Money Co-op

Money Co-op is a credit union: a not-for-profit financial provider whose members save together and lend to each other. It offers its members savings accounts and loans, and it is the firm behind the names The Co-operative Credit Union, The Co-op Credit Union and Co-op Credit Union. Its website is www.themoney.coop¹.

The most important thing to know if you have money with it, or a loan from it, is that its entry on the FCA Financial Services Register currently reads "Authorised - applied to cancel"¹. That means the firm has asked the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to cancel its authorisation, the step a firm takes when it intends to stop carrying out regulated activities. This page explains what that means for members, what Money Co-op offers, how credit unions work, and where your protection stands while the cancellation is in progress.

Money Co-op has applied to cancel its authorisation

The FCA Financial Services Register shows Money Co-op's firm with the status "Authorised - applied to cancel", with an original status effective date of 02/07/2002¹. A firm does not land on the register in that state by accident. Firms can apply to voluntarily cancel their authorisation, for example if they are no longer carrying out any regulated activity, and the FCA describes cancellation as meaning the firm "can no longer carry out regulated financial activities"³. The register is the place to watch: it will show the status as it changes, and it is the authoritative record rather than anything a caller or emailer may tell you.

The rules behind cancellation give a sense of the timescale. Under the regulations governing authorised firms, one ground for cancelling an authorisation is that "the person ceases to engage in business activity for more than six months"⁴. In other words, a firm that stops doing business can have its authorisation taken away, and a firm that has decided to stop can ask for that outcome itself. While the application is pending, the register still lists the firm as authorised, which is why the entry reads "applied to cancel" rather than simply "cancelled"¹.

What can a member do? First, check the register yourself using the reference number 213649, which is exactly what the FCA tells consumers to do to check whether a firm is authorised³. Second, keep records of what you owe or what you have saved, and take your instructions only from the firm's own website, www.themoney.coop, or from official bodies¹. Third, be alert to the fact that firms in wind-down attract fraudsters: anyone who contacts you out of the blue claiming to help recover your savings, for a fee, is a familiar scam pattern. The FCA's own guidance on firms that are no longer authorised is that consumers are advised to avoid dealing with them³.

What Money Co-op is: the Co-op's credit union

Money Co-op is a credit union, and a credit union is a specific kind of institution. Citizens Advice Scotland describes it as "a self-help co-operative whose members pool their savings to let each other borrow money at a low rate of interest"⁵. MoneyHelper, the free government-backed money service, puts it another way: a credit union is a not-for-profit financial provider that helps people access banking products like bank accounts, savings and loans⁶. Debt charity StepChange adds that credit unions exist "to help members in need of financial support"⁷.

The Co-op connection is in the name and the history rather than in ownership by a bank. Money Co-op's firm appears on the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority list of "Credit Unions incorporated in the UK"². It also appears in FCA material in another connection: the FCA's buy-now-pay-later information lists "The Money Co-op (Metro Moneywise Credit Union)" among firms registered for the temporary permission regime to provide DPC agreements⁸. That is a regulatory footnote rather than something that changes what a member does, but it confirms the firm has been active in regulated markets beyond plain savings and loans.

What a credit union sells is membership rather than products in the way a bank sells accounts. Members save into a common pool, and those savings fund loans to other creditworthy members⁹. Any surplus is applied for the members' benefit rather than paid out to outside shareholders, which is why credit unions are described as not-for-profit community lenders providing affordable loans and savings¹⁰. For a fuller explanation of the sector, see our guide to credit unions.

Money Co-op is not the Co-operative Bank

The names are close enough to confuse anyone, so it is worth being clear. Money Co-op, the credit union described above, is a completely separate institution from The Co-operative Bank. The bank is a full bank, with its own authorisation, its own product range and its own charging structure; the credit union is a member-owned co-operative whose permissions cover lending and accepting deposits¹.

The differences matter in practice. A credit union is not a bank and cannot offer overdrafts, mortgages, electronic banking services and payment methods or business loans in the same way as a bank¹¹. So if you are looking for an overdraft, a mortgage or business banking, a credit union is not where those products live: our guides to current accounts, mortgages and loans cover the wider market.

