When I first joined the credit union back in April 2025, I did what any sensible person does when something sounds too good to be true. I went looking for the catch.
Surely, I thought, there’s some guy in a nice suit somewhere quietly getting rich off this. There always is, right? That’s just how money works.
Except… it isn’t. Not here. And once I actually understood why, I couldn’t quite believe nobody had explained it to me sooner. So here it is, in plain English.
Banks vs credit unions, the short version
A bank takes your money and lends some of it out. It makes a profit two ways.
The safe way: it lends money to ordinary people, like mortgages and loans. It charges more interest than it pays you, and keeps the difference.
The other way: it makes huge loans to companies. Some of these are gambling firms, tobacco companies and fossil fuel producers. In 2024, the world’s biggest banks lent around £637 billion to fossil fuel companies alone.
UK banks lent some of the biggest amounts. That profit goes to shareholders. It’s paid out as dividends or something called ‘share buybacks’. Barclays alone has promised over £15 billion to shareholders between 2026 and 2028.
Here’s the bit that bugs me. You don’t get a say in any of it. You can’t vote on what your money is used for. And you don’t see any of that profit yourself, beyond whatever interest rate the bank gives you. Your money goes in. Someone else’s profit comes out.
A credit union flips that last part. There are no outside shareholders. You ARE the shareholder. So there’s nobody else to hand the profit to. It goes back into:
- A better dividend for members at the end of the year, because it’s your money making the profit, so it’s only fair
- Better tech and systems, so using the credit union doesn’t feel old-fashioned
- Better rates and products that suit real life
- The staff who keep it running, the real people answering your calls and sorting your account, not bots
- The next loop of borrowers, because it all goes round again
That’s it. That’s the whole system. There’s no secret step where someone skims off the top. It’s a non-profit. It’s one big loop that keeps itself going. The “profit” is just you and your community, getting more back.
“Okay but there MUST be a catch”
The bit that finally convinced me was the board. Credit unions are run by a board of directors. They oversee everything: credit control, marketing, strategy, all of it. In most credit unions, these directors are volunteers. They’re members, elected by other members. They give up their time, evenings and all, for no pay, because they actually believe in it.
Try finding an unpaid volunteer running the show at your average high street bank. There isn’t one. When even the people at the top aren’t getting paid extra, it’s hard to keep hunting for a catch.
If you want to know more, credit unions have an interesting history. It’s worth a search if you like knowing how things work under the bonnet, even if you’re not thinking about joining.
We’re not trying to compete with the likes of Monzo
Let’s be honest. Apps like Monzo have incredible tech. Slick design, fun challenges, little pots and streaks that make budgeting feel less miserable. We rate that. Making money fun so people actually want to deal with it has been a great thing for a whole generation.
We’re not going to pretend we’re about to out-app them any time soon. We’re a non-profit, take that as you will. But that’s not actually our job. Our job is making finance fairer and doing right by people. It’s not about winning a features war. We’ll still add in as many ‘perks’ as we can along the way, we’re just not chasing the same model.
The government bit, but make it interesting
Credit union are backed by numbers. In 2024, roughly 900,000 UK adults had no bank account at all. Around 13.1 million adults, nearly a quarter of the country, had low financial resilience. That means they were one bad bill away from real trouble.
That’s the gap the government’s national Financial Inclusion Strategy is trying to close. It was published in late 2025. Credit unions are named as a central part of the plan. There’s new funding and new rules to help credit unions grow and reach more people who’ve been locked out of affordable credit elsewhere.
It also helps that our new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has spent years championing credit unions and community finance, going back to his time running Greater Manchester. So the sector has more government attention right now than it’s had in a long time.
Basically: helping people build savings and get fair credit isn’t just good for them, it helps build a society that works better for everyone. That’s the actual point of all this.
So where do you start?
We’re not asking you to close your Monzo or your Barclays or whatever you’ve got. Keep your app, keep your streaks, keep your 1p savings challenge. Mine is stacking up nicely. Just add us on as your savings and loans option alongside it. That’s the whole ask.
It’s simpler than people expect. Here’s all it takes:
- Sign up online. It takes a few minutes.
- Start saving from as little as £2 a week.
- That’s it. You’re a member and a shareholder, with a say in how it’s run.
Simple as that. One money loop that keeps itself going, from one person to the next. Now you have a chance to be part of it too.