Join Our Local Revolution
for Savings & Loans
tel: 029 2087 2373 mail: info@cardiffcu.com
Before Applying
Please read carefully through the guidance below before applying for a loan. For more information, click here for answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
Eligibility to Apply
Anyone who lives in Cardiff or Vale of Glamorgan works anywhere in Wales is eligible to apply for a loan with us. If you don't meet that criteria but live with someone who is a member with us, or you work for any of our employer partners, then you are also eliglible to apply.
Completing a Loan Application
Existing members and new applicants can apply for a loan online.
If you prefer a paper application to be sent to you, please contact us or pick up an application from your local branch.
Please note that whether submitting your loan application online or by post/in person, we will require the following documents to process your application:
Please ensure that the correct postage is included for the weight of your envelope (e.g. large letter stamp on an A4 envelope).
Calculating Repayments
All loans are assessed on ability to repay. This can be used to calculate the approximate cost of repayments. Please note that the loans calculator will give repayment figures based on our standard loan rates, and doesn't take into account any loyalty or promotional rate you may be entitled to, so should only be used as a guide to demonstrate the maximum cost of repayment. If you are entitled to a rate that is lower than the standard rate, our loans team will ensure that you get the best rate that you are eligible for at the time your loan is approved.
Interest Rates
Credit union loan interest rates are capped by law to ensure that members receive affordable access to credit, subject to status and approval. Our loan rates vary according to the amount borrowed, between 3.9% APR for larger loans secured by savings, to 41.2% APR for the lowest value loans up to £1,000. Interest rates charges are fixed for the full repayment term, and we do not apply any additional fees or charges.
Saving While You Borrow
Part of our philosophy is to encourage regular savings amongst our members. We therefore request that all of our members pay a minimum of £10 per month into their attached savings account throughout the repayment term of the loan, which you can then access once the loan is repaid.
Returning Paper Applications
If you are returning an application by post, please send or hand in your completed application and documentation to: Cardiff & Vale Credit Union, 4 Working Street, Cardiff, CF10 1GN.
Please ensure you have put the correct postage on the envelope. Post sent without correct postage are withheld by Royal Mail and we cannot accept responsibility for any undelivered or lost post.
Credit Checks
We may use credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies to help us make loan decisions. What we do and how both we and credit reference and fraud prevention agencies will use your information is detailed in the section in the condensed guidance notes below. When completing a loan application, applicants will be asked to confirm their agreement to proceed and accept that we may use their information in this way.
All applicants are requested to declare any current credit agreements with other lenders e.g. personal or secured loans, credit/store cards including debt management programmes. A credit check would also reveal any County Court Judgments (CCJs), IVA arrangements or bankruptcy orders etc. that have been registered in an applicant's name. Failure to declare correct information may result in an application being refused.
A Condensed Guide to the Use of your Personal Information by Cardiff & Vale Credit Union and at Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies
1) When you apply to us to open an account, this organisation will check the following records about you and others (see 2 below)
a) Our own;
b) those at credit reference agencies (CRAs). When CRAs receive a search from us they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders. They supply to us both public (including the electoral register) and shared credit and fraud prevention information.
c) those at fraud prevention agencies (FPAs).
We will make checks such as; assessing this application for credit and verifying identities to prevent and detect crime and money laundering. We may also make periodic searches at CRAs and FPAs to manage your account with us.
2) If you are making a joint application or tell us that you have a spouse or financial associate, we will link your records together so you must be sure that you have their agreement to disclose information about them. CRAs also link your records together and these links will remain on your and their files until such time as you or your partner successfully files for a disassociation with the CRAs to break that link.
3) Information on applications will be sent to CRAs and will be recorded by them. Where you borrow from us, we will give details of your accounts and how you manage it/them to CRAs. If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, CRAs will record the outstanding debt. This information may be supplied to other organisations by CRAs and FPAs to perform similar checks and to trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe. Records remain on file for 6 years after they are closed, whether settled by you or defaulted.
4) If you give us false or inaccurate information and we suspect or identify fraud we will record this and may also pass this information to FPAs and other organisations involved in crime and fraud prevention.
5) If you have borrowed from us and do not make payments that you owe us, we will trace your whereabouts and recover debts.
6) We and other organisations may access and use from other countries the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies.
7) Your data may also be used for other purposes for which you give your specific permission or, in very limited circumstances, when required by law or where permitted under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.
How to Find Out More
This is a condensed version and if you would like to read the full details of how your data may be used please visit our website at www.cardiffcu.com or phone (029) 20872373 or ask one of our staff. You can contact the CRAs currently operating in the UK; the information they hold may not be the same so it is worth contacting them all. They may charge you a small statutory fee.
Cardiff & Vale Credit Union. Registered office: 4 Working Street, Cardiff, CF10 1GN Telephone 029 2087 2373
Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority 213467
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