Family Loan
Borrow up to £500 by using your Child Benefit for repayment.
Do you receive Child Benefit?
By paying your Child Benefit directly into your ETA account, you could borrow up to £500.
Get help spreading the cost of whatever your family needs – school uniform, household items, family holiday – you name it!
Benefits of Family Loan
- Borrow up to £500 by simply paying your Child Benefit into your ETA account.
- 36% APR.
- Repayment term between 7 months and 12 months. *
- Free loan protection insurance (T&Cs apply). **
- No early repayment penalties or admin charges.
- Build up your savings as you borrow.
* The minimum term has been calculated at 7 months to ensure all members who have one child or more can apply for this loan.
** Loan protection insurance terms & conditions
All loans are subject to credit and affordability checks and our lending criteria.
To be eligible you must...
- Be in receipt of Child Benefit and agree to have it paid into your ETA account.
- Be over 18 years old.
- Live or work in our Common Bond (East Scotland) *
- Have a high street bank account or ENGAGE account for disbursement of loan.
- Note: After receiving your first Child Benefit payment, we lock in the one month’s repayment of your Family Loan. Members will be unable to withdraw these shares, which are held as security against unsecured borrowing, unless in an emergency situation. This money becomes available again after your Family Loan is fully repaid.
How to apply
New Members:
Existing Members:
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Who we are
ETA is an award-winning and largest credit union in Scotland’s North East, Central, East and Borders regions. As a not-for-profit, we provide people-first banking to our community so that you can access ethical loans, save easily, and build financial resilience.
We only lend you what you can afford to repay. A credit union loan from us is based on your individual circumstances and assessed based on your affordability.
Family Loan FAQ
Our Family Loan allows families/individuals in receipt of Child Benefit to apply for a loan up to £500 from ETA. If we approve your application, we will ask you to have your Child Benefit paid directly into your account with us.
Anyone who lives or works in our Common Bond, works for/has a relationship with one of our Select Partners or is a member of Community Trade Union, and receives Child Benefit can apply for a Family Loan.
Note: existing members already using their Child Benefit for their personal loan do not qualify for taking out a Family Loan.
The whole of your child benefit will be paid to your account with EuroTrust Credit Access. Part of it will be used to make your
loan repayment and a small amount (£1pw/£4 every 4 weeks) will be held in a savings account for you which cannot be withdrawn
until your loan is paid in full. You can decide what happens to the ‘surplus’ amount. It can be left in a second savings account,
withdrawn or split between savings and withdrawal. If you choose to have some of your Child Benefit paid back to you, it will be paid at the end of the same working day. Or if using a ETA ENGAGE account we’ll transfer this at 9.30am on the day we receive the money, and funds should be in your bank account by 11.30am.
When your application is approved, we’ll ask you to contact the Child Benefit office to arrange for your benefit to be paid in to
your credit union account. When we receive the first payment we’ll send you a loan agreement to sign electronically. As long as
the agreement is accepted, the loan will be paid out at the end of the same working day (on the day we receive the funds). Or if using a ETA ENGAGE account, and before 15:30 Monday to Friday, your funds will be in your account by the end of that working day. If the agreement is accepted and signed after 15:30 it will be the next working day (please note we do not operate during weekends or on Bank Holidays).
Your Family Loan balance can never be more than £500 and you can only have one loan at a time.
You can Top Up your Family Loan when you have repaid 1/3 of your original loan. If you had a £500 this means you will be able to
top up when your balance is below £333. You can track the balance of your Family Loan by registering for our App or Member Portal.
Members can apply for a standard EuroTrust Credit Access loan at any time. The amount we can lend you will depend primarily on your income & expenditure. This loan application may also be subject to a credit check.
You can make a Top Up application by logging into our Member Portal or app. We will process the top up and email you a
new Loan Agreement which you can sign electronically. There is no need to call into a branch to do this.
Your savings with the credit union are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), so your money is just as safe as it is in a bank or a building society.
If you want to withdraw some of your savings you can arrange this yourself on our App or Member Portal.
Any funds withdrawn from within the Member Portal or mobile app are transferred immediately and if transferred before 3pm will arrive in your account that day before 5pm. However, transfers that happen after 3pm will arrive in your bank the following business day before 5pm.
Members can clear the balance of a loan at any time and we do not charge any early settlement fees for this.
When members last child reaches the age of 16 the Child Benefit stops on 31 August on or after the child’s 16th birthday if they leave education or training. It continues until the age of 20 if they stay in approved education or training, but the members must tell the Child Benefit Office for the payment to ETA to continue.
If the CHB stops for any of the reasons above, then the member will be asked to repay the outstanding loan amount in full or apply for any of the other ETA loan products and will be subject to the ETA lending assessment guidelines.
Any loan with EuroTrust Credit Access is automatically covered by our free loan protection. In the event of your death, any
outstanding loan balance will be paid off – T&Cs apply.
