Clearwater Phone Customers May Get Money Back

Were you a 2006 customer of Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company? The company may be looking to give you some money.

About 100 refund checks didn't make it to their intended customers and were recently returned to NNTC with no forwarding address. If you were a customer in 2006 and did not receive a check, please call Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company at 1-888-397-4321. 

At the end of 2017, nearly 6,000 NNTC customers received checks averaging between $500-$1,000. Clearwater is one of the communities served by the phone company. Joni Merical with NNTC issues the checks by direction of the board of directors. She said customers are often surprised about the money showing up in their mailboxes.

“They’ll call and say, ‘Is this for real?’ and I say you were a member of NNTC during a financially profitable year,” Merical says.

The capital credits sent out at the end of 2017 reflect the amount of money those customers paid for their telecommunications services in 2006. The payout is behind eleven years due to non-payout in early years when the company was re-investing in itself. NNTC was founded in 1955. Merical and other employees do their best to find all the 2006 customers, but about 100 checks were returned to the company with no forwarding address. 

Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company is one of the few telecommunications providers in Northeast Nebraska to provide capital credits or money back to its customers. NNTC provides phone, internet and digital television to 30 communities in Northeast Nebraska. Capital credits are unique to the Northeast Nebraska company because of its standing as a cooperative or co-op. Telecommunication co-ops have the ability to pay their customers back as the company’s financial situation allows. Since money was made by NNTC, that money stays in Northeast Nebraska, giving the area an economic boost.

According to Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company’s Board President David Armstrong, the company pays out when they can.

“We pay our owners [customers] their capital credits as quickly as possible while maintaining the ultimate goal of reinvesting in the finest fiber lines in Northeast Nebraska,” President Armstrong said.