Credit Union Statements

chocsessential

I have an account with a credit union but getting an up to date balance from them always takes several emails and phone calls. Do credit unions have to provide regular statements to their savers? I only get a statement when I ask for it repeatedly, otherwise I never know how much I have got in there.

I have just been told I will receive a new statement in the post, so from then I will just have to keep adding up my standing order payments when I see they have been debited from my main bank account. I am thinking about moving my savings to a different credit union but I will check with them first to see how efficient they are.

zppp

Credit unions are not regulated in the same way as banks. I would suggest you contact ABCUL as they will be able to answer your question.

premierfella

Not a definitive answer, but my experience suggests that credit unions are not necessarily required to provide annual statements automatically - presumably like passbook building society accounts the expectation is that members of many of them can track their current balance via the book. Sending out statements costs money and smaller credit unions often need to manage their costs very carefully.

There may be a link between annual statements and size though. I have experience of three credit unions (one small, one medium, one large). The small one (now failed and merged) never provided a statement unless I specifically requested one, but 99% of members lived walking distance of the credit union office. The medium and large ones send me annual statements and have basic online account services, but that might simply be because they cover larger geographic areas with significant numbers of customers not particularly local to the offices.

weebegbie

I'm pretty sure your credit union is required to send out an annual statement. This is usually around the end of the year though as their financial year runs from October - September, so after their year end. Many small local credit unions are run by volunteers and can be rather short staffed and take a while to do things.

Doubtful_Guest

Do Credit Unions pass information on to credit reference agencies ?
I was thinking that maybe taking a small loan with them and paying it back regularly might help repair a person's credit history a bit. Certainly cheaper than some of the pre-paid credit cards anyway.
Is this correct ?

chocsessential

I have had my credit union account for several years and I also have a monthly subscription to my credit report which I check regularly. I have never seen any mention of my credit union account on the credit report if that is what you mean.

Milarky

I don't get a regular 'statement' from my CU either except at the time they send out the AGM stuff to every single member. This 'statement' only shows a limited number of transactions - in other words it is just a copy of a 'mini-statement' which I can ask for at any time.

The term 'Credit Union' as applied within the UK should not be confused with how CUs operate in many other countries like the US or Canada - where they can provide full banking and saving services. Our version of that should really be considered the remaining Building Society movement. UK credit unions are just 'savings clubs' in practice.

And the legal concrete has set - meaning that they can't now be upgraded to provide more adequate [read dynamic] services. Perhaps that's why it was found necessary to raise their lending rate cap 2% (a month!) a few year back - when banking was still booming and lending rates had never been so low...