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One. Thank you for joiningus for a small talks for big change

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where we help simplify financial topicsto help with your financial wellness.

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Greetings, everyone out thereand thanks for tuning into the show.

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October is an awesome time of the year,especially here in the Bay

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Area, California.

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We’ve got some of the most

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beautiful fall landscapesand the last of the summer sunshine.

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October marks the start of the holidaysfor us and for credit unions.

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We celebrate international CreditUnion Day mid-month,

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which is meant to raise awarenessabout the amazing work that credit unions

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are doing around the world.

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And we’ve donelots of episodes about what Patelco does

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for the communityand for members financial wellness.

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But today we want to comparethe differences of credit

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unionscompared to other financial institutions.

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And to bring some perspectiveto the conversation, we’re joined today

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by Joseph Luke,who’s our central operations supervisor

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and former regional teamlead in our retail division.

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Welcome to the studio, Joseph.

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Thank you. Thank you.Thank you so much for having me.

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I hope we have a sensorbelly button ready.

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no, it’s not going to me.

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No, not at all.

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This is a family program.It really is, Joseph.

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I recently found outabout your background.

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That includes music and deejaying,but also that you used to work

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for a check cashing business,which I thought was really interesting.

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So we had to get you in here to haveyou share your experience

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with providing financial servicesto the community.

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But before you introduce yourselfin your career background,

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I just want to clarifythat we’re talking vinyl and turntables.

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Absolutely.

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Vinyl and turntables.

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Yes, that. That unfortunately.

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No. Dig at anyone out there.

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That’s that’s the realthat’s the right deejaying. Right?

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It is very much so.

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But I’m actually pleasantly surprised.

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I, I do audio on the side,so I get all these audio magazines being

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sent to me and I’m actually seeing vinyland turntables are making a comeback.

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that’s good to hear.

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And in people’s homes,which I think is really cool.

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But I also think we might be showingour age by posing that a little bit.

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Yeah, because there was definitelysome listeners that were like, What?

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Yeah, Yeah.

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Just on Apple Music, you know?

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So tell us about your background.

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So I have a pretty diverse background,

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so depending how far back we go.

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But just mentioning deejaying.

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So that was somethingI did at a very young age.

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I used to actually set up and sell deejay

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equipmentand customized systems for people.

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And I think, again, I canI can tie this in to very early age.

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I was used to dealing with the public.

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And so the public can come in.

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Everyone has different needs, right?

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Everyone has different goals.And so they’re coming for certain things.

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And I would make surethat we can kind of tailor

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what we had in this case, equipment

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that would really dowhat they needed to do.

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Some people would come in, have no ideawhat they were looking for.

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They just knew they wanted to, you know,do someone’s wedding or party or whatnot.

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Right.

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And it was like really taking a step backto make sure it’s like, okay, what

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can we get this personthat’s going to really just fit the need?

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And I think, you know,all kind of make sense.

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When I look back on it now, right?

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That was when I was very young. And

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again,it was me really just I just enjoyed it.

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I enjoyed every aspect of it.

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I enjoyed seeing those people come backand hearing about their successful event,

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you know, and that the things

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that we got them really fitwhat they were looking for.

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And yeah, and so kind of started there

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from there.

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I was always kind of in that environmentor was definitely always a, you know,

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a service and always actuallyalways a service environment.

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And I did that for some years.

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I did a lot of

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I actually worked in multiple differentmusic stores and things like that.

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And then going forward,I actually found myself

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quite literally, it wasit was a fluke, like totally random.

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I was talking to this personthat ended up being a manager for,

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for lack of a better way of putting it,a private owner that had a bunch of check

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cashing locationsand they literally just like, Hey,

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would you ever consider comingand working with us?

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And yeah, it was quite literallyjust like that and was like,

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yeah, let’s give it a shot.

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You’ve got away with people.

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You could be good at this.

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Our, my shop.

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Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.

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Right.

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So that’s, that’s,that’s pretty much what happened and then

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I went there, started off and

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just built up from there, really startedat an entry level position with them.

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I’m happy to say, acceleratedpretty quickly, went into management

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with them and then into even fastforwarding to being a trainer for them.

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And I ended up actuallybeing one of their head trainers

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that trained quite literallyevery person up and down.

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This this individual had many locationsall the way down to San Diego.

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I trained there and then also would head uptheir, community events and such.

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And that’s I think really in all honesty,what kept me there

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as long as I was there was because theythey really did, surprisingly enough,

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I’m sure for many people, they had athey had a strong community presence.

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And it was something like, for example,they did an annual backpack giveaway.

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That was a huge, huge eventand a lot of really

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under-banked communitiesthat was that was really powerful.

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Like I really loved really that aspect

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of running into the kids even later.

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And they were pointing like, thank you.

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And like,it was such an awesome thing, you know?

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And that is in all honesty, probably that.

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And I’d probably say the,

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the training development aspect waswhat kept me there as long as I was there.

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Yeah, for sure.

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And we don’t have to name names,

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but we are talking like a checkcashing type of place.

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But you guys did more than that.

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Yes. So they didthey did a wide variety of things from,

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you know, loans, all of that. Yes.

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We definitely won’t name names.

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They’re a rather big institution.

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It was owned by one individual.

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For some reason, he’d only domeetings at night and he wore a cape.

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But I don’t know,maybe that’s something for later.

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But it really I was

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there really when I thought back about it,you know,

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when we first had a great conversation,it even got brought up.

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You know, I kind of asked myself

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when I walked away that day, like,why was I And I think it was those core

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those two core things that was thatI could do those community involvement.

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I can have that involvementwith our local community,

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which is is a very important thingfor myself.

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I’m a kid born and raisedhere in the Bay Area and the development

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aspect, like I had a lot of,I loved bringing in and giving opportunity

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even in such environment wherewe can really develop people as myself.

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Like I had a lot of people come throughthat ended up going into management

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and then doing the same,leaving to other financial institutions,

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leaving to other venturesand venues in their life.

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And it was just really awesome to seeand just be a part of that development.

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Yeah.

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So inin addition to check cashing and loans,

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was that just me, the basic servicesthat you guys were offering?

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Primarily? Yes.

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And they did a lot of that filler stuff,

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but pretty much everythingyou can think of there.

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Yeah, just all that stuff there, really.

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They did get people set up on

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creating direct deposit avenuesand things like that.

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But again,not always the best low cost options.

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Right? And that’s always the thing. Right?

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And it’s like and that was always,you know, the part was like,

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I think, you know,we can still do a little better. Yeah.

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And how long were you there?

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I was therefor a considerable amount of time.

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Like again, probably longerthan I really would have been

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if it weren’t for the positionthat I got to where I was able to kind of.

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Then it was more, again,about the people development

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and really that side of thingand training.

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Even the managersand going to these classes,

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I was able to go and, you know,build on my own skills in other ways,

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but I was there for a while.

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And then honestly, at some timeI kind of asked myself the same question,

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like I was kind of, you know,I still I wanted to expand for myself.

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And so that is is literally what happened.

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I came home, I was noticing I was kind of,

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you know, getting in this routineand I wasn’t, you know,

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entirely to

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I just knew I wanted to do more.

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Yeah, for sure.

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But I wanted to take what I’ve built onand again, back to the core of who I am

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and how I needed to be somethingthat’s, that’s,

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you know, highly community involved. Yeah.

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Highly in the,you know, into the development,

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you know, how do we give back,

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you know, and honestly, justhow do we give the best service possible.

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And I started just checkingand I always really,

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really had a high affectionfor credit unions.

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And I just startedlooking into the different credit unions

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in our area and in particularreally just stood out to me.

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And I would say thatlike I remember going on the website

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and justseeing a ton of the community involvement

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and everything was just members,members, members, you know.

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And then I also had a friend of mine,there was a long time Patel

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co member and I remembereven just mentioning it to him

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and he was like,and that would be awesome.

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You should,you should definitely go there,

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you know, and, and a total coincidence,I think I was mentioning it to a,

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another friendI at a family at their house

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and his mom comes walking into the roomlike I love for telco, you know

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and it was just like, this is like reallyjust kind of reinforce it for you.

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It really, really did. Like,like big time. Yeah.

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And then again, yeah.

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So I was like,yeah, this is this is the place. Yeah.

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And there’s a lot of stigmaaround these check cashing

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type places, but the reality is they,they serve a purpose for the community.

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There’s this sort of need in the communityin terms of financial services.

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And I think I’m hearingfrom your perspective,

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you were part of the communityproviding a service.

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You work for a placethat also did do some community outreach

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which filled your bucket,just found out about credit unions

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and thought you might make the leap,that it might inspire you more.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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And create a bigger bucket in general,you know?

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Exactly. And that is a thing, too.

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And I think that also is what

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when I came here, I think that also helped

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fuel my, you know, my passion for service,which is really always been there

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as I was.

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We were talking off off camera, you know,and just a little bit of everything I do

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because I did recognizethat there are such a huge again,

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underbanked out therethat a lot of the times

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when we have conversations,it’s just the knowledge isn’t there.

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Sometimes it’s not aware of the productsthat are out there

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you know, especially and I’ll speak for,you know, with the Patelco,

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you know, is a large majorityof what we wanted.

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I mean we have products for everybody.Yeah. And that’s what’s great.

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Yeah.

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And it sounds like you had an momentlike some of our community members do.

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They just are not aware of,of what we offer.

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They think that might betheir only option. Absolutely.

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I think that’s so cool.

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Our community team teachesyoung people in high schools and colleges,

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as you know, about financial institutions,and we make sure

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that the first part of our curriculumis really an introduction

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to financial institutions before budgetingand saving before anything else,

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and just making everyone awareof all of the options out there,

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because not all financial institutionsare created equal.

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And this is not a

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a bashing episode where, you know,we talk about we’re better than another.

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Every financial institutionserves a purpose in the community,

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and they all kind ofhave the same goal of taking care

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of the community members,whatever their needs happen to be,

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what they all have incommon is providing these banking

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services, right, no matter whatyour preferences happen to be.

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But you know that those intentionsand missions for

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in which they dobusiness are very different.

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You’ve you’ve seen thatnow that you’ve been here at Patelco.

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So our mission here,as you know, is to provide or to improve

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financial well-being in comparisonto working at another institution.

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How do you see credit unionsor have you seen credit unions applying

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that mission in action?

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I’ve seen them

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really I might be getting ahead of usjust just in so many ways.

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So like, for example,providing financial well-being,

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there’s something that comes to mind.

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It was actually I almost want to sayit might even have been my first year

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here with the telco and actually I’llshare a story because this pops in my head

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when it’s really about providingfinancial well-being, because this one

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obviously was near and dear to myself.

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So we would get this feedback right.

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I’ll stay away from technical terms,but I’d say a member, you know,

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it was an experience.

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Maybe certain things didn’t go possiblythe way that it could have gone.

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So they’ll submit feedback andget another one shout out to the telco.

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You know, that stuff gets reviewed.

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It’s not just going down

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a void with theselook looked at by individuals like myself.

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And we take that and we say, you know,what can we do for for these individuals,

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for our members?

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And I remember specificallyI was working with these this

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the member feedback that we werereceiving one day and it was individual

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I came across and the feedbackwas basically that he was very frustrated.

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You know, he had

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you have to excuse me

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again, I’m going all off from memory here.

00:13:07:20 – 00:13:09:18
He had applied for,

00:13:09:18 – 00:13:12:18
I want to say, a vehicle loan

00:13:12:22 – 00:13:15:03
and maybe didn’t work out for him.

00:13:15:03 – 00:13:19:08
And I think then like a positivecredit card again, you have to,

00:13:19:20 – 00:13:23:04
you know, excuse me totally from memoryhere, but I came across it.

00:13:23:04 – 00:13:26:19
And overall what I seen was the tone wasthe individual was frustrated.

00:13:26:20 – 00:13:28:21
Yeah, right. And it seemed like he washe was trying to get into something.

00:13:28:21 – 00:13:30:03
Some things weren’t working out for him.

00:13:30:03 – 00:13:34:18
So I called him and just of course,just we just started talking.

00:13:34:21 – 00:13:36:20
And then what really came to mindis I’m sitting right.

00:13:36:20 – 00:13:38:10
And then, you know,I seen him is jumping ahead.

00:13:38:10 – 00:13:41:00
I kind of needed to do this.I needed to do that. But then

00:13:42:05 – 00:13:43:17
I was well, you

00:13:43:17 – 00:13:46:17
know, we do have like, have you ever heardof a secured card product?

00:13:47:11 – 00:13:49:13
You know,we just sort of to most people don’t know.

00:13:49:13 – 00:13:50:10
No. And I

00:13:50:10 – 00:13:52:09
and I kind of had to take a step backfrom myself as well,

00:13:52:09 – 00:13:54:19
because at first it came into more like,you know, how how can I

00:13:54:19 – 00:13:57:17
you know, this here, this individual,I’ll see what we can do for him.

00:13:57:17 – 00:14:00:01
But then it just kind of popped inand of course, was not.

00:14:00:01 – 00:14:03:02
And this is one thing again about Patelcothat I’ve always, always loved is it

00:14:03:02 – 00:14:06:02
wasn’t we’ve never it’s never been like a

00:14:07:23 – 00:14:11:09
nothing pops in my headto do it for a pressured type environment.

00:14:11:09 – 00:14:13:12
You know, it’s like,what can we do to help?

00:14:13:12 – 00:14:14:12
And that’s what’s been great.

00:14:14:12 – 00:14:18:06
And so we get in this conversationand he again, never had heard of that

00:14:18:15 – 00:14:20:02
secured card, You know, what is that?

00:14:20:02 – 00:14:22:13
And we start talkingand the next thing you know, he’s like,

00:14:22:13 – 00:14:24:17
and I’m like, so, you know, we can get youwhat is the goal?

00:14:24:17 – 00:14:26:03
He’s like, Well, I needed to get this car

00:14:26:03 – 00:14:28:10
and X amount of months, you know,And so we just start talking.

00:14:28:10 – 00:14:31:12
And then the conversationcompletely turned around.

00:14:31:12 – 00:14:34:21
The individual ended up comingin, got approved for the secure car

00:14:34:21 – 00:14:39:16
and started building their credit andthen just just totally went from there.

00:14:39:16 – 00:14:44:06
And it was really a proud momentfor myself and being at Patelco and

00:14:45:14 – 00:14:46:03
even more

00:14:46:03 – 00:14:50:00
so, some some of my leadership at the timeheard the story, shared the story,

00:14:50:00 – 00:14:54:04
and that story ended up getting celebratedon one of our organizational calls.

00:14:54:04 – 00:14:55:11
And it just it was just great.

00:14:55:11 – 00:14:59:01
It was just all the way aroundgreat that I knew, you know, I felt good,

00:14:59:08 – 00:15:01:17
as I always want to do, you know? Yeah.

00:15:01:17 – 00:15:03:16
For our service,for our members, for our community.

00:15:03:16 – 00:15:07:09
And it paid off and, and the personwas just totally turned their whole

00:15:07:09 – 00:15:11:14
perspective around and probably moreso I could find the individual’s name.

00:15:11:14 – 00:15:14:01
I’d be so happy to see howwell they’re doing today. Yeah.

00:15:14:01 – 00:15:16:20
And they’re probably shockedthey got that call. Back to your point.

00:15:16:20 – 00:15:17:18
Absolutely.

00:15:17:18 – 00:15:19:19
And we talk all the timeabout the fact that

00:15:19:19 – 00:15:22:19
when you are a member of a credit union,you’re a member owner,

00:15:22:19 – 00:15:25:11
so you actually have a stakein the credit union.

00:15:25:11 – 00:15:30:08
And part of that is having a voiceand getting feedback back

00:15:30:08 – 00:15:32:19
from the credit union. So that’s so coolthat you’re a part of that.

00:15:33:21 – 00:15:35:12
I actually loved doing that.

00:15:35:12 – 00:15:37:20
Yeah, it was great.

00:15:37:20 – 00:15:40:10
That’s a shareI have really quickly inside,

00:15:40:10 – 00:15:43:07
but I always had one where I was callingand this woman I was helping

00:15:43:07 – 00:15:46:09
and I just have to share this becauseit was it was hilarious and I loved it.

00:15:46:09 – 00:15:49:09
But she’s like,and then I was calling on behalf of this

00:15:49:09 – 00:15:52:20
branch and and she’s like,Do you enjoy doing it?

00:15:52:20 – 00:15:55:08
I was like, I do.I really, really believe that.

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Just do it.

00:15:55:18 – 00:15:58:18
And she goes and she goes,Is there something wrong with you?

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I, I sit by youand I hear you on the phone and I’m

00:16:02:02 – 00:16:05:06
always curious about who you’re talking toand what you guys are talking.

00:16:05:06 – 00:16:06:04
So I enjoy it.

00:16:06:04 – 00:16:08:10
Yeah. I enjoy every interaction, you know?

00:16:08:10 – 00:16:11:02
Well, and I’m sure that our membersappreciate just having a soundboard,

00:16:11:02 – 00:16:13:10
being able to talk throughwhatever their financial goals

00:16:13:10 – 00:16:16:00
or their frustrations or whateverit happens to be.

00:16:16:00 – 00:16:16:09
Absolutely.

00:16:16:09 – 00:16:18:15
Again, that’s the beauty of creditunion membership.

00:16:18:15 – 00:16:20:16
That’s the beauty of the creditunion spirit, would you say?

00:16:20:16 – 00:16:21:22
Yeah, definitely.

00:16:21:22 – 00:16:23:03
Absolutely, definitely.

00:16:23:03 – 00:16:25:20
And very differentthan what you were used to.

00:16:27:02 – 00:16:30:02
a 100,000% different, that’s for sure.

00:16:30:05 – 00:16:33:08
What would you say about the differencein types of products

00:16:33:08 – 00:16:36:23
that we have in comparisonto like say, that of a check catcher?

00:16:39:00 – 00:16:41:03
Elma Really

00:16:41:03 – 00:16:44:04
sorry, we’re not the not really noncomparable, you know,

00:16:45:18 – 00:16:47:09
again you know

00:16:47:09 – 00:16:51:06
speaking on your again on educational sideyou know

00:16:51:06 – 00:16:55:09
thinking of that that keeping that memberfresh in mind and things like that.

00:16:55:12 – 00:17:00:02
I mean I have two family membersnow that I’ve personally been able

00:17:00:02 – 00:17:03:02
to assist in that exact same fashionthat was like, hey,

00:17:03:11 – 00:17:05:20
you know, we’veyou want to go, okay, what’s your goal?

00:17:05:20 – 00:17:06:16
We want to go to credit.

00:17:06:16 – 00:17:06:23
Okay.

00:17:06:23 – 00:17:11:10
Hey, we have these awesome products,you know, a secured secured card,

00:17:12:05 – 00:17:15:20
the score of loan, which I think againis it’s an amazing, amazing product.

00:17:15:20 – 00:17:18:21
It’s like quite literally,you know, you pretty much, you know,

00:17:18:21 – 00:17:21:21
building a savings goalor setting a goal for yourself.

00:17:21:22 – 00:17:23:12
At the same time,

00:17:23:12 – 00:17:26:18
you’re you know, the credit unions isis building on your credit score.

00:17:27:03 – 00:17:28:22
You know, I’m in

00:17:28:22 – 00:17:32:14
what says more than that, you know, reallyit’s it’s just it’s amazing.

00:17:32:14 – 00:17:35:03
And again, because we’re mentioning

00:17:36:06 – 00:17:39:19
that other industry, you know,and instant backup

00:17:39:19 – 00:17:43:05
is another one that we have thatI feel like really

00:17:44:08 – 00:17:47:02
that’s I mean, honestly,if there’s anyone listening out there,

00:17:47:02 – 00:17:49:00
I mean, that really fills the void.

00:17:49:00 – 00:17:49:09
Yeah.

00:17:49:09 – 00:17:52:08
Can you talk a little bit moreabout instant backup and how that works?

00:17:52:08 – 00:17:55:01
Yeah, because I would lovebecause in all actuality,

00:17:55:01 – 00:17:56:21
it was really kind of a light bulb momentfor me.

00:17:56:21 – 00:18:01:12
I had a conversationwith one of our leadership again right

00:18:01:14 – 00:18:03:03
when I joinedand we were talking about the other

00:18:03:03 – 00:18:05:13
industry and suchand what we could do to help a lot of

00:18:05:13 – 00:18:07:15
because we have mutual membersand you know,

00:18:07:15 – 00:18:10:17
and that would be one of their customersin some in some instances.

00:18:10:17 – 00:18:15:00
And really instant backupI think is is an amazing, amazing product

00:18:15:00 – 00:18:17:13
that quite literally fillsthat void. Right?

00:18:17:13 – 00:18:20:16
It’s like sometimes, yeah,I totally get I’ve been there.

00:18:20:16 – 00:18:23:07
And so some people,you know, find themselves with a

00:18:23:07 – 00:18:24:03
what a what do they call it?

00:18:24:03 – 00:18:26:08
A little too much monthat the end of the money.

00:18:26:08 – 00:18:27:22
Right. Right.

00:18:27:22 – 00:18:30:20
And it’s like sometimes you just needthat little bit to get you by.

00:18:30:20 – 00:18:35:18
And and that’s why, you know, someof those those companies exist, right.

00:18:35:18 – 00:18:39:00
It’s it’s you have your optionsand sometimes you know, we out

00:18:39:09 – 00:18:43:09
we we have to go with what’s availableand I think in sent backup we didn’t need

00:18:43:09 – 00:18:46:20
at the time of that conversationwe didn’t yet have that product.

00:18:47:08 – 00:18:50:05
But I, I absolutely love that

00:18:50:05 – 00:18:53:05
we do now because I think thatthat was mostly part of our conversation.

00:18:53:05 – 00:18:55:08
Like, you know, it was a really just openconversation like, well,

00:18:55:08 – 00:18:58:10
I wonder what we could do to helpa lot of our community in this way.

00:18:58:16 – 00:18:59:23
And I think we’ve solved that.

00:18:59:23 – 00:19:01:23
I think that is the product.

00:19:01:23 – 00:19:06:09
I mean, it’s quite literally, you know,same same ballpark of dollar amount.

00:19:06:17 – 00:19:10:07
Nowhere in herein terms of like a fee that you would pay

00:19:10:07 – 00:19:13:11
like again,light years away from from that.

00:19:13:11 – 00:19:17:21
And it quite, quite literally fillsthe void for a lot of our members.

00:19:18:08 – 00:19:21:06
Scorpion and sit back up are probablythe coolest products that we have.

00:19:21:06 – 00:19:23:22
Yeah they’re awesome and best keptsecrets, right?

00:19:23:22 – 00:19:26:06
Well, they really are. I think again,I think those are good right?

00:19:26:06 – 00:19:27:20
Yeah, definitely best kept secrets.

00:19:27:20 – 00:19:29:20
Again, it’s all in just what’s out there,

00:19:29:20 – 00:19:33:16
the knowledge that’s out thereand I’m sure there could be a huge,

00:19:34:04 – 00:19:35:18
you know, majorityof our local communities

00:19:35:18 – 00:19:37:21
that don’t even know those products exist.Yeah.

00:19:37:21 – 00:19:40:07
And we’re talkingcredit builder products, folks

00:19:40:07 – 00:19:44:00
that you can take advantage ofand find more information on our website.

00:19:44:06 – 00:19:47:18
Joseph, what would you sayabout the difference with credit unions

00:19:47:18 – 00:19:53:02
in the way of fees and interest rates,both for loans and for savings?

00:19:54:04 – 00:19:55:21
Again, I, I

00:19:55:21 – 00:19:57:12
can keep it short here because it’s

00:19:57:12 – 00:19:59:10
it’s funnyit’s the same kind of conversation I have

00:19:59:10 – 00:20:01:09
when I’m speaking to friendsand family members.

00:20:01:09 – 00:20:05:20
You know, I’m like, go back to you know,the proof is in the pudding, if you will.

00:20:05:20 – 00:20:07:02
You know, it’s there.

00:20:07:02 – 00:20:08:04
I’m like, just compare,

00:20:08:04 – 00:20:1

00:00:00:04 – 00:00:03:00
Welcome to Small Talk’s for Big Change,where we help

00:00:03:00 – 00:00:06:11
simplify financial topicsto help with your financial wellness.

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Thanks for tuning in to the show,everyone.

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My name is Michele Enriquez.

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You’re host of the showand we’ve got a special guest today.

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His name is Ruben Gonzalez.

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He’s our manager of consumerloan Processing.

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Hi, Ruben.

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Hello. Okay, guess what?

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I have a story for you.I would love to know.

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I got my new car, and I know you know thisbecause I bugged your team about it.

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That is super exciting. I know we’ve.

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You’ve reached out to our team,and we were

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trying to get everything in lineand try to get this.

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Get this funded for you.

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Okay, but here’s what happened.I finally got the car.

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We went through the whole process rightabout you guys with 1,000,001 questions.

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I got the car and my first week,and this is my luck.

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Not your fault.

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I go to visit my brother in Long Beach,take my new car for a road trip.

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He has me park in his parking garageand the door to the garage

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stops working just as I’m entering.

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Like it probably works the the whole year.

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But of course, when I come in the doorcomes down on the hood of the car.

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It’s completely scratched up a week old.

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Again, not your problem, but

00:01:16:14 – 00:01:18:18
it was great for the road tripand the trip back.

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I was able to drive it back,but my new car is already ruined.

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That happens.

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I feel like quite a bit.

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You know, when you get that new caryou want to be, you want to be cautious.

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And then that that one thingthat just kicks it off and makes sense.

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It makes a memorable for sure.

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Thank you.

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I wanted to make surewe got you in the studio

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because the the process I went throughwas pretty amazing.

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Your team was super helpful.

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And for everybody listening,Rubin is our manager

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of consumer Loan Processingand he oversees a team of the most

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awesome peoplethat helped me out throughout my process.

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So, Ruben, when it comes to financinga car, your team rocks

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and we had to get you in here so we canshare that with the rest of the world.

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Well, thank you for having me.

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My team does the direct side of autoloan processing.

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They do a fantastic job.

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They’re dedicated to creatinga great experience

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for our memberswhen financing their auto loan.

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I joined Pacheco back in 2018as a consumer loan processor,

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so I have kind of been in the nitty grittyof of the processing parts,

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and I’ve been in the consumer loanprocessing

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and operations space for about ten years,and I’ve worked at large banks.

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And when I came over to Patelco,I really understood

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the credit union, the credit union vibe.

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Yeah, it really did

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make me proudto do work for a credit union.

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You know, purchasingyour first car is is huge.

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Yeah.

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I think for me, making sure

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that the process is explained very well

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and the one thing I definitely

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enjoy is just purchasing that large.

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One of the large purchases,

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you know, making sure that everyeverything is step by step told to you.

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You’re guided through the whole processbecause it’s intimidating.

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And I think that’s the important pieceis having someone kind of walk

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you through all those pieces. Yeah.

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And there’s a lot of moving parts, right?

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I mean, you got to figure out your budget

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and then how much you can affordwhere to find it, and then

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all the little

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steps after thatin order to get it to your door.

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So I started first contactingyou guys early

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on when trying to figure out my budgetand trying to figure out

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when the best timewas in terms of interest rates.

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And I got some great advicefrom your team.

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And what they had told mewas the best time for an individual

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is when it matches their financial goals.

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And I really appreciated thatbecause I was really kind of fixated on

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getting the best rateat the very exact right time.

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And really they had to remind methat it was all about me.

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And when the best time was rightfor my budget and my personal goals.

