Credit Saver: flexible credit account

34.8% APR when the credit facility is used

You can apply for a credit limit of £500, £1,000, £1,500 or £2,000, which once approved, you are permitted to draw down at your discretion.

You will agree to a fixed repayment amount based on the assumption of repaying the full credit limit within a reasonable time frame, as follows:
1 year: £500
 18 months £1,000
22 months: £1,500
 2 years: £2,000

This fixed repayment will be made continuously, whether or not you have an outstanding credit balance, and where you have no outstanding credit limit your payments will result in an accumulation of savings

You may overpay without any penalty at any time and may choose to repay at a higher rate than the minimum fixed repayments provided these higher payments are affordable to you.

Credit Saver gives you a pre-approved credit limit. The credit facility is linked to a flexible savings account which can be drawn upon at any time and into which payments will accumulate when no credit balance is outstanding.  You have the choice whether or not to use savings before drawing on the credit facility.  You also have flexibility to use the savings while you have a credit balance.

As a credit union member, you’ll also continue to save a minimum amount of £10/month into your regular savings.

The product has been created for members who would like a flexible borrowing and saving facility for occasional borrowing requirements.

It offers the convenience of knowing credit is available to dip into if needed without the need re-apply each time, and the consistency of a fixed payment amount each month, which is added to savings when the credit facility is not being used.

However, Credit Saver is not suitable for members who wish to access the full credit limit indefinitely.  If you are not intending to make regular savings at the level of the minimum repayment amount, then you should consider if a standard personal loan product may be more suitable for your needs.

Your savings with Credit Saver are eligible for an annual dividend, just like your regular savings.

You may overpay without any penalty at any time and may choose to repay at a higher rate than these minimum fixed repayments provided these higher payments are affordable to you.

A standard condition of borrowing from the credit union is that your Regular Savings are tied in while your loan balance exceeds your Regular Savings balance.  These savings act as security should you fail to repay your loan. But any savings you build in your Credit Saver savings are available to withdraw as and when

Savings that are tied to your loan will become available to withdraw when your loan balance falls below your Regular Savings balance.  Only the difference between your loan balance and savings balance will be available to withdraw at any one time.

We can consider requests to withdraw Regular Savings which are tied to a loan in circumstances of financial difficulty.

If you are having difficulty keeping up with your payments, the best thing to do is to contact us to explain your circumstances and we will do everything we can to support you.  This might involve, for example, reducing or stopping your payments for a period of time, or freezing interest.   When we receive requests for support in these circumstances we may ask for some evidence to demonstrate the difficulties you are facing.

Where you can’t keep up with the agreed repayments we will report this to credit reference agencies.  This may have an impact on your ability to obtain credit from elsewhere.

If you stop making your payments to us but don’t talk to us about why then we will chase you to establish contact and a plan to repay the debt.  If we are unable to get back in touch with you and establish a repayment plan, we may need to take legal action to recover our funds which we would rather not do. Talking to our team about a sustainable repayment plan is always the best option.

Credit Saver accounts will be reviewed at least once per year to assess whether the product continues to work well for you. If you pay in and draw down at or around your full credit limit consistently then we would work with you to repay the balance sustainably, including possibly converting your loan to a standard personal loan without a credit limit.

For additional information about your rights and protections in relation to this loan and your wider credit union membership, please see the Membership Terms & Conditions: Insert Link to membership terms and conditions]