Every day, members of the armed forces make huge sacrifices to serve the UK. Military families face particular challenges, spending long periods abroad, facing frequent relocation, and their incomes fluctuating between regular pay and lump sums while deployed. These circumstances make financial planning difficult, and make it hard to secure financial services via ordinary high street banks.
Their situation makes
service personnel a target for payday lenders such as forcesloans.co.uk,
who charge extortionate levels of interest that can easily spiral.
It’s a growing problem, with over 11,000 people calling
the Royal British Legion’s Money Advice Service each year.
A CO-OPERATIVE SOLUTION:
We’re calling for the Ministry of
Defence to support the creation of a military credit union because our
service families deserve better than payday lenders.
The credit union would
provide financial products such as savings, loans and mortgages, which
would be designed to meet the specific needs of members of the armed
forces. Membership of the credit union would be open to all serving and former members of the UK armed forces and their families.
As a credit union, it
would be owned by its members, with profits used to improve services and
to offer competitive rates of interest.
WHAT IS A CREDIT UNION ?:
Credit unions provide many of the
same services that you would find at your local bank, including savings
accounts, loans and mortgages.
However, unlike banks
which are privately owned businesses, credit unions are owned and run by
their customers. This makes them well-suited to offer financial
products that are tailored to the specific needs of the communities that
own them.
Because they aren’t run for a profit, credit unions are also able to charge lower rates of interest than payday lenders
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN:
Visit the campaign site here, to sign up as a supporter and to find out case studies and more information about how you can support this campaign.
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