The Co-operative Bank, for its part, publishes its own account charges and terms under its own name, and its material states that smile is a trading name of The Co-operative Bank p.l.c.¹². None of that has anything to do with Money Co-op. The bank also appears separately in official material, for example in the FCA's cash access regime, which covers The Co-operative Bank plc for Great Britain only¹³. If you hold accounts with both institutions, they are separate relationships: money with one is not money with the other, and a complaint about one goes to that institution, not its near-namesake.

Loans from Money Co-op and how credit union lending works

Money Co-op's FCA permissions allow it to enter into regulated credit agreements as a lender, with three exclusions: high-cost short-term credit, bill of sale agreements (logbook loans) and home collected credit agreements¹. In plain terms, it can lend to members in the ordinary way, but it is not authorised for the high-cost end of the market. Credit union lending works differently from bank lending in its very structure: members' savings are used to fund loans to other creditworthy members of the credit union⁹.

How much a credit union will lend, and to whom, varies. All credit unions can lend small amounts of money for all purposes, and some can lend larger amounts over longer periods, for example to buy a car or for home improvements¹⁴. Eligibility also varies between credit unions: some lend as soon as you become a member, while others only lend after you have saved with them for a set period, and all will check affordability against the money you have left after paying your bills¹⁴. Credit unions describe their loan products as suited to individual needs and at rates members can easily afford¹⁵, though the actual cost of any loan is a figure to check with the lender itself before signing anything.

If you are borrowing to pay off other debts, be careful. A consolidation loan works by paying off your creditors with money you borrow, then making monthly payments to pay off the loan instead¹⁶, but StepChange warns that "these loans can actually add to your debt or take longer to pay off"¹⁶. And whatever the lender, the general warning about short-term borrowing stands: "If you can't repay the full amount in time then your loan rolls over, your debt escalates and you could get into financial difficulty"¹⁷. If you are struggling with repayments, our debt guide sets out the free help available.

Savings with Money Co-op

The other half of Money Co-op's permissions is accepting deposits¹, which is what savings with a credit union are. All credit unions offer savings accounts and loans¹⁸, and saving with a credit union is the same basic act as saving anywhere: you pay money in, it is held for you, and you take it out when you need it. The difference is what happens behind the scenes, because your savings are the pool that funds loans to fellow members⁹.

Getting money out of a credit union can work in several ways. Options include cashing a cheque at a local Post Office, cash from a local credit union office, payment directly into a bank account, or a debit card at a cash machine if the credit union operates a current account¹⁴. Which of these Money Co-op offers is a question for its own website, www.themoney.coop¹, particularly while its authorisation cancellation is pending.

Credit union current accounts, where offered, are basic facilities rather than full bank accounts. MoneyHelper sets out what is usually free with one: paying in or taking out cash at the credit union, having money paid in such as wages, benefits and pensions, online, mobile or telephone banking, and budgeting advice and support⁶. What a credit union account will not give you is an overdraft or the full range of payment services a bank provides¹¹. For the wider savings market, including how savings accounts differ and how ISAs work, see our savings guide.

Who could join Money Co-op

Credit union membership is based on a common bond¹⁸. Anyone can become a member, but you must share that common bond with other members, and the bond is typically based on the area you live in, the occupation you work in or the employer you work for¹⁸. That is how credit unions stay small and mutual: the members have something real in common, and the union serves that community.

The bond often reaches further than the individual member. Anyone in the house of a person with a common bond with a credit union can usually join⁷. So if one person in a household qualifies through their job or where they live, the rest of the household can generally join too. Wales has its own official encouragement of the model, describing credit unions as not-for-profit community lenders providing affordable loans and savings¹⁰, and the sector exists across all four UK nations.

Whether Money Co-op is still accepting new members is another question its pending cancellation raises. A firm that has applied to cancel its authorisation is winding down its regulated activities³, so the practical answer may be no, or no for much longer. Check the firm's website and the FCA register before applying¹. If you want to find a credit union you could join, Find Your Credit Union is the sector's own search service, and our credit unions guide explains the common bond rules in more detail.

Other names Money Co-op trades under

The FCA register lists four current trading names for Money Co-op's firm: The Money Co-op, The Co-operative Credit Union, The Co-op Credit Union and Co-op Credit Union¹. They are all the same firm, with the same reference number, 213649, and the same permissions. If you have paperwork that says "Co-op Credit Union" and a statement that says "The Money Co-op", you are dealing with one institution, not two.

