Credit Unions top the list of reputable Irish organisations

Brendan Burgess

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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.
 
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

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

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.
 
their average rate is around 7.5%,

Where are you getting this figure?

That 25% thing is a relic of the past.

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.