community&environment

Are you experiencing financial difficulties due to gambling?

Recent figures released indicate that in 2005-06 Australians gambled away $148 million or average of $9491 each*. And with the cost of petrol and food continuing to rise, more and more people are finding themselves in financial hardship.

At Savings & Loans, we have noticed an increase in cash withdrawals from our member’s accounts at venues such as pubs, clubs and the casino. We believe that as people find themselves in unfamiliar financial situation they are hoping a “quick win” will change their situation. Everybody’s situation is different. Some people can’t afford to pay their latest phone or electricity bill, while others are unable to make their mortgage repayments, which inturn could see their houses repossessed.

Have you, a friend or a family member ever placed a bet on a horse or played the pokies in the hope of winning to pay a bill?

A person’s gambling can have serious emotional, social and financial effects which can lead to depression, relationship breakdowns, social isolation and bankruptcy. However, many people may fail to see what they are doing is also effecting those around them – friends, partners and children.

Savings & Loans’ is committed to helping “build sustainable communities” and as a financial institution we would like to use our position to help people get through these tough times. Whether this is through reducing daily withdrawal limits, changing the accounts to branch only withdrawals we would like to help.

If you are currently experience problems with gambling or have in the past we would love to know your thoughts on ways in which we could have/can help you.

* Aussies spending more on gambling than food, Peter Jean, Herald Sun, June 11 2008

CUFA’s Credit Union Leaders Study Tour, May 2008

Are you aware of the positive impact Credit Unions are having in developing nations? If your answer is no, you may find it interesting to learn what it means to some families to be able to borrow as little as $10.00 or safely save to improve their lifestyle and move out of extreme poverty.

Credit Union Foundation Australia (CUFA) is the development agency for the Australian credit union movement, and has both a domestic and international focus and its mission is ‘to empower communities through access to affordable financial services’.

CUFA's domestic work focuses on ‘community advocacy and education’ while overseas work focuses on access to financial services for disadvantaged communities of the South East Asia and Pacific regions.

In particular:

• Cambodia       
• Solomon Islands    
• Sri Lanka         
• Tonga         
• Tuvalu

In May of this year, Tony Innes, Savings & Loans Deputy CEO, joined fourteen other leaders from the Australian credit union movement to participate in CUFA’s Credit Union Leaders Study Tour. The purpose of the tour was to increase awareness of CUFA’s international work by showcasing two of their major projects in Cambodia, namely:

• The Children’s Saving Program
• The Building Program

This Study Tour made it possible for Cambodian credit union leaders to learn from the travelling Australian credit union leaders group.

The group visited financial literacy classes run by local CUFA Field Officers. The lessons teach the importance of saving money for future dreams. This program reaches over 6,000 Cambodian children annually. To find out more, take a look at page five of CUFA’s recent newsletter.

The group also visited a number of rural savings institutions aimed at women, children and farmers. These are located in new premises built and funded by CUFA. The group heard the importance of the new buildings in installing confidence amongst locals.

As Tony Innes admitted, “The study tour gave me a deeper appreciation of what CUFA do and it was great to see first hand the difference that our donations make to the lives of the Cambodian children’.

                        

The Australian credit union leaders made presentations (through the help of an interpreter) on a variety of topics to Cambodian credit union Managers. One of the presentations, given by Tony Innes (also an Al Gore Climate Change Presenter), covered Gore’s famous climate change ‘Inconvenient Truth’ slide show. This presentation was actually a first for the Cambodian community and clearly important in helping to educate about the issues and impacts of climate change.  

                              

CUFA's International work compliments domestic work in many ways. Importantly, for Savings&Loans, we see this as most crucial through actively cooperating with other credit unions, cooperatives and their associations at local, national and international levels. By sticking to this we seek to best serve the interests of our members and communities.

If you have a story of how positive cooperative work has made great differences, we would love to hear about them. 

Would you borrow money for a night out at 1000% Interest?

Have you been tempted by ads on TV and radio to borrow a couple of hundred dollars for something you want now, and can repay in a couple of weeks??  Well if you have, ask yourself this question, would you borrow that money if you knew it was going to cost you in excess of 1000% interest?
The answer is probably a big NO, however, this new form of credit is having a tragic effect on our community and it is called pay day lending.
Pay day lenders provide short-term small loans, quickly and easily, they are generally due to be repaid on the borrowers next pay day - hence the name "pay day loans", and while they might be easy to get they have one significant downside, the charges on these loans can equate to interest rates of up to 1000%, sometimes even as high as 2500%.
A borrower may take out a typical loan for only $200 with the intention of repaying it next pay day for a fee of approx $50.  Often though the whole $250 cannot be repaid from one pay and the loan is then renegotiated and another $50 fee is charged! Research indicates that most pay day loans go through this process between 8 - 12 times.
Generally pay day lenders charge fees, not interest. However, these fees are really just interest in disguise. When all fees and charges are taken into account, the annualised interest rates on pay day loans can vary from 250% to 2,500%. 
Some payday lenders don’t assess the credit worthiness of clients and appear to lend to people who are on Centrelink benefits and simply do not have the capacity to repay the loan quickly.
At Savings & Loans we are seeing an increasing number of our members, nearly always those who can least afford it, caught up in the pay day lending debt cycle, where a small loan becomes a financial nightmare having awful effects on household finances and families.
Have you or someone you know gotten into trouble through one of these loans?  I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Lisa

Welcome to community&environment

Hi and welcome to the new community&environment, Savings & Loans' new blog!

Do you think there is more to be done with linking business and community? Are you worried about the health of our environment? Do you feel strongly about certain ethical issues? Would you like to see more done in the way of sustainable development? Is there an issue in your community we should know about?

Great! We want to hear from you!

community&environment is open to all members and the wider community and will be moderated and comments responded to by the Corporate Social Responsibility Team members, Lisa and Fran.

How we go about our social and environmental responsibility is indeed a contentious subject. It is through debate, that progress is made and society moves forward. Discussion is a wonderful and important medium.

Something we’re passionate about at Savings & Loans is financial literacy and arming people with the tools they need to make the right financial decisions.

Around this time of year a lot of people will notice Christmas expenses being due and with a new school year upon us many of us are facing the additional costs of school fees, uniforms and books etc.

Saving for Christmas throughout the year is a far more effective way of filling the cupboards with festive fair than purchasing overpriced Christmas hampers which are so often filled with items that we would not normally purchase and don’t always get used.

Although it seems like the last thing you can afford to do, a few dollars a week deposited to a Christmas savings account direct from wages or benefits can ensure a fun Christmas without the debt hangover in the new year – exactly what many people will be experiencing now.  These accounts were so popular in the past but are rarely used these days.

One of our community partners, The Salvation Army, experience an increased demand for their services each year at this time, so why do so many of us fall into the same trap each year? Why have we as a society moved away from a savings culture which was so strong in previous generations? And why don’t we seem to plan anymore, and rely heavily on credit cards to get us through?

Is it because as a community we don’t have the same financial skills as our parents had? Is it because banking has become too complicated? Or is there simply not enough money to go around?

Is there any way that Savings & Loans can help its members to plan and understand money better?  It would be interesting to get your feedback on this issue, or any other community-minded issue.

Lisa