'With credit unions you are a person not a number'
BBCSupporters of credit unions have welcomed government plans to support their expansion, saying they offered a safe alternative to loan sharks.
Ministers have promised £30m to support member-owned credit unions, which offer savings accounts and loans, and are planning legal changes to make it easier for them to expand.
Brian Lindsay, from Redcar, who uses the Moneywise Credit Union branch in Stockton, praised its staff and said they treated him "like a person".
"In the bank you're just a number," he said.
Lee Williams, chief executive of Moneywise Credit Union, which has branches in Stockton, Middlesbrough and Byker in Newcastle, said its aim was to provide affordable products and a flexible approach.
But he acknowledged credit unions suffered from low levels of public awareness.
"We're not here to make loads of money," he said.
"We're here to try and help the community and help those people that can't get help elsewhere."
Williams said the work of credit unions was particularly important at a time when cost-of-living pressures were forcing vulnerable people into financial difficulties.
He said: "We have got a huge problem with loan sharks in the local area and we do a lot of work with the illegal money lending team.
"And some of the stories you hear from them are quite, quite horrendous."
He said credit unions were by contrast "very highly regulated" and offered "safety".
Christine Shearer, 74, also a regular at the Stockton branch, said she had been a credit union member for decades, using it for savings and loans "for the larger things, like washing machines".
She said members were treated with "care and respect".
Recent Bank of England data suggests around two million people in the UK are members of a credit union.
Association of British Credit Unions head, Matt Bland, said Britain needed to catch up with higher rates of membership in other countries.
He said that the government's £30m investment would make it easier to increase the reach of the sector.
