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Credit Union

kizzabel

Hi all, we have decided to start saving in the CU for our 2012/13 wedding (date all hinging on the financial side of things), knowing full well we will have to borrow on the back of it.

Does anyone know the general rate of lending - as in what amount we can borrow on 4000 savings which we would have saved by March 2012..

In regards to paying deposits etc... when do we get the loan? can we dip into it when needs be for paying deposits etc?

We plan on weekly savings of €30 plus an extra €150 most months (bar the four leading up to Christmas). This is what we can manage. We would hope to borrow €15000.

Is it possible or are we destined for a long flight to Vegas and a girating Elvis impersonator?? Not a bad option imho!!

I hate discussing the funding side of things but i thought here maybe just be the best place to ask!

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suzieled

I think this is very possible based on €4000 saving.
Remember they would give you a €15 000 loan based on €4000 savings, and you would not be able to touch the €4000 savings until you had paid most (if not all of the loan back).

The amount you can borrow may vary slighly from Credit Union to Credit Union. Good Luck!

How Strange

If you're just opening the account now you need to build up a credit history so you need to take out a couple of loans first based on your savings and pay them back.

The CU is an expensive way to borrow money because the interest rate is quite high and the quicker you pay your loan back the cheaper it is but that said if you have a good credit history then you're pretty much guaranteed approval.

You wouldn't be able to get the loan until you have your €4k savings and have borrowed two or three times and paid back the loans so realistically you'd probably get your loan a couple of months before the wedding. For deposits etc in advance it depends on when you need to pay them but you may want to consider paying for these yourselves.

Just make sure that whatever you're planning to borrow doesn't stretch you to the limit. We're paying off a CU loan at the moment and we're paying €400 on a €5000 loan which means it will be paid in 14 months or something like that. We want to clear it as soon as possible but not leave ourselves stretched every month.

Clareman

Personally I don't think anyone should go into debt to get married, you are starting a new life, don't start it in the red, you won't be any less married after spending €40 that you will after €40,000

And with that out of the way, if I could give some advice it would be to pay off whatever you can as quickly as you can and also availing of the interest free credit you get for transfering credit cards, so pay for everything on 1 card (i.e. hotel and honeymoon) then when you get back transferring straight away, that gives you at least 6 months (depending on card) to get on a sound footing

kizzabel

so would you recommend borrowing from somewhere other than the CU??
we dont have disposible income that would allow for us to pay any deposits other than from the money we borrow.

we arent phased by borrowing. we've been together 6 years, a family for 4 years and this is the only feasible way for us to be married we'll only be doing i once so we want to do it our way. nothing too decadent but we have huge familys so a small wedding isnt a runner either!

we dont have a credit card!

CoalBucket

First of all congratulations. Myself and my better half are getting married around the same time and we also looked into a CU loan to cover the costs. Our CU do a 1 year loan for weddings, the idea being that you will prob recieve gifts in or around what you are borrowing. If you have a good credit history and have some security they should generally give you what you are looking for. However If I were you I would get in contact with them early so you can arrange your budget. Happy planning

John Mason

please dont borrow money for your wedding, this is crazy talk, so is spending e15,000 on a wedding.

have a wedding you can afford, keep saving the money and have your wedding based on your savings.

you do not know what is going to happen in the future - what if you cannot pay your loan back ?

kizzabel

irishbird wrote: »

please dont borrow money for your wedding, this is crazy talk, so is spending e15,000 on a wedding.

have a wedding you can afford, keep saving the money and have your wedding based on your savings.

you do not know what is going to happen in the future - what if you cannot pay your loan back ?

Thank you very much for your opinion but this is what we are doing.
We can not be any more unemployed.
Our budget is set and worked out to the managable amount we can save, if we dont borrow it will never happen.
We both have huge immediate families and this is a once off, never to be repeated kinda thing, so to not have our friends there is not even a possibility. There is no one on our guest list who has not been a vital part of our lives so no one will be cut from the list.

