At City of Plymouth Credit Union, we offer our adult members several different loans at highly competitive, low rates of interest. For instance, new members and existing members with a low amount of savings can take out a Starter Loan at just 3% per month or 42.58% Annual Percentage Rate (APR). Our Family Budgeting Loan is for those who receive Child Benefit and are willing to use it to repay a loan. Our Super Savers Loan is for members who have a good loan history and are making regular monthly payments into their account. They use their savings to partially guarantee a loan, attracting monthly interest rates of 2% (26.82% APR) for loans up to £2,000 and just 1% per month (12.68% APR) for loans over £2,000! Finally, our Fully Secured Loan is for members who have been with the Credit Union for at least 3 months. They can use up to 90% of their savings to guarantee a loan at the incredibly low interest rate of 0.42% per month (5.12% APR). And loans are covered by valuable Life Insurance so, subject to Terms and Conditions, if the worst happens, it won’t need to be repaid.
All our loans are assessed against the criteria you see in the description of each loan. In addition, we use the information you supply to ensure that, in our view, you can afford to make the regular repayments. This is in your interest, to ensure that you do not get into financial difficulty, and to protect our members whose savings we are using to provide loan advances.
We have done some comparisons below so you can see how much a typical £500 loan will cost compared to other lenders. See how much you can save!
Cost Estimate for Loan of £500 over 6 months
| Provider | Interest Rate (APR) | Repayments | Total Interest Paid | Total Cost of Loan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Plymouth Credit Union | 26.82% | £89.26 per month | £35.58 | £535.58 |
| Provident | 172.9% | £130 per month | £280 | £780 |
| Satsuma | 264.4% | £158 per month | £448 | £948 |
| Sunny | 288.0% | £165.53 per month | £493.23 | £993.23 |
So are you interested in taking out a loan? Let’s see which type of loan you could qualify for. Then follow the link to see the details.
| New Member or existing member with low amount of savings | Starter Loan |
| New Member or Existing Member receiving Child Benefit wanting to use it to repay a loan | Family Budgeting Loan |
| Existing Member who has a good loan history and has made payments into their account of at least £62 a month for over 3 months | Super Savers Loan |
| Been a member for over 3 months and requires a loan of up to 90% of savings | Fully Secured Loan |
To give you some idea of how much a City of Plymouth Credit Union loan costs, we’ve included a table below showing typical repayments for our Starter Loan over roughly a 10 month period. Obviously, other types of loan will have different repayments, but this should give you a good idea.
| Amount Borrowed | 39 Weekly Repayments | 20 Fortnightly Repayments | 10 Monthly Repayments | 10 4-weekly Repayments |
| £100.00 | £3.00 | £6.00 | £16.00 | £15.00 |
| £200.00 | £6.00 | £12.00 | £25.00 | £24.00 |
| £300.00 | £9.00 | £18.00 | £38.00 | £36.00 |
| £400.00 | £12.00 | £24.00 | £50.00 | £48.00 |
| £500.00 | £15.00 | £30.00 | £62.00 | £60.00 |
| £600.00 | £18.00 | £36.00 | £76.00 | £72.00 |
| £700.00 | £21.00 | £42.00 | £88.00 | £84.00 |
| £800.00 | £24.00 | £48.00 | £100.00 | £96.00 |
| £900.00 | £27.00 | £54.00 | £114.00 | £108.00 |
| £1,000.00 | £30.00 | £60.00 | £124.00 | £120.00 |
If you are having any difficulties with the loan application process, all our staff and volunteers are willing to give you as much help as you need. After you have completed your loan application, we will process it as soon as possible, but bear in mind that this could take up to 5 working days (10 working days during busy periods, especially the run-up to Christmas!) and could be longer for high-value loans.
Please Note: Adult Members can only have one loan active at any one time.
Loan Refusals
It’s disappointing for you and us when we have to turn down a loan. There are many reasons for this, but here are the chief ones.
- You are requesting a loan which, in our opinion, you would struggle to repay given your level of income.
- Your Loan Application form has not been completed correctly and we can’t make a proper assessment.
- Your financial commitments are too high at the moment.
- Your Credit History is not satisfactory enough. A low credit score could be due to several things such as:-
- You have no credit history (you have never taken out a loan with a bank, building society, finance house or other financial organisation)
- You have other loans which have not been repaid or not repaid on time
- You have County Count Judgements (CCJs) against you.
- You’re currently bankrupt, in an Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA), Debt Management Plan (DMP), Debt Relief Order (DRO), or Administrative Order.
- Your payment history on previous loans has been poor.
- You have not met the basic criteria for our type of loans.
Payment Options
You can make loan repayments in several different ways.
- You can pay by Standing Order
- Get your Benefits paid directly into your credit union account
- Ask your employer to set up a Payroll Deduction Scheme and get part of your salary paid into your account