East London Credit Union

General information

So what is a Credit Union?
It’s a non-profit, ethical savings and loans cooperative, available to all local people. We provide stable financial services to all: secure savings, affordable loans, free life assurance and a wide range of volunteer placements for motivated people with regular time to give.

“You guys have saved my life. If it wasn’t for you I would be in a mortuary by now.
I’ve got my confidence back, my blood pressure is down and people have commented on the improvement in my appearance and attitude.” These are the words of one of our longest-standing members. She goes on: “Before I came to the credit union, I didn’t dare open my mail, I couldn’t save a penny, I didn’t even know how much money I was getting. Now I can budget and save, my debts are non-existent. I even managed to go on holiday and pay for my grand-daughter’s christening.”

This is not an isolated story. Every day at the Credit Union, we are helping people to get their finances back on track and get their lives back together.

How does it work?
Essentially, members’ savings enable us to, make low-cost loans to people who want and can afford to repay them.We charge a reasonable rate of interest (never more than 2% per month) and the money raised by this goes towards our running costs. Any surplus is paid out to members as a dividend. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority so the money is guaranteed and 100% safe!

Who runs it?
The Management Committee (or Board) is made up of volunteers, drawn from the membership and is elected by the AGM each year. We have a small team of paid staff and a large team of unpaid volunteers to run the organisation. Any additional running costs are met by fundraising. There are no fat-cat salaries being paid here!

So it’s a kind of bank?
We are not a bank but we do provide lots of similar services. People can have their salaries, wages or benefits paid in to us and we can make sure that their rent, loans or creditors get paid. We also have a debit card available and are working towards getting online transactions set up for members.

How does the Credit Union help people in debt
There are currently over 3,000 active members in our Credit Union and many of them joined because they needed help. When we first started, we needed members to save for three months before we could consider a loan for them. While lots of our members are savers only, the proportion of these has reduced in recent years.

Most of our 80 new members each month come in with loan paperwork, debts, bailiff letters or bills they just can’t find a way to pay. Others will come in to talk about problems they need help with – an overseas funeral, a broken washing machine or freezer they can’t replace. Many others will need help getting a rent deposit, buying
work tools or equipment so they can start a new job or fund the cost of training courses.

We work with our members to establish what they currently have as income, what they actually need to live on and who else they owe money to, in order to ensure they have a reasonably clear idea of their budget and what they want to achieve. We also credit-check everyone who applies for a loan although a bad credit history does not necessarily rule out help from the Credit Union.

We are increasingly concerned about people getting involved with loan sharks or legal but very high-interest loan companies and do our best to help them move out of this kind of debt and back into control of their lives.