American United Family of Credit Unions

American United was excited to announce at the annual meeting on March 15, 2012 our intended plans to merge with Credit Union One.

Credit Union One was founded in 1951 to serve IGA Supermarkets, the Utah Transit Authority, the Union Pacific Railroad and several other associated groups.

Although both credit union’s boards have voted affirmatively on the issue, the merger is not finalized, and details are subject to change.

American United was one of several credit unions, including some very large credit unions, vying to become Credit Union One’s choice for a merger partner, but American United’s dedication to our membership and pledge to be the difference that makes a difference, ultimately won out.

Both American United and Credit Union One are excited for this change and the additional opportunities it will provide to serve our members.

Credit Union One currently operates three locations, all of which are shared branching locations which can conduct shared branching transactions for American United members.  Branch locations are 2687 West 7800 South in West Jordan, Utah; 8621 South 700 East in Sandy, Utah; and 3226 South Main Street in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Salt Lake City VAF Federal Credit Union was founded in 1935 to serve the employees of the VA Regional Office in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Located inside the VA Regional Office, the VAF Branch is our smallest branch, but it just might have the most dedicated members.

The new regulatory environment surrounding the financial industry has made it increasingly difficult for small credit unions to continue their mission to serve their members, and VAF was no different.

On July 1, 2011 the merger with American United was completed, and the list of products and services available to credit union members was drastically expanded.

The VAF Branch continues to serve credit union members for limited hours of operation at its location of 550 Foothill Drive #208 in Salt Lake City, UT.

Big Valley Federal Credit Union was founded in 1978 to serve the members of the UAB organization.

Although Big Valley has served its members well for many years, a desire to offer a broader selection of products and services led Big Valley to seek merger opportunities with other financial institutions and the merger with American United was finalized on January 1, 2011.

Since the merger, the Big Valley branch has undergone a renovation and opened its doors as a CU Service Center, shared branching location.

The Big Valley branch is American United’s best location for servicing members in the southern end of Salt Lake Valley, and Utah County.

The Big Valley Branch continues to serve both credit union members and shared branching members at its location of 247 West 12300 South #C in Draper, Utah.

First Californian is the only member of the American United family who was not the result of a merger.

Opened on February 23, 2009, the First Californian Division of American United was founded to “serve the underserved” members of the Tribal Volunteer Employee Advocates group, which is an outreach service group for Native Americans and their employees, based in Murray, Utah, yet has extensive membership in southern California.

The Morongo Branch of the First Californian Division operates to serve the members of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and their employees.  The Morongo reservation is located in Riverside County, near Palm Springs and the Morongo tribe owns and operates a casino in Cabazon, California.

American United and First Californian pride ourselves on our ability to offer a wide selection of financial products and services previously unavailable to many of our tribal members, along with selection of uniquely tailored products ideally targeted to the specific needs of the Morongo community.

The First Californian Division continues to serve credit union members at its Morongo Branch location of 19750 Seminole Drive in Cabazon, California.

BluesPlus Federal Credit Union was founded in 1961 to serve the members of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Utah.

BluesPlus and VAMCU completed their merger on January 1, 2007 and together formed American United Family of Credit Unions.

BluesPlus continued to operate as the BluesPlus branch of American United, within the Regence building in Cottonwood Heights until early 2011.

Due to restructuring of the Regence offices and a desire to focus more on the community at large, the credit union decided to relocate the BluesPlus branch and on May 1, 2011 the now renamed Fort Union branch was opened at its new location on Fort Union Boulevard.

The Fort Union Branch continues to serve both credit union members and shared branching members at its location of 2277 East Fort Union Boulevard in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

Originally founded in 1952 as the Fort Douglas VA Hospital Federal Credit Union, the credit union began serving members out of a small room inside the VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The primary focus of the credit union was to serve the employees of Fort Douglas and the VA Medical Center.

The credit union quickly outgrew the small space and during the 1970’s the credit union was moved to the current location of the VAMCU branch, between buildings 4 and 5 on the VA Medical Center Campus.  Later a second floor was added to the building, which has served as the corporate offices for American United.

In 1980, the credit union’s name was changed to VAMCU Federal Credit Union.  The name VAMCU was derived from Veteran Affairs Medical Credit Union, emphasizing the credit union’s primary membership of the VA Medical Center.

