Credit Unions top the list of reputable Irish organisations

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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www.rte.ie

Credit Unions, An Post and Boots top reputation rankings

Credit Unions have topped the annual ranking of the Ireland Reputation Index for the third year in a row.
www.rte.ie www.rte.ie

A body which pays nil on shareholder accounts and has some of the highest interest rates and it tops the list?

We are clearly not price conscious in Ireland.

An Post comes next. Their deliveries are fine, but obviously people don't mind queuing in post offices while most of the counters are unstaffed.
 
Do participants pay the PR agency to take part in the study? Can you see a commercial organisation undertaking a study like this for free? What methods are employed to measure reputability? Are they the coloured "smiley-face" buttons on the leaflet stand as you exit LIDL? I've been a client of a number of the organisations listed and I can'r remember being asked to measure their reputability, by anyone, ever. Can you?

I've been unable to find any published study methods which would seem to indicate that they're secret between the PR agency and their clients, so no one outside gets to examine them. Is this akin to the discredited "Best in Class" County Council / Public Service Organisation awards of a few years ago? Winners would get a nice paid-for plaque to park at reception, indicating nothing other than they'd paid for a piece of plastic.
 
mathepac said:
I've been unable to find any published study methods which would seem to indicate that they're secret between the PR agency and their clients
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I presume that they will disclose the methodology for the study.
If it's secret, then I will definitely ask RTE to stop covering it in the Business News and suggest that they ask the Reputations Agency to pay for the ad like anyone else.
 
In the meantime, can we maybe tone down the coverage in here a tad? It's looking like ad-time on RTE.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
A body which pays nil on shareholder accounts and has some of the highest interest rates and it tops the list?
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They're chronically underlent and don't want any more savings, why would the pay more than nil? Are their interest rates some of the highest?
 
24601 said:
Are their interest rates some of the highest?
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Yes?

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And their advertised loan interest rates are often actually effectively even higher due to the need to keep c. 25% of the loan amount in shares/on deposit with them earning little or nothing.
 
ClubMan said:
Yes?

Compare personal loans - ccpc.ie

Find the loan to best suit your needs with our personal loan tool. Our calculator will show your monthly repayments and cost of credit over the whole loan.
www.ccpc.ie www.ccpc.ie
And their advertised loan interest rates are often actually effectively even higher due to the need to keep c. 25% of the loan amount in shares/on deposit with them earning little or nothing.
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OK, I'm not sure why 10.48% is the rate used there as their average rate is around 7.5%, which is cheaper than every rate in that table other than all the "green" loan rates, which are a total cod anyway.

That 25% thing is a relic of the past. Fair enough, plenty of them have a "secured-by-savings" type loan - which is a bit mad - but very few credit unions still insist on anything other than a nominal amount of pledged savings as collateral. People on this forum seem to complete misunderstand or ignore the fact that the credit unions deal with a lot of people that the banks wouldn't go near with a barge pole.
 
24601 said:
their average rate is around 7.5%,
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Where are you getting this figure?

24601 said:
That 25% thing is a relic of the past.
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Are you sure? If they abandoned this, it would be a great leap forward for them.

But people with €1,000 in shares go in to borrow €4,000 and they are not told "You only need €3,000"

After a few years, they have €1,000 in shares earning nothing and a loan of €1,000 even at 7.5%, which is an astronomical true interest rate, which, of course, they don't quote.

If I went into AIB and was told I must keep the €1,000 in my account and could not touch it, there would be war. But sure as it's the CU, it's ok.
 
I can see why they score high on this, they are a pleasure to deal with, and an invaluable service to rural Ireland when a lot of larger financial institutions have physically abandoned the place. I don't believe the rate of savings to be a factor in this survey as I don't see any great rate for savings anywhere at the moment unless i want to gamble it on an investment which doesn't have a capital guarantee. They are community owned and a not for profit which is another reason I tend to avail of the service. I am a traditionalist and place a value on having a physical branch operating in the community as opposed to a virtual organisation.
 
county said:
I don't see any great rate for savings anywhere at the moment unless i want to gamble it on an investment which doesn't have a capital guarantee
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You've misunderstood investing in reputable/financially sound assets so.
 
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Some credit unions are paying dividends to shareholders, it's not much but it is incorrect to say that they all don't pay anything.

My understanding on the methodology is that 5000 people were interviewed but the scope and scale of that interview and what was involved is unclear. That's why I always wonder how representative the sample actually was. Boots for example have 95 shops in Ireland but I would imagine there are large chunks of the country who don't have one. Likewise who ever interacts with Bord Bia? The maths in the background to this survey are a bit odd.
 
Everyone has a different story to tell but I can completely understand how the CU come out top in such surveys. I don't have any loans currently (lucky me) so as someone who just wants a bank
a) That I can walk into if/when I need to speak to someone in person, someone local who doesn't ask me to jump through hoops to verify I am who I say I am
b) That offer the simple basic service I need such as online access to my account
c) That I can trust and rely on (I like the fact that they ring me for confirmation whenever I set up a new payee for example)

They tick the boxes for me and outscore other banks easily. When you put them up against other service providers such as phone services, well it's easy to see why they score highly. There are sticky posts on here for providers based on return (fixed term, instant access, etc.) if all you are interested in is the best return on your money.
 
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