00:04:09:18 – 00:04:13:09
When you talk to members about rates,what do you tell them about those rates?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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I with Patel, those rates,you know, we’re very competitive.

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As you know, we’ve been in a high rateenvironment for quite some time

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and Patel offers very competitive rates

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and that’s whatmakes us stand out from the larger banks.

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The larger banks,

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you know, when they are pricingtheir loans in there,

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they’re pricing it for profit.

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And where credit unions and Patel caredoes specifically is price,

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they’re loans for membersfinancial well-being.

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And I think that’s super important.

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And that’s what really stands out fromthe larger banks

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is making surethat we are keeping our members in mind.

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And as they are looking for,

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you know, for their rates

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and wanting to make sure that they are

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financially comfortablewith making that large purchase.

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Yeah.

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And that’s so importantthat it fits in your budget, right?

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I got a great rate on my card.

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Thanks to you guys.

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But let’s talk about financial wellnessfor a second, because this show really

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aims to connect our topic to helpingimprove people’s financial lives.

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And to your point,

00:05:21:04 – 00:05:25:01
getting a great car loan rateand affordability is really important.

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But you reminded me in prep for the showthat members can also take advantage

00:05:29:15 – 00:05:30:17
of an auto refinance.

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So it’s not just a first time purchaseor a first time use purchase.

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And then there’s also auto equity loans.

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So this is a big dealbecause you could potentially shave off

00:05:41:09 – 00:05:45:12
hundreds of dollars per monthby considering a refinance, right?

00:05:46:04 – 00:05:47:04
Absolutely.

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Refinancing can be a great optionto lower your rate and a month

00:05:51:02 – 00:05:52:13
and your monthly payment.

00:05:52:13 – 00:05:56:07
A good time to refinance iswhen rates are obviously start dropping.

00:05:56:07 – 00:05:59:20
And, you know, we definitely empowerour members to look at our

00:06:00:06 – 00:06:03:06
at our website to see when

00:06:03:08 – 00:06:05:18
when those rates are changing.

00:06:05:18 – 00:06:07:19
Our refinance process is super seamless.

00:06:07:19 – 00:06:11:19
And once members apply and get approved,my team walk them

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through the whole process step by stepand get in ink to get it completed.

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One of the

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great benefits of our membersrefinancing their auto loan

00:06:20:08 – 00:06:25:00
is they can take advantage of our firstfirst payment due date up to 90 days out.

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Also,anyone that takes the loan from us becomes

00:06:28:21 – 00:06:31:23
a member and has access toall of our awesome products and services.

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Yeah, really cool.

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I found out I don’t have to makemy first payment and talk to.

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I was pretty pumped about that.

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But also in termswe run into in the community,

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a lot of folks that don’t even knowwhat their interest rate is.

00:06:44:07 – 00:06:46:16
We talk about refinanceand a lot of people have to stop

00:06:46:16 – 00:06:48:04
and think about what their rate is.

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So we encourage them to checkand then keep an eye on the rates

00:06:52:03 – 00:06:55:08
to see if it makes sensefor them to refinance.

00:06:55:08 – 00:06:57:14
And then when the time is right,the process is really easy. Right?

00:06:57:14 – 00:07:00:06
We’re talking about24 hours, 48 hours maxed.

00:07:01:07 – 00:07:02:20
So that’s a huge benefit.

00:07:02:20 – 00:07:06:21
But also on our website, we have a checkyour rate feature, right, where you

00:07:06:21 – 00:07:13:09
could just plug in the remaining balancethat you owe some basic information.

00:07:13:09 – 00:07:17:08
And then we won’t even do a hard pullon credit and we’ll give you an estimated

00:07:18:00 – 00:07:20:03
monthly paymentalong with the rate, right?

00:07:20:03 – 00:07:20:16
Absolutely.

00:07:20:16 – 00:07:24:14
It gives you it gives you that breakdownso you can, again, feel confident like,

00:07:24:18 – 00:07:27:04
is this the right move for me rightnow? Yeah.

00:07:27:04 – 00:07:30:04
And I think those toolsare super important along with

00:07:30:09 – 00:07:32:19
the targetdoes a great job informing our members

00:07:32:19 – 00:07:37:02
via email newsletters,you know, keeping the eye on

00:07:37:17 – 00:07:41:01
when rates are changingand just to keep them informed.

00:07:41:03 – 00:07:42:15
Yeah, really good stuff.

00:07:42:15 – 00:07:45:23
And again, if you could take off $100 offyour car payment every month, that’s

00:07:45:23 – 00:07:48:23
a big deal, especially with food costsand all the other calls.

00:07:49:01 – 00:07:50:05
Today’s.

00:07:50:05 – 00:07:50:13
All right.

00:07:50:13 – 00:07:53:08
Talk to us about auto equity or a cash outrefi.

00:07:53:08 – 00:07:53:23
What is up?

00:07:53:23 – 00:07:58:09
Yeah, our cash out refinance is an awesomeproduct we offer to our members.

00:07:59:01 – 00:08:01:09
Most people look at their carand don’t think it’s something

00:08:01:09 – 00:08:04:09
that they could,you know, pull out equity from.

00:08:04:09 – 00:08:07:01
What our cash outrefinance allows you to do

00:08:07:01 – 00:08:10:15
is pull out equity from your vehicleup to 100% of the cash value.

00:08:11:11 – 00:08:14:05
For example,if your vehicle is valued at 30,000

00:08:14:05 – 00:08:19:14
and you owe 15,000, that means you canpull out the remaining 15,000 of equity

00:08:20:15 – 00:08:21:04
and you can

00:08:21:04 – 00:08:24:04
do you know what you would wishwish with that?

00:08:24:07 – 00:08:26:00
You can pay off debt.

00:08:26:00 – 00:08:28:21
We know that auto loans are always

00:08:28:21 – 00:08:31:10
lower rates than a personal loan.

00:08:31:10 – 00:08:34:22
You can get that remodel donethat you’ve been wanting to do.

00:08:35:19 – 00:08:37:19
It’s just a great option for our members.

00:08:37:19 – 00:08:39:19
Yeah,that’s really solid advice. And yeah.

00:08:39:19 – 00:08:43:07
Auto rates typically are about halfof what personal loan rates are.

00:08:43:07 – 00:08:45:04
So that’s a super great tip.

00:08:45:04 – 00:08:46:20
All right. So a couple easy options.

00:08:46:20 – 00:08:48:04
If you’re looking to save on

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monthly payments or get access to cashinstead of having to borrow.

00:08:52:02 – 00:08:53:13
That’s really good stuff, Ruben.

00:08:53:13 – 00:08:57:11
Can we talk about my one of my all timefavorite programs

00:08:57:11 – 00:08:58:20
that we have here at Petco?

00:08:58:20 – 00:09:01:20
It’s called Skip a pay. Right is the best.

00:09:01:20 – 00:09:05:11
I get so much flackfor loving this product,

00:09:05:11 – 00:09:08:14
number one, but I also feel likethis is really unique to credit unions.

00:09:09:15 – 00:09:10:17
Tell us about the details.

00:09:10:17 – 00:09:11:07
Skip a page.

00:09:11:07 – 00:09:12:03
Yeah, absolutely.

00:09:12:03 – 00:09:13:21
Skip a pay is an account feature

00:09:13:21 – 00:09:17:12
that allows you to postpone your loanpayment one month into the future

00:09:17:18 – 00:09:20:23
to provide you a little breathing roomin case you are running into a

00:09:21:07 – 00:09:25:11
if you’re running and short on cashor as other bills come due.

00:09:26:00 – 00:09:30:16
You can use it twice a year and upand there is a $25 fee for each request

00:09:31:07 – 00:09:34:13
as well as interest on your loanthat continues to occur

00:09:34:19 – 00:09:37:19
during the month and paymentthat was skipped.

00:09:38:15 – 00:09:41:10
And I get so much flackbecause my friends are like,

00:09:41:10 – 00:09:45:04
okay, you have to pay this fee,plus you have that little bit of interest.

00:09:45:05 – 00:09:45:20
But you know what?

00:09:45:20 – 00:09:50:10
For folks that have like a $900 carpayment or a $600 car payment shoot

00:09:50:14 – 00:09:54:01
even a $300 car payment,if I can skip that twice a year.

00:09:54:19 – 00:09:55:03
Right.

00:09:55:03 – 00:09:59:02
The benefit it may have to me in my ownwhatever financial stress

00:09:59:02 – 00:10:01:00
or financial health may be worth it.

00:10:01:00 – 00:10:03:18
But the fact that it’s availableI think is a really cool thing

00:10:03:18 – 00:10:05:09
and something that we’re doingfor our members.

00:10:05:09 – 00:10:07:06
Just to give a little relief is needed.

00:10:07:06 – 00:10:08:22
It could beit could be life changing, really.

00:10:08:22 – 00:10:10:17
I mean, especially if there’s someone,you know,

00:10:10:17 – 00:10:13:06
put in a predicamentthat you need that extra funds.

00:10:13:06 – 00:10:16:03
It’s definitely an awesome featurethat we offer our members.

00:10:16:03 – 00:10:17:08
Really cool.

00:10:17:08 – 00:10:21:07
Okay, Ruben, well, thank you so muchfor giving me all that great advice

00:10:21:07 – 00:10:27:01
and helping me get my car and letting memake my first payment in October.

00:10:27:01 – 00:10:28:21
That was a big relief for me.

00:10:28:21 – 00:10:32:20
If you have any questionsfrom today’s show or just want to say hi.

00:10:32:21 – 00:10:36:21
Drop us a line at webinarsat Patel Code.org.

00:10:37:05 – 00:10:41:02
You can find more informationabout our great rates, apply for a loan

00:10:41:02 – 00:10:45:17
or refinance on our website at PatelCode.org slash auto.

00:10:46:01 – 00:10:50:06
Visit one of our 36 branch locationsor at our virtual branch.

00:10:50:06 – 00:10:53:03
All can be found at patelco.org

00:10:53:03 – 00:10:55:21
RubenIt was so great to have you in the studio.

00:10:55:21 – 00:10:58:02
It was a pleasure. Thank you so much.

00:10:58:02 – 00:10:59:03
All right, everyone.

00:10:59:03 – 00:11:01:08
Happy car shopping out there.

00:11:01:08 – 00:11:03:20
We will see you next time.

00:11:03:20 – 00:11:06:12
Patelco Credit union is insured by NCUA.

00:00:00:04 – 00:00:03:00
Welcome to Small Talk’s for Big Change,where we help

00:00:03:00 – 00:00:06:11
simplify financial topicsto help with your financial wellness.

00:00:07:03 – 00:00:09:02
Thanks for tuning in to the show,everyone.

00:00:09:02 – 00:00:10:15
My name is Michele Enriquez.

00:00:10:15 – 00:00:15:03
You’re host of the showand we’ve got a special guest today.

00:00:15:04 – 00:00:17:03
His name is Ruben Gonzalez.

00:00:17:03 – 00:00:20:08
He’s our manager of consumerloan Processing.

00:00:20:08 – 00:00:21:06
Hi, Ruben.

00:00:21:06 – 00:00:23:05
Hello. Okay, guess what?

00:00:23:05 – 00:00:25:18
I have a story for you.I would love to know.

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I got my new car, and I know you know thisbecause I bugged your team about it.

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That is super exciting. I know we’ve.

00:00:34:10 – 00:00:37:10
You’ve reached out to our team,and we were

00:00:38:01 – 00:00:40:03
trying to get everything in lineand try to get this.

00:00:40:03 – 00:00:41:08
Get this funded for you.

00:00:41:08 – 00:00:44:02
Okay, but here’s what happened.I finally got the car.

00:00:44:02 – 00:00:47:21
We went through the whole process rightabout you guys with 1,000,001 questions.

00:00:48:09 – 00:00:51:00
I got the car and my first week,and this is my luck.

00:00:51:00 – 00:00:52:08
Not your fault.

00:00:52:08 – 00:00:56:01
I go to visit my brother in Long Beach,take my new car for a road trip.

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He has me park in his parking garageand the door to the garage

00:01:01:02 – 00:01:02:21
stops working just as I’m entering.

00:01:02:21 – 00:01:06:14
Like it probably works the the whole year.

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But of course, when I come in the doorcomes down on the hood of the car.

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It’s completely scratched up a week old.

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Again, not your problem, but

00:01:16:14 – 00:01:18:18
it was great for the road tripand the trip back.

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I was able to drive it back,but my new car is already ruined.

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That happens.

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I feel like quite a bit.

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You know, when you get that new caryou want to be, you want to be cautious.

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And then that that one thingthat just kicks it off and makes sense.

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It makes a memorable for sure.

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Thank you.

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I wanted to make surewe got you in the studio

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because the the process I went throughwas pretty amazing.

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Your team was super helpful.

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And for everybody listening,Rubin is our manager

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of consumer Loan Processingand he oversees a team of the most

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awesome peoplethat helped me out throughout my process.

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So, Ruben, when it comes to financinga car, your team rocks

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and we had to get you in here so we canshare that with the rest of the world.

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Well, thank you for having me.

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My team does the direct side of autoloan processing.

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They do a fantastic job.

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They’re dedicated to creatinga great experience

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for our memberswhen financing their auto loan.

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I joined Pacheco back in 2018as a consumer loan processor,

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so I have kind of been in the nitty grittyof of the processing parts,

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and I’ve been in the consumer loanprocessing

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and operations space for about ten years,and I’ve worked at large banks.

00:02:32:17 – 00:02:36:07
And when I came over to Patelco,I really understood

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the credit union, the credit union vibe.

00:02:40:02 – 00:02:42:20
Yeah, it really did

00:02:42:20 – 00:02:46:16
make me proudto do work for a credit union.

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You know, purchasingyour first car is is huge.

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Yeah.

00:02:51:16 – 00:02:54:05
I think for me, making sure

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that the process is explained very well

00:02:58:16 – 00:03:01:15
and the one thing I definitely

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enjoy is just purchasing that large.

00:03:05:14 – 00:03:07:20
One of the large purchases,

00:03:07:20 – 00:03:12:15
you know, making sure that everyeverything is step by step told to you.

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You’re guided through the whole processbecause it’s intimidating.

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And I think that’s the important pieceis having someone kind of walk

00:03:20:17 – 00:03:22:11
you through all those pieces. Yeah.

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And there’s a lot of moving parts, right?

00:03:24:11 – 00:03:25:23
I mean, you got to figure out your budget

00:03:25:23 – 00:03:29:06
and then how much you can affordwhere to find it, and then

00:03:30:07 – 00:03:31:00
all the little

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steps after thatin order to get it to your door.

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So I started first contactingyou guys early

00:03:37:21 – 00:03:40:21
on when trying to figure out my budgetand trying to figure out

00:03:41:05 – 00:03:44:05
when the best timewas in terms of interest rates.

00:03:44:20 – 00:03:46:13
And I got some great advicefrom your team.

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And what they had told mewas the best time for an individual

00:03:50:08 – 00:03:52:13
is when it matches their financial goals.

00:03:52:13 – 00:03:56:13
And I really appreciated thatbecause I was really kind of fixated on

00:03:56:17 – 00:03:59:17
getting the best rateat the very exact right time.

00:03:59:20 – 00:04:05:01
And really they had to remind methat it was all about me.

00:04:05:01 – 00:04:09:04
And when the best time was rightfor my budget and my personal goals.

00:04:09:18 – 00:04:13:09
When you talk to members about rates,what do you tell them about those rates?

00:04:13:19 – 00:04:15:04
Yeah, absolutely.

00:04:15:04 – 00:04:18:17
I with Patel, those rates,you know, we’re very competitive.

00:04:19:03 – 00:04:22:09
As you know, we’ve been in a high rateenvironment for quite some time

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and Patel offers very competitive rates

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and that’s whatmakes us stand out from the larger banks.

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The larger banks,

00:04:31:23 – 00:04:34:00
you know, when they are pricingtheir loans in there,

00:04:34:00 – 00:04:35:22
they’re pricing it for profit.

00:04:35:22 – 00:04:39:16
And where credit unions and Patel caredoes specifically is price,

00:04:40:13 – 00:04:43:15
they’re loans for membersfinancial well-being.

00:04:44:12 – 00:04:45:18
And I think that’s super important.

00:04:45:18 – 00:04:50:05
And that’s what really stands out fromthe larger banks

00:04:50:15 – 00:04:54:17
is making surethat we are keeping our members in mind.

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And as they are looking for,

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you know, for their rates

00:04:59:16 – 00:05:02:16
and wanting to make sure that they are

00:05:03:01 – 00:05:05:13
financially comfortablewith making that large purchase.

00:05:05:13 – 00:05:06:07
Yeah.

00:05:06:07 – 00:05:08:19
And that’s so importantthat it fits in your budget, right?

00:05:08:19 – 00:05:10:12
I got a great rate on my card.

00:05:10:12 – 00:05:11:23
Thanks to you guys.

00:05:11:23 – 00:05:15:10
But let’s talk about financial wellnessfor a second, because this show really

00:05:15:10 – 00:05:19:22
aims to connect our topic to helpingimprove people’s financial lives.

00:05:20:04 – 00:05:21:04
And to your point,

00:05:21:04 – 00:05:25:01
getting a great car loan rateand affordability is really important.

00:05:25:01 – 00:05:29:15
But you reminded me in prep for the showthat members can also take advantage

00:05:29:15 – 00:05:30:17
of an auto refinance.

00:05:30:17 – 00:05:34:02
So it’s not just a first time purchaseor a first time use purchase.

00:05:34:22 – 00:05:37:07
And then there’s also auto equity loans.

00:05:37:07 – 00:05:41:09
So this is a big dealbecause you could potentially shave off

00:05:41:09 – 00:05:45:12
hundreds of dollars per monthby considering a refinance, right?

00:05:46:04 – 00:05:47:04
Absolutely.

00:05:47:04 – 00:05:51:02
Refinancing can be a great optionto lower your rate and a month

00:05:51:02 – 00:05:52:13
and your monthly payment.

00:05:52:13 – 00:05:56:07
A good time to refinance iswhen rates are obviously start dropping.

00:05:56:07 – 00:05:59:20
And, you know, we definitely empowerour members to look at our

00:06:00:06 – 00:06:03:06
at our website to see when

00:06:03:08 – 00:06:05:18
when those rates are changing.

00:06:05:18 – 00:06:07:19
Our refinance process is super seamless.

00:06:07:19 – 00:06:11:19
And once members apply and get approved,my team walk them

00:06:11:19 – 00:06:15:17
through the whole process step by stepand get in ink to get it completed.

00:06:16:19 – 00:06:17:05
One of the

00:06:17:05 – 00:06:20:05
great benefits of our membersrefinancing their auto loan

00:06:20:08 – 00:06:25:00
is they can take advantage of our firstfirst payment due date up to 90 days out.

00:06:25:20 – 00:06:28:21
Also,anyone that takes the loan from us becomes

00:06:28:21 – 00:06:31:23
a member and has access toall of our awesome products and services.

00:06:31:23 – 00:06:33:09
Yeah, really cool.

00:06:33:09 – 00:06:36:01
I found out I don’t have to makemy first payment and talk to.

00:06:36:01 – 00:06:38:09
I was pretty pumped about that.

00:06:38:09 – 00:06:42:00
But also in termswe run into in the community,

00:06:42:00 – 00:06:44:07
a lot of folks that don’t even knowwhat their interest rate is.

00:06:44:07 – 00:06:46:16
We talk about refinanceand a lot of people have to stop

00:06:46:16 – 00:06:48:04
and think about what their rate is.

00:06:48:04 – 00:06:52:03
So we encourage them to checkand then keep an eye on the rates

00:06:52:03 – 00:06:55:08
to see if it makes sensefor them to refinance.

00:06:55:08 – 00:06:57:14
And then when the time is right,the process is really easy. Right?

00:06:57:14 – 00:07:00:06
We’re talking about24 hours, 48 hours maxed.

00:07:01:07 – 00:07:02:20
So that’s a huge benefit.

00:07:02:20 – 00:07:06:21
But also on our website, we have a checkyour rate feature, right, where you

00:07:06:21 – 00:07:13:09
could just plug in the remaining balancethat you owe some basic information.

00:07:13:09 – 00:07:17:08
And then we won’t even do a hard pullon credit and we’ll give you an estimated

00:07:18:00 – 00:07:20:03
monthly paymentalong with the rate, right?

00:07:20:03 – 00:07:20:16
Absolutely.

00:07:20:16 – 00:07:24:14
It gives you it gives you that breakdownso you can, again, feel confident like,

00:07:24:18 – 00:07:27:04
is this the right move for me rightnow? Yeah.

00:07:27:04 – 00:07:30:04
And I think those toolsare super important along with

00:07:30:09 – 00:07:32:19
the targetdoes a great job informing our members

00:07:32:19 – 00:07:37:02
via email newsletters,you know, keeping the eye on

00:07:37:17 – 00:07:41:01
when rates are changingand just to keep them informed.

00:07:41:03 – 00:07:42:15
Yeah, really good stuff.

00:07:42:15 – 00:07:45:23
And again, if you could take off $100 offyour car payment every month, that’s

00:07:45:23 – 00:07:48:23
a big deal, especially with food costsand all the other calls.

00:07:49:01 – 00:07:50:05
Today’s.

00:07:50:05 – 00:07:50:13
All right.

00:07:50:13 – 00:07:53:08
Talk to us about auto equity or a cash outrefi.

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What is up?

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Yeah, our cash out refinance is an awesomeproduct we offer to our members.

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Most people look at their carand don’t think it’s something

00:08:01:09 – 00:08:04:09
that they could,you know, pull out equity from.

00:08:04:09 – 00:08:07:01
What our cash outrefinance allows you to do

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is pull out equity from your vehicleup to 100% of the cash value.

00:08:11:11 – 00:08:14:05
For example,if your vehicle is valued at 30,000

00:08:14:05 – 00:08:19:14
and you owe 15,000, that means you canpull out the remaining 15,000 of equity

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and you can

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do you know what you would wishwish with that?

00:08:24:07 – 00:08:26:00
You can pay off debt.

00:08:26:00 – 00:08:28:21
We know that auto loans are always

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lower rates than a personal loan.

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You can get that remodel donethat you’ve been wanting to do.

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It’s just a great option for our members.

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Yeah,that’s really solid advice. And yeah.

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Auto rates typically are about halfof what personal loan rates are.

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So that’s a super great tip.

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All right. So a couple easy options.

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If you’re looking to save on

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monthly payments or get access to cashinstead of having to borrow.

00:08:52:02 – 00:08:53:13
That’s really good stuff, Ruben.

00:08:53:13 – 00:08:57:11
Can we talk about my one of my all timefavorite programs

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that we have here at Petco?

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It’s called Skip a pay. Right is the best.

00:09:01:20 – 00:09:05:11
I get so much flackfor loving this product,

00:09:05:11 – 00:09:08:14
number one, but I also feel likethis is really unique to credit unions.

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Tell us about the details.

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Skip a page.

00:09:11:07 – 00:09:12:03
Yeah, absolutely.

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Skip a pay is an account feature

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that allows you to postpone your loanpayment one month into the future

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to provide you a little breathing roomin case you are running into a

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if you’re running and short on cashor as other bills come due.

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You can use it twice a year and upand there is a $25 fee for each request

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as well as interest on your loanthat continues to occur

00:09:34:19 – 00:09:37:19
during the month and paymentthat was skipped.

00:09:38:15 – 00:09:41:10
And I get so much flackbecause my friends are like,

00:09:41:10 – 00:09:45:04
okay, you have to pay this fee,plus you have that little bit of interest.

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But you know what?

00:09:45:20 – 00:09:50:10
For folks that have like a $900 carpayment or a $600 car payment shoot

00:09:50:14 – 00:09:54:01
even a $300 car payment,if I can skip that twice a year.

00:09:54:19 – 00:09:55:03
Right.

00:09:55:03 – 00:09:59:02
The benefit it may have to me in my ownwhatever financial stress

00:09:59:02 – 00:10:01:00
or financial health may be worth it.

00:10:01:00 – 00:10:03:18
But the fact that it’s availableI think is a really cool thing

00:10:03:18 – 00:10:05:09
and something that we’re doingfor our members.

00:10:05:09 – 00:10:07:06
Just to give a little relief is needed.

00:10:07:06 – 00:10:08:22
It could beit could be life changing, really.

00:10:08:22 – 00:10:10:17
I mean, especially if there’s someone,you know,

00:10:10:17 – 00:10:13:06
put in a predicamentthat you need that extra funds.

00:10:13:06 – 00:10:16:03
It’s definitely an awesome featurethat we offer our members.

00:10:16:03 – 00:10:17:08
Really cool.

00:10:17:08 – 00:10:21:07
Okay, Ruben, well, thank you so muchfor giving me all that great advice

00:10:21:07 – 00:10:27:01
and helping me get my car and letting memake my first payment in October.

00:10:27:01 – 00:10:28:21
That was a big relief for me.

00:10:28:21 – 00:10:32:20
If you have any questionsfrom today’s show or just want to say hi.

00:10:32:21 – 00:10:36:21
Drop us a line at webinarsat Patel Code.org.

00:10:37:05 – 00:10:41:02
You can find more informationabout our great rates, apply for a loan

00:10:41:02 – 00:10:45:17
or refinance on our website at PatelCode.org slash auto.

00:10:46:01 – 00:10:50:06
Visit one of our 36 branch locationsor at our virtual branch.

00:10:50:06 – 00:10:53:03
All can be found at patelco.org

00:10:53:03 – 00:10:55:21
RubenIt was so great to have you in the studio.

00:10:55:21 – 00:10:58:02
It was a pleasure. Thank you so much.

00:10:58:02 – 00:10:59:03
All right, everyone.

00:10:59:03 – 00:11:01:08
Happy car shopping out there.

00:11:01:08 – 00:11:03:20
We will see you next time.