Im not waiting until we have the full amount saved, i doubt the zimmer frame would do my dress justice! And yes maybe its the impatience of youth but we wont be dissuaded..

bellabloo

Hi there..

all i would say to you is that from experience the credit unions will not loan a large ammount to you on your first loan no matter how regular a saver you are.! I learned the hard way on this! If I had it to do again i would save about 300 and borrow a 1000 over a year but pay it back really quickly this proves your record as a good repayer I would then save and save every penny that you can,,, not letting it dip below a set ammount such as 30 euro and then about 6 weeks before your wedding apply for a loan of 3-4 times what you have saved.. this is the most they will allow you. I know the urge to have the perfect day is huge ( am married less than 6 months ) and I cant blame you for that... if you prove that you can repay it and that you can save it then you should have no problem gettin the loan but ask for it in plenty of time so as iIF they say no you have time to come up with a contingency plan.. in our case we ended up having to cancel some suppliers and cut back on other as even though we had half the money we needed saved/paid off they wouldnt allow a loan beacuse we had no proven record with them

bellabloo

oh and forgot to add please dont rely on presents as we found that apart from a lump sum from my dad we literally got only small ammount of cash gift overs a 100people... .. people just dont have it !

Clareman

As you have to borrow I would recommend reviewing firstly who will give you a loan and the best deal you can get. I really wouldn't go mad though, I'm not saying be cheap, but be smart and add 10% to everything that you're getting as that's how much you're going to paying for everything (roughly). Also, see if people would be willing to help out rather than giving a direct present. For example, see if someone has a good video camera, look into a second hand dress, do all the men need rental suits? can the bridesmaids get their own dresses.

Also, make sure whatever loan you get doesn't have a penalty for paying it off early, put every penny of gifts you get into paying back the loan. Also, I know credit cards are a curse, but they'll make you're life a lot easier when getting stuff for the wedding and you'll still have the option of changing it to avail of the interest free transfer

kizzabel

thanks for all the great, constructive advice.

i dont know if we would even quailify for a credit card. eeek! i have the use of my mams which will be ideal for ordering bits like the invites online but id just be afraid the impulse shopping monster in me would break out if i had a credit card.

thanks, we're going to look at our options and see where to go from there. im fairly budget/bargain savvy so we'll definately exhaust all the options before getting the loan.

Clareman

If you can't get a credit card I don't think you'll be getting a loan to be honest, it's usually easier to get a CC rather than a full loan.

How Strange

kizzabel wrote: »

4000 savings which we would have saved by March 2012. We plan on weekly savings of €30 plus an extra €150 most months (bar the four leading up to Christmas). This is what we can manage. We would hope to borrow €15000.

OP, have you considered how long it will take you to pay back this loan?
€15k based on what you can save at the moment would take you almost 5 years and that's just on the loan amount without interest.

so would you recommend borrowing from somewhere other than the CU??

In your circumstances I wouldn't recommend borrowing from anywhere

We can not be any more unemployed.
we dont have disposible income that would allow for us to pay any deposits other than from the money we borrow.

If you have no disposable income then it's fairly unrealistic to think you can manage a €15k loan

we arent phased by borrowing. we've been together 6 years, a family for 4 years and this is the only feasible way for us to be married we'll only be doing i once so we want to do it our way. nothing too decadent but we have huge familys so a small wedding isnt a runner either!

All this info gives a different perspective on your original question. I really would urge you to reconsider the idea to borrow based on the fact that you're both unemployed with limited disposable income and you've got a family.

I just got married recently so I understand that you want your wedding to be a great day as it's a once off thing. However OP there are plenty of ways to have a big wedding for €4k or €2k or €1k or even €500 it just perhaps won't be a sit down affair in the local hotel serving up beef or salmon followed by a band and dj.

There are many ways to string a cat so don't just assume you have to go for the bog standard wedding.

IMO, what you want and what you can afford are two different things and your expectations are unrealistic.

