Our impact
Working together to make a difference
Read our Impact report
Investing as a driver of change
Through investment commitments totalling £40m we’re also making an immediate difference to households excluded from mainstream finance options. Our investments are designed to increase the availability of affordable credit provision, prove sustainable business models for serving people in financially vulnerable circumstances and leverage further funding to create scale.
We offer an impact adjusted return to our investees – reflecting the purpose of our social investments.
Salad Money
We have invested £7m in Salad since May 2021 to support their growth, during which time they’ve grown their net loan book from £3m to £25m.
Fair for You
We have invested £5.5m into Fair for You since 2019 to help grow their lending, transform their technology infrastructure and develop new products. While they implemented their operational changes, Fair for You increased their loan book by £3m and reached profitability. During this period they also designed, tested and launched two new products.
Great Western Credit Union
We made a £1.6m investment in GWCU in 2022 to support the growth of their business and further improvement of their technology infrastructure. Their loan book has grown by £1.6m in 2023 as they’ve served around 10,000 customers with loans.
Moneyline
We have provided £8.54m of social investment and other financial support to Moneyline to improve the customer journey both in person and online, develop the backend technology infrastructure which supports lending and decision making, and to invest in further analysis and embedding of customer personas into current systems and processes.
Customer case studies
As we don’t serve consumers directly, our impact is through the work of the organisations we invest in. The stories of the customers they help are powerful examples of the difference that well designed financial products and services can make to people’s lives:
Madeline, single parent, West Yorkshire, England – No Interest Loan Scheme
Madeline* is a 41 year old single mother of three children. One of her children is disabled, and as her full time carer, she is unable to work. She needed a car to take her daughter to medical appointments and more generally to allow her to get out and about.
She applied for a loan with Leeds Credit Union to purchase a car. Unfortunately, because of some recent missed payments on her utilities accounts, she was initially declined due to her low credit score.
Leeds Credit Union invited Madeline to apply for a No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS) loan with them. This meant that Madeline was able to receive a £1500 interest free loan, with weekly repayments of £29 over 12 months.
With this amount, she was able to buy the car and set aside a small amount for her daughter’s upcoming birthday. She told Leeds Credit Union that having access to this loan has been ‘a massive help’.
Madeline has already started paying off her loan. By building up a good repayment history with Leeds Credit Union, it will be easier for Madeline to access credit in the future.
*Name changed to respect the anonymity of contributors
Olivia, single parent, Northwest England – No Interest Loan Scheme
Olivia* is a 23 year old single parent with two young children. She is a member of South Manchester Credit Union and in 2022 had taken out a loan to meet the cost of purchasing a gravestone for her late grandmother.
Shortly after this loan was approved, Olivia was in the difficult but common situation of waiting for her new job as a healthcare assistant to start, while needing to pay the first week of nursery fees for her children. She got in touch with the credit union and they were able to approve a £350 NILS loan, which ran alongside her current loan. Ordinarily, Olivia would have been declined from an interest bearing loan because of affordability, given her existing repayments on her other loan.
Thanks to the No Interest Loan Scheme, it was possible for South Manchester Credit Union to offer Olivia the additional funds she needed to meet the cost of childcare.
This £350 NILS loan provided peace of mind for Olivia as she was able to start her new job without the worry of how she would afford childcare. It was agreed with the credit union that she would make weekly repayments of £11 towards her NILS loan, over a period of 7 months. The repayments were automatically deducted from Olivia’s child benefit income, so she didn’t have the added stress of managing these.
Olivia successfully paid off her loan with no issues, and has since built a bigger relationship with South Manchester Credit Union. Once her NILS loan was fully repaid, she was able to move on to their Saver Loan product, which allows members to build their savings whilst also paying off a loan.
Olivia has managed to increase her earnings as a healthcare assistant and she has been able to save over £450 with the credit union in the time since her NILS loan. This is an important safety net that Olivia can now lean on in the future.
*Name changed to respect the anonymity of contributors
Hayley, looking for help with the cost of living
Hayley works full time in the social sector and had been struggling to keep up with payments and debts as all her expenses rose exponentially due to the cost of living crisis.
When applying for a small loan on Moneyline’s website to help tide her over, Hayley completed a benefits check (integrated with Inbest) and saw a link pointing her to additional sources of support available on Lightning Reach, an online financial support portal.