00:11:03:20 – 00:11:06:12
Patelco Credit union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. Greetings, everyone out there. My name is Michele Enriquez, your host here at Patelco Credit Union. On the show, we try to inspire ways to improve financial wellness, and today we’re going to highlight Patelco’s community giving program that supports local non profit organizations here in the Bay Area.
That extend financial wellness support to the community. And I’m super excited to welcome Patelco’s community relations partner, Cara Houck, to the studio today to share all the wonderful things that we’re doing to support our communities. Cara, it’s been a long time coming. Welcome to the studio. Thank you so much for having me, Michele.
I’m so happy to be here today because you know I love talking about what I do and what Patelco does in the community. But not only that, I’ve been listening to your podcast and I have to say I’m a [00:01:00] big fan. So getting a little, you know, excited today to be here. I’m very honored to be your guest. So thanks for having me.
And we get to have lunch after this, our favorite thing to do. Awesome. In debrief. So, Cara, your program is really amazing and seems to be growing. I’m going to rattle off some stats just from last year. In 2023, we partnered with 35 community organizations, so those are local nonprofits. We provided a thousand backpacks full of supplies to elementary, high school, and college students.
We supported 11 high school student interns with real work experience and skills. Thank you. We donated 300 new toys and gift cards during the holidays, provided over a thousand new socks to several organizations around our service area, and this is the big one. Our telco team members volunteered over 2, 000 hours to community organizations, which is almost twice what we had given or done the year before.[00:02:00]
Tell everybody about, a little bit about yourself and our community giving program. Absolutely. , thank you for highlighting some of those great things that we did in the last year. However, one thing that strikes me when I hear a lot of those is. how much our team members contributed to all of that that we gave to the community.
So it’s really a part of our culture here at Patelco. I’ve been here for about six years and I have to tell you, we do new and different things every single year. We get new partners, we have new opportunities. It’s really exciting what we’re able to do . But as I mentioned, one of the things I love doing here is being able to contribute.
I love how supportive and passionate our amazing team members are when it comes to giving and I love seeing the ways we can serve not only our members, but also people in need I actually came from a non profit background, so I have a unique perspective and experience, , doing that.
So I always feel like First and foremost, we want to find out what the community needs from the [00:03:00] people who are doing, you know, the work every day so that we can talk to the experts about how we can best help so before I came to work at Patelco, I spent my career working in nonprofit organizations.
As I mentioned, I was educating youth, supporting seniors, providing food and housing for those in need. So I’m familiar with all of those different areas making the transition to working at Patelco wasn’t difficult since we’re a not for profit organization with a mission to help people live better lives.
That is super important to me. So Credit Unions, as you know, believe in people helping people and we have a mission to provide financial education and support our members in living their best financial lives. Being part of a mission driven organization is what gives me joy and helps me grow. keep me passionate about what I do here.
But I also want to emphasize what you said earlier too, is we do a lot of direct service , but we also help organizations so they can pass those same skills and ability and educations on to the people that they serve. And there are so many great [00:04:00] organizations in the Bay Area that are doing great work out there, you know, similar to us and to your point, our, our missions really align in that way.
And It’s no secret that there’s a ton of need in our communities, especially here in the Bay Area, particularly around affordable housing and food insecurity. A couple stats, I grabbed, that are really kind of alarming. The Bay Area has an estimated 28, 000 people experiencing homelessness on any given day.
And California accounts for 25 percent of the entire U. S. homeless population. Okay, let that sink in for a sec. The vast majority are unsheltered and seek help from these local non profits that we’re talking about. And then regarding food insecurity, a group called Each Green Corner conducted a 2020 study that shows about 870, 000 people in the Bay Area are food insecure.
And that represents about 11. 5 percent of the Bay Area population. Right? Alarming. Striking. But again, [00:05:00] this is the reason why we do what we do. What’s Patelco’s approach to supporting this need, particularly in those two areas? Yeah, well those are some staggering statistics for sure when you think about them.
And we all know, you know, are familiar with it just from seeing it and what we’ve experienced ourselves. And you know, there are so many needs in general in the community. And of course, we’d love to support them all. We want to really make a difference with our programs, so we focus our efforts into specific areas.
Patelco’s chosen four essential needs in which we focus our efforts, and we partner with organizations that are addressing just these needs. , and so that we can make a real difference in just these four areas. They’re affordable housing, children’s health, food security, and financial education. So I’m going to talk a little bit more about what we do in each of those different areas.
We, we work with lots of different organizations, as you mentioned earlier, , but we do try to focus our efforts on some of the big [00:06:00] ones that are really addressing these needs. , of course, the statistics you talked about were about housing and food and we, most of us have been affected by that and the way the economy is right now, right?
We saw the long lines at the food banks during the pandemic. And all those, we aren’t seeing those long lines now. I’ve heard from the food banks that the need has not decreased. Yep. Inflation isn’t helping, right? Exactly. So people, they’re still feeding as many people as they did before during the pandemic.
So that’s one of our pillars, food security. We support seven different food banks within our footprint and service area because we think it’s so important to help them. Many of us have been personally affected by the housing costs, you know, and we support affordable housing. , I used to say a few years ago, we live in the Bay Area, of course we have to support affordable housing, but that’s not just true for the Bay Area anymore, right?
People across the country have felt the housing [00:07:00] increases and it’s a struggle for so many people. And we love working with, , one large organization that we’re gonna talk about in a little bit here in the Bay Area specifically, who’s doing a lot to address this need. We also support children’s health.
Uh, when the way we do that specifically is through Children’s Miracle Network. And I have to say that’s kind of a credit union thing across the country. I mean, many people who are familiar with other credit unions probably have also been involved with Children’s Miracle Network. In fact, , we have a national organization called Credit Union for Kids where we do special fundraising for them.
Patelco is involved in many different, fundraising events, , all across the state. , and even the region in the area just to support Children’s Miracle Network and to help all the children. , it’s been so fun for me to be able to do, tours in the local hospitals to see the specific things that we’ve been able to purchase because of the money that we’ve raised
and then finally, and I hate to leave [00:08:00] this to the end, because this is who we are, right, is financial education, right? So of course, we want to share our expertise out in the community as much as possible. , and as, again, as an organization that believes in people, helping people live their best lives, we provide financial education.
, and of course, that’s a lot of your team. Near and dear to my heart, for sure. We definitely believe that a more financially savvy person is a more financially healthy person. Absolutely. And I love how much our teams work together, too, because financial education is really woven in and through all the giving we do to the community and with the organizations that we work with.
Yep. And you know where we come up with the best ideas, Kara, is over lunch, don’t we? Oh my God, you keep bringing up lunch because you know we love food. I’m already hungry. Alright, can we talk about a couple of these organizations in particular that we support because the work that they do is so amazing.
First is the United Way of the Bay Area who provide immediate and [00:09:00] long term support for employment, housing, financial stability, and helping meet basic needs. They’ve got these spark point centers. Right. And these centers serve low income families seeking to improve their financial situation. You can even find one of these centers at our local community colleges and there seem to be more and more popping up at college campuses.
But we’ve been supporting them for many years and in different varieties. We’ve provided backpacks in the past. We support their centers with credit building programs for their clients. But we came up, probably over a lunch, with a cool emergency savings program. Can you share a little bit more about that?
Absolutely. This is just another example of how we work together and how important it is to, you know, weave financial education into everything we do and give to the community. Well, the Spark Your Savings Program is a pilot grant program exclusively for clients of the United Way Bay Area SparkPoint Centers, as you mentioned.
The program aims to establish an emergency [00:10:00] fund, create savings habits, and increase the financial well being of the participants. It was created mostly because only 44 percent of U. S. adults would pay an emergency expense of 1, 000 from their savings. Isn’t that crazy? Yes. 1, 000. Most people don’t have that in savings.
So if they have an emergency come up, which you know we all do, frequently of at least 1, 000. I mean, I know when I have a car expense, there you go, 1, 000 is nothing, right? It’s crazy. But most people have to borrow, use credit, borrow from a friend, borrow from a family. So we really wanted to address that need and , giving people, participants in this program the opportunity to really get the financial wellness resources and education that they need to help them not only learn how important it is to have savings, create savings for an emergency.
But more importantly, to create this [00:11:00] habit going forward, so that they get used to putting money away and having that savings available when you really need it, because we know we all do. Absolutely. And that’s great, Carrie. You know, here at Patoko, we’re always encouraging folks to save and really emphasizing on that behavioral change.
That’s the best part about the program that I love is it’s really inspiring behaviors to enact change, , and then the ultimate goal is that they’ve got this emergency savings account, which is great. Awesome. Let’s also talk about Habitat for Humanity for a second. Can you tell us about that partner and what they do?
So wait a minute. You said I can only talk about them for a second? Just a second. Did you know I could talk about them for a long time? I love Habitat for Humanity. Me too. And I’m sure a lot of our listeners do too. I mean, they’re an international organization that’s been around for many, many years. And you know, they’re so amazing at creating affordable housing in the Bay Area.
And we have been a partner of the East Bay Silicon Valley chapter for many years. We’ve been involved with them in pretty much almost [00:12:00] any way that you can be involved. , we funded loans in the past. We provide a financial education. We’ve had some of our experts in home loans go and talk and do education with all their Habitat families.
We even had our VP of home loans Vin Salinas served on their board for many, many years and just finished. Term as their board chair. So we’ve been very involved with them. We also work on a lot of programs with them throughout the year. , and we do a lot of volunteering and I have to say I have seen a lot of our , team members who are used to sitting behind a computer go out there swinging hammers all day long, digging ditches, caulking buildings, just whatever needs to be done.
And one thing that’s so inspiring is our CEO, Erin Mendez, has done the same thing. She’s joined our volunteer groups and spent the day out there. You know, swinging a hammer to help people with affordable housing. It’s very [00:13:00] inspiring to see. Yeah, part of our support of Habitat for Humanity includes getting dirty and actually helping with the builds, which is really fun.
I learned how to use a saw last year. That was fun, Kara. Oh. Hopefully we can do that again this year. You know what? One of my secrets is, I always plan our volunteer days. on Fridays, because it’s an eight hour hard labor, and I want people to have the weekend to recover before they come back to work.
You’re so good. Also, if I need to go to the emergency room, I have the weekend to recover. Don’t even say that. We had so much fun last year. I know our team members really look forward to those Habitat for Humanity Playhouse builds. I also understand that we help them with their biggest fundraising event.
Tell us about Cycle of Hope. Well, it’s very exciting. They actually started Cycle of Hope in East Bay Silicon Valley area just about seven years ago. So, , within my first few weeks of joining Patelco, I got to be involved in the very first event here. And, they’ve done it in the South Bay until last year.
They moved [00:14:00] it up to be here on our campus in Dublin. We’re very excited to be hosts of it. And it’s a wonderful event. It’s a ride a thon, right? So you get sponsors to help you raise money. They raised well over 300, 000 last year, and it made such a difference for the ongoing budget and how much they’re able to do throughout the year because of this one big event.
So we’ve been the presenting sponsor for the last seven years. And then, like I said, this will be our second year hosting it here. I encourage people to come out and ride. Yep. This is in October, October 20th. So you have time to start riding and getting ready for the ride. , there’s several different options.
There’s, , 11 miles. So if you’re don’t want to drive, ride a lot, that’s okay. There’s a 30 mile and there’s a 62, which is also a metric century. And they’ve curated these amazing courses in our hills around here. There it’s beautiful rides. And I tell people it’s not cheating to have an electric bike.
I saw a few [00:15:00] electric bikes last year. It gave me some ideas for this year. Yeah. And then we also have a kid’s ride. And one of the things that was so fun last year is, you know, we share our building here with the sheriff’s department and they came out on the kid’s ride and one of the motorcycle officers rode with the lights going and the sirens and the kids got to ride their bikes.
That was fun. It was, it was super fun. So anybody who’s listening to this and says, well, I don’t ride a bike. Don’t worry. We have a lot of other things you can do. We need lots of volunteers to be out on the course because there’s, , there’s a sag wagon. There’ll be, spots along the way where you can stop and get, first aid or you can get any kind of snacks, that kind of thing.
And so we need lots of volunteers. And of course, here at the start finish line, , there’s lots of things you can do to support the ride. So it’s going to be a really fun day. And as anyone listening who is a friend and family of Patelco, they can join the Patelco team. So when you register, look for the [00:16:00] Patelco team.
If you use code PATELCO20, capital letters P A T E L C O 20, and then you can save 20 percent off your registration for the ride. And you can go and register at habitatcycleofhope. org. habitatcycleofhope. org So, we’re very excited to be hosting it and to have people come and be involved in this wonderful event.
There’s other things that happen along with the race, right? There’s some activities we got going on in the parking lot here. Yeah, in fact, I love to talk about this. You mentioned the Habitat for Humanity Playhouses. Yes. Where that’s one of our internal volunteer events. People love doing it. Habitat actually brings all of the materials to build playhouses here to our campus.
We’ve got our team members out there building these playhouses. They all have decorations with different themes. They make actual roofs. It’s [00:17:00] amazing. And, um, and then we’re going to do that a couple of days before the cycle of hope they’ll be out on the ride. So the kids will be able to play in these playhouses on, on the ride.
Another thing that we started doing this year is building bikes for kids with an organized. It’s an organization called Kids Bike Lane, and as it happens, they, some of the people involved in that organization, also are cyclists in the Cycle of Hope. So we’re all working together. We’re going to build these bikes here with our team members, bring them to the day, um, of Cycle of Hope and give them to Habitat families.
Amazing. For their kids. Amazing. So even novice cyclists can still enjoy the course on a nice day out here in Dublin, our beautiful terrain here. Absolutely. Bring an electric bike if they’ve got one. I was gonna say, electric bike was good and you have time to, you know, plan, but 11 miles, that’s not too bad, right?
And I’ve heard that [00:18:00] there’s no big hills on that course. A couple of the other longer ones have a little more challenges. But you also remember, there’s beer waiting for you at the end. Well, sold. That’s part of the celebration. And there’s food. We’ve already talked about food, how important that is. Well, you definitely, you had me at beer, and then you definitely had me at food.
So talk about some of these, , areas in which the support will, , help. help go to? Absolutely. I mean, , we know that Habitat creates housing, right? And affordable housing. And through this big fundraiser,, it over the last, , many, many years that they’ve been doing it, they’ve raised 1. 6 million for Habitat through the cycle of hope.
So it’s kind of amazing how much they’ve raised., so they do home ownership so that people who would not normally be able to afford to get into a house are able to do that. They make affordable mortgages and, with people who have limited incomes. They also have a program a lot of people haven’t [00:19:00] heard about, which is the Home Preservation Program.
They help people with limited incomes to stay in their homes. There might be some real, repairs, big repairs that need to be made. I heard a story last year about someone who almost their whole kitchen floor had rotted out. Ugh. And they weren’t able to afford to fix it themselves and Habitat came in and fixed it and enabled the family to stay in the house.
And then of course, they provide a lot of housing and financial counseling because they don’t just want to put people in housing. They want to keep supporting them to stay in their housing and meet the rest of their financial goals in their life. And again, you know, that is right aligned with us and Patoka and what our mission is.
to help people live the best financial lives they can live. Oh, I love that. I just got goosebumps. Thank you for sharing all of that, Kara. So, all right, to wrap it up, we’ve got our community giving program, which is doing amazing things. It involves all of our Patelco team [00:20:00] members to really kind of extend that support out to the community and work with all of those non profit organizations that are doing such great work out there.
If you’re interested in learning more, More about our partners and some of the work that we’re doing. You can go to our website at patelco. org and click the financial wellness button under the community tab and find out more about those programs and find more information about cycle of hope. Kara mentioned a discount code that’s patelco20 to save 20 percent at registration.
And again, you can find more information at patelco. org under the financial wellness tab and the community tab specifically. under cycle of hope. Kara, it was so great to have you in the studio today. I can’t wait for lunch. I can’t wait to have you back and talk about the next time we’re going to have you in here.
October 20th is the day for cycle of hope. We hope that you join us. We hope that you’ll visit our website to find more information. And we want to thank Kara Haug for being here, our community [00:21:00] relations partner here at Patelco. Well, thank you so much. I had such a good time. I was looking forward to this for so long.
And if I knew you were going to treat me to lunch, I would have come here a long time ago. We’ll come here more often. Come on! Yeah, next week, I’ll be back. All right. Well, that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
We’ll see you next time. Adelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michelle Enriquez, your host here at Patelco Credit Union, and greetings to our listeners out there, and thanks for tuning in. We wanted to give you an episode to bring awareness to Patelco’s webinars, and one of our latest was a really great one if you missed it.
Did you know that we offer two educational webinars per month? We have a team that are really thoughtful about designing topics and curriculum that are top of mind and relevant for our members, and if you missed the recent Patelco membership program, Perks webinar. First of all, you can watch the recording on our YouTube channel, but we thought we’d bring it to the podcast studio because it was so good and informative.
One of Patelco’s financial wellness partners, Peggy Wyman, hosted the webinar, and I’m super excited to have her back on the show and share her expertise with you. Peggy, welcome back to the studio. Congrats on [00:01:00] the latest webinar. Thank you so much. It was fun giving it, and I hope everyone enjoyed it. So, Peggy, you were here last.
to talk about our Patelco at Work program. Tell us a little bit about that and what you do here at Patelco. What do I do here? Patelco at Work is,, a financial wellness offering for companies, so we can assist your employees who are experiencing financial stress, , which in this day and age with inflation is rather huge.
So, we can go in and we can do lunch and learns, we can table, , give financial education, And, best of all and most exciting is we get to coach one on one those that need it. Yeah. And you love giving presentations and doing webinars, right? And one of the reasons we asked you to come and deliver the webinar for our members, you give classes on all types of topics, right?
Everything. We can do, , debt reduction, budgeting, savings. Reducing debt. For those of you that have gotten into a little bit of a pickle with debt, we can help with that as well. Yeah. And [00:02:00] the thing I love about your webinars and presentations is you bring your experience to the education. So tell us a little bit about your background.
Whenever I’m out with you, I always hear you say that you’ve pretty much done it all in banking. Tell us a little bit more. That is true. , I have been in banking for about, 40 years. I always hate to admit that because it’s a long time. We started when you were young, right? Very young, very young. , I did start as a teller and I worked my way up the ladder.
, and I ultimately managed branches, , for many, many years. And part of that is business development. So when you’re managing a branch, you have goals to bring in, new business. , new deposits and, , new businesses. So I spent many years doing that as well, which I did enjoy because I’m not necessarily a sit at the desk office person.
So it was really nice to always be out networking, , chamber events, county events. So that’s, that’s my history. Yeah, but even your experience as a teller up to manager level and then working outside with outside partners, I mean, [00:03:00] all of that experience probably has helped in being able to both help our members, but also help our, , external partners understand what we offer.
Totally. And I do have a passion for service. I’ve always worked in the service industry, and I think it’s the most important thing., as a customer anywhere, I really appreciate great service, and I do believe people have choices. So, we need to, you know, go an extra mile and take care of people, which does get reflected in the education that we give.
I mean, we’re offering, you know, an olive branch to help you when you’re struggling. Yeah, and I know I love having you out with me because it’s all those questions about well my check, what are my check holds and what are the fees for this and how do I navigate that? So you’re an amazing resource to have out there.
Plus you’re a great presenter. So again, super excited to have you here. Let’s talk more about the webinar that you delivered. And some of the specific things that you covered in the webinar. I think we see a lot of times that we talk with our partner employees and our members and they typically have no idea about that there are so many, [00:04:00] many membership benefits and you come from the banking world, right?
What you see is what you get, a little bit different at the credit union, right? We could be here all day if we were to cover all the benefits, , that we offer, but let’s talk about some of the ones that stood out from your webinar and then maybe you can come back and we do a part two, maybe even a part three to cover everything.
I’m happy to do that. So we’ll cover some, , auto loan perks today and some of the retirement and planning benefits that we have. Why don’t we start with some of the car buying, benefits? And I think, , a lot of folks and listeners out there might not be thinking about car buying just because they’re deterred from the rates.
, right now, the last 10 years, we’ve, we’ve really enjoyed low to 0 percent interest rates. So I think these, membership perks that we have now are really relevant. Let’s talk about the enterprise,, car sales. Tell us a little bit more about that. You know, the, the auto buying world has changed so much with the internet, you know, in the day you walked into the lot.
You always brought your children because you wanted the [00:05:00] people to hurry up, and when your kids started getting ornery, it sped up the process. But, , they, they seem to have all the control. But now, when you walk onto a lot, you have, , all the knowledge from online. And if you go to our website, Enterprise Car Rentals, we partner with them, and they sell their cars that have been previously rented.
They’ve been certified, they have, road assistance. offering of a year. And, , you can search for any car you want. So when you go into the site, I did it today just to play around. And I put in my car, which is a Mazda. I put in Mazda CX 5. It brought up about four options. I could see the miles, the year, the color.
And the Blue Book and the Carfax. So we really want to know the history of the car these days and the fact that it is accessible is awesome. Because, again, back in the day we didn’t really know what we were buying when we were purchasing a car that had been previously used. Yeah, and you may want to check it out before just going to the lot.
I am definitely not the person that should be at a lot. I will leave with something and probably not [00:06:00] make good decisions, so. That kind of mechanism is good for me, too. Well, the most important thing I forgot to say is, since we partner with Enterprise, if you do purchase a car with them, you get 1 percent off your auto rate.
And as Michelle mentioned, rates are a little bit higher now than what we were used to the past years. So, 1 percent off, that’s a huge discount. Yeah, it makes a big difference, right? And I always wondered what happens to those Enterprise cars, so that’s good to know. Do you find, or did you notice that the prices are lower because they’ve been previously owned?
I think it’s such a competitive market right now, but because we have the knowledge from the internet, we, we kind of can look ahead and know what the car is worth. And what I did like is it actually said lowest price. So they’ve already gone in there and given you the lowest price. There’s no negotiating, which a lot of people don’t like.
I mean, I’m not great at negotiating in that aspect for a car. So it’s the lowest price. You have the blue book. Most of them were slightly under blue book. So, you know that you’re getting a good deal and no, no haggling, which is really nice. Okay. So, [00:07:00] the site’s easy to navigate? Yes. Cool. Then you get lots of options as well?
Mm hmm. And you can look for specific cars or just browse every car they have. They had a category that said, cars that have over 28 miles per gallon, which, you know, a lot of people are looking for the, you know, higher efficiency cars. So, yeah. You can look by category. Really cool. And the 1 percent discount applies if you get the loan from Patelco?
Yes. Okay. And that process is really easy. It’s one of the simplest things that we do here. Okay. Really cool. 1 percent discounts. It is a big deal. It is big. Especially, especially now. . , not on our outline, but can we talk about level up also? So in addition to 1 percent discount with a loan from Patelco, let’s say you don’t get the, you don’t qualify for the very best rate.
We put all of our members who don’t qualify for the very best rate into a program called Level Up. Can you share a little bit about that? Because I love it. I feel like that’s the biggest kept secret. I sure can. And it’s kind of a, a double plus because if you get your loan and you weren’t at the highest credit tier, your rate might [00:08:00] not be as high.
You know, the best rate. It won’t be bad, but it won’t be as high as a Tier 0 if you have like 800 credit. So, after 12 months of on time payments, we’re going to lower your rate 0. 5%. All you have to do is make your payments on time. Just don’t be late. And we will do that for 3 years. So, 12 months of on time payments, minus 0.
5. Another 12 months, minus 0. 5, another 12 months, minus 0. 5, so ultimately you’ll have 1. 5 percent off your rate. And the beauty of it is, it encourages you also to pay on time if that happens to be something you struggle with. So your credit score is going to be going up as well. Yeah, when we talk about You know, looking out for our members financial wellness when I first got to Patelco, I was like, okay, that can’t be real.
What’s in it for us? And this truly is one of those things that rewards our members, helps them keep their credit score in a great position, and then, you know, helps them with the lower payment also. So we’ve got the 1 percent from Enterprise, we’ve got this awesome Level Up [00:09:00] program. You can find more information about Level Up on our website.
Two really great ways to, you know, save a little on, The auto payment. Okay. So thanks for sharing that. You’re welcome. What’s this note here about AutoSmart? What’s all that about? It’s another, auto buying option that is on our website under membership benefits. And AutoSmart is, an auto search vehicle.
So you go online and you click onto AutoSmart, it will take you to their site. It’s got a really good rate because we partner with them, but again, you can search for a car and they search all over the nation. So you can get the exact car you want, and again, you’re going to get all the information on the car.
You’ll get the Carfax, you can just do a great search and find the car that you want. And if you don’t know what you want, you can just scroll through and find what you think might fit your lifestyle.
So two cool options for like folks like the both of us who don’t want to deal with the dealerships, and shop at our luxury, but tons of options that if you’re talking about across the country. Especially if you’re [00:10:00] more, many people these days love to shop online, so this is the way to shop online.
You don’t have to go to every dealer, you don’t have to be Googling a hundred places. Super simple, simple way to buy a car. Okay. Great. And then we’re entering, , car buying season, so two great options to not only save money on the rate and the payment, but a great way and different kind of modality to shop to depending on your preference.
Correct. All right. Good stuff. Real quick. If you do want to go out and do the auto buying experience, just based on, you know, from my coaching point of view, always get pre approved. Yep. You don’t want to walk on a lot and not already have your loan in place. And you certainly don’t want to tell them what you’re approved for, right?
So you want to go in, you already know you have your financing, you can drive off the lot that day with your car, and then Patelka will send them the money when you have your pre approval letter. It’s super simple. That’s a great tip. We talk a lot during our classes that we give about empowerment and knowing what your buying power is before you go shop [00:11:00] is, is everything, right?
You know your budget, you know, , your capacity and then you can’t, you know, be, , swindled. Correct. It’s all about, , Financial empowerment, name in the game, , for our conversation today. Okay, we’re switching gears from auto. Let’s talk about investments and planning for retirement. We just did an episode with Veronica, Dangerfield this week.
We’re talking about planning for retirement and we’ve got two really cool, retirement and estate planning perks for members. Can you, , share a little bit about our robo advisor program? I certainly can. I think robo advisor is fantastic. It’s a great offering. Thank you. , that you find on our website and the beauty of it is nobody’s comfortable with investing, right?
It’s not my favorite topic, even though I’ve been in the financial world for 40 years. , because you worry about fees, you worry about risk and loss. So what RoboAdvisor does when you go in there is it’s going to ask you a questionnaire. And it’s probably going to ask your age, you risk tolerance is. I mean, if you’re afraid of losing money, [00:12:00] then, you know, They’re going to choose more conservative funds for you.
If you like risk and you’re younger, it’s going to determine all that. It’s going to take everything you answer in the questionnaire and it’s going to determine the best investments for you. Okay, so this is another kind of self serve, go to the website, I don’t have time to sit down with a complimentary session with one of our licensed financial advisors.
I just want to do this from the comfort of my home, see what’s available. I might want to talk to somebody after, but this is something you can go in and you can even take advantage of. Right from the site? Definitely. And the beauty of it is if you have questions and you don’t have time to meet with one of our advisors, you can have questions answered on the site.
There’s a chat, there’s a phone number to call for support, so it’s not like you’re, you’re on your own. One of the things that caught my eye on it was the 401k rollovers. I mean, how many times do people change jobs and you’re leaving a 401k at each previous employer? You can roll those over via this, , tool as well, which is really nice.
Yeah. That’s a really [00:13:00] great time saver. Mm hmm. And again, not everybody’s comfortable or even knows where to go to find a licensed financial advisor. We do have several financial advisors here at Patelco, but this is, again, just another way to get people to think about it in a comfort level of their own.
At least dabble. I mean, at least get started. I think you need a minimum of 5, 000 and just get started and, again, you control the risk. So, by the questanswer the questionnaire, they’re going to determine the funds. that are the best for you and your risk tolerance. Okay, great. So that’s, you know, if I’m maybe changing jobs, I maybe haven’t even got started talking to any kind of professional, I can go to this website, fill out a questionnaire, and get started that way.
Yep. Okay, so that’s RoboAdvisor. The last two years, would you say, how many requests have we gotten out in the field for a state planning education? I mean, that’s all I’m, I’m speechless. Probably the top topic that we’re asked about. And it’s super important. It’s really, I’m near and dear to my [00:14:00] heart.
