates surpluses democratically.
As a cooperative, BEC is operated partially on cash received from members’ monthly payments and on the retention of capital credits. Operating on a portion of our net margins (distributed as capital credits), allows BEC to continue operations without the need to increase revenue, either by increasing our debt or increasing our rates. Both options would be more expensive for our member-owners than the present system. Effective management and balancing of these funds have made Bandera Electric a successful cooperative.
You don’t have to do anything with BEC to begin accumulating capital credits; your membership with us automatically activates your capital credits account.
Inactive members have the option to request early retirement of your outstanding capital credits, at a discount. If you would like to request early retirement, please contact our offices at 866-226-3372. Otherwise, your capital credits remain in your name and account number until they are retired. It is important that you ensure that BEC has your current mailing address on file, even after you leave, so we can mail you your check when your capital credits are retired.
Capital credits are simply a record of your ownership in the co-op. Since they are reinvested in the cooperative to support operations, the balance cannot be given to you until the board of directors’ call for their retirement, or you become an inactive member. As an inactive member, you can request early retirement of any outstanding capital credits, at a discount.
When capital credits are retired and remain unclaimed for 3 years, they are escheated to the state of Texas. The state can then decide to allocate some of these funds back to BEC. When this occurs, these funds are used to pay for energy-efficiency programs, invested in economic development programs, and used to fund scholarships. All of these benefit our members and the communities that we serve.