After signing up and completing her profile, Hayley was matched to a personalised range of support to meet her circumstances, including options she hadn’t heard of previously. The process of applying for this was made even easier, as many of the questions were already completed and pre-filled from the benefits check.
The extra support Hayley managed to access meant she was better able to cope with her rising bills and feel more in control of her finances.
‘I felt relieved that there were so many potential options there and I was surprised to discover there is actually so much support out there, and that the results were really streamlined and accurate – it was a relief that there was light at the end of the tunnel.’
Jason, public sector worker, supporting his family
Jason’s salary of £38,000 supports him, his 12 year old son and his partner, who is unable to work due to health issues: ‘The cost of everything is going up, except for wages.’
In February 2022, Jason had the chance to organise some renovations for their home to enhance his partner’s and the family’s wellbeing. And they knew they would save money if they could pay for the work in the spring rather than the summer.
Knowing his credit score wasn’t good, Jason approached Salad Money when he discovered they make lending decisions using Open Banking rather than traditional credit scores. As well as providing Jason with a loan to pay for the renovations, Salad helped identify benefits that the family could claim but were not aware of.
Speaking to BBC’s Money Box programme to describe the difference this made, Jason said:
‘For me, it’s taken the pressure off and will mean we can start doing things we’ve not been able to do in day to day living.’
Mary, single Mum, previously reliant on high cost credit
Mary (not her real name) had previously borrowed from high cost lenders, leading to rent arrears and the threat of eviction. If she hadn’t found Fair for You she would have struggled to keep feeding her children properly:
‘I’ve got two sons that live with me and I wouldn’t have been able to give them as much food. We would have had to ration our food and they wouldn’t have been able to have anything special. We were even getting evicted from our house at one time because I just couldn’t afford the loan repayments and the rent’
Mary has been able to get out of debt with the money she has saved by using Fair for You. She has greater control over her finances and is now able to pay her bills.
Laura, divorced Mum looking for a better job
Laura (not her real name) had been through a messy divorce from an abusive relationship:
‘There are words for it now, I know now that he was ‘financially abusive’, that it was ‘coercive control’ of my life, and, as a parent you want to protect your children. I was at such a low, it’s difficult to tell you how debilitating the stress at the time was, on my own, with the boys, it was crippling.’
‘At one point I was working five jobs. Then I had an interview for a job that would mean 3 times, 4 times what I was earning, but you know, it’s so difficult, the washer wasn’t working, my options were non-existent. I saw a leaflet for Moneyline. They were ethical, reputable.’
‘When I told them my circumstances, they were amazing. They showed faith in me. It’s no exaggeration to say their support meant I could keep my family together. I know they’re not the cheapest, they’re taking a risk on high risk people, people who need a break, but the stability I got from that loan to fix that washer, they’ll never know how grateful I still am.’
Laura got the job and is in secure employment with decent pay and no housing debt:
‘They didn’t need to take an interest in me, to see me as a person. A lot of other lenders turn their back on you. When they transferred me those funds, that day, they were saying ‘let us see how we can help’. What a difference it made. What a relief. They have helped me to progress, to the point now where I can say, ‘I’ve got this.’
Julie, changing her financial future
Julie (not her real name), 45, joined Enterprise Credit Union over 12 years ago, during what she described as a real low point – both personally and financially.
With the help of the team at Enterprise, Julie set up a plan to change her financial future. She began by borrowing £300 for a holiday with her son but was determined to start saving every week. Setting up a payment via standing order, Julie was able to repay her loan each week and put away a small amount into a saving pot.
This has led to a long and loyal relationship between Enterprise and Julie. She has had numerous loans over the years and is proud of the fact that she’s always had savings behind her.
Since joining, Julie has borrowed and repaid over £16,000. In addition to this, she’s saved consistently and proudly boasts of her £2,300 in savings.
Julie has really turned her life around. Not only is she now excellent when it comes to saving and borrowing, Julie turned her dreams into reality, going on to Liverpool John Moores University and achieving a BA (Hons) in Criminology.
And her successes have had a positive knock on effect with her family. Her son also turned to Enterprise for a Starter Loan in March 2020 and is now running a car valeting business, which has thrived throughout the pandemic.
‘My life has completely changed, and Enterprise Credit Union has played a massive part in that!’ says Julie.’