I’ve experienced a few instances recently where there was no will or trust. And I just always tell people, do your heirs a favor. If you want to be able to dictate where your assets go, this is how you do it. You need to tell people what you want. Your wishes are. Yeah. I think like car buying, like getting started, connecting with a financial advisor, it could be one of those things that might be on the top of your list, but you just, you have nowhere to go or you don’t know where to go, who to turn to.
Talk to us about this, new trust and will service that we have for members. I wanted to mention there isn’t a version of this topic, right? People don’t want to think about when they’re going to die, but the fact is anything can happen any given day, right? So we have a awesome product. I think they call it the TurboTax of Wills and Trusts.
So you can go online and you can do it yourself. And there is a discount for our members of 25 percent. Nice. And again, there’s questionnaires, and you just go through the process. One of my co workers did it. She loved it. [00:15:00] Technically, I mean, she’s a homeowner, so it’s not like it’s a basic trust.
There is, is assets in the trust. But even if there isn’t, you list everything as you go, and it’s going to be, you know, adding up the, you know, whole picture as you answer the questions. And again, the beauty of it is, it’s created by estate attorneys who, who know this industry. They know what’s needed. And there’s also, again, support through the website.
When you go through the website, there is estate attorneys that you can talk with to get assistance. Yeah. And this coworker of ours that you’re talking about, she’s pretty particular, right? And she really raved about the experience, the ease of use. She had a semi complicated situation. She had several different assets and she thought this was a, a problem.
Fully encompassing support for what she needed. The questions are really created to answer all the questions that, or all the issues that might come up for you and deal with every aspect of your assets and your estate. Yeah. Let’s talk about what the alternative is if you don’t use kind of a [00:16:00] self serve service like this.
You’d be looking for an attorney. I know I had thought about this about five years ago. I don’t even know what kind of attorney I should be looking for when it comes to estate planning. So there’s that. That’s a good point. This service, I, I’m gonna do, it’s on the top of my list, I’m finally gonna do it after this episode, but kind of just another way to get, resources to our members, self serve type of option if you don’t know who to talk to, you don’t know where to go to look for it.
Well, and even for a. a will. If you don’t have time to do a trust or you think it’s overwhelming, you can go online and do the will, , which is a little more basic, but you’re still telling your heirs what your desires are, which is super important because don’t leave them behind to try to figure out what you wanted to do with everything.
Also eliminates, , disagreements that happen sometimes with those left behind that they might, you know, think they’re entitled to something and the other person thinks so too. Just there’s been many, many instances of, Yeah. And if [00:17:00] it’s not on paper, we’re talking about the state of California or your state taking control and making those decisions for you, which you probably don’t prefer.
And taxes that your heirs might have to pay that you could avoid as well. Yeah. Okay, good stuff. All right, so we talked about some auto buying and auto shopping, , resources. We’ve got some retirement and planning benefits that we have. There’s so many more. We could be here all day, Peg, but we’re gonna, , stop there.
We’ll do a part two and we’ll talk about some checking perks that we have and a bunch of other things before you hear that next podcast. You can find all this information On a brand new webpage on our website, it’s patelco. org slash member benefits. You can also see Peggy’s Membership Perks webinar on our YouTube channel.
If you haven’t checked out our YouTube channel, it’s chock full of great information. It’s got the podcast also. So definitely go check out Peggy there and some of her other webinars that she’s delivered. Peg, thanks for gracing us. We’ll come back for a part two, and it’s always [00:18:00] good to see you. Welcome.
Thank you so much for having me. All right, everyone. That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. Good luck planning. We’ll see you next time. Patoko Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, your host here at Patelco Credit Union, and greetings, everyone. Welcome back to the show and thanks for tuning in. Today, we’re going to talk about all the things you should consider when choosing a credit card.
And our conversation today is not going to be useful for just people getting started with the first time credit card, but hoping to ignite some thoughts for people out there that might be looking to maybe re diversify their credit card mix or get an additional card as well. We have two friends with us to talk it through.
We’re joined by the Andrew Farrell, Community Engagement Specialist and first time guest Alexia Razo-Urbego, who is the Assistant Branch Manager of our Dublin branch. Alexia, welcome to the secret studio that’s been in this building the whole time. Thank you for having me. I’m [00:01:00] very excited to participate and be able to share some of my knowledge.
I am fortunate to have come on board with Patelco about a year and a half ago, and I have about 15 plus years of experience in the financial industry, and I’m really happy to be here and be able to share some of my experiences and what I do here. Yeah, and our branch is here at the building, so I didn’t know if you knew the podcast studio was right behind the branch, but welcome.
Welcome. Thank you. All right, Andrew. It’s always a pleasure to have you here. Welcome back. Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to be. It’s my fifth time here, Michele. Fifth time we’re counting. Oh yeah, we’re counting. We’re counting. Awesome. So I’ll kick us off, you guys. I have an embarrassing story to tell.
The moment we figured out the topic for this episode, I immediately recalled the scenario with a past intern. Who spent the summer with us and he had asked me for some time to help talk him through getting his first credit card So I scheduled a meeting with him And then proceeded to completely overwhelm him with every [00:02:00] credit consideration.
He could possibly have Bobby if you’re out there, I’m so sorry. I overwhelmed you that day I hope that credit card that you eventually get Applied for is working out for you. You know, I feel like there’s some things in life that we don’t have to be the full experts on. I just give me the high level basics and then let me consult an expert and somebody just tell me what to do.
Right. I, if you’re the expert on it, I’ll take your best recommendation, but I, I don’t wanna be the expert on credit and all the credit card options. I hear you. So hopefully this episode is, you know, an attempt to redo that and to help simplify it, which really is the whole. Point of the whole show, isn’t it?
Why don’t we start off with, cause we’re talking about getting started with your first credit card, maybe going back and looking at getting a different credit card, but level set, Andrew, what’s the age that you legally can get a credit card? Yeah, so the legal age to begin applying for credit and building your credit score is 18.
, and I do suggest starting with establishing credit as early as [00:03:00] possible, keyword, as long as you’re able to do it responsibly. That means no, you know, maxing out credit cards, no missing payments, but if you’re able to, you know, responsibly handle credit at 18, that is a good time to get started. Once you turn 18, getting started with your first credit card, it can have, , Lots of good benefits for your credit growth longterm.
It helps accelerate your credit growth as you’ll maximize the amount of time that you’ll have established credit and that’ll help boost your score quite a bit. , if you are looking for advice on how to get started when the time is right, look no further than Patelco Credit Union. Any one of our 37 branches or our virtual branch are fully equipped with super knowledgeable team members, Alexia being one of them.
Very, very happy to have you here to get your insight as well. But all these people can get you on the right path to successful, healthy credit growth. This can be both You know, establishing your first time credit and starting to build credit or rebuilding credit as well. We have lots of financial guidance that you can request with one of our certified financial specialists.
You can make an [00:04:00] appointment on our website under the financial wellness tab and they can get into all the nitty gritty with you as well. So, you know, lots of ways to start establishing credit, to build new credit, and to do it responsibly with, you know, the trusted experts that we have here at Batelco.
Awesome. So 18’s the age that you can get started. Uh I went with, the manager from your branch out to a junior high school class yesterday. We taught seven classes, introduced them to the concept of credit, and the main point we wanted to leave them with is like, hey, credit’s gonna be important to you in the future.
You’re probably gonna want to buy a car. You’re probably gonna buy, want to buy a house. But understand that credit has more implications than just your ability to borrow in the future. It has implications for future employment. Your credit report is something that a future employer is probably going to look at.
When you go to rent your first apartment, your future landlord might look at it. So, , you can look at your credit report to make assumptions about you. So, there were a lot more things that we were trying to leave these [00:05:00] young people with in anticipation of 18 and getting started with credit. So, the timing was just, , really good and it happened to be your manager that was with us, in the classroom.
But just, The thing, or the, the direction that we were pointing these young people to was to the branch. When you’re ready to kind of make these big decisions, it might be good to go in and talk to somebody. So if you get a bunch of kids at your branch asking for you, then you understand the reason why.
But you help young people and just members alike with this very need all the time at the branch. Tell us a little bit about kind of that needs assessment or the questions that you ask when people come to you and say, Well, I haven’t got started with credit, whether or not they’re 18 or not. How do I do that?
How do you go about kind of uncovering what their needs are to put them in the best match? Absolutely. , so at Patelco, like you were mentioning, every experience is different. Every engagement and conversation that’s had is different. It’s different. It’s really tailored to what the individual needs are.
, some great questions that I would follow up [00:06:00] with when I’m actually conversating with somebody is, what are your short term goals? What are you trying to accomplish within the next year? What are you trying to accomplish within the next five years? 10 years and so on and so forth, , really giving them the opportunity to see what their needs are, because when I’m evaluating a situation, I want to make sure that we can meet their financial goal.
So I feel like that’s a very important conversation. The goals, , if they’re trying to accomplish something, what’s the timeframe and a realistic timeframe on what we could do? So I also think that it’s important to have the conversation of, affordability of what you can, , for credit needs, what you can get.
So that’s something that I would also want to conversate, you know, if there’s employment, is there future employment that’s going to be had? But like I said, every conversation is tailored to that individual’s needs. So different conversations for a retiree versus somebody who’s brand new into credit, or maybe somebody that needs debt repair and how we can help provide them solutions to those.
[00:07:00] And really, , keeping our best interest in what Financial freedom looks like for that individual and financially how we can help them accomplish that. And in talking with these young people too afterward, the hands fly up, they’re asking questions, credit, the topic of credit usually always stimulates a lot of questions because it’s complex, it’s convoluted sometimes.
One of the things that came up, , was the fact that they didn’t want to wait until they’re 18. They understand that they could possibly be on a credit card with their parents before 18. Can you talk a little bit about authorized users and kind of the difference of Being an authorized user versus being an actual applicant or Absolutely.
So, , to be an authorized user, you’d have to be 16 years of age or older to become an authorized user. It would have to be authorized by the primary credit holder to actually allow that individual to Basically use the card. The individual who is the primary credit [00:08:00] applicant, they would actually be responsible for those transactions that are made by the authorized user.
This could benefit somebody, maybe if you’re trying to teach somebody how to use a credit card, maybe also, optimizing, good purchases versus bad purchases, but also it could help maybe if you have a retiree who becomes ill and they need an authorized user to maybe aid them to get groceries or to help them with their simple tasks that maybe they are incapable of doing at that immediate moment.
I would say there’s advantages like assisting or to teach, but I also, I think it’s a huge responsibility for that primary applicant because any transactions that are, that are posted on that card is ultimately the responsibility of the primary user, and it’s affecting their credit, whether it be in a positive or in an adverse way.
So, if there is adverse usage, that’s a consideration that a primary would want to consider before saying let’s have an authorized user. You really want to have that conversation about responsibility when utilizing that cart because it will [00:09:00] ultimately reflect on the primaries. credit report. So the authorized user doesn’t get the benefit of reporting purposes for that credit card.
So if there are on time payments, anything like that, it’s not showing on the authorized user’s side of the credit aspect for building credit. So it might be an opportunity to just have more of a teaching tool versus something that is going to ultimately help this individual build their credit. Yeah, and at the end of it, we were, you know, encouraging these young people to have the conversations with their parent or an adult.
If it makes sense to go the authorized user route in anticipation of you having your own at 18, kind of depends on their level of responsibility, but maybe also their parents comfortability with even having them on. But yeah. An option, nonetheless. Okay, cool. So, let’s switch gears a little bit because yesterday, we also talked with these folks.
Actually, when we’re in the college classroom, Andrew, this comes up a lot. When we talk about the spectrum of the [00:10:00] credit score and the factors that go into What makes your credit score? Credit mix always comes up, and I feel like it’s the most confusing for everybody to grasp. You’re the best at kind of breaking it all down.
So when it comes to credit mix and the healthy credit mix, there’s some rules that we teach in the classroom. I’d love for you to share them on the screen. Yeah. So I want to talk about when they’re calculating your credit score, they take into consideration five different factors. , so just to make sure everybody is kind of on the same page with this, I want to talk a little bit about what makes a credit score just to begin with.
There’s payment history, which takes into account whether you’ve made at least your minimum payments. in full and consistently and on time. Amounts owed looks at the total amount that you currently owe across all accounts relative to the credit that you have available. Length of credit history basically means that the longer your credit accounts have been open and in good standing the better.
That is a very good reason why you should not ever close your first time credit card. Because once you close that if you’ve [00:11:00] had it for you know, 10 years, 15 years, even if you’re not using it If you close it, you lose all that positive payment history. , new credit, this is where hard credit polls come into play.
So this is kind of the way the lenders look at this is if someone is applying for a lot of new credit frequently, that can be a red flag because it can sometimes be indicative of like a financial pressure or like overspending habits or things like that. So every time you apply for credit, your score does get dinged a little bit.
The last category, the one that you mentioned is credit mix. So this means that lenders like to see that you can. successfully manage a healthy mix of different types of credit. So this means like revolving credit, which would be credit cards, lines of credit, things that you kind of borrow and pay back, , as well as installment credit.
So these are things that you, you know, make your set payments on home loans, auto loans, student loans, that kind of stuff. So those are all the different factors that we use to, calculate credit. When we’re looking at having the right balance of credit lines. First and foremost, a question that I get all the time when I’m out [00:12:00] in colleges is, how many credit cards should I have?
What’s the sweet spot? It’s a sweet spot. And it’s such a tricky question to answer because, you know, we just talked about all the factors, number of credit cards is not on there. So there’s no real, black or white answer, for how many you should have. My general, I guess, frame of thinking there is just don’t have any cards that are unnecessary.
The more cards that you have, that means the more cards that you have to manage, which could ultimately result in like missed payments or missed annual fees or things like that. It can also mean a lot of hard pulls on your credit, which can bring your score down. Brand new credit cards also affect your overall average length of credit history since it brings down your overall average credit age.
So basically just apply responsibly and conservatively for the credit cards that you do have. The general rule is 30 percent usage. That’s kind of the rule of thumb for, the amounts owed that you had. So I mentioned earlier, one of the factors in calculating a credit score is amounts owed the rule of thumb there.
for good shape, 30 percent or less. So that means that [00:13:00] let’s say you have three credit cards. One has a 10, 000 credit limit. One has 4, 000 and one has 6, 000. Your total available credit between all those cards is going to be 20, 000. That is your available credit. You want to keep your balances on all those cumulatively at 30 percent of that available or less.
So in that case, it’d be about 6, 000. That is a green flag to lenders because it makes you look, on paper, like a very, you know, responsible borrower. And it can help boost your credit score in the long term as well. Yeah, and you used to work at the branch, like Alexia did, right? Most people don’t know that.
That’s not, in all of the, the large spectrum of things you need to know about credit and how your credit score is calculated, that’s never the most obvious, but also the most kind of counterintuitive for students. Well, it’s, it’s weird because like, I think a lot of people think like, Oh, I make my minimum payment on time.
I’ve never missed a payment. Why is my credit score not 800? And it’s like, yeah, if you, if you make all your payments on time, that factor of your credit score, the, you know, on time [00:14:00] payments, that’ll be, you know, good and gravy. But if your, you know, balances are all maxed out, well, that section is going to be okay.
That one’s not going to look so good, which can, you know, have a negative impact on your overall credit. Okay, so 30 percent utilization of your credit card. Rule of three, so a good healthy mix. Alexia, you’re on that same page too. Oh, absolutely. As someone who processes loans, you’re looking for a healthy mix and that mix is probably three.
Okay, , we were trying to get the students yesterday in the classroom to get to thinking of things from the standpoint of somebody that would lend money. So when you go and see somebody like Alexia, and you’re asking her to borrow 10, 000 or 20, 000, what are gonna be the things that she’s looking at to make a determination about you and your character as a person?
to want to lend money to you. And we were comparing that to their report grade history in their report cards, and the maximum GPA you can get is a 4. 0. Kind of think of your [00:15:00] credit score like, okay, the max is 850, but think about your credit report in the same way you might think about your, , your grades, and your GPA.
Okay, cool. So, now we have a better idea of when to get started, when we might need to add a credit card if we’re talking about credit mix. And I feel like that comes up a lot too when we have folks that come to us and say, you know, I’m interested in buying a home. I want my credit score to be in the, like, best optimum position.
I might need to add another line of credit and, In order to do that, that’s something that they can come to you and ask advice on it, Alexia? Absolutely, so, , definitely if you’re interested in purchasing a home, anything like that, you do want to have a good credit score. You also, like Andrew had mentioned, a mix of installment versus revolving, and making sure, like you had also suggested, making on time payments, but making sure you’re also at that 30 percent or less.
Um, That’s all very important, but that’s something that can be [00:16:00] evaluated for what you specifically need as a member, what you’re looking for, and then your time frame of trying to accomplish that also. And how we can get to you to that point where you have, your odds are going to improve to get that loan that you’re requesting.
Okay, cool. Are we entering like overwhelming Bobby territory? I think Bobby’s fine. Okay, I think Bobby’s doing well. Bobby again, we’re out there like I’m hoping we’re not overwhelming our listeners to with all of the information that you should have. But it’s all important. Yeah, you know, if you’re going for that, 850 credit score.
If you’re trying to meet all of those financial goals, your credit score and your credit report is such a big part of that. Okay, so we know when we need to add a card, get started, all of that. Let’s talk about all the options that exist out there in the universe. Okay Andrew, let me just ask, this wasn’t part of our outline, should you just go open a credit card at every retailer that asks you at the counter?
Is that a good [00:17:00] strategy? No, it is not. So, beware of retail credit cards. I’ll say lots of times when you’re checking out at any department store, they will try to sell you their card to get you to save. Yeah, right there. And it’s always a pretty good deal, like, you know, your purchases. 300. If you open up our card, it’s only going to be 80 today.
Let’s go and do it. It sounds so good. It always sounds so simple, you know, sive here and you’ll save all this money today. When you are given those offers, just make sure you’re thinking it through as a long term decision, because really getting any credit card is in fact a long term decision and not just a way to save some quick cash.
, same goes with those mailers inviting you to apply for credit cards. A lot of those times you’re probably going to be subject to a credit warning. Some are pre approved to where it’s not an actual credit pool, but a lot of times, , How do I say this gently? Just because something implies that you’re pre approved does not mean that you actually are pre approved or that you’re not going to have a credit pull.
So, sometimes verbiage used like you’re invited to apply or [00:18:00] like you’re pre screened or pre selected. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you are pre approved. , they still could give you a credit pull and that still could negatively impact your credit. Okay. But I can come ask Alexia if Yeah. Okay.
That’s the case for me. I know we do a lot of pre approval letters here at Patelco, but somebody could come to you and say, Hey, I got this in the mail or I got this from you at Patelco or wherever and they could Kind of check check the validity of it with you. Definitely I and also I would suggest when you get those flyers I mean take it if you’re with us, which you should be bring it to Patelco.
Let us look at it There’s oftentimes fine print that’s overlooked because they’re only sharing the parts that are that that institution wants you to actually see, but reading that fine print and actually getting to the nitty gritty of what is needed. , is it going to be a hard pull? Is it because it should be disclosing that in that fine print?
But like Michele, I mentioned we do offer pre approvals here at Patelco [00:19:00] too, and they do occur and we generally will try to have that conversation with our members as they walk through the door, whether it be on the teller side or the banker side. So that is something that conversations that can be had but also if you kind of just need the consult of, I got this in the mail.
What can we do? In terms of our, our interest rates and our annual percentage rates that we offer, they tend to be a lot lower than these larger retail institutions. So it’s a great opportunity to kind of compare, Is there fees associated or do we have fees and just getting your options, I don’t think you should just pick the one that came in the mail that says you’re going to have all these swanky things, but there’s probably strings attached.
So it’s really important, I think, to consult somebody who you can trust, and that’s how we really like to see ourselves here at Patelco, somebody that you can come to and really get that advice. Is this a good option? Maybe we have something that we could provide that’s better, a stronger or a better fit for that individual.
Yeah, that’s good advice. Andrew gives a great budgeting class and one of the [00:20:00] things you recommend in that class is taking a step back. You get the information, you sit on it and you think about it, you consult an expert and then you can make a decision. So it’s not, it’s not no forever, it’s a no for now.
No for now, exactly. It’s a no for now. Okay, regarding rewards and options, right, we’ve got all the retailers that are offering you credit cards. You get all the things in the mail. There’s a lot of things out there. I think a lot of what might be top of mind for people when considering a credit card or an extra credit card might be what’s in it for them.
And credit card companies, frankly, they’re fighting for everyone’s business. So it’s in their best interest to offer these perks. Andrew, you are self admittedly a sampler. Yes. Right? For the sake of like being knowledgeable, but also for your own financial health. You want to have the best thing that’s out there.
Yeah. And I love free stuff. Yeah. I love free stuff too. Who doesn’t, right? What is your priority when it comes to rewards? There’s cash back. There’s miles. There’s all kinds of things. So I think it just kind of depends on like finding a card that [00:21:00] offers rewards that best aligns with your lifestyle. , for me, I really like a travel reward and I will say this about rewards.
So generally the way credit cards work, you know, you, You swipe your card, you spend the dollar, you get the points associated with those dollars spent as soon as you spend them. But, you are not actually paying any interest on those dollars spent unless the balance carries over into the next, like, statement cycle.
So, I mean, theoretically, you can be, like, the way I do it, I put all my purchases on my credit cards, I rack up all the rewards, but I pay my balance off, like, constantly, so I’m never paying any interest and I’m just getting, like, free money out the wazoo. It’s fantastic. , I have a, a travel credit card that actually does have a small annual fee.
So one thing to consider when you are looking for a credit card is annual fees. , there could be some that offer really good rewards, really good points, but the annual fee for it is like astronomical. If you want to avoid annual fees, there are plenty of options out there that you can [00:22:00] do that. Patelco has a really great points rewards card that is It’s totally free for the annual fee.
You get lots of points back for like gas and groceries and all kinds of good stuff. I do not think that annual fees are necessarily the worst thing in the world. Not everyone agrees with me on that. Yeah. So when I was looking for my travel card, I compared like 10 different ones and the one that I picked ultimately does have a small annual fee.
It’s like less than a hundred dollars a year. But the rate that I get. points back on this card like more than pays for the annual fee when I compare that even factoring in that small fee, I still net more rewards than I would have on some of the free ones. So I decided ultimately that was the way to go.
, but I, you know, I know that because I did my research, I, you know, looked around, I didn’t just take the first card that came my way. I made sure that I made a good, you know, strategic decision and credit cards, you know, it’s a lot like going to And all you can eat buffet. Like, you’ve been doing all you can eat buffet.
You don’t, you don’t just stock up on bread right away. [00:23:00] Like, you gotta, like, survey the surroundings. You go for the prime rib, once you’ve, like, staked it all out. And, and that’s the same thing with credit cards. You know, it’s, it’s a game. And you gotta, you gotta play to win. Yeah, but you gotta do your research, too.
Again, Alexia and the branch is a great team. resource to do that with. Bring all your options, sit down and talk about it. We’ve got a service called Certified Financial Specialists, where you can come down, you don’t fully understand, or even if you fully understand, you might just need an expert to kind of bounce ideas off of.
That is literally the, the purpose of that position here at Patelco, is for you to get personalized financial advice. And, Regarding budgeting, making decisions about credit, et cetera, et cetera. So, , come see Alexia at the branch if you want to do that. , Andrew, I love that. For me, it’s miles. Miles is my priority.
And funny, because my mileage card has an annual fee. And I agree with you. What I gain on the mileage outweighs what I pay in the annual fee. So I’m willing to, , pay the fee. But [00:24:00] different strokes for different folks, right? It could be cash back. It could be Another cool thing with rewards that A lot of cards will offer like different rewards for different categories.
So like, let’s say you have maybe two or three credit cards. One might offer you, I don’t know, five times cash back on like groceries and dining out. Another might offer you more rewards on like entertainment, for example. So just, if you’re looking to redeem rewards, which I think is a very smart thing to do for credit, you really can kind of bend the system to your will and make it so that you are getting all kinds of free stuff.
Just make sure you’re being as strategic, doing your research, Using specific cards for specific purposes that are going to get you the most bang for your buck, and you’ll be, you know, you’ll be golden. Yeah, and Patelco’s a great place to do that, right Alexia? Because we’ve got both cards with rewards and no annual fees, so kind of a double whammy.
, the cool thing about our website too, where you can find information about our credit cards, is that you can do side by side comparisons on the webpage too. So patelco. org if you’re interested in comparing our credit [00:25:00] cards. But regarding rewards, so you know, and Me and Andrew’s kind of preference.
Do you have a preference when it comes to rewards and how you use your credit cards? I like to be, , low cost. , so I’m one of those people, I do have a rewards card. And similarly to both of you, I do pay an annual fee, but it is under a hundred. And I do use my points and I do redeem them. So I, I, I agree.
It has to be a low cost annual fee and I have to be able to reap the rewards just to piggyback off what Andrew said. a rewards card is not go wild and do everything that you want. I, I, I strongly agree with him saying that if you’re able to pay that balance off, it’s kind of like free money almost because you’re paying your monthly balance off.
So you’re not getting the interest, but you’re reaping the rewards of getting points that you can maybe apply to your, , balance or that you could use for your mileage or to go shopping if you want to go to Sephora or whatever, whatever makes you happy. Yeah, so I totally agree with like Under a hundred, I [00:26:00] would say that’s kind of a, a good route and just have that mindset that if you’re going to be making the purchase, it might be in your best interest to be able to pay the balance off fully so you can kind of get that free money and think of it like these points are like free money for me to use on maybe those special things that you want to do versus throwing them on the credit card each time.
Maybe not even special, just I want to, I want to spend just for my own mental health sometimes too. Okay. What are we not talking about? What other than rewards or anything else should we be considering? , I honestly think that there’s a lot of people that might have had, , I’m going to throw my own experience in there, adverse experience as a first time credit individual.
When I was, , fresh out of high school, I did get a credit card and it was with a major retailer. And the first thing I would note is that they gave me this. limit, which might seem small to some, but 5, 000 that I could use immediately. And I am mature now, and I can see. , Patelco, we have a totally [00:27:00] different frame thought when we come into the actual lending side.
We’re here to not give you a further financial struggle. And, , when I’m doing Dealing with youth coming into the lending side and getting a credit card, generally we are very conservative on what we offer that individual. if you have a job and you’re coming in at 18, it might be approved for 1, 000, and that’s something to think about.
I know some people might seem like, oh, that’s small, but when you think about it, the 30 percent usage, it’s really a good opportunity to teach somebody, , versus the 5, 000. For me, I was in debt for many years after that paying it back. So having that and then looking at the retailers, , the major retailers and their annual percentage rate in comparison to what we do, we’re very, , thoughtful when we actually do our, , Underwriting and we’re looking at everything.
We are going to see can this person afford to pay it back? We don’t want you to have a lifetime struggle that you’re going to be paying for years and years and years [00:28:00] So for us, I would say we’re completely very mindful of that individual what? their needs are. So I think that’s something that, that I would just really throw in there it’s more about the financial education and that, , being a responsible shopper, being a responsible credit user, and that’s what we can give to our patelco members, and jumping on board with us, is kind of that education along with the money.
That credit that you’re needing or that, that loan that you’re trying to get. Yeah, that’s great. So putting you into something that’s commensurate with your lifestyle, something that’s comfortable for your ability to repay. I mentioned I was in the classroom yesterday with these kids and yes, they did say, well, getting started with the 100 credit card, what can I do with that or a thousand dollar credit card?
I had to tell them the story. These poor kids, we saw about. 70 kids yesterday, and I started off every class by telling them, Hey, back in the day when I went to school, you know, back in the 1900s when I got my first credit card, there weren’t any rules around, Income or forms [00:29:00] of repayment. So I got started with the 30, 000 When I was 18 years old, that’s insane.
Guess how much of that credit card I spent It was all all of it plus whatever student debt. I had plus whatever other debt I had So at 22, I was in a big hole to start but that kind of set up the rest of the class You know got everybody’s attention to say, okay, I need to pay attention to this but also kind of reinforced The importance of starting small

