Welcome to the 'Bank of Ann' - West Midlands community hero's award-winning credit union that helps Black Country people in financial strife

"You can argue about the kids, you argue about money, or you will argue about sex," she says.

She offers no advice about the other two, but if you're having problems with your finances, Ann might be able to help.

As Bloxwich's answer to Bank of Dave star Dave Fishwick, there is little that fazes the chief executive of Walsave Credit Union. 

"We've seen some terrible things," she says. "We had a young lady Christmas Eve who came into us, her partner had stolen her card, she'd got no money, but we helped her over the Christmas period, we gave her some funds, we made sure she got somewhere to go, we try to tap into any resources we can."

She describes Walsave, which initially started out in 1996 as a service for employees of Walsall Council, but is now open to the general public, as the borough's best-kept secret.

It is one of approximately 246 credit unions across the UK, serving about 1.8 million customers. Effectively, they are not-for-profit community banks, offering savings and loans for people who live in the area, with a strong emphasis on personal service. 

"We don't offer banking apps," she says, adding that, where possible, members are positively encouraged to come into the branch in Bloxwich High Street and talk to a member of staff. 

"If they telephone us they won't be asked to press different buttons, they will speak to a human being," she says.

But without the advertising budgets of the financial giants, many people are unaware of the services they provide. 

"People see the sign and they think we're a trade union," she says.

Walsave, which was the overall winner in last month's Express & Star Business Awards, is not specifically aimed at people with financial problems. But just like her famous counterpart, whose TV series Bank of Dave saw him helping people negotiate all sorts of financial hurdles, Walsave's emphasis on one-to-one service means Mrs Lote and her staff inevitably find themselves talking to people who are finding life difficult.

"I would say maybe around about 40 per cent of our membership have had or having some type of difficulty," she says.

Her staff are not trained to offer financial advice, although they do point them in the direction of professionals who are qualified to help. What they can do is offer tailor-made accounts to help them manage their budgets.

"We sit them down, we do a budget with them," she says. "We then ring-fence their personal finances. So if they have, say, an income of £1,500 and their bills are £1,000, then we'll ring-fence that £1,000 to pay the bills, and then the £500 we will give them either weekly, fortnightly or monthly."

This has become a common problem since Universal Credit switched from being paid weekly to monthly, she says meaning many people struggle to manage their finances.

What, in her experiences are the major causes of people getting themselves into financial difficulties, and how can they be avoided?

"You can be going along really well with life, really, really well, can't you, and then something will hit you," she says. "You can have an illness. You can lose your job, you can have a marriage break-up. You can have a child that's become poorly, and it all has an impact on that household and the finances."

A slight change in circumstances can also turn Theresa May's famous 'Just About Managings' into 'Unable To Manage', she says.

"We've got a generation of young families who are working, they've got two jobs, they're trying to keep their heads above water, and there's no real help for that type of criteria," she says.

"If you're on benefits, you've always got somewhere to go, you can go to food banks. With people who are working, it's a little bit more difficult to tap into these resources." 

Mrs Lote says Walsave does have contacts with many charities and organisations who can help in this respect.

She says money can also be used as a weapon when relationships break down. 

"There's a lot of financial abuse, both for women and for men," says Mrs Lote. "There was a man recently who split up with his wife, she took everything, and he had got nothing. So we helped him with the deposit for a flat, and we had a lovely thank-you letter from him, to say that we had helped him out of a difficult position."

In the recent past, payday lenders have presented problems. Now largely extinct as a result of tighter legislation, their aggressive marketing tactics and lax lending criteria often lured people into a cycle of debt.

"There used to be a lot of doorstep lenders operating in the area," she says. The problem with these was often the strict, short-term conditions of the loan meant that borrowers would keep going back for more.

"If you haven't got 100 quid today, and  then you get paid and give us £100 pound back out that money, you're not going to be able to manage the rest of that month because you're in the same position as the month before," she says. She says Walsave would look at how realistic that timescale would be, and maybe suggest a series of smaller payments over a few months, to gradually clear the debt.

"Payday lenders didn't do that. They just kept saying, OK, if you haven't got the money, borrow again. Borrow again. And that was what the issue was."

She observes that the younger generation tend to have a very different outlook to financial management, a much more relaxed attitude towards debt.

"The younger generations sometimes think it's a right to have what things they don't have the money for," she says. "It used to be you saved and you didn't have it until you paid for it, but the younger generations want it now.

"I think a lot of it's the media and peer pressure, they see their friends are doing it. 

"Sometimes we have to reel them in a bit, if they've had a loan for a 52in plasma TV, and two months later they want a loan for an iPhone, we do restrict the lending, but I do think the younger generation is more relaxed about lending than the older generation."

To this end, Walsave goes into school to help educate the younger generation about money management, but she says delayed gratification can be a hard sell for young people. 

"I think it will filter through eventually, but that has to filter through. It's difficult to get them to save, because they want it now," she says.

And getting the savings habit, says Mrs Lote, is the perhaps the most important thing anyone can do to avoid financial problems further down the line - even if it's only a small amount.

"Even if you only save £1 a week, that's £52 you've got to spend at Christmas," she says.