 If you live or work in Wales, you are welcome to become a member of your local credit union. Your local credit union is a trustworthy financial institution offering accessible, low-cost financial services to all of its members. Your local credit union helps its members to take control of their money by encouraging them to save what they can and borrow only what they can afford to repay. Let's hear what members across Wales think of their local credit union. One of the main advantages is that it's local. If you want the affordable credit from a sort of reputable lender or just to my safety to keep your money, I think it's just an extra option for people. It's a safe, reliable way and if you want to take out loans and borrow, I recommend the bed in my van. Each credit union is independent, community-driven and works in its own way. We are going to visit five credit unions in Wales as a quick glimpse of the credit union's role in Welsh communities. Each credit union will present a different service, scheme or community initiative to give you a taster of the services that your local credit union could offer you. To give you an example of how credit unions work with the local community, we are going to visit Laser Credit Union in Swansea, who are proud to present their junior bankers scheme in conjunction with Communities First, Cridefelling Primary School and the Lil Group. Welcome to Laser Credit Union here in Swansea. Laser means Loans and Savings Abertawy. So I'd like you to welcome to our premises, but I'd like to tell you now about our junior bankers. The word banker at the moment in time is not a very, very friendly word, as you can see on the television, but if you ask our seven nine-year-olds in year six here at Greigwellin Primary School, who last September decided that they wanted to be Laser Credit Union's junior bankers. This project came about from a simple comment from one of the children. And as you can see by everything that's gone on this morning, it's not just the children's idea. The whole community have got behind the project. So we've got the ladies from the Lil Group giving up their time every week to be volunteers. Then 6.80. They take on different roles. We have some of the children that are responsible for counting the money and taking care of their receipts. A lot of the children actually take the money off the savers, and I think that's a really important part of the scheme and why it's been so successful. It's that contact between the older children and the younger children and the conversations they have. It's like going to their own bank. I'm a member of the Laser Credit Union and the main advantages are you can save in the local community and you get into a routine of saving. My 10-year-old son, Blaine, was diagnosed with autism last year and he's been going through some bad patches with school, but he's just recently become a member of the Laser Credit Union and the bank and he looks forward to coming to school every Wednesday because numbers are his thing and he enjoys working with money. It makes him feel good. We're going down the line of business, entrepreneurialism, et cetera. It's easy to save and take your money out. It's much more difficult to know what to do with your money and that is what's happening here as a result of what Alison and Julia are doing here with your children. If you start a young age it's easier when you're older and then hopefully when you're older we become real bankers. 20 years after the inception of the credit union we are in a fantastic town centre, high street premises which is second to none. Now we are heading to Cardiff and Vale Credit Union to find out how its payroll deduction facilities at local employers have helped members to save each month. What we're good at at this credit union is our payroll saving scheme. All our members can save or borrow. We have links with almost 20 large local employers where employees can save hori pay loans through their payroll. Our members can save any amount through their payroll just as little as £10. We have some members who are paying over £100 each month. We have a lot of long-standing members, some of which have been saving with us for over 10 years. I work for Cardiff County Council. I'm a member of the Cardiff and Vale Credit Union. I've saved £10, I've saved £50. It all depends on my circumstances and what I want to save for. I've saved for holidays, I've saved for a bike, I've saved for what goods which I've purchased through the credit union and the co-op. The credit union pays dividends every year and this year it's actually more than my current account so it is worthwhile saving in the credit union more than my bank at the moment. We went to Newith Housing Association where we were available over the lunch hour in the corner of the office to welcome new members to join our credit union and then this is the payroll deduction order form so you just pop in how much you want to save each week or each month. You can increase it, decrease it as you want. I'm going to be putting away £30 a month just as a sort of buffer but you know it is something there that when it comes to Christmas I can fall back on a little bit. I've got my mortgage with Ashley Banks, normal bank accounts but I've dealt with the credit union in the past through my job so I know that the work they do is good and I'd like to support that really. If you wanted affordable credit from a sort of reputable lender or just to my safety to keep your money I think it's just an extra option for people. First you'll just take £30 a month out now. I'm going to be saving £50 a month. It'll be set up now by the next pay packet so it'll be very quick and efficient. I'm able to get something out of it by saving and putting money back into the community to other people who might be struggling financially to be able to get loans competitively and safely as well. We're available online, over the phone, coming to our office in Cardiff Bay or we're also available throughout the community in Cardiff and available in Morgan where members can sign up. Smart Money Credit Union's partnership with United Welsh Housing Association has helped to develop a community-driven service that benefits both members and tenants. We've had a partnership going with Smart Money Credit Union for approximately five years now. It's been incredibly important for us to have this partnership and it's been of mutual benefit to both parties. A lot of the customers that Credit Unions are looking to help and to serve are our customers as well and there are huge benefits by helping these people become more financially aware helping people to save and manage their money holding down their tenancies for long periods of time by putting the Credit Union at the front it's really helping people to make the right choices and decisions. I became a tenant with United Welsh approximately three years ago and as a tenant with United Welsh I was invited to a fund day and that's when I found Smart Money, my local credit union company with people being able to pay the rent and everything and accessing accounts and so on and it really does, it's good that they work together it's a good promotion for both of them really. I saved last year for my son's wedding I was absolutely fantastic so really really pleased that I was able to access that straight away and then generally it would just be for things like maybe sorting my garden out or if I was stuck maybe with repairs to my car something like that and I know I'd be able to contact them and I wouldn't have too many problems. From our membership we have around 11% of