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining us for today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union. Thanks everyone for tuning into the show today. It’s hard to believe, but we’re two seasons in and we’re at episode 25.
For this momentous occasion, we had to bring in none other than The Veronica Dangerfield, Patelco’s beloved financial wellness educator and overall financial cheerleader. Welcome. Welcome, Veronica. Thank you for gracing us in the studio. Thank you. It’s such an honor to be with you, Michele. Talk about life, girl.
Well, we do it so much off camera, don’t we? So we’re just bringing it to the studio today and 25 episodes in, and we haven’t even broached Retirement, can you believe it? I cannot believe it, [00:01:00] but we’re going to bring it in hard today. Okay, so my friend, without giving your age away, is it safe to say that you’re thinking about retirement?
Well, everybody should be thinking about it. In fact, I cannot not think about it. , I am, very privileged to be, , a gorgeous 63 year old. Yes. And, I actually have to make. My age a part of my passwords because I cannot keep that number in my head. Most of the time I put in 36. But you know, you look and act 30 you’ve got the spirit of a 36 year old.
Let’s put it that way Reality is self created and I am delusional Well, I am thinking about retirement I think about retirement all the time But whether or not I’m prepared to actually do the thing or not is a different story So today, I want to get all the tips, , and we’re not going to get technical, right?
Neither you or I are licensed [00:02:00] financial advisors, and we do recommend that when you are thinking about retirement, you do sit down with a tax advisor or, a licensed financial professional. But today we are going to talk in just general terms about some of the things that we might be anxious about, whether you’re, in my life stage since I’m so much younger, I’m not.
You may be nearing closer to retirement planning, so we’re just gonna, , talk it through. So I’m gonna kick us off, I’m gonna share you what Google will feed you if you search pre retirement. Okay. And then we can compare some of the things that are on your mind. Sound good? Oh, sounds wonderful. Okay, here we go.
Number one, if you Google the most, , top of mind things for near retirees in healthcare is the top. Is that one of your top? Yes. It’s not even, , just. Health care, but when you go on Medicare, they, make you divorce your teeth, your eyes, and chiropractic. You know what I mean? So, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t include [00:03:00] that because right now, my medical care includes that.
My, my teeth and my, my eyes and, you know, I wear glasses. Yeah. And, , they can be very expensive. So that’s always a little bit daunting. Yeah. We were reading some of the, notes in preparation for this. I had no idea. So, the report on Google shares that reports estimate that the average healthy couple age 65 today will need close to 390, 000.
to cover health care expenses in retirement. Have you, like, thought about a number that that’s going to equate to? Well, I started doing yoga so that I could get up out of a chair. And, I assiduously go to the dentist. , it’s kind of like with my house. I was thinking about retiring and I got a new roof and, you know, I got a new air conditioning system.
, so, in preparation for that, can you overly prepare for medical? for medical costs. It’s [00:04:00] daunting. I think I have one account that I think that I was gonna say exclusively for medical, but my revenge is I’m gonna do the best I can to stay healthy. And taking care of yourself. Yeah. That’s good advice.
Cause, cause I’m, I went through a great divorce I’m a single woman now. Yeah. And everything falls. The avalanche falls right into my big, responsible lap. My big, responsible, capable lap. But I’m always aspirational. , you know, staying healthy. My mom lived a long time. My grandmother lived a long time.
Yeah, so for you it’s about prevention. What can I do today? to help mitigate some of those potential health care costs. I feel like a lot of it comes down to luck. So you’re talking about, you know, hereditary things, but, you know, luck has got to come into play sometimes. But you know what? I have to tell you something.
I read a study. This is going to sound kind of weird, but I read a study that if you had a baby after the year, after 40 years, [00:05:00] I have to tell you, I was a mis reproduction for 30 years. I mean, I have, my children are 12 years apart from each other that I have, , a tendency to live to a hundred. Oh, if you have a child left, if you have a child after 40, I had a, my last child was, , 10 days before my 41st birthday.
And in fact, I met a young person and she’s 45, and we both have children the same age, . Wow. So, with that said, if I’m going to live to 100 and I retire in my 60s, that’s another whole 30 years. What am I going to do? And you can’t fully prepare financially for that. 390, 000 is the figure that they give us, the average figure, but that’s so much dependent on the person, the medical history, the, any kind of health luck you may have.
So there’s no, there’s no one answer for everyone. Yeah. Yeah. But, preventative measures is Have you [00:06:00] ever taken one of the longevity tests? No. You can do that on Google. You can take a longevity test and they ask you, you know, Do you smoke? Do you exercise? They even ask you how many vegetables do you consume a week?
Oh my. So, and it’ll give you a number, and that number, and it says if you’ve already made it this long, you know, since I’ve already made it, I have a really good chance of making it so much longer. And so I’m making contracts with all the young people that , That I run into because when I get old and senile, they’re going to have to be on the schedule.
Well, we’re only like two, three minutes in and you’ve already given your age away. I was trying to keep it general, but you’ve already I’m proud of my age, you know, it took a lot to get here. Okay, so speaking of age and living longer than we expect, outliving your retirement income was the second question.
Second biggest worry, according to Google, they go on to say only 48 percent of Americans have attempted to calculate how [00:07:00] much money they’ll need in retirement and 61 percent fear that they’re going to run out of money. That’s more than half and they they fear poverty. More than dying. How for you, do you even wrap your head around what that number should be?
You know, I try to feel positive about it because I don’t know if it’s, , if it’s like pure propaganda to keep us in fear. Because it seems like a lot of the financial information. that is consumable out there is based on fear. , I agree. We’re just in a college classroom and we’re talking to kids about planning for the future.
And, you know, the end goal is to retire as early as possible, right? So pad your nest egg now, but But we got to talking about Social Security and trying to ease their fears about, you know, the fact that it might not be there in retirement, but I feel like we’ve been hearing that forever. We’ve been hearing it forever.
And retirement, if you just retire on Social [00:08:00] Security, you’re almost guaranteed to be under the poverty line. So it’s just critical that we still, plummeted in their head that it’s, that Social Security would just be a supplement, you know, maybe for a couple of good vacations a year. Because you know what my plans are.
Old Lady Dangerfield is going to be an international world traveler. We’re not going to be able to keep up. We can hardly keep up with you now. No luggage, just a passport and a fat credit card. I believe that 100%, whether or not you’ve got the money to do it or not. Oh, I am so committed to this. And because I’m committed to this, I have to, , really utilize My younger retirement years, because, studies say that maybe when I’m 72, or basically 82, I’m not going to have the energy or the capacity.
So, so Or maybe that health, like we were talking about in point one, going back to luck. You know, what if something happens and you’re not able to do that? Yeah, be [00:09:00] properly insured and saved up. That’s right and prayed up. Okay. All right. Outliving your retirement income. You and I did a, a webinar earlier in the year about building generational wealth and, , assets, came up in that conversation.
Where might you be thinking, for either younger people or you now nearing and thinking about retirement, like where does assets come into play and where does that kind of fit in the calculation for what you think you’re going to need? Well, a part of me is really, , happy about the gig economy because, I know this is going to sound weird, but I decided to make my house my husband and I, , made a small apartment.
So if I had to have somebody come in, , they could, , live there. And I think about how many ways that I can utilize that as an income source, so that I’m not just reliant on Social Security. I don’t have any other pensions, that [00:10:00] I’ve worked for. , I’ve just done the, , the 401Ks, and I’ve done those pretty aggressively.
So, , but I still think about it, you know, because with inflation, It’s eating away at my savings, so I have to make sure, ’cause they say when you get older you have to, you know, do an a, a, , diversify in a different way. , but I’m gonna live so long, I think that I need to remain aggressive. Because even if I retire, let’s say at 67, I still have another 25 years to live.
So all of those are considerations. But, I don’t want to be in scarcity. And I don’t want to make decisions based on fear. But when I do the research, fear is all out there. But I have to rely on, knowing that I’m not an exorbitant person, when I travel, I travel very inexpensively. And , I have three brilliant, brilliant children that I have indoctrinated them to [00:11:00] support their mother when I get home.
Yeah. Wait, but this room is really for them to come back to and is it a secret hope that one of them comes back to live in? Well, if you, , are a parent right now, you know it’s a revolving door. One is getting ready to go to, to college, but one is also coming back home. But she’s the one that cooks. So I’m really excited.
Nice. Okay, so the Veronica Dangerfield Bed and Breakfast that I could rent out. But you’re talking about making assets work for you. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Because I think that, you know, , I tell sometimes when I teach that, , lack of income is a creativity problem and that all of us should have more than one source and that if we understand how talented we are, we can figure it out so that you’re making money when you sleep.
I mean, you got the internet that never goes to bed. So it’s going to require us to be a little bit more creative and thoughtful about sources of income. [00:12:00] And not be into scarcity because it’s really hard. Once you’ve been inoculated to save the your entire life, then all of a sudden start spending.
Yeah, it’s it’s almost like impossible, you know, and then in prep to I hate to bring up the T word. I didn’t even think about taxes in prep for this conversation. So tell me where your head’s at. Because it came up number three in the top four. Most, you know, things are worried about. I don’t need to follow that up with anything.
Taxes are stressful in general, but what about taxes related to retirement? So you think if you have, so qualified funds are when you’re 401k, when you have money in your 401k and you don’t pay the taxes because you believed in the future that you would be in a lower income bracket, but it does not happen all of the, all the time.
So I have three quarters maybe, that are non tax. Where the government is is [00:13:00] on the other side of the thing saying it’s time to pay me. But I also Have the 401k and it has a Roth component in it. The Roth component is the hallelujah day You know, because that money, , and they say on the hierarchy of taking money out, and this is just personally for me, , you take your Roth money out first, and then you take your tax money out.
But anyway. Okay, wait. So your Roth is your pre tax? Yeah, yeah. The Roth is the money that you get in and you don’t. You don’t get any tax deduction. And your traditional is just the opposite. And the traditional is just the opposite. But the Roth is even better because not only does it, your contributions, you’ve already paid taxes on it, but it grows tax free.
Right. So all of the, , all of the, , All of the, dividends and stuff are not taxed. Yeah. And we teach this in the classroom, right? The difference between a Roth IRA and traditional IRA, it just never dawned on me that everybody’s got [00:14:00] multiple types of investments and not all of them are the pre tax variety.
So you gotta kinda write everything out and figure out which is which and then for the ones that are not pre tax. That’s why you have to have one of, a financial advisor because there is a hierarchy here. And there’s ways that you can do it so that you pay less taxes. But it’s not intuitive. You know, it just doesn’t make sense.
And it’s actually, I think it’s a little bit more sophisticated. Then what I could pick up on my own, you know, because, I mean, all of these decisions, have you heard of decision fatigue? I’m telling you, I’m a mom, you’re a mom. Yeah, I know that pretty well. Just I haven’t started to approach this retirement thing.
But when did you, when did you finally figure out that, hey, I should probably talk to some either a tax advisor or a retiree, financial advisor regarding the thing is, is that I’m circling the wagon. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? I’m afraid to pull [00:15:00] the trigger because I know that I’m going to live so long and I really do love my job.
I mean, it fills me with life and I can support communities and I have fun teaching, , but also, the opportunity to have time freedom. And I want to live on an island for six weeks, just to figure out whether I like living on an island. Yeah. I want to have the beach as my back door. But, Well, and I work with you.
I know you have limited PTO, and that bucket’s running dry. That bucket! I mean, in fact, you guys, I keep my PTO at zero. You know what I mean? I know that. And I have a lot. But, in order to experience more, because that’s what money’s about, right? Right. It’s about having the tools so that you can live how you want to, travel when you get ready, and have some financial peace.
You know what I mean? I keep saying to myself, you know, [00:16:00] if you, if you have money and it’s just sitting around doing nothing, what good is it? It’s like Monopoly money. Yeah, but if you can use it to support an organization, take the kids on a vacation, travel solo. You don’t even have grandkids yet, so when those grandkids come too.
Oh my gosh, I’m gonna lose my mind. I know. I already know. That I’m going to have to have EAP on speed dial. I’m going to have to work because I’m going to need a full time job. And maybe that’s where all your money is going to go. I mean, there’s a lot to be seen there too. But I’m hearing you also talk about, you know, I’m of age to retire, but I love what I’m doing.
I still have energy. This work that I’m doing still fills my bucket. I don’t want to be bored either. So when we think about. The right time, the fourth thing that came up in this biggest worries about retirement is market swings and whether or not the economy is going to be in the best time for me to retire and take advantage of the highest rates or whatever.
So in your mind, you might be thinking [00:17:00] next five years or whatever, because I’ve got energy and I still want to work, but I also maybe want to maximize the best like market time and the thing is, is that market timing. I think that it’s impossible. You know, the, the, the market went up during the pandemic and people made a lot of money.
, and if I retire in a down market, I probably won’t recover that money again. If I retire in a up market, it’ll be a good idea for me, but you know what? When it’s time for me to go, I don’t think I’m going to have to think about that because what, how much can I can control? I can’t control it. And, I can always work.
When I retire, my brilliance is not going to be subtracted. Yep. Ha, ha, ha. Yep, and you create your own PTO. You know, I create my own PTO. I still love to read. I still, there’s so many things that I want to learn how [00:18:00] to do. So, , so, I’m, I’m going to retire to still teach. Yeah, I’m gonna always be a teacher.
Yeah, because I love young people whether I’m gonna do it in a formalized structured corporate world Yeah, my mom has been talking about retiring for the last Eight years I want to say she just turned 70 like just turned 70 last week and her biggest top priority was Maximizing my 401k. I’ve built this whole thing my entire life I’m gonna make sure the day I retire is at the maximum Point it could be and I feel like it’s held her back the last eight years Like it’s been this constant and let’s think about the last five eight years too with the pandemic and everything How up and down that has been so it just kind of added to the stress of everything But she admitted she hasn’t been Able to enjoy the last leg of the retirement because of that so I mean everybody’s got their own You know needs and their own top three or [00:19:00] top four if you will but for her The stress of the perfect timing related to economy and market it just kind of ruined her Experience and she’s still kind of going back and forth with it, but I think she’s at the point where I’m tired Like, I think it’s finally time, no matter what the market looks like on May next year or what, the date keeps changing, it’s May next year now.
But on May next year, no matter what is going on, a recession, whatever, is gonna be my day. And sometimes you gotta draw that line in the sand. Well, there’s this book called Die With Zero. And it says that, , , you have to, , really ultimize the, the, that when you’re young in retirement. So, Because I just went to Japan and we walked, I don’t know, five to six hours a day and you’re still recovering.
And I’m, and you know, no, but, but because I’m consistent with this and I insist on staying healthy so that I can travel, you know, that is why I want to optimize, , [00:20:00] my sixties and do the things that I wanted to do because, you know, life isn’t guaranteed. Yeah. And I’m not gonna take. Time for a granite? Or my health for granite?
So, it’s now o’clock. Get on the plane yesterday. It is now o’clock. It’s now o’clock. So, regardless of what the market is doing, I only have a limited time to live on this precious earth. Girl, I want to have fun. Yeah. I want to have great experiences with my children. Yeah. I want them to tell stories about me for a long time, because I’m prone to spontaneous behavior.
Yeah, and this is your priorities, right? You know what you’re confident, so what your priorities are, so maybe Your conversation with that financial advisor, with that tax person, that’s where your benchmark is. This is where I’m starting. This is what I want. So let me work backwards and get financially where I need to be to meet that.
For a hundred years, because I’m going to be around bugging people for a hundred years. My grandma lived to be almost 95. So [00:21:00] I’m there with you too. Wow. You better pump up that 401k girl. This is why we’re doing this episode. I need you to tell me. Help me do this. Okay, we had a, we had about 20 other things that are kind of top of mind when, thinking about retirement.
We’re already at podcast time. We could be here forever. I know you and I, but what, what other one thing are you, is, is on your priority list? I just think that, , we can’t rely on, our feelings about our finances. We have to have greater values, , having experiences, doing all the things that you want to do.
I think we need to get out of the fear because the fear is just suffocating. But I don’t want to have any regrets on my deathbed. I want to be able to go to Jamaica and do the limbo. I want to be in Tibet, praying with the monks. And I want to really [00:22:00] live the life of my dreams because of the sacrifices that I made in my past.
So when it’s time to retire, I don’t want to, get bogged down in the finances. I need to do the stuff now if I need to create more income. I can. You’ll figure it out. And I will, and I’ll figure it out. But I don’t want to go down in scarcity. Yeah. Because it’s so easy to do, and there’s so much pressure around.
But I just want to have a fun life with lots of adventures, spending money to enrich the life of my family. my friends and my community. Well, I see now why you’re doing that yoga. It’s for this limbo. You haven’t been to Jamaica yet? I have been to Jamaica a couple of times, but you haven’t done the limbo.
I have not done the limbo and I want to be able to get up off the floor. I love that so much. All right. Yoga, limbo, living life. with no worries about planning so we can [00:23:00] set up for that. And we mentioned that we’re not financial advisors, but we do have licensed financial advisors here at Patelco. If you’re interested in speaking with one of those licensed financial advisors, you can schedule a complimentary consultation with them to just help understand whether you’re on the right path to retiring comfortably.
You can find their information at patelco. org. Also, Veronica and I invite you to email us at webinars at patelco. org if you want to find out more about yoga or Jamaica or any travel or travel. Yeah, definitely hit us up. But we’re also interested in hearing what you want to hear about on future podcasts.
Veronica Dangerfield is also the host of our webinars, and we do two per month, although we’re taking a break in June. But we’d love to hear from our audience as to what you’d like us to talk about next, how we can help with your financial wellness. So Veronica, this was a great long time coming, episode 25.
[00:24:00] 25. That’s how old I am? Not quite. That’s how old I am. That’s a coincidence. We’re the same age. Thank you for being here. Yeah, it is a privilege to be of service and I, and I hope that, This gave, , our audience a little bit more, , confidence that you have to be brave and courageous to do something, anything big, but this will absolutely be worth it.
Yeah, no stress. Live the life of your dreams. No stress, let us help along the way, you know, nothing you should have to do by yourself, so let us know how we can help type of deal, like always. Absolutely. Great. Thank you for being with us today. Episode number 25. It had to be you. Twenty five. Twenty five.
That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, your hostess here at Patelco Credit Union, and I’m super excited today because we’ve got two guests that are doing some great work out in the community.
And here at Patelco, we talk a lot about supporting our communities and serving the underserved and serving the underbanked. And Patelco does that really effectively Patelco team members that are on the ground. meeting the community where they are and providing education. They’re building trust, providing access to tools, and helping improve their financial situations.
And today we’re going to unpack what financially underserved even means and just break some stigma around access and affordability to products and services and financial education. We’ve got two Patelco wellness team members who are making a big impact. So, welcome to the studio, financial wellness partner, Ivonne Ortega and Leo [00:01:00] Rosales, Senior Community Engagement Specialist.
Welcome, guys. Thank you. We’re happy to be here. I’m so excited that you guys are here. I love that we get to do this work out in the community, so I really want you guys to share more about what that is. But let’s talk first about what we mean when we refer to the unbanked, underbanked, underserved. Ivonne, let’s start with you.
Help us understand what that means to us. So in my experience out in the field, I’ve learned that when it comes to unbanked and underbanked households in the U. S., there’s a lot of fear and mistrust with financial institutions. Some people never learn about finances until they were adults and had no choice but to use the first option available to them.
According to the 2021 FDIC survey of unbanked and underbanked households, an estimated 4. 5 percent of U. S. households, approximately 5. 9 million, were considered unbanked in 2021, meaning that no one in the household had a checking or savings account at a bank or credit union. Some of the reasons for not having a bank [00:02:00] account they don’t have enough money to meet minimum balance requirements, and the most cited reason, they don’t trust financial institutions.
People didn’t experience talking about money in their households or schools, so it’s the lack of access to financial services and financial education that made it difficult to learn about all these resources and options available, which creates more mistrust within financial institutions. There is a lot of stigmas around having blemishes in the past, as well as misconceptions about their immigration status and the ability to open accounts.
Predatory lending is prevalent in low income communities. And with check cashing services, exploiting individuals who rely on these services for their financial needs. Predatory lenders target those with limited access to traditional banking by offering high interest loans with hidden fees. This can trap borrowers in a cycle of debt and financial instability.
It’s important for individuals in these communities to be aware of predatory lending and [00:03:00] seek alternative, more transparent, affordable financial solutions. Oh, I hear that so much. Don’t you hate. The fact that check cashers charge to cash checks, but also those payday lending rates, they kill me. It’s terrible.
And it’s, it almost feels like it’s the only option available. But when it comes to financial literacy programs and the community organizations that can help and educate, empower individuals, it’s helping them make informed financial decisions. And that’s where we come in and play a big role in their lives.
Immigration status and banking have a unique connection. Understanding how they interact can help avoid financial pitfalls. There are myths about immigrants access to banking services that need debunking. Immigrants face challenges in accessing these services, but can combat predatory financial practices.
And empowering immigrants in financial decision making is crucial. So, understanding Um, and and it’s essential for [00:04:00] managing money effectively in a foreign country. So as a financial wellness team it’s within our role to assist the unbanked and underbanked households, overcoming these challenges with opening bank accounts, taking the steps to provide clear information through various channels, benefits, and bank account processes.
For us as a team, we do our best to go out and make connections with non profit organizations different Patelco at Work partnerships that really help us out. reach the masses, right? We want to know how we can help and be there, you know, frontline support. So for us, it’s really important to secure and help them find affordable solutions.
Yeah, thank you for that. We know that knowledge is power, right? That’s the whole reason we do what we do. And it’s not just new folks that are coming to the country, right? We educate students, we educate people with a lot of means. It’s people with not much means, but knowledge is power. And the more that we [00:05:00] can empower everyone about what their options are, the better in an effort to help with their financial wellness, right?
But when we do talk about immigrants and folks that are new to the country, you know, our banking system can be a lot different. A lot of cash based economies that you know they’re used to working in and just understanding the American banking system can be a lot. So that’s where the education really comes in and is really key.
Leo how about you? You’re on the ground around all our service area. We’re talking San Francisco, Sacramento down to the South Bay and you’re seeing all these different types of groups. What’s a common need that you see most? Yeah. By the way, Ivonne, all great points. Each one of those is what we, we see in the community.
What I see in the community is access to free checking accounts, right? Access to free products and services all around. I know what you guys are thinking. Free checking accounts? Like, a lot of places offer those nowadays. Like, why is that? Well, [00:06:00] having these conversations with people, they, they’re just financially unaware, like unaware that credit unions exist, unaware that there are better products, better rates out there, outside their banks, but also unaware that they can have multiple financial institutions.
I’m not saying close your, your, your big bank account, if they’re treating you well, go for it. Continue having them, having that relationship, right? But know that there are other financial institutions like Patelco Credit Union that are here to help you with, let’s say, creating a bigger savings account, refinancing your auto loan, refinancing your mortgage.
All these great products that we offer, not a lot of people are aware of it. Let’s take a break. I want to ask the host a question. Oh, no. Let’s go back seven years, Michelle. You’re 18 now. Yes. That was seven years ago. Yes. Let’s say you know what you know about credit unions and banks. Which one would you have chosen to open instead of, you know, whoever approached you first?
Oh man, if I had known, we just [00:07:00] recorded an episode about getting started with our first checking account and talked about the fact that The guests in the room all banked where their parents told them to bank. I didn’t really have a choice, but knowing what I knew now I would have chosen a credit union.
So would I. I would have saved so much on fees. I would have saved so much on fees. So this past weekend we were at the Cherry Blossom Festival.
I was having a conversation with a lady, , and her three little ones. By the way, great kids really well behaved, great manners, they love the Patelco Bubbles, the Piggy Banks, all of it, all of it. But I was talking to her about why we were out there, right? Why, why Patelco, in the middle of 200, 000 people, is out here talking to people about their financial needs.
Well, I was talking to her about the difference between banks and credit unions, and little by little, she started realizing that there are financial institutions like Patel Credit Union that are here to support those financial needs. She was, she’s not in the best [00:08:00] financial situation, but after having, you know, the rundown of what’s going on with her bank account, her, her auto loan, we’re actually putting her in a position where not only is she going to save 30 fees, monthly fees a month, but also some funds on her auto loan just, just by, you know, taking that one step of finding out what other products and services different financial institutions offer.
Luckily for us, we’re, we’re always out there in the community. We’re always talking to people. We’re always, like Iwane said, we’re, we partner up with different nonprofits, different organizations. My biggest thing is, is festivals. You You’re everywhere. If I see you at a festival, you better swing by.
There’s a good chance if you go to a community festival, you’ll likely see Patelgo and you’ll probably see this guy. Yeah, but that’s one of thousands of conversations I’ve had nowadays where people really just need a refresher or maybe some insight to what we have, to the, to [00:09:00] the difference of credit unions and bank.
As simple as that, right? If you get to determine yourself, Hey, I want to choose a credit union over a bank. That’s not because I told you to. It’s because you have all the cards. You have all the knowledge. You’re making the decision yourself, right? We sometimes talk about breaking barriers in the community.
Well, , I help the community break their own barriers, right? That mistrust. The, the, the misconceptions of financial institutions or check cashing plays like we spoke earlier. We, we don’t do that here. Yeah. We actually eliminated a lot of fees. Yeah, that’s what it’s all about, right? We’re talking about access.
We’re talking about knowledge, meeting people where they are, right? Ivonne, your role includes bringing education and access to employers and non profit groups. What strategies do you share with people? So for me, it’s important to educate people. And helping , people make informed decisions when it comes to managing their finances.
So, helping them understand credit [00:10:00] scores you know, what factors are influencing them today and how can we really help them compare products and services it’s really important for them to understand and maintain a good credit score and so we want to make sure that we’re educating them on all the steps that it takes to establish, rebuild and really just help them make a, an impact on their, you know, financial health as they’re continuing to build their, their goals and understanding, you know, their future goals.
It’s important for them to have a resource available to them. So credit’s a big one, right? It’s a big one. You know, we really want to make sure that when we partner with our companies with Patelco at work we’re educating their employees on credit management, on several different topics when it comes to, you know, all of their financial goals.
We help them make better financial decisions. At Patelco, we’ve developed products, especially for specific groups, that really help them highlight, you know, some of the programs that they offer. So for instance, we have a company that we work with that offers coaching financial [00:11:00] coaching. And so we support them by offering ScoreUp.
So at Patelco, we’ve developed products like ScoreUp to provide individuals with tools and resources. So, to help monitor and improve their credit scores.
ScoreUp Credit Builder Loan is here to help individuals with no credit, little credit, or may need some help improving their credit score. So, loan proceeds are deposited into a ScoreUp savings account. There’s no fee required to open or set up a loan, and the terms can be from 6 to 36 months, with loan amounts from 500 up to 5, 000.
With a fixed low interest rate. By making manageable monthly payments on time, they will be establishing a positive credit history, while also growing their savings. With Patelco Payment Assistance, individuals will never be late on the score up loan, and ITIN is also accepted. Typically, we don’t always offer or have the ability to announce it to partnerships, right, but, or create these specific products when we get the feedback from our partnerships.
But this is [00:12:00] something that we’ve received feedback from in understanding what their needs are and able to design a product that really does meet those needs. It helps them and meets their needs. Our score up credit builder loan is pretty amazing. When we talk about serving the underserved, the underbanked, the folks who haven’t had exposure to financial education and maybe have not started building credit yet, score up credit builders is really the best thing out there.
It’s award winning. You can find out more information about the score up loan on our website and it’s such a great tool for us out there, right? Have you really ran into anybody that didn’t? No, I haven’t. And I, I feel like every time I mention it, they’re just in awe. Like, really? This will never negatively impact my credit score?
Are you sure? Yeah. And we’re like, no, absolutely not. If there are any reason you have to, you know, stop making your payment, we will show it paid as in full. And you’ll always be positively reported to the credit bureau. So, it really just helps individuals make their payments. become empowered and knowing that they can build their credit.
Leo, let’s toss this question over to you. How about [00:13:00] you? What are your go to tools that you share with people? Well, financial education is important, right? But you, like you said, everybody, the tools needed to, you know, tackle what we’ve already discussed, maybe in our presentations or conversations, is just as important.
Products is probably my go to. All our products you guys just mentioned ScoreUp. I talk about checking accounts. I talk about our Money Market Plus. You know, these products and services, over the counter products and services, can create a really good financial plan. My go to when I’m on the road or when I’m at an event and I don’t have a rate sheet or you know.
A brochure is our website. Yeah. If I navigate through the website, if you navigate through the website, you can find our rates. You can find how to open an account. You can find where we’re going to be at our next events. But also there’s articles in there. You know, if you go through and find our, our Bonsai website Bonsai is, is one of our [00:14:00] partners.
And on there, there’s a lot of different articles. How to budget, how to save, how to build your credit. And that’s, you know, education. I think this, this whole podcast is, is about education. Doesn’t matter you know, your immigration status. Doesn’t matter where you’re at across the board.
I love that we can bring Patelco Credit Union to everyone in a lot of different ways. A few ways we bring Patelco Credit Union closer to the community is by attending large festivals, right? Partnering up with community events, that are held by schools and organizations. My favorite is partnering up with businesses and, and non profits, like a resource center.
We provide financial presentations. literature, and direct assistance to those individuals that need our services. Right now I currently lead a program I call CEP, which stands for Community Engaging Program.
CEP helps branches engage their communities and organizations to bring financial education, financial support, but most importantly, bring financial [00:15:00] empowerment to all members of any community. You know, shout out to all the branch leaders and all It’s beautiful to see so many of our team members that go into the community actively looking for these opportunities, right?
Ivonne, myself, the rest of the team can only be at a small amount of spots per day, per week, per month, but having all our branches, helping us out, helping their branch out, you know, helping spread the word, , is the Patelco difference. That’s why Patelco’s out there, making the difference,
I’ve met rich people.
I’ve met smart people. And, and, you know, financial education is, is basically the foundation of the American dream. Yeah, absolutely. So thank you both for doing the good work out there. Ivonne, how about you? Where can we find more information about some of these education tools that you’re talking about?
So, you can definitely go directly to our website at patelco. org slash financial wellness. You’ll find upcoming webinars as well as a library of on demand videos. We also have our YouTube channel that you can [00:16:00] access, our social media accounts, TikTok. We also have our podcast so you can always listen to us on your way to work as well.
We’re on TikTok. We are on TikTok. And also, for employers you know, we have our Patelco at Work link, so patelcoatworkatpatelco. org. You can reach out to us, any employers that maybe are interested in free education, contact us. We’d love to come out and support your employees and help them understand, you know, that Patelco is a resource for them.
So cool. I’m going to go right after this and go see us on TikTok. That’s exciting. Okay, Leo, where can we find some more about these tools that you’re talking about? You mentioned the website and learning about products and services. You mentioned Bonsai and then community events. Where can we find all that on the site?
Potelgo. org, same website. It’s a one stop shop. You hover over events, you’ll find us on our next event. Please stop by and say hi. Pick up a good Patelco bag, grocery bag, some bubbles. Take some pictures with the [00:17:00] team. But, you know, if you hover over to the other side, you’ll find savings checking accounts, home loans, heat logs products.
You’ll find you’ll be able to make an appointment with our team. By the way, that’s another great resource. If you guys haven’t taken the privilege of going into a botanical branch, our staff is well rounded with a lot of different product and services knowledges, right? Let’s say you’re in the, you’re in the market for your first car, they’ll be able to help you and hold your hand along the way.
Let’s say you’re in the market for your first house, they’ll be able to help you and hold your hand along the way. And there’s several different languages in our branches, right? Yes. So that’s always a great thing to know. I always say visit our, our patelco. org slash locations to make an appointment.
Cause if a branch is booked up, we do have virtual branch. Virtual branch is the branch of the future. You go onto virtual branch from the comfort of your house. And make an appointment or see someone right away, right? And it’s through Zoom, so you get a [00:18:00] face to face interaction.
I think that’s always fun. Yeah. Other than that, you can always email me directly at joinepatelco. org. I’ll take care of you guys. Alright, everyone. This was a lot to take in, so let’s try and recap. So, in serving the underserved, you know, Patelco’s really doing what we can.
You guys are directly doing what you can to just help inform folks. so much. Help educate them, help them assess what products and services may help them get to whatever goals it is they’re trying to achieve. We talk a lot in this studio about having advocates and financial institutions really serving as an advocate when you do need that support and you guys have the privilege and our members are so lucky to have you to be able to just talk through things as they’re You know, navigating life, trying to meet their financial goals too.
So thank you for that great work that you’re doing. Some of these great products and services and resources that you’re talking about can be found on our website. As they both mentioned, patelco. org is just chock full of great [00:19:00] resources and information. Leo was talking about product comparisons and the website is really great at looking at side by sides if you wanting to compare a checking account or wanting to compare a loan.
So patelco. org. You can find our products and services listed there. You can access Bonsai, the financial education tool, learn more about budgeting and credit. And then that great score up credit builder loan that you talked about, Ivonne, it can also be accessed there. And of course, if you want to enjoy a weekend out in the community, now that the weather is improving, you can go see Leo and his team just about every festival around the Bay Area, right?
The community tab on the patelco. org page under community events, you can find out where we’re going to be. Come out there and engage with us, you know, stop by and have some fun and figure out how we can help support with your financial wellness. So you guys, it’s so great to have you in the studio.
Thank you for all that great work that you’re doing, supporting our communities, providing education [00:20:00] and serving our underserved.
