ISAs explained: how to save and invest tax-free

So firstly, if we could start. So Marlene, what role do you play with Capital Credit Union? What is it you do?

So my current role, Jane, is chief executive of Capital Credit Union, and I say my current role because I’ve had many roles in the credit union, in its thirty five years from being a founder member, so I’ve been here since day one, all the way through toa spell on the board of directors and ultimately became the chair of the board. But then in nineteen ninety eight, I got a job in the credit union. I think they they thought we’re never going to get rid of her, so we might as well employ her. And so I’ve done quite a few different roles in the credit union, but I came in principally in the business development role, which is held by Colin, today and worked my way up to chief executive. So I’ve been chief executive for a little while now.

Oh, that’s fantastic. And what about yourself, Colin? What’s your role then? What do you do?
Yeah. As Marlene said, I do some of the sort of business development side of it. I also head up the marketing team, so it’s kind of a blend of both. So I’m out meeting kind of partners at events and Scotmid events and various other things, as well as the kind of running the marketing team as well.

Yeah. And and so when when we were looking and I was looking into capital, you know, of which I’m a member, and I’m happy to say I’m a member, And I I do I’ll I do love the fact that I do the the save the payroll saving scheme, which we’ll talk about a bit later. But so a question that I saw is, is it true, Marlene, that people worry more about money and finance than they do about their health and relationships?

Is that a fact?

That is a fact, Jane. But first of all, thank you for your membership, and we love when we when we meet people who are members of the credit union. But in answer to your question, it is absolutely a fact. Money and well-being, particularly mental well-being, are so interlinked. And it’s it is true that people who are struggling financially are more likely to suffer from mental health issues.
Indeed, there’s been much research over the last couple of years that suggests that people who are struggling financially are less productive in the workplace because they’re bringing their money worries to work every day. And, you know, often what we will hear is people can’t sleep because of money worries as well. So, again, that impacts on their day to day life. It impacts on their relationships with their colleagues and their family and their friends. So, you know, our our role at Capital Credit Union is very much around how do we support people not to have those money worries so they can be more productive in the workplace, and they can get on with their life and enjoy a much better life and much better mental well-being because we’re helping them with the money side.
Yeah. That’s great. And it’s it’s funny because it’s atthe core of what we’re doing just now. We do have awell-being team.
We do we think about people’s well-being all the time. And we’re coming up to a crucial time, Christmas, which can affect people’s well-being and and the fact that the pressure on to spend more, maybe not pay bills because they’re spending more on Christmas and things like that. So Colin, awee question for you. What products and what help do you offer like for our colleagues as well with Christmas coming up?
Thanks thanks, Jane. I think, there’s a few different things. I’m I’m I suppose, there’s kinda something for everyone. Scotmid’s a big organization. So really from the kinda CEO to, you know, to a part timeworker who’s maybe, you know, working sixteen hours a week or something like that, we kinda offer a bit a bit of everything.
There’s I mean, there’s a range of products. We offer sort of loans, savings, and mortgages.
To give you example, we even offer things like green loans. So for example, if someone’s looking for solar panels or someone’s looking for heat pumps, we we do products like that. But I remember there was recently a member, Bryce, who, he he was looking for, to convert a wheelchair into an electric trike.

