Membership Terms and Conditions
An applicant for membership may be admitted to membership only when:
- To become a member of Acorn Community Bank a person must fulfil the common bond qualification for entry to membership and must provide their date of birth and sufficient evidence to prove their identity and address as required to comply with all relevant laws, regulations and rules in respect of money laundering prevention.
- The person must pay £2.00 joining fee of an amount recommended by the Board of Directors, which covers the administration costs of processing your application.
- The member must hold a minimum £1.00 balance in a Share 1 Account at all times this will allow the person voting rights on a ‘one member one vote’ basis. Junior Savers are not entitles to vote.
- If you application for membership has been refused, you will be informed. The credit union will not be obliged to disclose the reason for the refusal.
Eligibility for membership
Only individuals who comply with the common bond qualifications and who are over aged 18 shall be accepted into membership.
Applications for membership will be considered only when the applicant has completed the official application form and has provided sufficient evidence to prove:
- Their eligibility for membership;
- Their identity;
- Their address
Acorn Community Bank members are eligible to open a Junior Savers Account for any child registered at the members address. The account will be in trust for the named child until they turn 18 years of age and can qualify for full membership. All Junior Savers will be notified in writing prior to their 18th birthday to seek confirmation of conversion to full membership or to request terminating the account.
Minimum and Maximum Savings
A minimum amount of £1.00 is required to maintain your membership account. The maximum combined savings for an individual member must not exceed £60,000.00. Any Junior Savers accounts must not exceed £60,000.00.
Regular deposits
Regular deductions can be made via payroll deduction, through one of our employer partners, or by Direct Debit. Please note:
- Payroll deduction: funds will be received will be credited to accounts on the last working day of each month provided we have both the funds and confirmation list from employers.
- Direct Debit: funds received will initially be placed into your savings account and take 7 working days to clear. The funds will be eligible for dividend during this time.
Payroll Deduction Paperless Mandate – Members employed by a payroll area that has agreed to the Paperless Mandate Scheme will be required to complete a paperless mandate agreement form. By doing so this will allow the credit union to amend/cancel payroll deductions for the Acorn Community Bank according to the members instruction via automated, online, verbal or written communication and that the payroll mandate agreement supersedes the need for a signed mandate form. By agreeing to the membership terms and conditions you give permission to transfer personal data to the credit union in order to make deposits into your account.
Deposits can be made at anytime by bank transfer this requires a full working day before being posted to the savings account. Deposits can also be made by cheque. Cheques require 10 full working days to clear.
Deposits may be subject to Anti Money Laundering Verification.
Withdrawing Savings
Savings can be withdrawn at anytime subject to any outstanding loan balance preventing you from doing so. Please ensure you read the relevant loan terms and conditions should you borrow. Funds are paid out by Faster Payment and appear as cleared funds in the nominated bank account within 24 hours of the withdrawal being processed in the office. Withdrawal requests submitted before 1:00pm on a working day will be processed the same day. Any withdrawals after 1:00pm on a working day will be processed the next working day. Acorn Community Bank reserves the right of lien on all savings balances should you default on a loan.
Cancelation of Membership
The membership agreement may be cancelled within 14 days after the loan is advanced to you by telling us in writing.
Under the Financial Service (Distance Marketing) Regulations 2004, the member may cancel this agreement, even if there has been face to face contact with the Acorn Community Bank regarding this agreement, within 14 days of the member’s receipt of these contractual terms and conditions. The cancellation period commences on the date the member signed this agreement.
Should you wish to exercise this right, you can do so by contacting us on any of the details below:
To cancel please write to us at:
Acorn Community Bank
Unit A, George Hall Court,
Cavendish Square,
Swindon,
SN3 2LZ
Or you can write to the following email address: office@acorncb.co.uk
Any funds received will be returned less a non-refundable joining fee of £2.00.
Withdrawal form Membership
Members may leave the Acorn Community Bank at any time, without penalty, providing no debts are outstanding. All savings accounts will be closed on cancellation of membership. Please note no dividend will be payable on closure.
