News

March 2023 – Community Savings are delighted to launch a new mobile app to help members manage their money more effectively – see below for the press release:

Local charity Community Savings has launched an app that helps its Members stay in control of their finances. The app offers a simple online interface allowing its Members to view balances and transactions, undertake transfers between their accounts and access news and useful information to help them budget and manage their finances more effectively. 

Steve Eldred, Managing Director of Community Savings, explained, “We’ve received a lot of feedback from our Members, who have explained that it can be quite time-consuming to manage their money using our current protocol. For example, they must call or email us whenever they want to query their balance or a transaction or request  a transfer.” 

A Member from the Charity recently said, “I’d often be on my phone up in the middle of the night, working out how much I’d need for whatever was next, and I’d have to go through the process of composing an email, which could take a weary 10 minutes and a lot of effort sometimes.” 

“Thanks to the new application, our Members can now easily access their accounts to view their balances and check recent transactions at the touch of a button,” added Steve. 

Funding and support for the application were donated by local financial adviser and investment management firm, SaSo Strategic Advisers. Their CEO, Meeku Patidar, was incredibly keen to support this initiative as he understands the value of technology in helping people manage their money.  

“We are delighted and proud to be able to support such a worthwhile initiative for those that need it most. SaSo Strategic Advisers is centred around providing technology to its clients by offering them a portal. It allows them to self-serve and see the performance of their financial plans. It is great that we can support a similar initiative for Community Savings in the current environment. We hope its Members find the portal helps them manage their money more easily. 

Steve Eldred added, “We are hugely grateful to the SaSo Strategic Advisers team for their support in funding the costs of this online tool.  Whilst we remain conscious of those needing our close support with their finances, particularly during these current times of economic challenge, some of our Members seek the convenience an online tool provides.  This will equip them with real-time information to enhance their budgeting capabilities.” 

February 2023 – we currently have a vacancy at Community Savings. We are recruiting for a Fundraising & Communications Officer. This is a part-time role, involving 16 hours a week. For further details, please see our LinkedIn or Facebook pages: https://www.linkedin.com/company/community-savings-jersey/ AND https://www.facebook.com/communitysavingsjersey

January 2023 – we are delighted to have received the following feedback from two of our members:

We helped this lady with advice and signposting:
“Thank you for the information and thank you today for your kind and reassuring words, they really helped and I will be forever grateful to you. I felt so ashamed to ask for help, you dealt with my situation with such empathy I really can’t thank you enough. 
I think the world needs more people like you. 
Thank you so much”.

We have provided emergency funding for this member to enable her son to compete in UK football club trials:
“I just wanted to let you know that my son is doing fantastic with football. He is going for trials at Fulham FC this Sunday for 1 week ( it is an 8 week programme) so he will be going back and forth over the coming months. I just wanted to thank you for all of your support over the years, it would have been a real struggle without it so again thank you”.

December 2022 – Community Savings are delighted to be taking part in the SOJ ‘Closer to Home’ event, focussing on cost of living and winter pressures. This is taking place next Thursday 8th December, 3pm – 6pm, at the Salvation Army, Minden Street, St Helier. It is free to attend, so come and find out more! For further details, visit: gov.je/closertohome

November 2022 – we currently have 2 vacancies at Community Savings. We are recruiting for a MLCO/MLRO and for a Fundraising & Communications Officer. For further details, please see our LinkedIn or Facebook pages: https://www.linkedin.com/company/community-savings-jersey/ AND https://www.facebook.com/communitysavingsjersey

November 2022 –

Our TV ad is now live on our ‘Services’ page, under ‘Budgeting and Mentoring Advice’. The ad highlights the support we can provide in terms of budgeting advice and emergency funding, which may be especially relevant with the challenges faced during the current economic conditions

October 2022 –

Listen to our radio advert! You can find it on our ‘Donations’ page

Being the Managing Director of a successful company that helps businesses find skilled employees, you might be forgiven in thinking that Lee didn’t need much help to get where he is today. But it may surprise you to learn that when he set up GR8 in 2018, he was still one of our customers receiving financial support.

“Getting me on back on track to where I am now, Community Savings made everything easier from providing an account to supporting me with practical budgeting guidance,” Lee says. “This might sound like a bit of a cliché, but with their help, I realised that it was ok to be not ok. We all go through bad times, so if you need help, ask for it.”

After a successful career in the armed forces and the police, Lee’s dreams of running a hospitality business ended when the business folded. A divorce, various bereavements, mounting debts and having relied on the business for his banking, he was unable to open a personal bank account, this led to a brief period of sofa surfing and relying on social security.

“Being in a dark place is bad and you don’t always want to reach out for support, for fear of stigma and what people would think of me.  I felt like a third-class citizen and considered myself a failure.”

At this point nearing rock bottom, he addressed his issues and sought support through a counsellor and reignited his drive that had all but gone, and then a great opportunity arose.

Lee continued, “I applied for a job with the Government, supporting young people through Advance to Work. But I needed a bank account and every bank in Jersey said no because I had a bad credit history and petty debts claims against the business and in turn me, I was in a bad place.”

Having heard about Community Savings, Lee came in to see us despite feeling embarrassed about using our services. As he began to feel more at ease about the help we were able to provide, he began to rebuild his life. Without being able to open an account with us, his story might have been very different.

Lee says, “It was one of those eureka moments. I decided life was going to change and I got involved in positive thinking and from there I went upwards and upwards. I only closed my Community Savings account two years ago. It was a sad day because I’d had an account for years and every Christmas I would go in with a big bag of cakes or chocolates to say thank you to the team. The staff were so friendly and supportive during the dark times. They made it very easy for me.”