The 2000’s brought many changes to VAMCU.  This included the NCUA granting a community charter, expanding the credit union’s membership to include all of Salt Lake County.  The credit union also underwent a major renovation, appointed a new President and CEO, Phillip Patten, who proposed the American United name and concept of a “family of Credit Unions” coming together to save the affinity and unity felt in smaller Credit Unions, yet gain strength through working together for the benefit of the members.  Soon after, the newly created American United added its first member of the family of Credit Unions from the merger with BluesPlus Federal Credit Union.

The VAMCU Branch continues to serve both credit union members and shared branching members at its location on the VA Medical Center campus, at 500 South Foothill Drive in Salt Lake City, Utah.

American United’s corporate offices are located in the second floor of the VAMCU Branch.

American United Family of Credit Unions Federal Credit Union has been serving members since December 1952.

The credit union is a wholly member-owned non-profit cooperative financial institution, dedicated to serving the financial needs of its members.  We pledge ourselves to be the difference that makes a difference in the lives of our members.

Membership in American United is open to anyone who lives, works, worships, volunteers, attends school, or associates in Salt Lake County, Utah and credit union members can also invite their relatives to join, even if they do not associate in Salt Lake County.

As of the end of 2011, American United serves over 9,000 members, with five branches in Utah and California.  Current plans will double the credit union’s membership and add three additional branches in Salt Lake County, Utah by early 2013.

To help members get to know their credit union better, we’ll be posting more about American United’s Family of Credit Union branches in the coming weeks.

Part Five of a Five Part Series

By Matthew Tingey, Lending Manager, American United Family of Credit Unions

It’s the American Dream, owing your own home, a new car, maybe even a boat or ATV; perhaps for you it’s that perfect wedding or vacation destination.  But your dream may be out of reach in your credit is far from stellar.  And even if you can get the credit, poor credit could mean you pay a lot more for your dream.  A few percent of interest may not seem like much, but it adds up considerably over time.

And it’s not just those large purchases anymore.  Bad credit could mean higher insurance rates, being declined a job offer, or other issues.  Even relationship experts are encouraging individuals to get a credit report before committing to someone.

Maybe you already know you’re credit isn’t on par with your dreams, so what do you do?

The good news is there is something you can do.  You don’t have to give up that dream just yet.  Based on the cyclical nature of credit reports and credit scores, if you perform better, your score will get better.  Those past mistakes may haunt you for a few years, but as they become older and your new positive history grows, your credit score will grow too.

Try to plan ahead.  The longer you know in advance of a large purchase, the better you can prepare to ensure your credit is in the best shape possible once you’re ready to make the purchase.

If you are hoping for a rapid increase of your credit score, paying down maxed out credit cards is usually your best bet.  You’ll want to do this 60-90 days ahead of time since most organizations only furnish data to the credit bureaus on a monthly basis.

For more long-term results, you’ll want to work on all aspects of your credit as a whole.

Make your payments on time.  If you’ve been having late payments you’ll want to start making those payments on time.  The late payments won’t go away, but the more time that passes since they occurred the less and less they will affect your score.

Avoid derogatory public records.  If someone is indicating an intent to sue you, this should be taken very seriously.  Not only can this cause garnished accounts or wages and levies on property, it also has a negative impact on your credit score.  Also, in many cases, failure to appear in court will result in a default judgment (meaning that they win by default because you didn’t appear to contest it).

Build positive credit.  This can be difficult once you have established a poor credit score, but there are a lot of organizations that are willing to consider lending despite a poor credit score.  Unlike many other financial institutions, American United Family of Credit Unions will not decline an application for credit based solely on credit score.  To be clear, a loan can still be declined, and credit score can still be one of the reasons for the decline, but unlike many other organizations which decline any application which does not meet a certain credit score level, American United will still consider the application.  Bear in mind that interest rates are likely to be much higher due to a lower credit score, and other criteria which lenders utilize to underwrite loans (such as employment information and income information) are likely to be weighted much more heavily.  American United does offer one other option which can help establish improved credit.  It’s called our Credit-Builder loan and is available to most members regardless of credit score.  While most loans provide a disbursement of funds at the beginning of the loan, followed by repayment, the Credit-Builder loan provides disbursement of the funds after the loan has been repaid.  This is similar to just placing money aside for savings, however having a Credit-Builder loan will involve paying interest while utilizing a saving product involves earning interest.  The sole benefit of the Credit-Builder loan is establishing a positive credit tradeline.