That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, your host here at Patelco Credit Union. And today we’re going to talk checking accounts. And we know it sounds so basic.
Everybody’s got a checking account, right? But when was the last time you kept your checking account honest? We’re going to keep it fun today. Keep it real and talk with some experts who help our members navigate with checking account. Maybe best for them. We’re welcoming back one of our faves to the studio, Andrew Farrell who’s our community engagement specialist and wanted to give a warm welcome.
To Uslea Evangelista, who’s the assistant branch manager of our San Francisco main branch. You guys excited for today? I’m always excited to be here, Michele. Thank you for having me back. I’m really excited. It’s my first podcast ever. First podcast! All right, guys, let’s go. Let’s get [00:01:00] right into it.
Checking accounts. Andrew, we’re going to start with you. Tell us a little bit more about what you do for Patelco. What makes you a checking account? Oh, an expert. I like that. So I work as a community engagement specialist with Patelco, which sounds exactly like what it is. I go out into the community and I engage.
, I work with community members at local events. I do financial education with high school and college students. And no matter where I am out in the community, my main objective is just to listen to people’s individual financial needs, and make sure that I’m finding the right fit for their lifestyle.
So I’ve been a Patelco employee for about six years, and Patelco is also my primary financial institution. We’ve got four checking accounts at Patelco and I myself have actually used two of them. I’ve also had an auto loan with Patelco. I’ve had a personal loan. I’ve had a savings account. I have a line of credit.
The list really goes on and on. I am a Patelco lifer. , I’m pretty knowledgeable about Patelco’s products and services and all the benefits we have. Not only because of my role in [00:02:00] talking about these things when I’m out in the community, but also just because of my own personal use. Do you like to sample?
I do. I do like to sample. Yes. I like that. What makes you a checking account expert? So I am the assistant branch manager at our SS Maine branch. Been working for Patelco for almost five years now and in banking for a decade. Can’t believe it. I’ve worked for big banks and now credit union, , seen it all.
So I’m a little picky with where I bank, especially with my checking accounts. Patelco is definitely up there. I’m not just saying that because in the branches, I deal with people who are new with banking or have a lot of questions with what we offer. And it’s very important for me to listen, , to what fits their needs so that I make sure that they make informed decisions with opening accounts.
Well, I wouldn’t consider myself a checking account expert. That’s the reason I invited you guys to the studio today. , I want to talk about how you [00:03:00] guys personally got set up with your own checking accounts. , because I have a feeling a lot of people out there might have the same experience I do and just got started at the place where their parents told them to bank and go get a checking account.
I actually don’t mind the checking account I have currently. I still have the one I opened when I was 16 when my mom took me down, but it might be time to just reevaluate and see what other options are out there. So I’m going to pick your brains about that. That’s what we’re here for. That is what you’re here for.
Ready? This is really just For my own personal use. So what was your experience started Andrew? I had the exact same experience as you. So I got my first checking account with my dad when I was 16. He just took me into his financial institution and said, you’ve got a job now. We’re going to get you a. And I can’t open up, , luckily for me, my dad has always been a credit union guy himself.
So I myself have also always been with credit unions. Yeah, exactly. , so yeah, never paying like monthly fees or having to maintain [00:04:00] balance requirements or direct deposit requirements. For me, that’s always been the norm. I find that a lot of times when I’m out talking to people in the community, they tend to start with a big bank, , that may have some kind of requirements or fees to keep the account open.
And then they learn about credit unions or other checking accounts that are totally free. And it’s like a light bulb moment for them. Like, why haven’t I always been doing this? It was the exact opposite for me. I’ve always had that. Once I learned later in life that there are bank accounts out there that charge you a monthly fee just to have the account open.
I thought, well, that, that’s. That’s silly. Let’s not pay that fee. Let’s open up a free account and do it that way. , I feel like I, I still have my original, , checking account that I opened when I was 16. Also, it’s with RightPAT Credit Union in Dayton, Ohio. Shout out RightPAT. , but I also have my, my primary one with Patelco now as well.
Making the switch was super easy from RightPAT to Patelco as my primary. When you open up a checking account with Patelco, they give you your full account number and routing number right there. It makes setting up direct deposit and all your automatic payments super a breeze. But [00:05:00] both those accounts, both my original checking account and this one are totally free.
So they align with that value of mine of not having to pay money unnecessarily. , they’re both also super easy to navigate with the mobile app, with digital wallets, with online banking. I feel like in general, banking has really evolved, in the last couple of years, especially as far as like technologically it goes.
And so it’s really important for me that my checking accounts kind of also evolve with the growing trends that are out there. Yeah, and, let’s talk about convenience for a second. We just recorded a youth, a youth month episode where we were talking about youth accounts and getting kids set up, right, and it’s one of those things that might be on your list, but it might be on the bottom of the list, right?
It’s just not a life priority. We know it’s important, we know we should do it, we know we should switch to an account that doesn’t pay fees, right, but it’s just It’s a matter of time for a lot of folks. Okay, so you’re saying it’s easy. It’s easy, very easy, very painless. Okay, so I could come to your branch and I could make this happen like frictionlessly.
Yeah, of course. So how [00:06:00] did you get started? What was your experience? So my experience of getting started with a checking account was very similar to yours, Michele. Got my checking account pretty early, maybe when I was 14. , I remember it being so exciting because I can get my own card for purchases.
Having your first debit card is so cool. You just feel on top of the world. Yeah. It’s like, It has my name on it. I can go to the mall with my friends and buy things with my own card. Yeah, it’s awesome. Yes I still have that account too because it’s just convenient to have and everything’s already linked to it But i’ve added a couple more checking accounts since then One for my credit card bills and just automatic payments and then the other one for random purchases I like to have the separate checking accounts just in case there’s fraud.
I don’t care Need to do an overhaul and redo everything. I just it’s just easier to change that one checking account I’m a little extra about it. I know but it works for me And the most [00:07:00] important thing I think is to find what works best for you Yeah, no, absolutely. So first of all, I’ve never thought about having multiple checking accounts.
I have multiple savings accounts, but not multiple checking. The checking is more accessible. So that’s actually a better idea. But let’s talk about this idea of finding the right fit for you, right? So there’s a lot of options out there and we’re not just talking about competition and now there’s fintechs and all these other things, but there’s also multiple different accounts at Patelco Credit Union.
So Andrew, you’re the best at this. Person to kind of just simplify break down all the options So help us understand all the different checking accounts options. Give us the lowdown I will give you guys the lowdown. So like I said earlier, we have four different checking accounts I’m gonna break down all four of them real quick.
So, you know strap in Number one if no fees are what’s most important to you. I think that first Free checking is probably going to be the best way to go. It’s a totally free checking account, and that doesn’t just mean there’s not a monthly fee. It also means there’s [00:08:00] not a minimum balance requirement.
There is no direct deposit requirement. No requirements at all to keep the account open. It’s the account that I currently use. I love it. I’ve had no issues with it. It’s fully compatible with Zelle, with Apple Wallet, so I can, you know, use it. Put my, put my thing in Apple Pay and it’s easy to use that way as well.
We also have an interest checking option that is also free if you maintain an average daily balance of 500, or if you have a direct deposit of, I believe, 100 a month, otherwise that has a 5 a month fee. The interest that you earn for that is 0. 05 percent annual percentage yield. So if you are able to organically achieve that 500 daily balance, that could be a good option for you.
Why not, you know, get a kickback of a few extra bucks a month? Why not some extra fluff in the checking account? If you do want even more perks or more benefits in your checking, we also offer what’s called Plus Checking. So Plus Checking has a 6. 95 fee, and that gets you all kinds of extra perks and benefits.
Lots and [00:09:00] lots of things you can get with this. You get EasyShield Identity Theft Protection, so a nice fraud protection partnership that we have. You’ll get cell phone protection with that. You will get two free ATM rebates per month, and it doesn’t matter how much the ATM fee is. I’m going to Vegas for a couple of weeks for my birthday.
I’m very excited. It’s my first time, but I’ve heard out there that a lot of the ATMs, especially like in the casinos in Vegas, sometimes charge you 10 just to pull your cash out with plus checking. If you do that in an ATM, we will reimburse up to two of those per month for you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 2 fee, a 20 fee.
We got you covered. You get free credit monitoring with that. You get your quarterly credit score, your quarterly credit report, you get roadside assistance. The list really goes on and on. If you want more information about all the benefits you get with Plus Checking, patelco. org. Go to our checking tab and then Plus Checking.
It has it all broken down right there, but you get a lot for that 695 fee. We’re not just charging it for you for a maintenance fee. We want to make sure that the value is there. Our [00:10:00] last checking account option is going to be student checking. This is another totally free account, so no minimum balances, no monthly fees.
This is geared towards students ages 13 to 17. It’s going to have lower ATM and daily purchase limits, so we want to make sure that we are teaching responsible habits. But the cool thing with this is that no parent is required to be on the account, so it does give the youth some kind of financial independence as they sort of start to.
Transfer into adulthood with their finances a parent can be on the account if that’s the preference But if the kid wants to have some kind of you know, financial independence, they’re able to do so by themselves Okay, lots of great option, but just depends on you know, what you value most about how you want to do banking So we’ve got a free checking account option, right?
Like everybody has yeah, I say is gonna break down For us in a second some additional features of that free checking account this interest account is interesting we talk a lot about our money market accounts, but I think we sometimes forget about that interest [00:11:00] checking account And that’s not a terrible rate.
No and then the plus checking we hear a lot out in the community about the cell phone insurance being really cool along with the identity. Yeah, theft feature So that is great to know about and then the student account is very specific Right, my son is gonna be 13 this year. He’s already looking forward to opening his first account.
Getting that Apple Pay set up. He’s getting the Apple Pay set up. And he’s really looking forward to that debit card that you were talking about. It has his name on it. It’s more about the tap feature. It has nothing to do with the name. The tap is pretty cool. The tap is pretty cool. I think it is, it is pretty cool.
So, okay, thank you for breaking those down for us. Of course. I think free checking is probably the most popular of all the four. It’s what most people recognize. Right, but there’s some other cool things about it too and some cool new things, right? That’s why I tell us about those. We’d love to. Okay. So the checking account, the free checking account is what I use here at Pataco too.
Like what Andrew said, it’s completely free. So no hassle, no keeping track of balances. You don’t have to make [00:12:00] sure that you have direct deposit. So it’s a really great checking account for everyone. , so some cool new features want to talk about, , are roundup and prize out really. Excited about these things.
So prize out , you can get bonus of up to 20 percent by just buying gift cards to places You’d normally go to through the patelco mobile app using your checking account So let’s say you’re taking the whole family to the movies. You can buy a movie gift card for a hundred dollars and that 20 bonus it gets added to that gift card.
So you’re actually getting 120. So I pay for a gift card for 100, but I get a gift card for 120. That is crazy. Because of the bonus feature. That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s really cool. It’s a great way to get more bang for your buck. Full disclosure, though, it’s not always 20%. It just depends on the retailer’s deal at the time.
But there are a lot of retailers to choose from. Target is also in there, which I love. [00:13:00] We love a target run. Everyone loves a target run. And then there’s Roundup, which is an optional feature you can add to your checking account that helps you save money without lifting a finger. So what it does is it rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar and puts That’s the change in your savings account.
So for example, you use your debit card to buy coffee for 4. 50. It will automatically round up that purchase to 5 and put the 0. 50 in your savings. Nice. Right? And if you want to get extra aggressive with it, you can choose to multiply your automatic savings either three times or five times the original roundup amount.
So if you opt into the five times roundup option, for example, instead of rounding up The 0. 50 change on that cup of coffee, it’ll move 2. 50 into savings automatically. So you don’t even have to think about it. You’re just purchasing stuff and then saving money. That sounds great. So cool. Okay, let’s go back to this prize out thing because, , you had me [00:14:00] at Target.
You had me at the movies too because a movie trip nowadays for a family of four is over. Pricey, pricey. Okay, so I go into the mobile app, the feature is totally free. So I go in there, , and then every day there’s new retailers and they can include, yeah, I was just scrolling on the app actually this morning, and there’s just so many, I’m just kept scrolling.
Theres Alta, there was Target, there was a MC, there’s Adidas, Nike, all of the big brands. Okay. So this could be a good gift too, well it’s an electronic gift card, but it’s, it’s. So I find a deal that I like, this almost sounds similar to Rakuten and some other things out there. So I go on there, find a deal that I like, I can purchase it directly from Rakuten.
My checking account. Exactly. That’s amazing. And then you get the gift card via email So if I wanted to gift it or send it to somebody I could also Mm hmm. It’s like an electronic gift card. You can you can just [00:15:00] share that with whoever you want to get It sounds like for every birthday. I have an option.
Extra money. Right at my fingertips I’ve also heard that Safeway is a retailer that’s on there too and with grocery prices where I could use some extra money Extra bonuses for, , food purchases and grocery purchases. Yes, stretch that dollar. Absolutely. Everything’s so expensive right now. So this roundup feature sounds really cool too.
Without naming the bank that I still have from when I was 16, they have a feature very And the, , within my app, it’s pretty cool. It shows you how much you’ve saved in a month and then over a year or two. I think that’s a new feature through the Patelco app too. But for me, it’s an average of about 250 I save every year.
And it’s one of those things that’s just out of sight, out of mind, right? In your example, the 50 cent roundup, you’re not going to miss that 50 cents. And would I have probably saved that 50 cents without the roundup feature? Probably not. And it [00:16:00] accumulates so quickly. It’s just an easy way to save, and 250 doesn’t sound like a lot, but you know, at the end of the year, when Christmas rolls around, it’s helpful.
And you can choose to put that money into the money market savings account, so you can get more interest. Grow interest on top of that, too? Yes. It’s wild. That’s why you guys are here today. Ok, so last question. Andrew, when you’re teaching financial education in the classroom, what surprises you most about your understanding of checking accounts and how to choose one with our young people.
So I think a lot of the young people, , the youths, if you will, are in the same position that we spoke about earlier, where all they know about checking accounts, if they even have one, is just whatever they opened up with their parent when they, you know, first got the account open. , I think a lot of the young people don’t know there are different types of checking accounts that are out there.
They just stick with what they do know. , I will say a lot of them are really interested in, Like the digital banks and the fintechs and all the new ones that are popping up and fintechs are great because they don’t have physical branch [00:17:00] locations. They’re able to pay a little bit more in Interest rates and lower fees and things like that and fintechs are are for sure a good way to go but I do want to reiterate that brick and mortar banks are still cool, too.
They’re still fun, too financial institutions that have physical branches, especially credit unions, they can still offer the same great rates, but they’re also totally full service, so if you ever need a mortgage, or a home loan, or a personal loan, or any of those other cool things that I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, you have all that under one roof.
Plus, you get the face to face access,, so I, I’m still, call me old fashioned, but I still like a good old fashioned, four wall financial institution. And we love people visiting our branches, you know, we like to see faces. Well, I was just going to say too, you get the opportunity to go sit down with somebody like Islea and just have a conversation and maybe weigh those options where you might not have that, , if you’re sitting behind a computer screen trying to figure it out yourself.
Okay, let’s go around the room one more time. Let’s share one littlest known fact about any one of [00:18:00] those checking accounts. Islea, we’ll start with you. I have more than a couple because it’s just a lot. Go for it. , this really surprised me when transitioning from big banks to Patoco, we print debit cards in branch and they are free up to two cards for the year.
So if you lose your card and need a new one right away, head to one of our branches. , I also love that our checking accounts are Zelle compatible because I hate having to wait for transfers to hit my bank account. Yep. And with Zelle. That’s instant. And speaking of not having to wait for money to hit your account, direct deposit with the telco checking account, it can hit your account up to two days earlier.
, so if you get paid on a Friday, it can hit your account as soon as Wednesday. So that’s really cool. That’s awesome. You know, sometimes we forget about those in branch card, , options, right? I think , a lot of times now, , We’re a little fearful of having debit cards mailed to our house, number one.
I don’t want to wait for seven days or, you know, minimum seven to ten days, too, so just another advantage of brick and mortar, to Andrew’s [00:19:00] point. And if you’re going on a trip, you, you can just. Go to the branch and get a card. You don’t have to go on a trip with no card. No card. Andrew, how about you little is known fact about our checking account?
So I want to talk about the co op shared branch network because I personally use it myself a lot Like I said earlier, I have my other credit union account with right pack credit union and I have one with patelco credit union , and it’s cool that I can use both of those interchangeably. So how that works is I feel like Yeah One thing I hear from a lot of people is they are maybe a little bit more trepidatious about moving their accounts from a large bank to a credit union because they hear that, you know, I can, yeah, yeah, I can find a bank account ATM anywhere in the country.
I can’t find a Patelco ATM anywhere. , Patelco is actually a part of this co op shared branch network that is, I would say like 99 percent of all credit unions are a part of, meaning you can use any of those credit union ATMs completely interchangeably [00:20:00] without any fees. It is the largest ATM network in the country, so larger than any individual bank’s ATM network.
We’ve got over 30, 000 completely fee free ATMs that you can use. , many of them are also full service as well, so you can do deposits and withdrawals and do a lot more. Transactions and just pulling out some cash And there are other fee free ATMs that are also in this network like 7 eleven, Circle K, Dunkin Donuts, Costco is in there Yeah, girl, Costco Next time you’re getting your rotisserie chicken go pull out 20.
Why not? You can find all of them on co op. org is what I go to so just C O O P dot org on their website, there’s an ATM branch locator. You can click that and just put in your zip code and it’ll tell you all the ATMs you can use on there. There’s also a feature where you can put filters as well, so if you want to find an ATM specifically that like takes check deposits or one that is ADA accessible or whatever, you can filter in what your needs are and it’ll pull up exactly what [00:21:00] ATMs you can use in the locations you’re going to be traveling to.
Great stuff, you guys. I always tell folks, if you can’t find an ATM, find a 7 Eleven. There’s gotta be a 7 Eleven nearby. You always get cash back, too, at a lot of retailers. , I don’t think many people are still using ATMs and getting cash, but, you know, when you need it, you need it.
I’m gonna thank you guys so much for coming into the studio today. I think I need to make a move. I think I have everything I need to make a decision now. Let’s do it! And for everybody out there wanting to see all the features, all the details and the rates, you can find more information at patelco. org slash checking and see all of the options out there that Andrew and Uslea were talking about today.
Thank you guys so much for being here today. That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. Botelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thank you for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and greetings out there, everyone. It is youth month for us, folks.
at credit unions around the globe. It’s a time of year when credit unions teach and encourage kids to develop strong financial habits. And today we’ve got an expert in supporting youth with financial education with us today. I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside her for many years and had to get her in the studio today to talk about youth month.
Kristi Longoria, member experience and financial well being. program partner. Welcome back to Small Talks for Big Change. Thanks so much for having me, Michele. That new title is so long. It’s a lot. So long. Kristi, we’ve been at this credit union youth financial empowerment thing for over a decade now. Tell us a little bit about some of the [00:01:00] work that you’ve done with Credit Union specific to supporting youth. There’s a lot that we’ve done over the past decade, but I think one of the most important sort of themes and things that I’ve learned over the years is that Credit unions exist in this really unique space between providing the financial products and services that are responsible for members no matter where they are starting their financial journeys and where they’re headed and being responsible for educating and providing support to their communities.
This is a space that when I first joined credit union industry did not know existed. And I kind of felt like at the time when I’m really just thinking about how do I develop content? How do I partner with nonprofit organizations? How do I work with the schools? How do I do this? How do I do that? There was no script for it.
It was really [00:02:00] just take it, do something, change it. And then we’ll see where we are. And that organic process of being able to just do that makes credit unions so unique on both being able to provide for their communities in ways that they specifically need it, and for the educator to be able to make something that truly matters.
And that’s why every credit union’s, you know, program. It’s so unique because it’s reflective of the communities that they’re serving. And that’s so important. It’s so critical to be able to go out, teach something, realize, wait, maybe that doesn’t make sense. I remember one of my first experiences when I was teaching financial education was going out and talking about budgeting and savings.
Right? We always have those core components, budgeting and saving, [00:03:00] credit, identity theft, when we’re working with youth, we talk about scholarships, and I remember going out and talking about why it’s so important to budget and save, and here are the products and services that you can utilize to do those things, and realizing that wasn’t even the right question to be answering because how do you teach somebody to budget and save who’s on a very limited income?
How do you provide a product or a service to someone who has nontraditional forms of identification? So how do you really teach financial education alongside the products and services? And sometimes you can’t. Right? Sometimes you have to really just take a step back and think, What am I trying to accomplish here?
And it’s well being. Right? How am I going to be able? To talk to a group of 20 different people. One person’s never stepped foot in a bank or a credit union before. And somebody else had credit [00:04:00] and life happened and now they’re rebuilding. And then you’ve got a youth here who’s, you know, whose parent is still a firm believer of keeping their cash in, you know, underneath the mattress or in a drawer and all of these things.
And then you’re met with the challenge of what our teachers are faced with every day, is different populations at different levels coming from all of these different places. And one of the things that really I think what makes credit unions so special is that you have a team usually, or at least an individual, going out into the community and seeing what do they need?
What does the school in this city need versus the other cities need? And what does this population need? And then you bring that back to the powerhouse that is financial literacy. Institutions and make that change. So, you know, when we ask like, what are the things that you’ve been able to, to do? All I’ve really done is just listen.
Our members have the answers. They have what it is, that they need. They just need that outlet. They need [00:05:00] somebody to tell, they need somebody to trust to say like, Hey, you know, I really think that it is super important to budget and save. Sure. Wish I could have a, a bank or a credit union to help me do that.
And then you have the conversation, well, what do you have? What information are you needing? You know, and then you start connecting the dots. And then you can create something that’s really powerful for your communities. We’ve been able to work with our incarcerated youth, our pregnant teen moms. We’ve created specialized, you know, education for these groups because they need it.
This one size fits all idea that, you know, you can just go out and do budgeting and saving. If you’re doing that, it’s great. But you can always do more, you can always listen better, you can hear between the lines, even 10, 15 years down the road when we’ve been doing this, I learn something every single time I go out and I talk to the youth, to our at risk populations, to our high need members.
And if you’re not learning, you’re not asking the right questions. And that’s, that’s really, what I think I’ve, I’ve taken away from how [00:06:00] much power education is. You’re so amazing. I just feel super lucky to have been kind of riding your coattails along this journey. We’ve had so many classroom encounters.
Stories and classroom experiences, you and I, that we’ll save for another, podcast episode. I think there’s one consistent theme that we always heard following, , presentations and it’s, I wish I had this when I was younger. Every time. Right? And we know how important it is, right, to teach, teach kids young and still these financial principles, understand the importance of credit, understand the importance of credit and its connection to employment.
, understanding student loan debt implications, consumer loan debt implications, the list On and on, right? When you started working with youth, you understood all of these things, right? The importance of instilling these principles, the fact that it’s really lacking in our educational system and we know the state of [00:07:00] California is working on implementing some legislation, right?
But now you’re a mom of two little ones, so now that you’ve got kids, has your viewpoint changed at all? It has, I think, on both ends. So what it means to educate our littlest littles, right? So I have a 2-year-old, just turned 2-year-old, and I just turned 5-year-old. Crazy. , and for the parents and family members that are supporting those kids too, what, what does it mean to be financially educated as a parent?
And it’s always that last descriptor that we miss. It’s, it’s like financial wellbeing. For a lot of different things, for being a parent, for being, you know, a teacher, for being, you know, whatever it is. There’s always something specific to who you are, how you identify yourself, that you can learn and tie back into financial education.
A lot of people don’t think that you can teach financial education to the [00:08:00] littlest of the littles. And, I think it’s a, it’s a common misconception because, well, they don’t even know numbers, right? They don’t understand, you know, quantity of things and how do you teach them about money. But that’s already sort of the basis of the problem when we teach financial education is that we think it has to start there.
It’s actually starting like 20 feet back. We’re talking about values, family values. What’s important to you? What do you think is interesting about your community? What is community? How does the fire station and the police department and your school and all of these communities come together to provide support?
And then on top of that, you start thinking about value in terms of a monetary money kind of mindset. But none of that is important right now for them. And it’s really just about knowing when to ask questions, understanding who your resources are, All of those things, if we’d really focused on youth [00:09:00] education, financial or not.
If we teach how to ask a question or recognize when you don’t know for sure what an answer is, none of the challenges that we run into with our members and ourselves, I’m not excluding myself from from, you know this as well, but if we teach people how to do that, then we don’t run into this issue that we see in the communities with adults who.
You know, they’ve made mistakes. They don’t feel like they’re on the same playing field as everybody else. And it’s so easy in concept to go into a community space and break down those barriers. You can pretty much level set immediately by putting our own stories out there. You know, we teach and we’re in these spaces, not because we’ve never made mistakes before.
I’ve said this all the time. It’s because we’ve literally made all the mistakes. So there’s really nothing, you’re not going to surprise me with [00:10:00] anything, these days. And you present yourself as somebody who can Solve problems, whether you’re one or two years old, 30, 40, 50, seniors, it doesn’t matter.
We’re all problem solvers, and I think if we start really focusing on financial education and well being in that space first, then as adults, it’s just about connecting you to resources. , But I think for parents, too, nobody could have prepared me for what it means to budget for having two little ones.
Although Michele did try to warn me. She did. She gave me, she told me, she said, oh, here’s your girl. I was a little bit ahead of you. I tried to warn you. We talk a lot about, on the show, , about just education and communication. Right? Early intervention, communication along the way, having advocates when you need them.
, let’s talk about some of these kids expectations, right? Do you remember that little kid that I used to bring to classes and events, that little [00:11:00] boy? Who used to eat all the oranges. He did. All the oranges. That little boy is going to be 13 and getting his debit card soon. I cannot believe it. Crazy, right?
I did some research. I grabbed an article from the Wall Street Journal, titled, What, Young People Want from Banks. Let’s talk about it in a minute. It reads, , that young people in the future are going to be looking for their financial institution to be engaging, to understand, what their needs are, in real time.
They’re expecting us to be trusted and sophisticated. To be appreciative of consumers trust and rewarding of loyalty, grounded in science and algorithms, and sensitive to human emotions, and then finally be modern and frictionless, just aware of banking activity on any platform, everything automated, invisible if possible, and you know this, instant gratification, right?
I need it now. What are your thoughts about this and, have you thought about this in connection with your kids and some of their behaviors and expectations [00:12:00] with money? Yeah, these, it’s really interesting to see how youth growing up now don’t know any other way. They don’t, they push buttons and stuff happens, like that is literally their entire lives.
So, you know, the expectation that they will have as that carries over into everything school and banking alike, right, is, is fast. And it works, and in principle, it’s kind of, it makes sense, right? It’s just, does the thing that I need, that’s really what they want. , so I absolutely agree. Fast, easy, and emphasis, too, on trusted.
I think this generation has, so much information, so much access to information, that it’s very easy to, Fact check. Is this accurate? Should this have happened? You know, I thought or expected this product or service to work this way, and it didn’t. So they’ll tell us. They’ll tell us. And I think [00:13:00] it’s great because we’ll get that feedback.
We’ll make sure that, you know, from Patelco’s standpoint, that we are listening to the members and, and they are the answers to the test, right? We hear this question over and over and over again, like, what can we do better? How can we make sure that our, our members needs are met? Ask them. And then listen.
It’s really what we do here, right? And I think that’s what makes the availability of our products and services, how they work, so unique because we’re asking, Hey, did this work as intended? No. How do we do it better? And we’re part of those meetings. We go to those meetings and we say, Hey, we heard from the members this, that, and the other.
How do we make it better? That’s. It’s such a powerful tool, I think for all of, all of our members, but especially for our youth to feel like they can engage, , in that way. So yes, absolutely, engaged. I love the fact that we’re able to take real life experiences from the field and bring it back to the [00:14:00] roundtables here and, and share what it is we’re hearing from our young people and all members alike.
, let’s talk about more about this first point from the article, the fact that our young people are needing, their financial institution to be engaging. Tell us about this cool resource Banzai that looks like youth would really enjoy, , regarding financial education. Yeah. Patelco has a lot of different, , resources that we can connect our members to, to provide education.
And what I love too about Banzai and Balance and all of these other, vendors that we partner with is that there’s a mode for learning for everything. So. You can be the kind of person that wants to just read. I just want to sit and read and digest and think about, you know, what it means to truly budget and save.
Then there’s, you know, the doer group, where that wants to print out something and write it down and think it through. And Michele is definitely that kind of person. She’s, she, I know for a fact, she likes to [00:15:00] write. , I’m not the best writer. I like to use my phone or whatever to take quick notes, those kinds of things, and, and Bonds is a really great tool because it can offer all of those things.
There’s small videos, , they’re bite sized, which is really great, , sometimes when there’s just too much information, especially about a topic like financial wellness and well being, it takes a certain, you know, kind of motivation to do it. to crack open that egg. I think we’re very, you know, resistant sometimes to thinking about what our actual challenges are, from a financial standpoint day to day because it’s overwhelming.
And so when you have something like Banzai where you can go small bites of reading, watching things, listening to things, It’s just whatever you need it to be, right? It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking and you don’t have to, you know, have a whole lot of time to dedicate to it. But interactive is really important, especially for our, our students.
And everybody has a different [00:16:00] mode of learning, everyone prefers, just like I like my paper and pen and my paper calendar that you’re roasting me about, you know, everybody has a different preference in the way that they, they consume information. Let’s talk about this modern and frictionless need.
From what we believe our young people to need from financial institutions. This is not part of our outline, but I want to ask you about our student checking account because you were, you brought a lot of those needs from the community to the round table back here and said, Hey, we really need to fix our student checking account to make it more modern and frictionless to give easier access for our youth.
Tell us a little bit about the Patelco student checking account. Yeah, student checking is really great because it’s a safe way for Our students to learn how to actively monitor their money, just the basics, right? All you really need and all our students really need is to learn card safety. Right? Debit card safety, to be able to turn your debit card off and [00:17:00] on is a huge benefit because kids lose stuff all the time.
And we have that technology to support them at a younger age. So, our student checking account is available for students that are 13 to 17. A lot of times we get questions like, oh, 13 seems kind of young. And it’s definitely a family decision, you know, and it’s, , it’s a personal decision on when somebody is ready for a checking account.
But if the product is safe. Safe and secure, and provides the student with the ability to turn it off if it’s lost, have alerts turned on if it’s used somewhere unexpected, set the limits responsibly. , it gives them the freedom, honestly, sometimes to make mistakes. It’s really about how you recover from those mistakes, and student checking is a really great way to establish that financial independence without too much concern about, you know, something potentially bad happening to them.
Because fraud, we know, is a huge problem for every person, [00:18:00] basically. It’s, it’s, you know, something that’s going to be unavoidable, honestly, no matter where it is that you bank, you’re going to run into some of those challenges, and one of the things that I’m a huge proponent of is operating in that safe space.
Where can you learn these things in a place that, isn’t gonna, you know, hold you responsible for the, you know, things that are out of your control? So student checking is really great. 1, you know, to join as a member, 10 to fund, , the account. And you’re on your way. My almost 13 year old, that little boy, he’s so excited to get it set up.
His birthday’s in October. We’re having conversations about it. His first question to me, does it have that tap capability? So tell us. Yes. Can you get a debit card? And does it, can he tap it? Yes. To pay? Yes. And he can add it to his Apple Wallet too? Yep. He can add it, to Apple Wallet. Like, how empowering is it to see a card?
And for us, it’s so simple. It’s just kind of like, Eh, it’s another Debra card. But [00:19:00] for that student, for the first time, having this really cool card with their name on the bottom, like, it’s empowering, right? So you have to be able to, we want to be able to make sure that they are, Empowered to use it, empowered to ask questions, and really make sure they’re reaching out if they, , ever find themselves in some trouble.
So the product is flexible too, right? So, you know, a parent guardian can be joint on the account, but they don’t have to, right, for students that have, you know, Challenges or would prefer to be on the account alone, they can, but when I set this up, I’ll definitely be joining the account and helping them monitor it and have conversations along the way.
But he can get that Apple Wallet feature, get his first debit card. So we’re talking a lot about that. All right. So, you made the mistake of telling me that for your little one, you haven’t set up her youth account yet. So for your two year old. So, do I have to take you down to the branch and help get that open?
What’s, what’s been holding you back? [00:20:00] You know, you would be proud of me. I actually did open my daughter’s account. You did because, because I sent this to you a month ago and you’re like, I’m not gonna get on this podcast, ever. Yeah, no, that was, You know, I really feel for all the families and the parents out there, the first two years of, you know, that, it’s just, whew, there’s a lot going on there.
