Talking Money – A Q&A with Plane Saver Credit Union

Tuesday 23 January 2024

This week, Plane Saver CEO, Valerie Walwyn-Tait MSc & Victoria Copeland from the Money and Pensions Service joined on YouTube as they participated in a live Q&A about money from a live audience.

The event was designed to break the stigma around talking money and to encourage people to have more open and honest conversations about their finances.

“As a society, we see being in debt as failure or not succeeding and therefore people are really uncomfortable talking about it,” says Valerie. “It’s all about having a dialogue and conversations about things that make us slightly uncomfortable or vulnerable, so that people are aware it can happen to anyone.”

Echoing Valerie’s words, Victoria adds: “It’s a cultural thing and as a society we need to relax about it. This is something we recognise at our annual event ‘Talk Money Week’, which is a whole week of trying to get people to sit down and have conversations with things that worry you about money or topics you don’t understand.”

Evidence suggests, 26 per cent of working age adults in the UK have no savings and 1 in 4 workers have lost sleep over money worries. Credit unions offer savings and affordable credit facilities with payments deducted from pay. Discussing the benefits of saving with a credit union, Valerie said: “I’ve lots of conversations with members who cannot believe how much they’ve saved through the credit union without noticing the money absent from their monthly wage. It’s a discipline that becomes a habit and for many years I’ve tried to persuade people saving is a good thing for a rainy day – that rainy day has been the covid-19 pandemic and to have some funds available to relive you from financial stress, is very important.”

You can watch the full Q&A on the Plane Saver YouTube channel here.