Every time I hear this I try a different credit union around me. Sometimes they have arcane rules like "oh you don't actually have dollars in this account. You have 500 shares. At this time you may sell shares back to the credit union at a rate of $1/share". Or recently a credit union in my area emailed me my password after I signed up, and then they kept sending me it in the mail as a reminder that I hadn't activated my account yet. There's a credit union at my local health foods store run by a professor who self-hosts their website out of there and customer service is just his office hours, so I think that'll be fun to try next.
Yes, in a bank you have shares in whatever is left over after profit is taken. They try very hard to make it so your shares are worth the same amount as when you bought them, plus a known rate.
