Holiday Savings in New Orleans, LA

With the holiday season approaching, Paulithia Perkins wanted to start saving money for family gifts. She wasn’t necessarily looking for a new financial institution when she noticed the Hope Credit Union sign on Dryades Street. “When I saw the name HOPE, I decided to see if they’d live up to their name,” she says. Paulithia started with a Christmas Club account before taking out a low-interest loan to help pay down mounting credit-card debt. Paulithia says the loan also helped build her credit. Paulithia wants to eventually apply for a home loan. Until then, she’s spreading the word to her friends and colleagues about HOPE. “It’s an asset to the neighborhood and to the community. It gives us hope to have credit.”