So that was what he got his green loan for. So so he got his green loan and then he could actually travel independently because that, you know, that gave him that sort of freedom. So that kinda gets to the heart, I feel, of of what we can kind of offer the members. But we offer everything from, you know, loans, mortgages, savings products, payroll savings, as well as sort of interest bearing and ISA products. So a whole whole range of things. Something for everyone.
Yeah. It’s not just the savings. One of my colleagues actually, another member, was telling me the other day that she got a remortgage with you as well. So not just a first mortgage. She actually got a really good rate with you coming through and get are mortgage on her current. So I think these are things that our colleagues need to know that are available for them and and different things. So thanks for coming.
And the green loan, would that be like may begetting would you get loans for bikes and things, you know, or maybe electrical vehicles and Yeah.
If you think of all sort of green products, you know, it was everything from cars to, you know, as I say, toother other products that were kinda, you know, electric bikes. There’s a lot of people sort of commuting, but you’ll see people with electric bikes, particularly Edinburgh. I know Scotmids throughout the country, but, say, there’s a lot of lot of hills. So, you know, things like that. And then as well as kind of larger loans, we’ve got a partnership with the Greener Energy Group, who do sort of, you know, throughout Scotland kind of I suppose it’s the whole year because you get people who are this time of year thinking about how could I save money on my heating bills and can they afford a heat pump? And then maybe they and they can get a government grant so they might actually get a large loan and then maybe pay off some of that loan.
That sounds amazing, doesn’t it?
That’s so that we’re giving them that kind of opportunity or for kind of this, you know, solar panels are obviously advancing all the time. So that’s another big big area of the green loan. Yeah.

And how do you say it?
Sorry. Sorry, Marlene. Jane, if you don’t mind, if I I also want to just add that, you know, like Scotmid, we’re a member owned organization, and we’re also a not for profit. And one of the things that we find a little bit difficult sometimes to get across to people is that actually as a not for profit we’re also really competitive as well.
So although we’re not profit driven, we’re member driven. So all of our products are really competitive against products on the high street, whether it’s a loan or whether, you know, it’s savings or whether it’s a mortgage. So I just wanted to to drop that in there as well. We do offer really good rates Yeah.
On savings, loans, and mortgages.
And and even telling our colleagues how easy it is toto apply for a loan, isn’t it?
I’ve got, I mean, Colin is that something that you deal with or is it within your office? How how easy, I know it’s easy, but I’ll just let them out there knowhow easy is it to apply for for a loan then and how quick does the actual process take from beginningto end?
Yeah. I think that I mean, that’s a really goodquestion that we get asked regularly. I mean, I think, we were genuinely, we were looking at that theother day and we we were sort of analyzing some of the loans that had come through and, you know, welooked at one, you know, within sort of fifteenminutes or something like that. It was kind of record,you know, going through that sort of process to kindof approval.