Sorry, I know that's not what you want to hear but based on all the info you've given I think you'd be mad in the head to expect to borrow €15k for a wedding when you're pinned to your collar and unemployed with a family to look after.

LillyVanilli

I would also like to add that you really shouldnt borrow 15K in your current situation, it will really leave you strapped for a long time. You can easily have a wedding for much much less than that. You could go for something different than the normal wedding format and then it will probably be even more memorable for you and your guests as its something different. Not the info you were looking for I know.

DvB

Well to put a slightly different slant on it, i've only very recently applied for a much smaller loan from the credit union to cover the last few bits for my own wedding in just under a months time, i've been with my CU for just over 8 years & have savings in the CU equal to half of what i'm looking to borrow (and am adding to it regularly despite saving for the wedding & paying things off as they come up), they've since come back & asked for loads of paperwork including bank statements, mortgage statements, credit card details, utility bills (for proof of address) and copies of pay slips for the last 2 or 3 months all hopefully indicating my ability to meet the repayment schedule i have requested, so basically what i'm saying is that even the credit unions at the moment are being extremely careful in their risk analysis when assessing new loan applications so i certainly wouldnt be banking on getting such a loan in the first place given your lack of history with them in terms of savings & previous loan repayments. Best of luck though with the wedding, I hope everything works out & you get the wedding day you both want!!

genie_us

DvB wrote: »

Well to put a slightly different slant on it, i've only very recently applied for a much smaller loan from the credit union to cover the last few bits for my own wedding in just under a months time, i've been with my CU for just over 8 years & have savings in the CU equal to half of what i'm looking to borrow (and am adding to it regularly despite saving for the wedding & paying things off as they come up), they've since come back & asked for loads of paperwork including bank statements, mortgage statements, credit card details, utility bills (for proof of address) and copies of pay slips for the last 2 or 3 months all hopefully indicating my ability to meet the repayment schedule i have requested, so basically what i'm saying is that even the credit unions at the moment are being extremely careful in their risk analysis when assessing new loan applications so i certainly wouldnt be banking on getting such a loan in the first place given your lack of history with them in terms of savings & previous loan repayments. Best of luck though with the wedding, I hope everything works out & you get the wedding day you both want!!

Almost exactly the same situation as us - long time CU member and wanted to borrow a small amount for our wedding in October. Have saved hard for the last 2 years so thankfully don't need to borrow a large amount. However in saying that, we also had to give all the usual statements, payslips etc, this would be my 3rd loan from them now in around 10 years, and the first time I've ever been asked for that stuff.

OP, I'm up to my eyes in wedding plans at the moment. If you need any help or recommendations for some good deals feel free to PM me

John Mason

i was at something like 6 weddings last summer.

all the weddings had over a hundred people at them.

the cost varied from 30k - 6k and i can tell you, that with a shadow of a doubt, the wedding for 6k was the best wedding of the lot.

it was more personal without all the stupid bells and whistles.

i understand you have a big family but if you are both unemployed - sorry, my boy has been unemployed since november, i have a good, secure'ish job, so we are floating along but the thoughts of borrowing that kind of money for one day would make me feel nausea.

we are talking about our wedding, reckon we can do it for 500e for roughly 120 people

tinkerbell

irishbird wrote: »

i was at something like 6 weddings last summer.

all the weddings had over a hundred people at them.

the cost varied from 30k - 6k and i can tell you, that with a shadow of a doubt, the wedding for 6k was the best wedding of the lot.

it was more personal without all the stupid bells and whistles.

i understand you have a big family but if you are both unemployed - sorry, my boy has been unemployed since november, i have a good, secure'ish job, so we are floating along but the thoughts of borrowing that kind of money for one day would make me feel nausea.

we are talking about our wedding, reckon we can do it for 500e for roughly 120 people

Just wondering what the wedding for €6k was like? Did they just do a dinner, and that was it, or did they have entertainment? Personally I think spending anything over €6k is madness, all these weddings for €20-€30k are usually the same ol same ol.