The names matter when you check a firm's status. Searching the FCA register for any of these names should lead you to the same entry, but the surest route is to search by the reference number³. This is also where confusion with The Co-operative Bank creeps in, because the bank's own material uses the Co-op family of names too: smile, for instance, is a trading name of The Co-operative Bank p.l.c.¹². A trading name tells you nothing on its own about which firm you are dealing with; the register entry behind it does.

Managing your account and getting in touch

Money Co-op's website address, as listed on its FCA register entry, is www.themoney.coop¹. That is the address to use for anything about your account, and the register itself is the place to verify the firm's current status³. Be wary of lookalike addresses or anyone who contacts you first: wind-downs are a favourite hook for scammers, and the standard advice is to take five and verify independently before acting on any unexpected contact about your money.

If you have a loan with Money Co-op and repay it by continuous payment authority (CPA), a card payment the lender takes automatically, you have rights over that payment. Cancelling a payday loan payment stops the money leaving your account¹⁹, and when you cancel a CPA you are telling the people you owe that they do not have permission to use your card details in the future, so any further payments taken would be unauthorised²⁰. You can cancel by contacting the company taking the payment, or cancel directly with your card issuer, which must stop payments immediately once you have done so²¹. The Financial Ombudsman Service has published a case study confirming the rule: when a customer requests cancellation of a CPA, the bank is required to do so, regardless of the arrangements between the customer and the lender²². Cancelling the payment does not cancel the debt itself, so get advice if you cannot afford the repayments: our debt guide lists free sources of help.

A few life situations call for particular steps. If you are unable to manage a bank account, for example because of illness or disability, contact the office that pays your benefits or pension to discuss the options available²³. If the account holder has died, you will need to contact the organisations holding the person's financial accounts to close or change them, including banks and other providers²⁴. In Scotland, the Money Talk Team offers free help with money matters via the moneytalkteam.org.uk website or by calling 0800 028 1456²⁵.

Is money in Money Co-op protected?

Money Co-op is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and credit unions as a class are regulated by the FCA²⁶. It also appears on the Prudential Regulation Authority's list of credit unions incorporated in the UK². Its permissions include accepting deposits¹, which is the activity that savings with a credit union fall under.

The reason the register status matters so much is that consumer protections in UK financial services are tied to authorisation. The FCA's guidance is that once a firm's authorisation has been cancelled, it can no longer carry out regulated financial activities, and consumers are advised to avoid dealing with it³. The same principle runs through official warnings about unauthorised dealings: the Take Five campaign, for example, warns that with unregulated investments "you could lose all your money and may not be protected by the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme if something goes wrong"²⁷. While Money Co-op remains on the register as authorised, its status is the thing to check before relying on any protection.

If you have borrowed rather than saved, the position is different: a loan is money you owe, and it does not disappear if the lender stops trading. If your account is suspended, you will not be able to borrow any more money, and a credit or store card will no longer work²⁸, but the balance remains payable. Keep making payments as instructed by official channels until told otherwise, and if you cannot afford them, contact a free debt advice charity rather than stopping payments silently. If you are ever approached by an unlicensed lender, licensed moneylenders are regulated by the FCA and must follow their codes of practice²⁹, and loan sharks should be reported: nidirect's guidance on dealing with loan sharks explains how²⁹. Our consumer protection guide explains the protection landscape in full.

Complaints and where to get help

Complaints about a credit union follow the standard financial services route. First complain to the firm itself, through its own complaints process. If you are unhappy with its final response, or the time limit for responding has passed, you can take your complaint to the free Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)⁶. The ombudsman's own guidance is that its online form will guide you through the information needed³⁰, so you do not need to write a legal letter. The ombudsman publishes complaint data by product area, which shows how the volume of complaints across financial firms is tracked³¹.

Payments complaints have a parallel route. The Payment Systems Regulator advises contacting your financial provider by phone in the first instance, and says you can also contact the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are still unhappy³². One protection worth knowing about when you move money is Confirmation of Payee: with CoP, banks can check the name on a new payee's account as well as the sort code and account number, which helps catch misdirected payments and some scams³³.

If Money Co-op's wind-down leaves you out of pocket and someone offers to pursue compensation on your behalf for a fee, know the rules around claims companies too: you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are unhappy with the service you have received from a claims company, for example the results of your claim or the fees charged³⁴. Free help comes first, though: MoneyHelper for general money questions, StepChange, National Debtline or Business Debtline for debt, and the ombudsman for disputes. Our debt guide and scams and fraud guide list all of them.