A Westcountry MP has backed calls for locally established credit unions to push payday lenders out of business.
Andrew George is already a sponsor of a Private Members Bill to control irresponsible payday lending companies, who usually charge high interest rates for short term loans.
After welcoming recent comments made by the Archbishop of Canterbury to drive the organisations out of business, he has written to the Bishop of Truro, the Right Reverend Tim Thornton, to support promoting credit unions.
Mr George, MP for St Ives, was instrumental in setting up Cornwall's first credit union and said they were a force for good.
"Payday lenders need driving out of the market and we must promote and encourage credit unions," he said.
"Credit unions are fundamentally about helping families on marginal incomes to overcome the peaks and troughs of their income and get them into a culture of saving when they can."
Cornwall currently has one credit union, which has 2,000 members but is growing all the time.
John Hayworth, secretary of Kernow Credit Union Ltd, said the not-for-profit co-operatives, which are owned and controlled by their members, offered real hope.
"What we offer people who come to us is a friendly face," he said.
Anyone who wishes to borrow from Kernow Credit Union must first be a saver.
"It doesn't matter how much someone is able to save. It could be a £1 a month. But then we are able to make the decision on loans based on how someone has saved.
"We are not always able to say yes, but when we do say no we can talk to the person and tell them what they can do to make it possible to borrow in future.
"I think credit unions are important because it educates people about the link between saving and planning for the future.
"A lot of people do have bad credit ratings or can't get a loan because perhaps they are freelance or don't own their own home. I can see why people do go to payday lenders, but they should come to credit unions as well."
In the USA and Canada, it is estimated that one in five people are members of a local credit union, but in the UK it is only one in 60.
Mr Hayworth said he hoped this was beginning to change and Kernow Credit Union already had 15 service points throughout Cornwall.
Father Keith Owen, the vicar of St Peter's in Newlyn, has been involved in setting up the latest branch in Penzance, which opens next month.
He predicted it would be a big success: "It's about trying to give people the opportunity to save in a different way and to have another means of dealing with issues like a broken fridge or washing machine."