John Mason

tinkerbell wrote: »

Just wondering what the wedding for €6k was like? Did they just do a dinner, and that was it, or did they have entertainment? Personally I think spending anything over €6k is madness, all these weddings for €20-€30k are usually the same ol same ol.

it was brilliant.

got married in the cutest little church in wexford.

then we all went to the maldron hotel for wine and sandwiches.

at 5pm they had organised mini buses to bring everyone to the wexford heritage centre.

we had summer punch on the decking, looking over the river with the ducks and swan and the crannog.

we went in for dinner where we all received hand painted stones with our names and the date of the wedding, an envelope with an personalized card thanking us for coming to the wedding and apologizing if they hadnt got around to speaking to us yet.

there was also hand painted disposable cameras on the tables.

we had a 3 course meal, which everyone enjoyed.

they supplied all the wine for the night, no one had to spend a penny - i think something like 200 bottles were consumed

they had background music on during the dinner, which they had on an ipod.

the music for the night was from the ipod and it was fantastic, the dancefloor wasnt empty for the night.

then at 11pm, they had a dj until 3.30am

then back to the maldron, for a sing song

oh yeah the invitations, were home made, hand painted, as were the menus

How Strange

Irishbird that sounds fab

We had our wedding with 20 people for a civil ceremony and late lunch followed by A LOT of alcohol and a session which went on til the wee hours for €1.5k. It was just perfect and we had a ball.

Clareman

I hope the Op is seeing that you don't have to spend a fortune to have a day full of memories. Remember it's 1 day to start the rest of your life, don't start it in a hole

kizzabel

Hi, sorry i didnt reply before now. i moved around some savings and we now only have to borrow 2k to have exactly what we would like our day to be.

I went to my local CU and had a chat with the loan officer. he said same as many of the posters that replied to this thread. They cannot loan more then 3k in one go anymore but he looked through my savings and kind of cleared everything up. felt so positive coming from this meeting. so in a month i will be the proud owner of my 1st loan which is miles away from what we originally expected we would have to borrow. ive been through the conditions and repayments and its very managable.

i was totally clueless as regards borrowing and its not something i would do lightly, i wanted to put the feelers out here to get opinions and advice,
some i admitedly took more graciously then others.
while im an organised, budget minded kinda girl (himself reckons eddie hobb is my real dad) i admit im far too stubborn when my minds made up.

i understand some people disagree with borrowing but my household budget is worked out to within an inch of its life and i wouldnt borrow without the assurance that we can keep our side of the terms. We have some out-goings which will be ending shortly and with that extra we can more then manage the credit union loan. In the coming year himself should be back to work after a long injury so this will give us a better footing but just incase ive budgeted for the worst case scenario.

thanks again for the advice

EnglishPollop

Best of Luck Kizzabel, hope it all goes well for you.

I know a lot of people on here have said it's only one day, blah blah blah, but I think you should make it as special as you want it to be!
It's a (hopefully) once in a lifetime experience - you'll tell your kids about it, your grandkids, and the photos will last a lifetime so it has to be perfect!

My and my other half would love to get married, but unfortunately don't have any savings etc so it's a while away for us yet...

I'm so glad to hear that you got it all sorted and I wish you the very best. It would be great if you could keep this thread updated with how you're getting on with the planning and any advice you have to give for others planning a wedding.

cowhands

Have read through the whole tread like the OP we were considering borrowing for our wedding (Sept/ Oct 2012). Being honest we have bank accounts and credit unions all over the place.

Bank accounts

I have one
He has one

(both current personal accounts)

He has a savings account (which has very little in it)
We both have a joint one for bills and mortgage repayments
And then we have a small (very small) joint savings one for emergencies

Credit Unions

Then I have a credit union account in Laois (which has a large sum still on it which I am paying back weekly - never miss a payment - still have 2 years on it)
And he has a work credit union (small 3k loan on it which is he paying back weekly)
We then decided to open a joint credit union bank account in Wateford (where we live and work) to start saving for our wedding.