Realistically, you know, if someone was applying fora loan on a a Friday, it might be sort of the, youknow, next working day and and Monday and thingslike that, but it is really quite quite quick. It’s a busytime of year at the moment, but really, what I wouldencourage ScottMidge people to do would bethere’s a lot of things that you can do through theonline app or or online. So literally that that will takeminutes and some of that process, you know, thethe preapproval part, you know, the technology thatwe you know, we invested a lot of money in thetechnology.
So, you know, someone can then apply for a loanvery, very quickly, you know, within that sort ofprocess and then sort of get part of that approvalthrough very quickly. But at the same time, that maynot be for everyone. So So we no.
There is a you know, you can It’s a way I was gonnaask you, Colin.
Because some people are quite scared oftechnology, aren’t they? They think, oh, I’ve got butthey they don’t know how to use an app to apply.
Can they speak to somebody? Yeah. Absolutely. Imean, we’ve got a member services team. We’ve gota loans team who, you know, regularly speaking tocustomers.
So we’re we’re we’re at the end of a phone line.We’re not sort of like the although we’ve invested inthe technology, we’re not like some of the sort ofdigital banks whereby you’re kind of you’ve got toget through a chatbot to even just speak tosomeone on a live chat sort of thing. You’re actuallyspeaking to a human being at Capital Credit Union.
Oh, no. That makes a difference sometimes, isn’t it?Because it it can be quite daunting when you’reapplying. And maybe in some of your customersome of your colleagues’ cases, it may be appliedfor loans in the past and not been successful.
So it kinda puts you off and if it makes it thesimplest it is as well. I knew that when, from aholiday, I went to my Capital Credit Union, put in oneday and it was back in my account the next day. Thetransfer on the app was so simple to use once youset it up and doing for there. So, and also, Marlene,I’m waiting on my win for the lottery, please.
My wee pound every month, I’ll have a look to see ifit comes in. So but it’s a great incentive as well tokeep you going, isn’t it? It’s nice it’s going fromthere. Marlene, do you have a lot of retailers likeyourselves that are members with you and work aswell? How big are you?
So Jane, at the moment we have over thirty onethousand members who are saving and borrowingwith Capital Credit Union, and we’re working withnearly a hundred employers.
ScottMead is definitely our biggest retailer, andwe’re absolutely delighted about that. But we haveorganizations from fifty staff up to ScottMead up toeleven local authorities who allow their staff to savethrough their payroll as well. And these are allorganizations like yourselves that they recognizethat staff are their biggest asset. And it’s reallyimportant that you invest in your biggest asset andyour most important asset.
Absolutely.
And you know as we talked about earlier, if staff arestruggling financially and they’re bringing thosestruggles to work, that’s not good for the employereither.
So again, you know, as I said earlier, our role is verymuch we want to work with your staff, youremployees to make sure that they’re as productiveas they can be in their work life, but also happy intheir home life because they don’t have the financialworries. So as I say we’re working with nearly onehundred employers who have all taken the samestep as ScotMed.
Well, that’s great. And the thing what somebodyasked me just yesterday, actually, it was one of mycolleagues, and it’s a young colleague that’s astudent with us, and he said he would like to do itbecause it would help. But also suggested that,there’s a time because they work temporary with usand they leave. So if his contributions wouldn’t comeoff his wages, how does he how how would he dothat to continue with the savings plan? Can he do itjust through a normal bank pin or Absolutely.
So we have a lifetime membership, So it doesn’tmatter how your circumstances change, whether it’san employment, unemployment, retirement, lifetimemembership. So once you’re a member, you’realways a member if you choose to do that. So youcan you can, you know, he can save through hisbank through a direct debit or a standing order. Hecan take a bit of a payment holiday, you know, apiece in between, and it’s just not the right time. Andwe have a policy which is save if you can, when youcan. And so the credit union is here for you throughall eventualities.
Mhmm.
Well, that is great. That is great. So our colleaguesare thinking about, Christmas coming up just now.We we get busy in our stores and, our semi chemstores especially, and then our food stores as well.So but all our colleagues within the society, withinour head office, our funeral, and everything like that,it’s always an eventuality that you’re trying to putmoney away for in that wee bit of saving that you’redoing. And with Capital Credit Union, we want to getout to our listeners out there to know, look, it’sgreat, it’s there, it’s convenient, it’s easy.
But also there’s a huge range of topic and productsthat you can go into. So we can only thank you somuch for coming on today and telling us more aboutit.
We can get this out to your colleagues beforeChristmas. Hopefully, you might get a wee uptake insome of your members as well. But I can only thankthe two of you for coming along today to share,more about the products and more about how easyit is for our colleagues to access these products aswell. So it’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you somuch for joining us today, on our podcast.