Collection accounts.  This one gets a little tricky.  Once a collection account reports, the majority of the damage to your credit score is done, and paying the collection isn’t going to make up all of the damage.  Sometimes a collection account is older and has become inactive, meaning that it is having less impact on your credit score.  Sometimes, the benefits received from paying a collection account won’t outweigh the negative impact of that account showing as recently active, when it had been inactive.  However, many lenders do look positively at paid collections even if the impact on your credit score is negligible.  Many people would recommend paying a debt if you owe it, no matter what impact it has on your credit score.  However, if your intent is solely to improve your credit score, there may be other areas which will result in better results for your efforts.  If a debt is active and regular collection attempts are being made, it’s probably worth paying, especially if they are pursing judgment against you.  If there is an older inactive collection which you have no intent to pay, you should not contact the collector, as this is likely to result in the account being flagged as active, which will not only result in attempts being made to collect it, but possible negative impact on your credit score due to the recent active status of the account.

Bankruptcy.  Most items on your credit will remain for 7 years, however, bankruptcy items will remain for 10.  And many lenders chose not to provide services to an individual with a recent bankruptcy.  On the other hand, many lenders will gladly provide services to someone with a recent bankruptcy, because the individual has limited debts and they can charge very high interest rates.  In any case, a bankruptcy causes lasting negative affects to your credit score.  Anyone considering bankruptcy should do so carefully.  Many consumers do not understand why lenders look at bankruptcy so negatively, this is because many consumers do not realize that a bankruptcy does not mean your debts simply disappear, it just means your liability to pay them ends; the lender still suffers the loss.  Anyone considering filing bankruptcy should do so carefully and consider the full outcome of that decision.  Often lenders are willing to work with an individual to determine a solution which is more beneficial to both the lender and the consumer, rather than bankruptcy.

The amount of information available on the subject of credit scores and reports is extremely vast.  We’ve attempted in these articles to provide a brief yet thorough explanation of the questions we hear most often.  However, if you have additional questions there are numerous reliable resources available.

Much of the information for this series of articles came from www.myFICO.com.

If you’d like additional information, there are many resources available, including the credit bureau’s websites, www.experian.com, www.transunion.com, www.equifax.com; the Fair Isaac Corporation’s website, www.myFICO.com; and the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection website, http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/consumer/credit.shtm.

Part Four of a Five Part Series

By Matthew Tingey, Lending Manager, American United Family of Credit Unions

In this modern age, your credit report and credit score, are really your reputation.  It tells businesses whether they can trust you, and affects how much you’ll pay for services.  Therefore, it’s extremely important that you know how to protect your credit.

If this feels like déjà vu, don’t be surprised, much of what we’ve covered in the previous articles applies here too.

The best way you can keep your credit score from decreasing is to pay all your bills and pay them on time, keep your balances low, and keep your credit diversified.

Surprisingly, many consumers consistently pay their bills late, thinking that as long as they don’t go over 30 days past due, they’ll be okay.  And although this is strictly true, it’s not recommended.  That period of time during which a debt is late, but isn’t late enough to reflect on your credit report should be considered a security back-up, not the normal.  If for example, you were to accidentally forget to pay a bill for several weeks; if you regularly pay before the due date, you have several weeks of cushion before the delinquency has a negative effect on your credit.  However, if you regularly pay 2 or 3 weeks late, you may exceed 30 days late before you notice your mistake.  It’s important to remember that when you sign a contact indicating a payment is due by a certain date, even if it won’t negatively affect your credit until 30 days after that date, many states allow lenders to collect that debt well before the 30 days occur; and many debts include severe penalties for delinquency such as late fees, reduced services or increased interest rates.  Ultimately, the best practice is to always pay on time.  And you don’t have to pay on the due date, you can always pay a few days or weeks early (although some organizations won’t allow payments months in advance, either counting them as extra payments or refusing to accept them at all).

As mentioned in the previous articles, having high balances on accounts, particularly revolving accounts such as credit cards, can negatively affect your credit score, even if you are making your payments on time.  Lenders want to see you using credit cards, but they want to see you using them wisely.  Keeping cards maxed out, or never using cards can both have a negative effect on your credit score.   Fortunately, if you’ve already reduced your credit score due to either of these issues, they’re both relatively easy to recover from.

