Walsave Credit Union in Bloxwich, a different way to think about lending.

Express & Star

What is Walsave Credit Union and how are the different? we meet the boss to find out more about the award winning Walsave.

Transcript

00:00Mark Andrews for the Express and Star. I'm at Walsave Credit Union in High Street, Blockswitch.

00:08I am joined by the Chief Executive of Walsave and Loat. Would you like to just briefly tell

00:14us about the sort of services you offer?

00:17Yes, we offer financial services to anybody who lives or works in the Walsall area and

00:23the surrounding areas. We offer basic banking accounts and low-cost lending and we also

00:29offer budgeting accounts. So basically we build some financial stability to the local community.

00:36And you say sort of low-cost loans, what is the interest of the likes like? How do they

00:40compare with...

00:41If they take out a small loan, at the moment we're running a back-to-school loan promotion

00:45because we realise that people are struggling to meet the cost of uniforms. So if they take

00:50a small loan of £300, they'll pay back maybe about £20 over the 52 weeks, that's all. It's

00:56a very low rate.

00:57And in terms of saving, why would people want to save with you rather than perhaps with

01:02one of the more established lenders?

01:05Because we're a community bank and what happens is their savings allow us to have a pool of money

01:10that we can loan to members at a lower rate to what they get on the high street. So it's

01:15a community buying, basically. They buy into the credit union because once they're a member,

01:21they actually own part of the credit union. They save alongside lending, they get a good

01:27dividend. We've paid 3% over the last 12 months. They get free life cover on the savings

01:32as well at no extra cost to them. So if anything should happen to them, they'll have a beneficiary

01:37on the account and their savings plus the insurance.

01:40So ladies, we find you in the communal kitchen having a brew. How are you?

01:43It's a good, thank you.

01:44So what's it like working here under the reins of Anne?

01:49Great.

01:50I'll have a rate.

01:52It's a nice kind of atmosphere then, nice team.

01:56It is, it's a lovely team that we work with.

01:58Yeah, and what did it mean when the gang came back from the awards event to get that little

02:04pat on the back, that bit of acknowledgement?

02:06Amazing, amazing, but well deserved I think.

02:10Yeah, yeah definitely.

02:11I do, I think well deserved.

02:13And do you ladies get to know your customers? Do they become like semi, I wouldn't go quite

02:17as far as friends, but you know what I mean, you get to know.

02:19No, they do.

02:20No, they do.

02:21We find out their parents, then we get to meet the kids.

02:24And when the kids are small, we see them grow up.

02:26They count as a junior.

02:27And then as they go into adults, we know all about the families and families.

02:31We know everything about where they work, what they do.

02:34We become agony aunts, don't we?

02:36Yeah.

02:37Yeah, you know, we hear all the stories.

02:39Yeah.

02:40Whether you're honour or not, you're hearing them.

02:42Yeah.

02:43But at Blocks, which is, you know, in the black country, it's that warmth in it where we

02:46just, proper black country people, we come in and we have a natter as well, don't we?

02:50It's that warmth.

02:51Yeah, yeah.

02:52Your requirements for things such as borrowing, how do they compare with what they might get

02:57elsewhere?

02:58Are you more stringing to your answer?

03:01You know, we know that sometimes financial issues can happen to anybody.

03:05Either you can lose a job or there's an illness.

03:08We always look on ability to repay.

03:10So we treat everybody the same.

03:12When they come in, we look at their finances, we look at what they can maintain payments,

03:16if they can afford it, if it's in with the household budget, then we lend.

03:20If people have had difficulties in the past with finance, if they've been made bankrupt

03:27or they've got a debt relief order, we'll work around that with them so that we can get

03:31an affordable payment for them.

03:33So we don't discriminate against anybody.

03:35Are you a profit-making organisation?

03:37We're non-profit-making.

03:38Everything that we make at the end of our financial year goes back to the member as a dividend.

03:44Okay.

03:45Thank you very much.

03:47That's Ann Lowe, Chief Executive of Walsheim.

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