And it’s so funny though, because with my son, it was like, before he was even, you know, here, I was like, oh, we’re going to plan and we’re going to do this, that, and the other. And, you know, the account’s going to be open and then ready to go. And then the second one was born and she, you know, like the second ones usually are through a, you know, a wrench in my plans, came a couple months early, really, and then I blinked and she was two.
I don’t even think I got her birth certificate until like six months ago or something like that. And one of the biggest. benefits [00:21:00] was being able to sign up for her savings account virtually. This is really the power of having a financial institution that meets you where you are because any other place could have just been like, well, you got to come into the branch.
You got to come in and you got to do this. You got to bring this and you got to bring that and fine. We have our little checklist of things that we have to bring. But like, when am I supposed to do that? She’s getting out of daycare. The other one’s gotta be picked up from aftercare. And then there’s sports.
And then there’s this. And then, and then like, oh, like, have time now. And it’s like peak traffic time and I can’t make it over. To the branch. So I was able to finally get her savings account. I can’t leave you alone. I can’t leave you alone. So now, I can be. We definitely hear it all the time, right? Is this like getting a passport for my kids where I’ve got to gather all these documents?
And you know, they’ve got to be present and I’ve got to do all these things. It was pretty frictionless, right? Easy. The easy, [00:22:00] and the thing is, if it wasn’t easy like this, It wouldn’t have happened. Honestly, it would not have happened. I would have just been like, it would have been like nine. Or if it wasn’t the fear of me getting you in the studio and giving you a hard time about it.
Well, I’m glad you got it done. But I also want to encourage everyone out there. It’s one of those things that’s Just the last on your priority list. We know it’s important, but it really truly is easy, right? So at 36 branch locations you can visit, but you can also take advantage of virtual branch and get it done virtually.
So you already had an account here, so they have your information. It’s just a matter of you giving your kids info. So easy. Okay. So you’re giving hope out there for all of our listeners out there. It can’t be done. It’s last on the list, but make it your first priority. It just takes 15 minutes. Yeah. Easy.
Lunchtime. A lunchtime task. All right. Well, we know how important it is. It is Youth Month and we’re encouraging everyone out there to just take this time to focus on financial [00:23:00] education and empowering our little ones. With everything financial education, want to go back to some of these resources that Kristi shared today.
Our Banzai financial education platform can be accessed at our website, patelco. org slash financial wellness. You can find the Banzai platform out there along with balance, spring four, and a ton There’s a ton of other financial education resources, but Banzai is really that really cool tool, , that our youth are really into just because it’s gamified and it just, it’s just cool looking.
Student checking information can also be found on our website under the checking tab. Find student checking information and then how to get signed up there too. Well, happy youth month, Kristi. Happy youth month. You are my favorite person to talk about all things youth and all things youth. All things, empowering our youth education and the like.
Get them started early, folks. Let us help educate them along the way. That concludes today’s episode of [00:24:00] Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and today we want to shine a spotlight on a reality that many people may be facing, and that is that making ends meet while trying to save money and meet financial goals right now is just hard.
We’ve got two Patelco experts in the studio to help address what’s happening in our region and ways that Patelco can help. We’ve got Jen Mink, Director of Financial Wellbeing here at Patelco, who’s a regular here on the show. But today we have Richard Rantz, who’s our VP of Consumer Lending. So a big, long, overdue welcome to the studio, Richard.
And Jen, welcome back. It’s always great to have you. Thank you, Michele. Good to be back with Richard here today. Yes, thank you. I’m excited for my first podcast. First podcast. So let’s start by addressing the elephant in the [00:01:00] room. Despite savings rates being at some of the highest rates we’ve seen in decades, we’ve got to acknowledge that not everyone is in a position to take advantage of those great rates right now.
That some folks are really just trying to make , tough financial decisions with basic cost of living, especially here in the Bay Area. I grabbed some data from the Bay Area Equity Atlas that tracks economic trends over nine counties and it measures economic security and their latest study for 2024 shows that six out of ten low income adults are unable to cover their usual expenses, including buying food and groceries, paying housing, those utility bills right now, um, and keeping up with monthly car payments and other transportation costs.
So that’s more than half of those, , that were studied. Sobering. It really is. Richard, you’re Patelco’s Vice President of Consumer Lending that includes auto and personal loans and credit card products for our members. What are you seeing and hearing about from our members? Thanks so much, Michele.[00:02:00]
I’ll just give a little background on myself. I’ve been in the financial industry for over 25 years now and have been serving our members here at Patelco for over 13 years. You know, which has been a wonderful experience. Currently, I’m responsible for both ends of the spectrum when it comes to consumer lending at Patelco.
I have my operations teams that ensures, you know, a smooth and seamless experience while fulfilling members consumer loans, and then I have my servicing teams that assist our members when they have any questions or, , during this time have financial stress in their lives.,, in talking about the, , the financial stress aspect of it, I do want to point out that,, currently we’re in a very interesting and unprecedented time in the economy.
Many of the economic factors that we look at don’t show that the economy is stressed or that we could be potentially heading into a recession. But we do know that, as you stated, many families are struggling. Unemployment is still low. , jobs created continue to outpace our projections.
And GDP is, is standing strong. , typically these are the leading indicators into a recession [00:03:00] like what we saw, , during the Great Recession. Those numbers, went very differently. Um, this is just, it’s a very different and challenging time for our members. Even though the economic factors might look normal, inflation has made everyday goods much more expensive.
Interest rates are also very high right now, which makes credit more expensive and often results in higher loan payments. , these additional expenses are putting a lot of stress on our members financially. And as you pointed out earlier, that number continues to grow. I’ll just share a personal story.
Two weeks ago,, my mom reached out to me because She’s retired and lives on a fixed income and her heater went out. So that was a very costly fix. So she had to really look at her finances and make some really tough decisions when it came down to it. , and , during these times, I think that’s what we have to do.
We need to, if we can, we want to prepare for it. But if we can’t, , understand, the programs that are out there for you. . Yeah, we’ve been definitely hearing about utility bills and grocery bills in specific Really? Yep. Um, putting a strain on our [00:04:00] members. What are we telling folks when they share challenges with us?
When they come to us and they trust us for advice? What, what advice are we giving? First and foremost, we just want them to know that we’re here to help our members. Always, that’s financial wellness. I is what we’re about, you know, and it’s not always an easy conversation to have. It can be a very hard.
situation to talk about, but it’s also very important. , I just always like to say, if you find anyone finds themselves in a financial situation, the best option is to reach out. If you’re, if you don’t want to have that conversation yet, visit our financial wellness page, our financial assistance page on patelco.
org. Because it, it talks about all the programs for short and long term financial hardships that we offer, you know. It, , like we talked about, it happens often that you have unexpected expenses, , your car breaks down, you have a medical expense, and you don’t have the money to pay those expenses.
But, Patelco does offer quite a few programs to help these members, . We have a skip and pay program, which allows [00:05:00] you to skip one loan payment, but if you need a little bit more assistance than that, we also have a deferral program, which allows you to skip two loan payments. Having a program like that, to where you can skip those payments,
have that money to pay those expenses and keep yourself in a better financial situation. That’s what those programs are for , we also have longer term programs. So if you find yourself in, a longer term hardship, We have loan workout programs which allow us to Rework your loans to make your payment more affordable on a temporary or permanent basis these programs are here to help our members and help them stay financially healthy That is our mission That’s awesome.
I have a friend who used to give me so much flack for, taking advantage of the skip a pay every year. It really is, I feel like, something that’s unique to credit unions and something that, you know, even if we’re talking a 300 car payment and let’s face it, some car payments are a lot more than that.
Oh yeah. Even just relief from one payment twice a year or even once a year can make a big difference. [00:06:00] Absolutely. Huge. So thank you for that, Richard. I’m going to toss this same question, to Jen as our director of member experience and financial health, Jen, you and your group really have the best pulse on how our members are feeling.
What are some of the things that you guys are hearing? I mean, it’s tough out there right now. Many of our members are really facing significant financial strain due to inflation. , I know that I am, I know all my friends are, and that ultimately, has led to an increased cost of living. Higher housing prices.
Rates are higher. Utilities are charged. You mentioned your mom’s heater. Absolutely. I mean, all of those things put an incredible strain, on us when everything else is just really expensive. And just a huge increase for everyday necessities. Disposable income for essential needs is reduced. And people are just really having a hard time making ends meet.
And these challenges are compounded for those on a fixed income, such as our mom, Richard. Retirees are those members with lower income, [00:07:00] right? So, they’re getting the same amount of money, but everything is going up significantly. And our members are finding it hard to stretch their budgets. To cover the escalating cost of food, healthcare, transportation, just to name a few.
And all of these things are really adding up and pushing our members towards financial insecurity or debt. And I can say for me and my family, uh, we’ve definitely felt the sting of this economy. Both my husband and I work full time, but we have four young children, um, two of which are in full time daycare.
I have two that are preteen and eat a ton. One of my sons is like a garbage disposal. Between Sam’s Club, Costco, and Safeway, I can’t keep food on the shelves in the pantry. And I’ve noticed that just going to the grocery store, after work to get milk, bread, and eggs, ends up costing 30 when in the past it was probably around 18.
It’s crazy. And not even to mention the cost of clothing. I went to Kohl’s this weekend for my kids, and I almost passed out at the cash register, [00:08:00] realizing I was paying 35 for a shirt. And let’s not even talk about the extracurricular activities that they want to be involved in. We have four soccer players, so that’s expensive.
The cleats, the balls, the, you know, paying for the soccer, all of that is really tough. What resources are you sharing with members? And I feel you 100%. I am so much resonating with everything that you’re saying. We’ve got baseball in the household right now. Oh yeah, that’s expensive. All that equipment. The groceries too.
I mean, we hear it, but I’m really feeling that in our household too. I have two daughters and I know about the clothing. Oh my goodness. It’s a lot. It can be a lot. So we’ve got some really cool resources, right? Jan, can you share a little bit about those? I am so excited to share this because it’s something that I’ve really been, kind of talking about with the Patelco team, right?
All of our people that serve our, our members front line, have the opportunity to share this. And it’s a resource that we rolled out in 2023 and it’s called SpringFour. And SpringFour is a financial [00:09:00] wellness platform designed to connect individuals with local resources and programs that can really help them improve their financial situation.
SpringFour is amazing. When you access SpringFour, you are connected to a curated directory of vetted assistance programs spanning various needs such as saving on utilities. Richard, you should tell your mom about SpringFour. Absolutely. Finding available housing options, secure job training, and even obtaining financial counseling.
And what I love most about SpringFour, and something I’ve really been sharing with our team here at Patelco, is we know based on talking to our members that they are really suffering, financially, but one of the things that comes up often is food insecurity. And with SpringFour, you can literally type in your zip code and SpringFour will direct you to places you can get food for yourself and your family.
This is all, Michele, free of charge as a benefit of being a Patelco member, which I think is pretty awesome. That’s a great resource. It [00:10:00] is. It’s amazing. And another resource that we offer is Bansai. And Bansai is a free service for our members that can assist in creating and maintaining budgets and to really help track your spending.
So where’s that money going and how can you reduce in different areas? I know I’ve been looking at all of my, my automatic debits on a monthly basis and I’m like, wow, why do I even have cable? Because I am subscribed to everything, right? And so how can we track that spending and really find out where we can kind of.
Cut the fat and be in a better financial position. I actually shared Bansai with my mom to help her with her budgeting. Yes. Bansai is amazing. And it can help you identify areas in which a member can save money and make more informed decisions about their finances. And what I really love about it, and I think that benefits all of our membership, including our youth members that we have, is it provides that financial education resource and gives you personalized advice to help you improve financial wellness.
And that, as we [00:11:00] all know, working at Patelco can lead to greater financial stability and peace of mind. And I want to mention one last resource, which I think is probably our strongest resource that we have here at Patelco, and that’s the resource of our team. So, each of our branches has a specialist, that can sit, actually sit down with you to create a budget, help you with short and long term goals, such as saving for a car or retirement, and help you to understand the details of your credit and what you can do to level up your credit report.
And finally, create a debt repayment plan, and all of this is for free, which is a benefit of being a Patelco member. And I want to say I’ve seen some huge success stories with our CFSs and our branches, who started with a member a few years back, and the member comes back to us in a really positive financial situation.
Their credit reports improve, they’re able to borrow at lower rates, and it is just, it is a huge benefit, to meet with a CFS. So if you are interested in any of these [00:12:00] resources, we definitely encourage you to visit us at patelco. org. And as Richard mentioned earlier, click on the financial wellness tab for all of these resources.
Awesome. So those are such great resources and tips. Thank you, Jen. So let’s go around the room one more time and talk about, can you guys give the audience one more nugget to take away to stay resilient during these challenging times? I, I think it’s what we’ve talked about and that is understanding the tools and programs.
That your financial institution has that can help you either prepare for a financial event or assist you should you find yourself in a financial situation where you need assistance, , being prepared always goes a very long way. I love that. And I agree, Richard. And I just want the members listening to this podcast or even our team members, right?
Because we’re all in this together. Never hesitate to reach out to us. We are here to help. Ask us for help. That’s what we’re here for. There’s so many resources that you don’t even know about that Patelco [00:13:00] can offer, and Richard’s team does an amazing job kind of understanding your situation and putting you two into the best program to help you kind of over that financial speed bump, if you will.
So don’t assume that there’s nothing we can do, right, Richard? Absolutely. And the question, , Reach out. Exactly. And I just want to say, , resilience is a huge thing that a lot of us are facing right now. We’ve got to be resilient, whether it be with. Our health, our finances, the economy, whatever it might be.
We really have to focus on being resilient and actually for my son, he just had his 10th birthday. And my son really struggles in school, and sometimes he can get really discouraged. And so my mom bought him this deck of positive affirmation cards. And I’m from member experience, so you’ll have to forgive me.
I’m all about the touchy feely and empathy and things like that. But the very first card on the deck was about doing hard things and how we just need to be resilient in life and realize that hard things happen. [00:14:00] And, you know, they could happen for a while, but at the end of the day we really get through them.
Yeah, absolutely. And here at Patelco, we talk about these building blocks of resilience for our members, right? And there’s four of them, and they start by just getting day to day, budgeting and then you move on up these building blocks to take advantage of opportunities, right? But along the way, we talk about having advocates in your corner to be able to get advice and consultation from.
And I think that’s the theme of our message today is really, you have an army of resources here, an army of people here at Patelco to support. So. Our members really have to take that first step, but they need to know where to go. So you guys have referenced this financial wellness center on patelco. org on one of the tabs on the top.
You’ll see the financial wellness center in there. You’ll find the podcast, you’ll find the webinars, you’ll find a ton of articles, but you’ll also find this SpringFour resource that Jen mentioned, the Patelco as an organization. We’re really focused on giving, and supporting food [00:15:00] insecurity. So a lot of those organizations and food banks that we give to can be accessed on that SpringFour platform.
So that’s exciting that that synergy exists. But also in the way of people and education, there’s no shortage of folks that you can come and see at Patelco. From that website, you can find our 800 number and call any one of our representatives. We’ve also got a chat feature on the website also. So if you want to get in touch with somebody.
You can do so via chat and then we’ve got 36 branch locations and those CFS resources that Jen mentioned that are available at the branch for you to just consult with on a complimentary basis. And we have virtual branch. And I know one thing we talked about last week, which I thought kind of really hit home is sometimes when you’re struggling, it’s kind of embarrassing, right?
You’re behind on a car payment or maybe two or you can’t pay your credit card bill. So we have virtual branch. If you don’t want to come into a branch, you can, you know, talk to us through zoom in a virtual environment. We have chat features. , like Michele mentioned on our [00:16:00] website, you can just put in, you know, I’m struggling with making a payment and it gives you options.
But I really, I kind of want to leave everybody with something that just kind of resonated with me when I was thinking about this podcast and just everything that we’re going through and how we’re all in this together and just really remembering that Every setback is a setup for a comeback and your financial journey is not defined by how many times you stumble, but by how many times you rise, learn and move forward with renewed vigor and insight.
And we all remember 2008, right? Really hard year for, for the economy with the housing market and everything. And I remember being in branches and And, it was really tough for our members and I heard it all day long and just always remember that we are a partner with you, Patelco’s here, and together we will get through this and we are setting ourselves up for that comeback, Michele.
I love, every setback is a comeback. That’s great advice. Love that one. I tell my kids all the time too and I coach sports and I tell them it’s not about how many times you fall, it’s how [00:17:00] you get back up. That’s right. So. And I think it’s also important that they know that, the earlier that you reach out, should you.
Find yourself in a financial situation, the better. Yep. Don’t be shy. Richard’s great. His team is great. We are here for you guys. That is so awesome. So Richard, thanks so much for being here. And Jen, thanks so much for coming back. That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
Stay resilient out there and let us help along the way. We’ll see you next time. Patelco is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, your hostess with the mostest here at Patelco Credit Union, and today we’re comparing savings rates and tools since deposit rates are at some of the highest points they’ve been in the last decade.
It’s a great time to jumpstart the year with a focus on savings and take advantage of this high rate environment we’re in. To do that, we’re welcoming Andrew Farrell back to the studio. He’s Patelco’s Community Engagement Specialist and an expert in helping our members understand solutions. That work best for them.
It’s really great to have you back in the studio. Andrew. It’s great to be back. I think I’m one of the elite three timers now on the third time. Yeah, I’m happy to be here. Thank you. Always great to have you. So you and I work out in the field with members and we get we’re getting asked more and more about why interest rates are the way they are.
And where we think they’re going. [00:01:00] Specifically, I get asked for my opinion about where people should, what they should do with their savings funds right now, with the rates are the way they are, and where they should park their money. Um, what are you seeing out there? What are you getting asked the most?
Basically, just kind of the same thing. Like, is it, is it good to have your money in a liquid account, in a tight account, especially if you’re keeping money, You know, internally in a financial institution, just asking questions about the rate environment. People are seeing rates increase, they’re seeing it being advertised to them.
So yeah, they’re just kind of looking for, the different types of accounts that we have. With Botelco, we have lots of different options when it comes to where to keep your savings within your financial institution. So the main two types of savings accounts are liquid accounts and term accounts or time deposit accounts.
So liquid accounts are accounts where you can access the funds whenever you want for whatever reason without having to pay penalties or jump through any hoops. The account sort of ebbs and flows as liquid would. , however, with that liquidity usually comes [00:02:00] rate variability. So while you have a lot of accessibility to your funds, the rate can also fluctuate depending on whatever the current rate environment is.
, a regular savings account with a financial institution is a liquid savings account. And honestly. Throughout most of my young adulthood, I kind of thought that was the only type of savings account there was, you know, just the one that comes with my free checking account. Yep. Yeah, but then I learned about money market savings accounts, which is kind of like a regular savings account, but with a little You know, extra zhuzhing, if you will.
So they’re, they’re both liquid accounts, but typically the interest rate you’ll earn on a money market will be higher than what you’ll get on a regular savings account. However, sometimes there are caveats there, so some institutions have a balance requirement to open a money market, sometimes the rate is tiered, so higher balances earn more. , the advantages of a money market can vary by financial institution, but most institutions offer one. So if all your savings is sitting in a regular savings account, earning, you know, 0 percent nothing, definitely it’s something to look [00:03:00] into. Got it. Liquid versus non liquid. And I’ve never heard a liquid account described as something that ebbs and flows just like Now, the flip side to all that is a term account.
So with a term account, you put your funds in a savings account for a set term at a set rate and both the dollar amount you contribute and the rate is locked in for whatever term you select. So that does not ebb and flow. The best example of a term account is a CD or a certificate of deposit. So CDs are offered at different terms.
Sometimes you can select a six month term, 24 months. Sometimes up to a 60 month term. Whatever term you select, however, you’ll deposit your funds into the account and then you cannot add funds or take out funds during the duration of that term. So, if you do an 18 month term, you put your initial deposit in there, that will not change for that duration of the 18 months.
But, The rate is also locked in during your term. So if you find, for example, a 24 month CD at, we’ll say, 5%, [00:04:00] and a year into that term, the rate environment takes a nosedive and savings rates are low across the board, guess what? You’re still going to be earning 5 percent for the rest of your term. Yep. And that’s really important, too, because we tell folks all the time, do what’s best for your comfort level.
Yeah. It means that you have your funds readily available versus locking them up, and that’s one of the really big first decisions you have to make. Okay, so liquid, non liquid. Talk about rates for a second. Do you remember 2008? The great recession we had back then that we survived? That was a fun time.
It was crazy, right? But savings account interest rates then fell to historic lows, so below 0. 25. So very different than today. So back then the Federal Reserve kept interest rates low and that was in an effort to stimulate growth. So savings rates remained low for over a decade until last year. Today the federal reserve is trying to combat inflation.
So they’ve decreased the federal run federal funds [00:05:00] rate, excuse me, between March and December of last year, the federal funds rate increased from.
So here we are enjoying some of the highest rates in a really long time. You’re the expert and we’ve done an episode before on our, our, spender saver personalities. You happen to be kind of a common of the two, but with this shift in interest rates and with the new year beginning, has your method of savings changed?
You know, I think if anything, this rate shift has kind of subconsciously accelerated my savings, if for no other reason than I’m just so aware of the rate environment these days, mostly because it’s just kind of in my face every time I turn my head, I feel like I’ve seen more billboards, more commercials, more advertisements in general for financial institutions promoting their current interest rates than I can imagine.
ever remember seeing before this, , and with it being so tangible, this rate environment, like it’s kind of just, it just stays, you know, front of mind. So it’s forced me to really look at how I save, , in a way that’s [00:06:00] most advantageous to my current financial status., and it’s also kind of motivated me to, to save.
Maybe more than I ordinarily would, , in order to, you know, take advantage of the wonderful rates that are out there right now. Yeah, I think for me, I get hung up on how much should be in my emergency liquid account. , I’ve got younger kids, so like health and medical things are always popping up, kids activities and just kids stuff in general.
Plus, I’m kind of more Airing on the the saver side and I’m a worry, wart, saver in general, but talk more about the emergency fund. What should be the target, that one should keep in an emergency savings account or rainy day fund, whatever we want to call it. Yeah, so a healthy emergency savings net, getting one of those set up is one of the most beneficial things that you can do for yourself.
I’ve spoken about it many, many times. I had a litany of car issues last year. We’re talking it got stolen. I had my windshield crashed. I had a bumper fall off all kinds of just, you know, when it rains, it pours with my [00:07:00] vehicle. But because I did have an emergency safety net for myself, I luckily did not have to go on any debt.
And when you don’t go in debt, you save money and interest and you’re just financially happy and healthy. So most experts agree that having at least three to six months of living expenses set aside as an emergency fund is a good place to be. Now, that’s not three to six months of your salary. It’s just whatever you can expect to live off of for that, for that time period.
This is something that should obviously be in a liquid savings account because if an emergency strikes, you’re going to need to be able to access those funds sometimes at a moment’s notice. I always champion having different accounts for different purposes. So I’ll say it again. I would recommend opening a completely separate savings account just to be used as your emergency bucket.
Get your three to six months of living expenses in there. And then the most important and sometimes the hardest part. Don’t touch it. Keep it in there. That’s not fun money. That’s emergency money. Let it go there, and then, you know, one day if your car gets stolen, you may also be able to pay for it without having to go in debt.
Yep, that’s a [00:08:00] good plan. For some of us, three to six months worth of living expenses seems, insurmountable, right? If not the full three to six months or setting yourself up to get there, just start with something. Yeah. Put something away. Or at the very least, establish the account to do so and then make sure it’s liquid.
That’s what you’re saying. So you can access it easily. I think being flexible and revisiting this plan is something we preach, right? So what about folks that are looking to make most of the funds that are already sitting in a savings account and just wanting to maximize it more? So for, for the savings accounts, , if you’re looking to maximize those funds, there are a couple of different options for you.
I think the first thing you want to do is just ask yourself, do you want the funds liquid, or do you want the funds tied up? , if you do want to go kind of outside and just, you know, regular financial institution, , 401ks and IRAs are a really great way to kind of do some long term savings. I’m not going to get [00:09:00] into all the peaks and valleys of 401ks and IRAs because that’s a podcast for another day.
But essentially a 401k is an employer sponsored account where employees can have a portion of their gross pay automatically saved into this account. , one benefit here is that a lot of employees, Employers will match your contribution up to a certain amount. So you can save double sometimes for, you know, nothing extra at all.
, and an IRA is an individual retirement account. So this is open and managed by the individual and not the employer. Right. The biggest benefits of traditional 4 0 1 ks and traditional IRAs is that you make your contributions on a pre-tax basis, meaning that whatever contributions you make, not only experience tax-free growth.
But they are also deducted from your taxable income. So you are, you know, being taxed less on your actual income because you’re contributing money to a long term savings account, that is experiencing some tax benefits. So that’s one way to save if you’re looking for some, you know, long term savings options.
Talk to us about Patelco’s money market account. So I think [00:10:00] my basic savings account is probably paying like 0. 01, like most out there. , so let’s say I’m thinking about moving money into this money market account that pays up to 2 percent or maybe even higher. We’re talking a difference. Let’s say at the $2,000 mark, I just move it from a basic savings to a money market account.
If we’re talking $2,000, that’s about $38 of potential interest over the course of a year. Yeah. If I do some math on a larger number, the difference in potential earnings could be in the thousands. I don’t know about you, but I like free money. I love free money, I love free anything. And it seems like a, a simple way to or simple exercise to just move it into a better option.
How easy or hard is it to, transfer those funds from a savings to a money market or CD or something else. So it’s super easy to do that. But first I want to explain the two different types of money market accounts we have because at Patelco we have two different types that can, you know, vary depending on what your financial needs are, which one’s better for you.
So we have the money market select and the [00:11:00] money market plus account. I’ll start by saying neither has a minimum balance requirement, and both will earn you a rate that’s more competitive than that, you know, 0. 01 typical standard savings rate that you would get the money market select is a money market account that we’ve had for years that most of our members are probably familiar with.
And for that one, the rate is tiered depending on your balance. So the 2 percent that you were talking about earlier, for the money market select, that starts at 2 percent on any balance that you have up to 2, 000, and then anything you have in excess of 2, 000 will be tiered off and combined to give you a blended rate.
So for example, if you have 10, 000 in there, the first 2, 000 is always going to earn you 2%. . The next 3, 000 will then earn you 1. 5%. The last 5, 000 will earn you 1%. So when that all blends together and tears up, it gives you an overall blended rate of 1. 35%. We tear it this way because a lot of money market accounts out there do have a minimum balance requirement to earn a high rate, and we wanted to be able to offer an account that smaller [00:12:00] balances can also earn a high rate for.
Now, our new and exciting account is the Money Market Plus, that is the newer one, and that one will get you a fantastic rate that actually does increase the more that you have in. So for this, you start at earning 3%, also with no minimum balance requirement, but once you hit 50, 000, your rate goes up to 3.
5%. And this is not tiered like the Money Market, so it’s not like anything in excess of the 50, 000 earns a 3. 5%. Everything. Gets three and a half. Once you hit 50, 000, once you get a hundred thousand, 4%, 250, 000 gets you four and a half percent. , so if you do have a larger balance, you could take advantage of this and still get a really great rate on that too.
, obviously rates for this are subject to change. Like I said, it’s a liquid account. So with liquidity comes variability. But this is where they are right now. Now, the only requirement we have for our money market plus is that you need to have an active checking account with us that receives a deposit of at least 500.
Once a month. And this can be a direct deposit from your job, it can be an automatic [00:13:00] transfer from another institution, it can even be just, you know, walking into a branch and depositing cash or a check. As long as that 500 comes into the corresponding checking account once a month, you will qualify for that money market rate.
Now, getting these open, like you asked earlier, that is super easy, especially for current members. So, current members can open up new accounts with just a few clicks on Patelco’s online banking, or via the mobile app. , they can also stop into their local branch, or they can visit our virtual branch, which can be found on patelco.
org, from the comfort of their couch. , and they can get all their questions answered about what type of savings account is best for them, and get those accounts open right there on the spot. For non members, it’s the same process. Walk into a branch, set an appointment, visit our virtual branch, and we can make sure that we get you in the best accounts that are gonna, that are gonna suit your needs.
Okay, awesome. That was a lot. I’m taking a lot of notes. And I’ve actually been waiting to make a move until I talked to you today. So, listeners may just want to call you directly, but they can get this great advice from any [00:14:00] Patelco team member. So you’re talking about walking into a branch. We’re talking about maybe moving what’s earning a lesser account and a basic savings to one of these money market account options.
I love the fact that there’s no minimum required, and really there’s two designed for maybe what your balance is, maybe what your goals are. So That’s all great news, but let’s talk about virtual branch more. So we go to patelco. org, we click meet now, or we make an appointment to visit with somebody on virtual branch.
What happens then? So Zoom pops up and we’re talking with a Patelco individual? Yeah, that’s basically it. Virtual branch is super, super easy and we have a fantastic virtual branch team. It’s one of the largest teams that we have here at Patelco. You can do an appointment on virtual branch. So if you go on patelco.
org, you can set an actual appointment and they’ll send you a Zoom link. And comes to be your time. You can do it that way. Or if you just want to do a walk in, you can click meet with someone right now. It takes you to kind of like a digital waiting room where one of our virtual branch [00:15:00] employees will come and ask you what you’re looking to do.
They will then go to their, you know, backside, find a member solution specialist who can take care of you. And then just like that, you’re face to face with one of our team members. They can open up new accounts, talk Do some account research, talk about the products and services we offer. Answer any of your questions.
We have a fantastic virtual branch team and it is all available just with the click of a mouse. That’s great. So if you’re overwhelmed with all of the options that exist out there or really just want to talk with somebody about what your situation is and get the best solution for you, I think this is where, you know, the Podelko difference really comes into play and where brick and mortar comes into play.
So you and I are out there all the time and we’re hearing from members. Well, I’ve got this. this online bank and this FinTech and, you know, I can do every, I don’t need to talk to anybody. I can do everything online. I think this is one of those situations where there’s a lot of virtue in being able to talk with someone.
So our Patelco team and our virtual branch team is a great option to be able to do [00:16:00] this. For listeners that may be looking to diversify their saving with larger investments, say like 20, 000 and above. We also have licensed. Financial advisors that you can consult with on a complimentary basis also.
So we might be talking about very minimal, , savings parked in, , your basic savings accounts, you know, maybe 10, 000 or more where a money market might make more sense. But if you’re in that kind of higher tier, 20, 000 and above, we also have, Licensed financial advisors who can talk with you about that 401k that you were talking about, maybe a 401k rollover, IRA.
But the goal today was really to shine some light on this opportunity that we have right now in this savings rate environment that we’re in. I know I’m going to make some moves now that I’ve talked to you. Was savings part of your New Year’s resolution, Xander? I’m so glad you asked. So I don’t actually do New Year’s resolutions.
What I do is I pick a word that I try to keep top of mind to live by for that year, sort of like a word of the year. So [00:17:00] my word last year was acceptance, which was kind of accepting curveballs life throws at me, accepting things about myself, generally just accepting people and situations and life as it comes and not always trying to Force things to be the way I want them to be, which can be challenging for a control freak like myself, but I think at the end of the year, my patients improve my empathy.
My, you know, stubbornness eased up a little bit. So I had a lot of success with the word acceptance last year. Did your car have a lot to do? Yes. So I was actually able to stay very, very level headed throughout all the car debacles. And I attribute that to my acceptance mindset this year. However, My word is discipline and discipline when it comes to saving is a huge part of that.
So being much more tenacious with my saving contributions, having the discipline to not dip into savings because there’s an unbudgeted concert or vacation that I want to go on, you know, having discipline to not go out to eat every single time it’s offered and instead put some of that extra money in savings.
[00:18:00] All this falls under the discipline umbrella for me. And I think if I just focus on the word discipline and focus on my own personal discipline, the savings will just follow naturally. Love that so much. I feel like last year, my word was probably resilience. So much so that we infused it into a whole lot of the financial education stuff that we did.
Alright, acceptance, discipline, resilience, talking all things financial health, all things increasing your savings capacity. We talked about setting up an emergency fund today and maximizing your contributions that you may put in there. Patelco’s also got a ton of other great resources, so we’ve got our great people.
Use them. Talk to them. They’re a great resource for you to be able to, talk differences and talk, , options for you. Patelco has also begun what we’re calling a MarketWatch email, where we’re really deep diving into, the federal rates funds, how we’re setting our interest rates. But you can also, through those emails, get connected [00:19:00] to one of our Patelco team members here.
To help maximize your own personal savings. Andrew, it’s super great to have you in the studio. I get to work with you every day, but it’s super lucky for me that we get to have you in the studio here to unpack all this stuff. It is great to be back. Thank you, Michelle. Well, that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
Happy saving, everyone. We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

