Dot ComUnity Credit Union - ISA

DotComUnity

Steve_xx wrote: »

I reckon that this is a pretty small outfit and so it's likely that they wont have dozens of techies working 24/7 to fix servaer faults. Wait until tomorrow morning and see if it comes back online. They may not staff the thing at weekends and are probably unaware that it's down.

Thanks for the points raised.

The issue was with our 3rd party provider.

We are looking at ways to minimize the risk to our members for the future working with our partners to ensure our backup options are in place accordingly.

Kind Regards

Rob

DotComUnity

Porcupine wrote: »

Just doing my 'due diligence'. I noticed they have received a notice from the FSA (as it was then). 'DotComUnity Credit Union' is a trading name of 'Enterprise The Business Credit Union', which is the registered name referred to in FSA/FCA material:



which is a little concerning that they ran out of capital.

What I'm trying to find is the published accounts: that would give some indication of their financial state. But I can't seem to find them - there's only articles of association at Companies House (they're not a limited company), and nothing showing on the FCA website. Unfortunately searching for '<bank name> accounts' is not very fruitful when looking for auditors reports not savings bonds.

Yikes, I just found the FSA notice (my bold):



Unless I've misunderstanding things, the credit union was insolvent by £20,000 in September 2011, and the FSA applied a lockdown which lasted 3 months. It's unclear if savers were able to withdraw during this period.

It's important not to jump to conclusions here: the credit union market is small and relatively undeveloped, hence struggling is not unexpected. But it is a little worrying if, despite the FSCS, the FCA is able to lock down deposits like this. I think I'd be happier if a) there was an explanation on what the FSA's Variation notice means in practice and b) the published accounts were available.

Good Evening,

You have absolutely no concerns here.

Enterprise The Business Credit Union (EBCU) was set up to provide members of the Federation of Small Businesses with their own Credit Union, based up in Morecambe.

Through its duration, there was significant mis-management and issues arising, leading to the issues in 2011.

During this time, DotComUnity, in its original entity was looking to setup a Credit Union to support the Disability Sector, based in Poole, Dorset.

DotComUnity was signposted in the direction of EBCU, and was put in a position to restrucutre the Board of Directors, and relocate the operations to Bournemouth, Dorset.

Throughout the past 12 - 18 months, DotCOmUnity has been setting out the Marketing, Branding, Banking Platform, IT Infrastrcuture, and ultimately developing the sustainable business model that we are moving well into today.

The past 6 months have seen membership, shares and loans exceeding 400% increases, rapidly making us one of the fastest growing Credit Unions in the UK, whilst building a safe and secure centralized infrastructure that you would want to trust your money with.

Hope this helps clear up.

Kind Regards

Rob

DotComUnity

Zanderman wrote: »

Agree entirely website is a mess! It is, now, working again as far as I can tell (parts were down over the weekend) but I've got little confidence in it.

Basics, like the £12 membership for ISAs only, are difficult to confirm (and absent entirely from the membership application form).

I'm interested in investing, but wary of any outfit that can't get their info straight or their website and website forms working properly.

And as others above have said, I wouldn't regard emailed info as confirmation of T&C and process - I'd want to see all the info on site, in writing, upfront.

Thank you for the comments regarding the website.

We are in the process of updating and making it clearer, however appreciate its not been fast enough.

We should have it clearer by the end of the week (the ISA section at least)

Stick with us, were working as hard as we can on it.

Kind Regards

Rob

DotComUnity

innovate wrote: »

Plenty of places about with pretty 24x7 websites and miles of T&Cs. They typically pay you about a percent less as they need the money to pay people for websites. I can't see the point about moaning about the DCU website and setup - it's a credit union, not a bank or building society, and long may it stay as it is. If it is not for you, you have plenty of alternatives to choose from.

Thanks for the kind comments.

We only have a small team based at the offices.

The focus is on helping our increasing membership navigate themselves through all the procedures as smoothly and as swiftly as possible.

Over the next few weeks (i hope its sooner) we will be in a stronger position on the website, making it completely clear that processes, the products and how they are accessed.

Any recommendations are greatly received.

Were not a bank, as you rightly say, we are a credit union, that's doing things few Credit Unions within the UK have the opportunity to do.

