If you’ve lost all faith in high street banks and building societies and don’t feel it’s worth saving or believe it’s foolish to use credit cards, don’t despair – there is an alternative, safe place for your money. And there could be a credit union just around the corner.
Credit unions, big business in many parts of the Caribbean and Ireland and huge in the States and Australia, are a small but growing phenomena in the UK. Aimed primarily at the financially excluded, in this benighted economic era these financial co-operatives are making sense for the rest of us too.
There are approximately 400 credit unions with 534,000 members in the UK. They which can be tiny or large and have fully functioning branches where customers make banking transactions or hold regular mobile cash points to manage customers’ transactions. But they all have one thing in common – and that’s what’s known as the "common bond". This "bond" can be restricted to where the members live and work or the company or organisation that employs them.
Whatever the "common bond", the credit union looks after your money, lending it back to you or others in the form of low-cost loans and, once a profit has been made, giving this profit back to you in the form of a dividend on your savings.
Members who are on benefits use the credit union to access their money, saving small or larger amounts along the way. Those who have been turned down for a credit card go to a credit union for a loan when something goes wrong or additional expense has been incurred, instead of turning to a loan shark or doorstep lender with their astronomical interest rates and dodgy practices.
If you are interested in joining a credit union, please go to the website of the credit union governing body in this country the Association of British Credit Unions Ltd (ABCUL) at www.abcul.org – to find your nearest credit union and keep the local community’s money where it belongs – in the local community.