But after reading this thread I dont know if this was such a great idea! We would be able to save €100 a week for this year leaving us with €5200 in shares and then we would like to hit it for the wedding money - start putting deposits and planning into action.
Having said that, I read that we would be better off going either taking out a small load first as it increases our credit rating or either sticking to one of our own old credit union accounts as we have previous loans on them. It all seems so messy! Our wedding budget would be around €15,000 and would like to pay it off as soon as possible.
Any advice would be VERY welcomed.

EnglishPollop

cowhands wrote: »

Have read through the whole tread like the OP we were considering borrowing for our wedding (Sept/ Oct 2012). Being honest we have bank accounts and credit unions all over the place.

Bank accounts
I have one

He has one

(both current personal accounts)
He has a savings account (which has very little in it)

We both have a joint one for bills and mortgage repayments

And then we have a small (very small) joint savings one for emergencies

Credit Unions
Then I have a credit union account in Laois (which has a large sum still on it which I am paying back weekly - never miss a payment - still have 2 years on it)

And he has a work credit union (small 3k loan on it which is he paying back weekly)

We then decided to open a joint credit union bank account in Wateford (where we live and work) to start saving for our wedding.

But after reading this thread I dont know if this was such a great idea! We would be able to save €100 a week for this year leaving us with €5200 in shares and then we would like to hit it for the wedding money - start putting deposits and planning into action.
Having said that, I read that we would be better off going either taking out a small load first as it increases our credit rating or either sticking to one of our own old credit union accounts as we have previous loans on them. It all seems so messy! Our wedding budget would be around €15,000 and would like to pay it off as soon as possible.
Any advice would be VERY welcomed.

If you're paying off both your CU loans weekly with no missed payments, they might just lend you more on top of what you have currently borrowed?

My bf has 'topped up' his loan a few times, they were more than happy to do it as he had never missed a payment.

Go in and have a chat with one of the staff, I'm sure they'll be able to tell you what you can borrow based on your current earnings etc...good luck!

kizzabel

apply for the loan (and save) in whichever credit union you have the longest/best history with.

i wrongly thought we would be best to open a cu account where we now live but i was 100% wrong.

it turned out my cu account in my hometown is our best option as it has savings and my family have been members since it opened.

i had a chat with the loan officer and i can draw down a 3k loan and top it up. our plan is to get a 3k loan for deposits etc, pay it back easily over the next year and then we can top up and use my savings to cancel across when the final loan is low enough.

cowhands

kizzabel wrote: »

apply for the loan (and save) in whichever credit union you have the longest/best history with.

i wrongly thought we would be best to open a cu account where we now live but i was 100% wrong.

it turned out my cu account in my hometown is our best option as it has savings and my family have been members since it opened.

i had a chat with the loan officer and i can draw down a 3k loan and top it up. our plan is to get a 3k loan for deposits etc, pay it back easily over the next year and then we can top up and use my savings to cancel across when the final loan is low enough.

Kissabel, thats exactly what we were thinking, get a joint credit union account, save into it and then borrow and pay back. Im very gratful I have come across this thread now. I too have a credit union account in my home town a couple of years now and only ever had one loan on it (quite a big one though). He has one threw work that he has borrowed small amounts from over the last few years. We must look into who's credit union account is going to be the best option. Its all about credit history really. We would do the same and pay backt he remainer with any shares we would have in it.

petite

I applied for c/union loan last week and got approved today - wohoo!
Have been saving with them since Feb - applied for 2 times my savings and got it no problem.
Didn't have to show payslips or bank statements either which i'm amazed about.

Such a weight off my mind having it as a cushion for wedding stuff coming up.

cowhands

Going to speak to the credit union in Waterford on Fri tell them outright what our plans are and see what position we would be in to borrow. If that doesnt look good then we will look at our old credit union accounts