Author: indigo

26% of working age adults in the UK have no savings and 29% have less than £1000. Credit Unions turn borrowers into savers. Over 70% continue saving regularly after repaying a loan. Employers have been working with credit unions for over 30 years to offer payroll savings and loans to their employees.

I have just finished reading one of last year’s Christmas presents, a bestselling book, at least in church circles, by a former journalist in pursuit of fatherhood with both a lower and upper case F. I did enjoy the book, probably for all the wrong reasons but I was a little surprised that he considered…

Back in 2011 I was interviewed for a local paper for a piece on affordable credit. It was around the time when community credit unions were becoming more widely known about and it seemed a good way to promote the services we offered.

I was stocking up on stationery a couple of weeks ago when I was side-tracked by a display of familiar little red books. No, not the Little Red Book (or, to give its full title, Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong) which has somewhat surprisingly managed to get a name check in the Chancellor’s autumn statement…

Christians have been involved with credit unions since they first reached these shores. North Birmingham had strong links with Catholic, Baptist, Methodist and Anglican churches through hosting collection points and providing volunteers. But in many ways it fell into the category of mission or outreach, part of what we could call the Church’s ‘bias to…

The Social Security Act 1986 introduced the Social Fund; whereas before, under the old ‘single payments’ system individuals in need had been able to apply for grants for furniture and a vast array of other items, these were now replaced by Budgeting Loans.

It came as something of a surprise to me when I realised late last year that I had managed to clock up twenty-five years as a member of a credit union. Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun?

December 1986 – Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise made the Voyage Home; Den and Angie were enjoying a short lived second honeymoon at the Queen Vic; Mel and Kim were getting set for the weekend while The Bangles walked liked an Egyptian, but the people of Britain had only one thing…

“To think when I was first ordained I thought one of the perks was no longer having to commute” one member told us last week. He went on to outline a particularly busy day which involved, amongst other things, an assembly, two meetings, two funeral visits, two services, one wedding rehearsal and nearly 100 miles…

The internet thinks I’m interested in a loan. I have to say that it is not entirely the internet’s fault; I do spend an inordinate amount of time on my computer searching for loans and loan related sites, it is something of an occupational hazard. So advertisements for loans from a variety of companies constantly…