Dot ComUnity Credit Union - ISA

MARTYM8`

Mr_Doubtfire wrote: »

The 2014 Financial Statement is quite confusing as it looks like it has been compiled quite recently with a few comments describing the activities of the CU during the 2014-2015 financial year. I.e. When exactly did the deposits reach £4.25M? In May 2014 or December 2014?

What are the figures for deposits and loans now I wonder? The Financial Statements for the period up to 31st March 2015 should certainly make for interesting reading when they are eventually published!

Clearly there will have been people who opened accounts in April 2014 but transferred extra funds in during the year – as you could do this until the shutters came down in early January. So there may well have been extra funds added in large volumes post 30 September.

I note another email to a select few has been issued – I was getting these emails until February but haven’t had any since. Their membership systems/records clearly aren’t working properly – or someone is reusing an email list which doesn’t contain a lot of members.

Its really very poor – if they have 2500 members as claimed then they should be issuing these updates to all 2,500 members. Or alternatively put a Q&A or update on the website. Also is there any reason why the DotCon brand is being dumped – with them reverting to their legal EBCU title?

I just find them infuriating – three weeks to 5 May and counting……

Porcupine

Reading the reports gives a picture of how tight a ship they run:

Wages:
2011: £1268
2012: £1914
2013: £7144
2014: £14768

Given employer's NI etc, that's probably about half a FTE at a basic salary for the year 2014. We don't know if any staff are charged to DotComUnity itself (not the credit union bit), or volunteers, but it would explain why they aren't good at communications - there's almost nobody there.

Steve_xx

Porcupine wrote: »

Reading the reports gives a picture of how tight a ship they run:

Wages:
2011: £1268
2012: £1914
2013: £7144
2014: £14768

Given employer's NI etc, that's probably about half a FTE at a basic salary for the year 2014. We don't know if any staff are charged to DotComUnity itself (not the credit union bit), or volunteers, but it would explain why they aren't good at communications - there's almost nobody there.

I agree. I googled their address when I was looking to open an ISA with them and I discovered that they were operating out of what looked like a small office suite that is shared with other companies. From that I concluded that they might be very small people-wise and that they may not be able to handle the inflow of cash that their attractive ISA offering might induce, escpecially given its airing on this website.

bsms1147

Archi_Bald wrote: »

I had a 28 day maturity letter in this morning's post. Anyone else?

Interesting, what's the gist of it?

Archi_Bald

Highlights (/ lowlights...), with some opinions from me:

1. They don't really spell out all the options that any cash ISA has to have by law (i.e. full or partial transfer out, cash withdrawal) but these are implied. Not a beep about the status of the 'involuntary' restrictions
   
   
2. They are offering a "new NISA 2015" (urrgh why are they using the term NISA). I think they mean an ISA for 2015-16
   
   
3. that ISA will be a cash ISA but the funds will be defined as Membership Shares. Allegedly still fully FSCS protected - but in keeping with the DCU opaqueness, there is no mention of a full set of T&Cs - presumably because no such terms exist. If I was interested in keeping my funds with DCU, I would insist on seeing the full T&Cs before I commit, and I'd probably ask the PRA and/or HMRC to help me get those T&Cs. But I digress - there is no way I am interested in leaving my money with DCU.
   
   
4. those with multi-year ISAs should seek clarification what this means: "The PRA who act as our Regulator have decided that Credit Unions of our size should hold ISA accounts in a different way"
   
   
5. no interest rate specified for that new ISA but there will be a yet to be determined dividend
   
   
6. that 2015 NISA can be transferred out - - so I assume my existing ISA can also be transferred out
   
   
7. membership waiver for one year if you take out the 2015 NISA. No mention of the Basic Share Account that presumably must also be held (comes back to the absence of T&Cs).
   
   
8. they will "credit the dividend" of my existing ISA on 5th May 2015. It'd better be 3% interest as this is what I'd signed up for. EDIT: They do actually call it 'interest' in the 3rd para. It's morphed into a dividend by the time we get to page 2 of the letter. They also imply that I can only get the interest/dividend if I take out the "new NISA 2015". I am sure they didn't relly mean that as this would be a breach of contract.
   
   
9. if "any of the funds" (which I assume can be all of the existing ISA + plus interest) is to be transferred elsewhere, we must advise them. This is contrary to HMRC ISA rules but never mind, I will formally advise them that I have requested an ISA transfer to be carried out on maturity

bsms1147

Thanks for posting Archi. Leaves a lot of questions unanswered and adds a lot of new uncertainties, but in some ways better than them not sending out any letter I guess.

gwapenut

This also means, as I think we all wondered, that the "long time lurker" who posted on this thread as a newbie a few weeks ago with the idea of a dividend is quite likely to be a DotCU representative instead. Either that, or incredibly psychic.

Is this a breach of forum rules?

Except some of the more recent posts from Mr Doubtfire would lead me away from that conclusion. May be genuine, may be a double bluff, or may be guiding us towards explanatory information ....

bsms1147

Mr_Doubtfire wrote: »

Hi everyone,

This is my first ever forum post so please begentle. I’ve lurked for a few months now but have never really thought I’ve had much to contribute.

Supposing, just supposing DCUCU proposed changing the terms of their Cash ISAs (now NISAs) so that instead of paying a guaranteed interest, the ISAs would instead pay a dividend which would depend on the performance of the Credit Union as a whole… what would be your reaction to that?

Obviously I am talking hypothetically here. Completely hypothetically…

For posterity

darren72

Yes - Looking at that post it definitely sounds as though Mr Doubtfire has definitely got some connection with the credit union.

gwapenut

Can MSE check IP addresses of posters?

I don't like being manipulated.

I've now fired off a letter of complaint to the PRA about the PRA itself, with its actions and decisions forcing maturers of "cash" ISAs with guaranteed interest rates into the uncertainty of non-guaranteed dividends.

If I'd wanted uncertainty, I'd have gone for a S&S ISA instead with the carrot of significantly better potential growth than 3%.