Flexible borrowing, repaid with Child Benefit.

The Family Loan is a revolving loan of up to £1,000. To access the Family Loan, you must be receiving Child Benefit and agree to set up a recurring card payment to pay us the same day that your Child Benefit is due.

The maximum period you can borrow over is 18 months.  After 6 payments (for those paid Child Benefit every 4 weeks) or once you’ve paid off 50% of your loan (whichever comes first), you can apply for a ‘top up’ and we will set up a payment plan which is affordable allowing you to pay down your loan, build up savings and get back some of your Child Benefit to spend each month if you need it.

As a member of The Money Co-op, you’ll also build up savings as you repay your loan. The minimum amount is £10/month, which will be taken from your repayments.

Both new and existing members who receive Child Benefit can apply.

As a step in the application process, you will set up a recurring card payment to pay us the day your Child Benefit is due.  This is beneficial because you can get your loan funds immediately.

Unfortunately, we can’t guarantee that we’ll give you a Family Loan.  We will run a credit check when you apply.  However, because you pay using your Child Benefit to make payments, we can approve a lot more loans than we would with our standard loan products.  That means we can help everyone except those with the worst credit history

The Family Loan is about helping you to strengthen your finances by borrowing affordably, building savings and improving your credit profile.  Because of this, we will run credit checks every time you apply to top up your loan and agree more borrowing as long as your credit profile is as good or better as the last check we ran. But credit checks where you already have a loan will be soft searches.

Your successful repayments will be reported to the credit rating agencies so that the Family Loan account will help you to borrow elsewhere in future.

You can have your loan funds as soon as we approve your loan, since you set up to pay by recurring card payment on the same day as your Child Benefit is paid to you.

You can only have one Family Loan but once you have made 6 payments (for those receiving Child Benefit every 4 weeks) on your last loan or you have paid off 50% of your original loan (whichever is soonest), you can apply to “top up” your loan up to the maximum of £1,000 depending on your circumstances.

You can “top up” your Family Loan once you’ve made 6 repayments on the last loan you had (for those receiving Child Benefit every 4 weeks) or once you’ve paid off 50% of your original loan.

To “top up” your Family Loan we will ask you to apply again.

You can track the balance of your Family Loan in your online member account and in the app.

You will always be better off borrowing with one of our standard loan products than with a Family Loan because the rates of interest are lower.  The credit union will always offer you the cheapest loan we can based on your circumstances.  But having a standard loan does not stop you from applying for a Family Loan and vice versa if that is the best solution for you.

Often people will start off with a Family Loan, build a history with the credit union and move on to a standard loan product as they gather savings and demonstrate their ability to repay the Family Loan successfully.

All Family Loan borrowers will need to put at least £10 into savings every 4 weekly payment (or £2.50 per week for weekly payers).  This money is locked in until your loan balance falls below your savings balance.

If you have savings available to withdraw, you can arrange this yourself in your online member account. Withdrawals will be in your nominated bank account around 5 pm the day you request it on a normal working day.

Your savings with the credit union are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), so your money is just as safe as it is in a bank or a building society.

The best way to request a withdrawal is in your online member account.  If you make a withdrawal request before 3pm on a working day, it will be in your account by 5pm on the day you request it. If you miss the 3pm cut-off, the funds will arrive in your account by 5pm the next working day.

Members can clear the balance of a loan at any time and we do not charge any early settlement fees for this.

All loan applications are subject to our Loan Approval Policy. Members who have been declined for a loan with us in the last 3 months are not eligible to apply. We will check your credit history and assess the affordability of loan repayments by reviewing your bank account(s). We may also request additional supporting information depending upon your circumstances, such as payslips, ID documents or immigration paperwork. For consolidation loans, information about the debts you want to clear will be required. All lending decisions are ultimately at the discretion of our team. We always do our best to say “yes” but unfortunately that is not always possible. We will be happy to provide information about how we made any decision upon request.