United Welsh tenants as members and they've benefitted simply because there's the offer of the low cost loans which means they don't have to go to the high interest lenders or illegal money lenders they've got the opportunity to save in a safe and secured place they've got a friendly welcome when they come in it's a community business they are part owners of the business therefore they are helping themselves and as well as helping the communities. A lot of people these days are struggling financially and I think if they've got somebody friendly and affordable that they can go to then it really does help everybody's situation and as far as the relationship with United Welsh is concerned if you are a tenant with United Welsh then they've got somebody on hand that they can recommend, that they can liaise with and so on that they really will help certain situations. Financial inclusion is a massive issue in Wales it affects everyone in so many communities you have the housing association sector, the credit union movement all looking to make an impact here and working together just makes so much sense. The partnership has been a tremendous help to Smart Money Credit Union it has helped us increase our membership and raise awareness and I would just hope that that would continue for the foreseeable future. If you're interested in opening up an account or to apply for a loan please call into our office or contact the office by phone or for further information visit our website for opening hours www.smartmoneycreditunion.co.uk Next up is Gateway Credit Union where we will find out about the benefits of borrowing from a credit union and how its website allows its members to calculate loans and track repayments online. Welcome to Gateway Credit Union I'm speaking to you from our head office in High Street in Pondipawl we've been around since 1997 offering savings and loans products for the people of Torfaen and Monmouthshire We can lend anything from £50,000 to £7,500 with the credit union there's only two states of loan you either get the loan or you don't get the loan if you get the loan you will pay that interest rate there is no representative that's what you pay and there is no arrangement fee there's no penalty for early resettlements if I find a way the greatest demand is Christmas loans then it's holidays If I want to borrow money to go on holidays or buy furniture or anything like that I have a loan and they pay it back The loan was for a washing machine now that's paid off I'm going to see one and take the family on holidays My guest-off went so I just had a loan for the guest-off If you say oh I'm quite fancy a loan I'll go to those nice people at the credit union so you log on to a website and it's clear it says loans go on to the loans, yes I like one of those think oh that sounds interesting what was that actually going to cost me there is a link to a loan calculator that brings up another little window people are going to enter in the amount they want to borrow the frequency they want to borrow and the time over which they want to borrow it we've had the ability for members to log into their accounts online for about four or five years now they can log in and check their balances where they've got the same accounts and we'll give them the last ten transactions we have a loan assessment panel which is made up of paid staff and volunteers the steps to granting a loan are you filling the application as accurately as you can we then have a quick look through it to ensure that all the details are there and we've got everything we want to make a decision that information gets pulled together and then the assessment is done Members would pay the loan by cash and sometimes check increasingly people pay by payroll with payroll deduction schemes that we've arranged with local employers it's a safe, reliable way and if you want to take out loans and borrow I recommend the bed and my van to me it's very nice too very helpful it's a lot cheaper than the bank and for people who have difficulty getting loans and for saving this place is much easier I'd recommend a credit union every time so there you have it that's Gateway Credit Union this is what we do we'd like to think that if you're on benefits or on a low income or even if you're on a high income paying a high rate of tax there's something here that would attract you and I think we've got product and services that would be attractive and give you an alternative to other high street offerings all the information you need is on our website this is our current account which allows members to set up standing orders shop online and withdraw abroad using a Visa debit card hi welcome to North Wales Credit Union this is the office in Clabden in No Junction we used to have five separate credit unions in North Wales but we decided to merge so we've got the office here in the junction which is brand new and we're going to be talking about current accounts thank you and a nice shop as well with our current account you've got your benefits and your pension paid in you can then set up standing orders and direct debits and withdraw money from cash machines with a debit card like this one you can purchase items in shops purchase items on the internet and purchase items over the phone with the current accounts you can set up standing orders and direct debits to pay things like your rent, your mortgage and your general utility bills you can also use the card to buy your weekly shopping and our members have found it very useful to buy other things as well because a lot of my family are in the credit union so the people that advise me to use it I use it a lot for my child's money and savings and then the loans as well it's really good the interest rates and things on it I've used it for things like buying on QVC and shopping channels things like that when I was in business I used it as a business account but now I'm retired so I just have my benefits and pensions paid into it our members are able to use the current accounts abroad they have to give us prior notice to tell us what country they're going to if a card is used abroad without setting up the fraud procedures the card will be blocked so people have to tell us first of all I went to Spain, I used the card for paying for a meal for instance and then drawing money while we were there and anything else in the supermarkets or anything like that it's really useful to open a current account you need to be a member there's a simple form here to fill in and we need photographic ID and proof of address we then send all the information off to the cooperative bank and hopefully you'll receive the information within two weeks if you'd like to pay cash into your account you can do that at any of our offices and you can also pay in at the post office if you have any queries you won't be going through to a call centre you can phone us in the office or you can come in and have a chat we've had positive feedback from our members who have appreciated the personal service that we provide it's more friendly it is more friendly I hardly go into my bank and I'm here nearly twice a week this is more like a unity thing it's not like a business it's not trying to make money out of you they're more trying to help you to find out more about our current accounts or to find out about our charges you can visit our website phone us up or visit one of our offices credit unions in Wales are continually developing to provide financial services to benefit their members and the local community for your local credit union please visit findyourcreditunion.co.uk or phone 0808-129-4050