Personal Loan

Personal loans up to £15,000 are offered to members who: have sufficient income to afford the loan (see table below for minimum monthly income), including disposable income which is at least 2.5x the monthly repayment amount; meet our minimum age requirement, which is 18 for loans up to £3,499 and 21 for loans of £3,500 or more; and meet our credit record requirements.

• Interest rates are between 0.75% per month (9.4% APR) and 2% per month (26.8% APR) depending on the size of loan agreed.  The loan term may be up to five years.
• If you receive benefit income you must have your benefit paid into your Credit Union account. For earned income, loan repayments must be made by electronic credit of salary or standing order. 
• You may be asked to deposit an agreed amount of savings into a Credit Union secured savings (S2) account while the loan is outstanding.
• Your loan can be credited to an Engage Premium Account or Engage Pre-Paid Card Classic Card, and then cashed using an ATM, or can be transferred by BACS to your bank account. Loans are not normally issued in cash.
• You can make additional repayments to reduce the loan more quickly if desired, but must make your minimum payments on time. There is no charge from the credit union for early repayment of the loan.

Members who wish to consolidate existing expensive debts, in order to make them more affordable, should apply for our Consolidation Loan.

Personal Loan representative examples:

* Net Income is the amount of pay you receive each month, after tax and any other deductions. Salary / wages is counted as income. Certain state benefits may also be counted, at the discretion of the Credit Union. However, Housing Benefit / Local Housing Allowance is not counted as income for loan purposes.

Apply on-line or download and complete a Loan Application Form 

Subject to the conditions below, if you have an existing Personal Loan and are up to date with your payments, you may top-up your loan to the amount that we originally approved, by making a Fast Track application here, or by downloading and completing this form which is also available in our branches. Top-ups are subject to:

• it being no more than 24 months since your original loan was granted;
• it being at least three months since your last top-up;
• your loan repayments having been made in full and on time;
• no reduction in your income, or increase in your debts, since your original application; and
• confirmation that you have not entered into a bankruptcy order, IVA, debt collection or Debt Management Plan, and are not intending to do so in the next 12 months.

When you apply for a loan in person, you will need to provide proof of your income, ID, and current address. If necessary, we may also ask for bank statements, evidence of debts or other information to inform our loan decision. When we issue your loan agreement we can provide a paper copy for you to sign physically or we can send it to you by email for you to sign electronically using our e-Sign service. Before your loan is issued we will ask you to provide evidence that you have made arrangements for regular electronic loan repayments.

The form of our Personal Loan agreement, including its terms and conditions, can be accessed here.