Keep an eye on us, we will do our best to impress.

Kind Regards

Rob

DotComUnity

Zanderman wrote: »

Doesn't matter that it's not a bank - that's not an excuse for not making T&C and how to join/open an account clear. The latter is, after all, where they get their money from and they're missing a trick (and therefore investment) if they can't make these things clear to potential investors.

And yes, I do know I have plenty of alternatives to choose from, but thanks for reminding me!

Thanks for the comments,

As stated above we are continuously updating, we don't have masses of staffing dedicated to T&Cs and Websites, we are working to achieve something few Credit Unions in the UK are doing.

Kind Regards

Rob

DotComUnity

innovate wrote: »

Not pretty what you found there, but not anywhere near half as disastrous as Northern Rock, RBS, HBOS or the Coop.

Their ISA might not be for someone who wants instant access but none of their offerings is instant access in the first instance. Should they go bellies up, the FSCS protection will cover everybody up to £85K, and the money will almost certainly be available to depositors within a week or two (judging from the FSCS track record).

Bottom line assessment for me is that they are no less safe than any of the mainstream cash ISA providers.

Agreed, not pretty, but be aware this was back in 2011, before DotComUnity restructured the Board of Directors, the processes, the infrastructure and relocated to Bournemouth from Morecambe.

Kind Regards

Rob

Porcupine

DotComUnity wrote: »

Agreed, not pretty, but be aware this was back in 2011, before DotComUnity restructured the Board of Directors, the processes, the infrastructure and relocated to Bournemouth from Morecambe.

May I ask a question? The FSA notice required EBCU to stop taking new business or returning deposits, without further consultation with the FSA. The notice was made in September 2011 and the all-clear was given in January 2012. What happened to depositors money in this period? Was there any time when depositors could not withdraw their money, and how long was this time? Was an agreement with the FSA reached before January 2012?

I'm not targeting you specifically, but just trying to understand what happens when a credit union goes through 'special measures', ie not complete failure but external controls are imposed. As has been stated upthread, Northern Rock etc also had similar troublesome periods, which is what I'm comparing with - but I know less about the credit union world.

DotComUnity

Porcupine wrote: »

May I ask a question? The FSA notice required EBCU to stop taking new business or returning deposits, without further consultation with the FSA. The notice was made in September 2011 and the all-clear was given in January 2012. What happened to depositors money in this period? Was there any time when depositors could not withdraw their money, and how long was this time? Was an agreement with the FSA reached before January 2012?

I'm not targeting you specifically, but just trying to understand what happens when a credit union goes through 'special measures', ie not complete failure but external controls are imposed. As has been stated upthread, Northern Rock etc also had similar troublesome periods, which is what I'm comparing with - but I know less about the credit union world.

Sorry i don't have the full answers that you ask (the process of what DotComUnity did was slightly before i started as well so i wasn't directly involved).

I'm not 100% sure on what happened with the interventions that the FSA took between Sept 2011 and Jan 2012. I'm happy to put the question to one of the Directors and pop a response back on later in the week.

Kind Regards

Rob

hgt

Hi Rob,

I'm already one of your satisfied members :-) But I must say how refreshing it is to receive such a personal approach on a forum like this. I can see you've gone to a lot of effort tonight to answer everyone's questions. Thank you - I'm sure your efforts will be appreciated.

In my opinion it is the personal service from yourself and others at DCU which makes you stand out from mainstream banks. This is also my first experience with a credit union, but so far I'm very impressed and am glad I chose to invest in the DCU ISA.

gwapenut

Yes, the website misses vital information for the application process - but it's not a bad website overall, and the feedback on here implies that it is not standing still either, and deficiencies will be corrected.

Also, I have had to email a couple of times because of lack of website information - and the response has always arrived within a couple of hours of the start of the working day, and not only that but the emails have been fully read and fully responded to.

Contrast this to many providers with glitzy websites who cannot deviate from the script or read/understand/respond to emails that ask something a little outside the norm.

So yes - website lacks info, but the rest of the customer service experience so far has more than made up for this.

I also have no doubt that if a "cockup" did occur (and I don't think it will), then someone would look into it promptly and deliver a good level of personal service to sort things out, taking more ownership of any problem than many larger banks would do.