Credit unions have reported a rise in the number of people using them to save safely for Christmas.

The Association of British Credit Unions (Abcul) said that it saw a 15% rise in credit union savings in the two years to 2008.

As consumers seek to reduce their personal debt during the recession, there has been an increase in the number of credit unions offering Christmas savings accounts designed to help people manage their money ahead of the most expensive time of year.

According to research from Abcul, 71% of credit unions said they offered a Christmas savings account, with a further 18% planning to offer the account in the future.

Mark Lyonette, chief executive of Abcul, said: “Credit unions, as community-owned and controlled organisations, offer local people a well-trusted financial solution.

“By making regular deposits into a Christmas savings account, members can relax knowing they haven’t had to run up huge credit card bills or taken out an expensive personal loan to pay for Christmas.

“And members can spend the cash they’ve saved anywhere they want as they’re not tied to using vouchers”.

Abcul is the largest trade association for credit unions in England, Scotland and Wales. At the end of September 2008 the body’s 331 credit unions managed over £400 million of members’ savings on behalf of more than 520,000 people, and had more than £350m out on loan.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Banking, Budgeting, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.