Any last words that was that helped me on my wayfor Christmas?
I mean certainly, Jane, what I would say, you know,like many people, like everybody, Christmas comesevery year. We know that, we, you know, we shouldplan for it, but we don’t always plan for it. And it isour busiest time of the year for Christmas loans. Sowe would encourage colleagues to get, you know,get their loans in early and and and just get itsecure.
But also, what we do in January is a big push for ourChristmas savings club. So that helps peopleprepare and prepare for Christmas over over amonthly, over eleven months. So, if you haven’tsigned up for the Christmas club yet, we’ll becoming your way after Christmas. But, either planand prepare for Christmas through the Christmasclub or just get along like most of our members dobecause we’re not always that organized.
So but we’re here for whatever eventuality, that youneed to get through Christmas.
Oh brilliant. Sorry I’ve got another question I actuallyforgot and I’ll get around for not asking this forsomebody else. You know because when I’ve beentelling people I’m talking to you they go oh go andask this, go and ask that.
So there’s also so if you’re having savings, regularsavings, and you wanted a loan, would the savingscome off the loan that you take and then you justkeep adding to pay your monthly payment or howdoes that work separately?
So that’s a great question and the credit union is, it’sslightly different to a normal bank if you like, if youhad a savings account and a loan account. So whenyou save with the credit union, what we do is whenyou then come to get a loan, we risk price that loan.And if you have savings with the credit union, thatimpacts the rate that you will get, with the loan. AndI don’t want to make this too complicated, but bybeing a saver it provides benefits to you when youcome to borrow is probably the easiest way to getto buy.
That’s the question she was asking me. Yeah.
And you know your savings are always there to liftat any point. We encourage as an organization, weencourage people to keep the nest egg for the rainyday, for the emergency. If you can keep yoursavings, don’t lift it. If you want to borrow, you know,that that’s perfectly fine as well. And alsoremembering that both your savings and your loanare insured by the credit union free of charge.
So with your savings up to three thousand pound,oh, no. Sorry. It’s one thousand pound up to onethousand pound, we double your savings if you wereto die. So we if you had a thousand pound in there,we would give your family two thousand pound.Wow. And your loan up to fifteen thousand pound isis, insured as well. So if you were to die with a loanin the credit union, the first fifteen thousand poundwould be covered by the credit union.
So, you know, our average loan here at the creditunion is about two and a half thousand pounds.Mhmm. So all of our members who have less thanfifteen thousand pounds in a loan, that would bepaid off by the credit union. We wouldn’t wewouldn’t seek to recover that from someone else’sday.
That is great to know, isn’t it? It’s worth your peaceof mind as well, isn’t it, when they’re doing thingslike that, isn’t it? Oh, that’s fabulous. See?
I I think that’s all my questions. It’s, because I’vebeen having a wee topic and people are saying askthis ask that for me. So I’m sure there’ll be more, butit’s easy to get in contact with you and find out. Wehave got the barcode on our well-being so peoplecan scan it and go in and find more about you.
But, I’ll set up a pop of a new hire.
Sorry, Jane. I was just gonna say it’s very easy forsomeone to join if Mhmm. If there if there you know,there’s lots of people, maybe their colleagues aredoing payroll saving, but they haven’t, and thatmight be something that they’re thinking about forthe new year, might be something they’re thinkingabout now, but they can do that all online andliterally they can just set you know go through thatmember journey, set themselves up as a memberand then start the payroll savings and then they’llwe’ll know that’ll notify the payroll department. Sothat’s that’s very easy to do.
I’m sorry. I forgot. Is there a minimum amount forpayroll savings? And is it is there a minimum amountper month, or how does it work?
Yeah. So literally, you can really save from a pound. Ithink that you’d probably want to save a little littlebit more than that, you know, to be a pound a week.But I mean, you could start off as a small amount, Isay, fifteen pounds a month and just to build up, youknow, a bit of an emergency fund or twenty fivepounds a month or whatever someone can afford.And also you can you could taper that back, say thatyou were doing a hundred pounds a month, but youcould really only afford fifty for the next threemonths and then you bet back up to the hundred.You can you can do all that through that.
So you can adjust it as your finances change in theyear and sense.
People are in control of that and, you know, if you’regetting that through your payroll, you’re not sort ofnecessarily thinking to spend that money hopefullyand then you’re, you know, that you’re you’re notmissing that money and, you know, it’s a great wayto save.
Fabulous.
That’s great. I’ve learned loads. I’m sure my listenerswill list loads loads as well. And so I really appreciateit. Thank you guys so much. I won’t tell my listenersI’ve had to do that I used to do this twice, but I’vesaid it. Thank you so much for coming along to usand first to say it’s October but I will say MerryChristmas when it comes so thank you so much forjoining me today.

Thanks Jean, good to speak to you. Take care.
Thank you.
Bye.