Barbadians showing interest in loans for Christmas

Harriett Franklin, Branch Operation Officer at the Barbados Public Workers’ Co-operative Credit Union Limited (BPWCCUL) at the Black Rock Branch revealed, “Christmas is one of our business periods and we already see those loans picking up.”

However, she told The Barbados Advocate, “along with Christmas loans, we do provide options to our members coming to us even if they don’t leave with a loan they will leave with good advice to help them plan financially. However, we have seen the market has changed and persons are accessing financing for other reasons than the traditional areas such as Crop Over, but once we have consultations and we review your finances we take it from there. The market has changed, but our membership is growing they are still a lot of persons coming to the credit union not only because we offer some of the best rates in the market but because we have that one and one personal contact with our members.”

Franklin indicated that there is not a fall off of young persons, and according to her, “There are a lot of young persons that are still investing in the credit union, what we do is that we have a thrift club programme that we take our membership into schools. We have a partnership with Springer Memorial School, The St Michael’s School and many of the primary schools. What we offer the students outside of savings is that we have sessions with the students for example in the Springer Memorial School we have a branch there that they mimic what happens in the Credit Union to give them that experience. We work with the teachers at the schools to ensure that we keep the value of the credit union from a young age because it is wealth of things we offer such as grants and scholarships.”

Franklin added, “ In terms of next year our committee is still working on plans but we recently launched our Mobile Bus which is the first ever type of this kind of bus in Barbados and this is one of the big things we will be pushing next year taking our services to the community. The Credit Union movement and The Barbados Public Workers Credit Union provide our members with great opportunities to be part of a company that is a 100 percent Barbadian and for those out there who have not experienced the credit union as yet, I would implore you to come over and speak to one of us and we can guide you in your financial planning.” (NB)

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