Credit unions

asdfg

Is there anyone who has experience with credit unions? Is it easy to borrow from them? How can one become eligible to borrow from a credit union?

Where may I find detailed information about those in Manchester? Thanks in advance.

BungleGirl

Hi,

Credit Unions are great! Usually you have to have saved regularly for either 13 weeks or three months to qualify to apply for a loan. When you apply for a loan you can usually borrow a multiple of what you have saved (refered to as your shares). You have to leave your shares (savings) in the Credit Union whilst you repay your loan (and sign to say that they can keep them if you default on your loan) and you are encouraged to add a little (could just be 50p) to your shares whilst you are repaying your loan. Often there is a maximum you can borrow on your first loan - this varies greatly between Credit Unions but ingeneral the bigger the credit union the more you will be able to borrow.

This is a link to a search for credit unions in Greater Manchester on the ABCUL website (Association of British Credit Unions).

http://www.abcul.org/page/members.cfm

If you decide to join one check on what ID you will need before you go down there - it should be something like one proof of name and one proof of address but it does vary.

If you are deciding which one to go for if there is more than one in your area yo could ask if they are paying a dividend at the moment - the more established ones are more likely to be paying a dividend.

Many credit unions also offer help with sorting out your finances - working out a budget etc.

They are mainly run by trained volunteers and sometimes one or two paid staff to coordinate things - be nice to them! They give up a lot of time to make a difference in their communities.

I hope this helps - sorry for any spelling mistakes but it's early and I haven't got my glasses on yet!

BungleGirl

I couldn't get the link to bring up the search results so just change 'location' to England and 'chapter' to Greater Manchester and you should get the list.

asdfg

Thanks so much.