Keeping your credit diversified is also a good way to protect your credit score.  Lenders want to see that you utilize all types of credit, so using a diverse mix of installment loans such as vehicle loans, mortgage loans, and revolving credit can have a positive impact on your credit.  Whereas, focusing too specifically on one type can have a negative impact.

Many times we see individuals who in an attempt to save money, have reduced or eliminated the credit they have borrowed, and closed out accounts.  Although this can save a considerable amounts of money, over the long-run it can reduce or even eliminate your credit score.  This can make it extremely difficult to gain credit when you may need it the most.

There are ways to reduce or eliminate the cost of credit without eliminating the use of credit entirely.  For example, by using credit cards for purchases no greater than what you can pay each month, and then paying the card in full as soon as you receive the statement, in most cases will eliminate paying interest for the card (however, be sure to check your card agreement, some credit cards don’t have these interest grace periods, or have minimum interest charges or annual fees).  Also, when you get installment debt, choosing a shorter repayment term and higher payment will sometimes result in a lower interest rate, and always results in a lower amount of interest paid over the life of the loan.

In addition to protecting your credit from reduced scores, it’s equally important to protect your credit from identity theft.  Unfortunately, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States, and it can happen to even the most careful of us.  But there are some steps we can take to protect ourselves.

First, you should monitor your credit on a regular basis.  The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that the three major credit bureaus provide all consumers with their credit report for free once per year.  Visit www.annualcreditreport.com to access yours.

Second, use caution when providing personal or account information with organizations.  When it is an organization you know and trust, a reasonable amount of information is acceptable (such as providing the last-4 of your social when calling the credit union) and is even necessary to protect you, but when it’s an organization you don’t know or trust, use extreme cautious.

Third, no legitimate organization will ever call or email you asking for you to provide secure information such as social security number or account numbers.  If an organization you have a relationship is contacting you for some reason, they’ll be able to provide you with a good explanation of why they’re contacting you and will only request enough information to verify they are communicating with the right party.

Fourth, remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  There are hundreds of scams designed to take advantage of desperate individuals, and in this economy they are flourishing.  Anything asking for you to put your own money on the line for some future payout is taking advantage of you.  Legitimate organizations do not work like that.

Fifth, consider why someone is requesting this information.  Try to put yourself in their shoes.  There are dozens of legitimate reasons organizations request personal information from you, but if it doesn’t seem like the requested information is needed for the stated purpose, you should question it.

Sixth, read and review all account statements.  Never just throw them away.  Most lenders will only allow disputes for a certain period of time, so failing to report fraudulent activity is just as good as claiming responsibility for it.

Finally, there are a lot of automated systems which exist to make our lives easier, and online shopping and ATMs are typically some of the safest tools available, but there are some concerns with these systems.  When using ATMs and similar devices, examine the machine before using it, if something looks suspicious or out of place, report the concern and don’t use the machine.  When conducting business online, make sure you only give your information to trusted websites, which you navigated to directly (such as typing in the address instead of clicking a link in an email), and which are secure (look for https instead of http in the address and an image of a lock on your web browser).

Ultimately, if you worry that your identity may have been stolen, immediately contact all your lenders.  They will have guidance how to proceed based on what information you believe may have been compromised.  Place a fraud alert on your credit report (you can do this through any of the credit bureau’s websites, and they’ll usually submit it to the other bureaus for you).  Review the FTC and Credit Bureau websites (see end of the article for address) as they will have additional advice and recommended steps to take.

Repairing credit which has been damaged by identity theft can be a difficult process, but recent legislation has improved the results that consumers can expect to achieve.

The best solution is vigilance.  If you keep track of your accounts, the transactions on those accounts, and your credit report, you are more likely to catch problems before they happen or while they are still small.

In the final article we will discuss ways to improve your credit and prepare for those large purchases.

Much of the information for this series of articles came from www.myFICO.com.

If you’d like additional information, there are many resources available, including the credit bureau’s websites, www.experian.com, www.transunion.com, www.equifax.com; the Fair Isaac Corporation’s website, www.myFICO.com; and the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection website, http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/consumer/credit.shtm.