People's Choice Credit Union
People's Choice Credit Union is one of Australia's largest credit unions, offering loans, credit cards, transaction and savings accounts, financial advice and insurance.
People's Choice has more 375,000 members and more than $10.7 billion of funds under management and advice, making it one of South Australia's largest businesses in 's annual SA Business Index.
It has branches across South Australia, Victoria, the Northern Territory, the ACT and Western Australia and, as a customer-owned financial institution, says it is an alternative to the ‘big four’ banks.
People's Choice was created through the merger of Australian Central Credit Union and Savings & Loans Credit Union in December 2009, and traces its origins to 1949.
People's Choice Credit Union is involved socially and economically with its members and the wider Australian community including:
- The People's Choice Community Lottery, which has raised more than $19 million for thousands of not-for-profit organisations across Australia;
- A corporate social responsibility partnership with Cancer Council SA;
- Employee fundraising and volunteering, with almost $40,000 raised for charities in 2018/19;
- Sponsorship of major community events such as the Adelaide Strikers' men's and women's cricket team and the Bassinthegrass festival.
History
People's Choice Credit Union represents a series of credit unions that have merged since its 1949 origin, including the Northern Territory Credit Union. In August 2009, it announced plans to merge with another credit union, Savings & Loans, with the first post-merger branch opened in December 2010.On 27 June 2011, members of the credit union voted to change the name to People's Choice Credit Union. This change was adopted on 18 July 2011.
People's Choice turned 70 in April 2019.
Structure and regulation
People's Choice is a credit union, a member-owned structure where its customers are also shareholders, a structure that the association representing the sector says avoids the conflict where listed entities must deliver the best outcomes for shareholders and not members or customers.People's Choice is an authorised deposit-taking institution supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. As a financial institution, it is also supervised by the and, with its financial planning business, holds both an Australian Financial Services Licence and an Australian Credit Licence. It is regulated by the Banking Act 1959 and the Corporations Act 2001, and its members are covered by the $250,000 deposit guarantee under the Federal Government's .
Funding
People's Choice completed a $650 million offering of residential mortgage-backed securities in 2019. The offering was launched at $500 million but was extended to $650 million after receiving $1.4 million in bids. Light Trust 2019-1 was priced at 102 basis points above the 1-month Bank Bill Swap Rate, making it one of the best-priced mature offerings in recent times.Awards
People's Choice Credit Union has been recognised with numerous awards for its products and services, including:- First homebuyer support: Customer-owned institution of the year for first homebuyers in Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
- Customer satisfaction: Credit union of the year, outstanding customer satisfaction, excellent customer service, customer satisfaction for everyday banking.
- Service and trust: Highly trusted, staff friendliness and most recommended.
- Home loans: Most satisfied customers for home loans, best home loan package, Most Recommended Home Loan, Non-Major Bank.
- Personal loans: Personal Lender of the Year, best car loan and the top-of-the-line five stars from CANSTAR for its Discounted Personal Car Loan.
- Deposits: Best value term deposit for long-term, medium-term, best term deposit, best savings account. CANSTAR has awarded People's Choice a five-star rating for transaction and savings accounts in 2018 and 2019.
- Credit risk management: Best Credit Risk Management 2019.
Products, services and branches
- Youth banking: Fee free transaction and savings accounts for members from the ages of 0-25.
- Transaction and savings accounts
- Club 55 account: Fee free transaction account for members aged 55 and over.
- Credit cards
- Debit cards: including Cuscal rediCARD and Visa Debit
- Lite, fixed and variable rate home loans
- Personal loans
- Car loans
- Internet banking: including mobile apps
- Phone banking: including SMS banking
- Digital wallets: including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay
- Insurance
- Bank@Post
Affordable and liveable housing
People's Choice has developed an index of housing affordability and liveability to help people looking to buy a house. The People's Choice of Housing analyses suburbs for whether a financial institution is likely to lend to a couple on ordinary income and expenses for a median-priced home in that suburb, the cost of buying that home and a series of factors summarising whether people are likely to want to live in that suburb.It launched its Adelaide index in April 2019, and its was launched in October 2019.
It lists as the following in April 2020:
| Rank | Suburb | Area | Median House Price |
| 1 | Montmorency | North | $839,000 |
| 2 | Burnside | West | $618,500 |
| 3 | Gowanbrae | North | $699,000 |
| 4 | Watsonia North | North | $741,500 |
| 5 | Noble Park North | South East | $606,000 |
| 6 | Seabrook | West | $626,500 |
| 7 | Ringwood North | East | $883,300 |
| 8 | Avondale Heights | West | $815,000 |
| 9 | Sydenham | West | $576,500 |
| 10 | Oak Park | North | $912,500 |
It lists as the following in April 2020:
| Rank | Suburb | Area | Median House Price |
| 1 | Modbury North | North | $346,500 |
| 2 | Direk | North | $309,990 |
| 3 | Aberfoyle Park | South | $432,650 |
| 4 | Redwood Park | North | $387,000 |
| 5 | Paradise | East | $497,500 |
| 6 | Northgate | North | $565,000 |
| 7 | Lower Mitcham | Inner South | $741,000 |
| 8 | Surrey Downs | North | $380,000 |
| 9 | Glenalta | South | $555,000 |
| 10 | Dernancourt | North | $460,250 |
Both Melbourne and Adelaide reports are released every six months in April and October.
Response to the coronavirus COVID-19
People's Choice introduced a number of support measures for its members coping with the impact of COVID-19, including pauses on repayments, reduced repayments and allowing redraw of advance payments where appropriate. The measures are separate from financial hardship provisions and are aimed at helping members in financial difficulty.People's Choice has also created a summarising what it is doing and what Governments are doing to help with the coronavirus.