Expulsion from Membership
Subject to the credit unions registered rulebook, a member may be expelled from the credit union for any grave or sufficient reason.
Dormant accounts
An account will be classed as dormant if there is no outstanding loan balance on the account and we have not received a deposit to the account, excluding dividend, for a period of 12 months. When an account as been classed as dormant, a notice will be sent to the last known address we hold for you.
If you do not react or close your account(s) within 6 weeks of receipt of the notice being sent to you, the Acorn Community Bank has the right to:
- Hold any monies within the account(s) of such member in a suspense account pending subsequent withdrawal of your money, or activity on the account;
- Expel you from membership of the Acorn Community Bank.
Dividend
Members may receive an annual dividend on savings at an interim rate that is decided by the Board of Directors. Dividend payments are based on the daily account balances. As the dividend is an allocation of surpluses, there is no guaranteed rate of dividend, or indeed guarantee that a dividend will be paid.
Dividend payments are made without the deduction of income tax; therefore, members should declare dividend payments to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Please contact HMRC for further information.
Statement of Accounts
A statement of the account(s) will be sent to the member at least annually and at anytime on request. Information on the account can be obtained at any time by contacting Acorn Community Bank Office.
Confidentiality
We are committed to protecting your privacy, and will only use the information you give us, or we collect about you lawfully in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) is a regulation by which the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission intend to strengthen and unify data protection for individuals within the European Union (EU). We collect information about you for two reasons – firstly, to process your application and secondly to provide you with the best possible service. If you have any questions or comments about privacy, please contact us or visit our website page
Regulation
Acorn Community Bank is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority. Our Firm Reference Number is 213793
Complaints Procedure
Should you not be satisfied at any time with the service you have received, please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss your concerns. We have an internal complaint’s procedure and will deal with your complaint promptly and thoroughly. If we are unable to resolve your complaint you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service. Please contact the Credit Union office for further details where required.
Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
Harbour Exchange
London
E14 9SR
How your personal information is used by ourselves and at Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies
In order to process your application we will supply your personal information to credit reference agencies (CRAs) and Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPAs). They will give us information about you, such as about your financial history. We do this to assess creditworthiness and product suitability, check your identity, manage your account, trace and recover debts and prevent criminal activity.
To do this, we will supply your personal information to CRAs and they will give us information about you. This will include information from your credit application and about your financial situation and financial history. CRAs will supply to us both public (including the electoral register) and shared credit, financial situation and financial history information and fraud prevention information.
We will use this information to:
- Assess your creditworthiness and whether you can afford to take the product;
- Verify the accuracy of the data you have provided to us;
- Prevent criminal activity, fraud and money laundering;
- Manage your account(s);
- Trace and recover debts; and
- Ensure any offers provided to you are appropriate to your circumstances.
We will continue to exchange information about you with CRAs while you have a relationship with us. We will also inform the CRAs about your settled accounts and any debts not fully repaid on time. 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. Your data will also be linked to the data of your spouse, any joint applicants or other financial associates.
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 should make sure you discuss this with them, and share with them this information, before lodging the application. CRAs will 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.
When CRAs receive a search from us they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders.
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.
We and other organisations may access and use from other countries the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies.
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 General Data Protection Act (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and Data Protection Act 1998.
How to find out more
The identities of the CRAs, and the ways in which they use and share personal information, are explained in more detail at wascu.cuaccount.net/crain/
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 data protection policy page or phone 01793 522 216.
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 can charge you a small statutory fee:
- Experian Consumer Help Service, PO Box 8000, Nottingham NG80 7WF or call 0844 4818000 or log on to www.experian.co.uk.
- TransUnion Consumer Services Team, PO Box 491, Leeds, LS3 1WZ or call 0870 0601414
- Equifax PLC, Customer Service Centre, PO Box 10036, Leicester, LE3 4FS
Acorn Community Bank is a trading name of Wiltshire and Swindon Credit Union Ltd, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.