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Thanks for joining us for today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union. Today we’re going to talk things all cyber security with Patelco’s Principal of Info Security, Sean Casey.
And Sean, I just found out today that you have over 25 years experience in information security. I sure do. I fell into it at an early age and I’ve just kept going. Man, well welcome to the studio. This is a long time coming. Yeah, I’ve been eager to get in here. It’s a real pleasure to be in. So, we’ve done several episodes, Sean, on fraud and addressing ways that members can avoid scams.
And specifically, we’ve talked about social scams, like scammers attempting to engage romantically with people, um, things like impersonating family members for ransom, people pretending to represent employers and tricking people to sending money for employment opportunities, and [00:01:00] even phone scams. where people impersonate, Patelco representatives.
And you’re the expert on cyber security, and we’re going to talk today about how we can protect ourselves when we’re on the internet. And fraud and cyber security have been and is still such a big deal, right? It really is, both of them. And they go hand in hand.
The spread of fraud via the cyber space that we have these days has, has really become incredible. So the fraud team and I work very closely together to ensure that we’re doing the best with our members. There’s a few things that, that people can really do to, to help themselves. Uh, first, you know, your mobile device hygiene.
Keep your laptops and your phones up to date. They say they’re going to do it automatically, but like most technology, you have to supervise them. Make sure you get those, those updates on your phones. Make sure you keep your laptop up to date. Keep the hackers out of there. Stay away from the suspicious websites and, for all of your important websites, which is almost all of them, [00:02:00] set up multi factor authentication.
Yeah. So that you get that text message or you get that little pop up on your phone saying, hey, is it really you trying to move, 500 out of your savings account? Mm hmm. And, that, goes a long way to, to stopping the bad guys. Interesting. Mobile device hygiene. Never heard that one before, but just like hygiene, it has to be a repetitive behavior.
Exactly. You have to stay on top of it.
It’s a really big deal because these, these bugs come out all the time and If you don’t patch, those bugs leave your device vulnerable to a takeover. Talk to us about this MFA you’ve got in your notes here. What does this stand for? We’re learning all kinds of new cybersecurity terms.
So MFA stands for multi factor authentication. And those are the text messages that pop up on your phone with codes. You know, the six digit code to enter into an application somewhere. Some people have special authenticator applications on their phones, so you don’t even get the text message. You just go to the little app and, [00:03:00] there’s lots of instructions on how to get through that.
I won’t bore the audience with that. And then there are devices that you can have where you actually have to be holding that device in order to pass all of those are really good and very difficult for the criminals to push up against and get through. It really goes the furthest for protecting your accounts and all of your logins everywhere.
Nobody likes getting the message that you’re reaching out on Facebook, trying to get somebody into a cryptocurrency nonsense scam. And MFA does the same thing for I feel like multi factor authentication is required on some things, but for some it’s something you have to opt into or set up? So for most social media, it’s optional.
Many financial institutions are requiring it now. Okay. All right. MFA, multi factor authentication and mobile device hygiene. [00:04:00] Love those. Exciting. All kinds of little nuggets today. So Forbes just released an article that read that cybercrime is growing exponentially. No surprise to us. That according to cybersecurity ventures, the cost of cybercrime is predicted to hit 8 trillion in 2023 and will grow to 10.
5 trillion by 2025. Can we talk about artificial intelligence because this is coming up a lot and there’s a lot of questions and concern about AI in general. What can you tell us about some ways that AI is Both benefiting us in the way that we serve our members and some things that we need to be aware of as AI evolves.
Well, I’m gonna start with the bad news. People may have heard about deepfakes, which are AI creating video or audio of people using very, very simple, inputs. We can think of it like, the movie Forrest Gump. When Forrest Gump meets with, famous presidents and, and they, [00:05:00] they inserted Tom Hanks into the film.
Back when that was published, it took millions of dollars and, and special video editors to do that. They can now fake your voice with about 30 seconds of audio and 5 on the internet. So what this translates to is if you get a call from somebody you know and it sounds like them, But they’re saying, hey, I’m in jail, I need 5, 000 in bail.
It’s very difficult for a human being to tell that that’s not actually, the loved one on the other end of the phone. So what I’m advising people to do is to set up passcodes in your family and with your loved ones. Or, if you don’t have one, ask them a question that only they can answer. So, like, who was your second grade teacher?
Or something that’s not commonly available. For somebody to, to understand, otherwise you could end up sending 5, 000 to scammers and meanwhile your, your loved one is, is sitting at home, playing a video game and, and [00:06:00] you never called their phone because you were so worried about other things.
Yeah. That’s a really good call. So this is deep fakes and we’re not talking football, you know, Hail Mary, deep fake play. That’s really interesting. My friend and I have a secret emoji. That we have if we’re ever in danger, but a good thing to establish with family, loved ones also. And if not an emoji, some secret passcode that you’re talking about.
That’s a really great tip., got a note here about bad guys that adopt AI faster than good guys. What’s that all about? So as a, working on the good guy side, wearing a white hat. I have, I have found that we are very slow to adopt AI because we take a cautious approach. We don’t want to put anything into our systems or allow anything to influence us that we have not fully vetted.
Whereas your average cyber criminal, they’re out there messing around with code. If they fail in one particular, attempt, it doesn’t hurt them. So [00:07:00] they can, they can experiment and fail rapidly and, and continue to use AI. With almost no repercussions. So they are the ones who are jumping onto the, the deep fakes.
They’re the ones who are using, AI to enhance their, phishing and smishing messages to try to get people to, take the bait and, and engage for a, a successful, fraud. Episode. Talk more about these deepfakes. You mentioned here that, some aren’t perfect, that some strategies, can defeat deepfakes?
So computers are very good at identifying other computers, and they can pick out the deepfakes. There are, audio processing technologies available on, customer service lines to where it can identify based on characteristics of the, of the way deepfakes are made, whether or not, it is likely to be a human on the other end of the line.
So your financial institutions are, are generally pretty good at, at picking out the [00:08:00] deepfakes and it, it’s unlikely that, a deepfake will be calling into a, service center and, successfully compromising one of those companies. And then. , the other piece of good news to go with that is that, the good guy AI is kind of like a late bloomer, starting off stumbling, not looking too good, a little bit awkward.
It’s going to be really, really attractive and effective, once, once we finally get that matured to a level where we can, we can use it effectively. Got it. So you’re Patalko included, investing in technologies to catch. These deepfakes, what can the novice individual do to catch a deepfake?
Well, first of all, you need to have that passcode in place, or your, your secret emoji, or, or some kind of the, the secret question that only that person could answer. next is, is listen to whether or not the person is speaking the same way as, as your loved one. So, look [00:09:00] out for awkward phrasing. And anything else that just sounds off.
If, if it feels wrong, investigate, check it out, get in there and, and make sure that this is, this is actually the other person. All right. That’s a good tip. The Forbes article I referenced also says that fishing. continues to be a preferred method of hackers in 2023. Tell us more about phishing and some key examples regarding phishing.
So, phishing and smishing are sending fake messages via email and text messages, sometimes by voice, where they call you, and they’re really just trying to get you to engage. So, first of all, when you receive a message that you, from someone you don’t recognize and it, it doesn’t seem legit, don’t even answer it.
Delete it. Report it as, as spam and get rid of it. If you are concerned that it may be legitimate, contact the institution that it claims to be from. So, if one of our members receives a message purporting to be from [00:10:00] Batelco, you don’t have to answer that. Call our member service center. They, they love getting these calls because nine times out of ten and probably more frequently than that.
It’s a pretext for fraud, and by calling the service center, you have just defeated fraud. It’s, it’s an easy way to be kind of a superhero. Now, when we’re, when we’re looking at the, the pretexts that they use for these items, really, really popular over the holidays were the fake package delivery alerts.
Yep. Saying, oh, hey, you’ve, you’ve got. You got a package we can’t deliver from the U. S. Postal Service or something like that. Please go to this badguys. org URL through the phone. Those, those were some of the more obvious ones and, and there were, there were a lot that were, that were much better. The people who are doing these scams out there, this is their job.
This is how they feed their families and buy their cars. And they’re good at it. They spend all day honing their craft. So we have to be very vigilant about these things. The other ones that we’ve been looking at are, fake fraud alerts. [00:11:00] So, that, that’s the one that I focus on the most because it, it definitely affects our members and it affects, our team in dealing with what happens after somebody falls for one of these.
So, you might get an alert saying, Hey, did you just spend 75. 19 at, this local shopping center. Don’t respond to it. Call the institution. Every time. There’s, there’s a lot of fake phone numbers out there. There are so many fake messages flying around. I, I get at least five a day. It, at this point it’s just annoying.
Yeah, I do too. During the holidays I definitely got the, you missed your package text at least five times a day and it was usually DHL. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, because DHL doesn’t have, you know, that huge presence out on the ground. People don’t see the DHL trucks as much as they used to, so it’s, it’s easy because nobody has their account there or something like that to figure out whether or not they were actually receiving a package in advance.[00:12:00]
It’s important to remember this is the opening move, and if you accidentally respond to one of those texts, Call the financial institution, call whoever else, might be involved, because the sooner that, that we get involved, or that your other financial institution gets involved, the sooner, the easier it is to fix the problems.
So we’ve had all kinds of terms introduced today. We’ve got mobile device, hygiene, multi factor authentication, which you’ve probably heard of before, deep fakes, phishing, smishing. Have you heard the term digital citizens? Digital citizens was a new one to me. When you sent me that, I was I had to go look it up.
It was new to me, too, so I had to Google it. So, there are tons of definitions around digital citizenship online. I guess it’s a new, it’s a thing now. I like this one. It reads, digital citizenship is the ability to use technology responsibly, safely, and respectfully. It involves developing the skills and knowledge to [00:13:00] effectively and ethically engage with digital technologies.
Digital citizenship encompasses a range of behaviors. Such as protecting personal information, respecting others privacy, and participating in society with politics online. What are your thoughts about that? That’s a lot, but, I think it kind of wraps all together everything that you’ve been talking about so far.
So I would agree. First off, when I was a kid, we were called nerds for doing this. But, but now, it’s, it’s really foundational for having a Less stressful life. The way we conduct ourselves online, can, can make our lives more stressful or less. And, when, when we follow the, the digital citizenship rules or, or guidelines, I think our lives are a lot better.
Just keeping everything civil and, and wise is something we can all benefit from. So there were some good tips within kind of the definition of being a good digital [00:14:00] citizen. What’s your best advice for our members out there looking to practice good digital citizenship? I have to reflect back to my, my previous advice and that’s put MFA everywhere.
Yep. That’s, that’s the, the number one way to, to keep, keep things clean. Or at least solidly representing you. We don’t want our online. Persona to be, taken over, by bad guys who, you know, may put things out there that, that we don’t agree with, you know, suddenly there’s a bunch of social media posts that, are, are the opposite of, of your own beliefs and, and nobody wants to, to deal with the aftermath of that, because the, the public is, is absolutely, cruel to, to people who, who make errors online
I would say that this is also a, a foundational item that we need to communicate to our kids. Kids are being presented with, with a huge amount of, of opportunities online these days at earlier and earlier ages and, I think we need to [00:15:00] give them the tools to be wise online and to protect themselves.
Then finally, when we’re looking at all of this, I’ve delivered a whole lot of, of warnings and bad news and a couple tools, but don’t be anxious. There’s, there’s a lot going on out there and there’s almost always, Some, some grace available when, when mistakes are made so that, you know, if you get a hold of your, if you get a hold of your financial institution soon enough, you’ll be able to stop the money from flowing.
Or if you have put MFA on your social media accounts, You never have to deal with somebody taking them over. Yeah, I think I’m hearing that communication is really key. I feel like every episode we, hold here in the studio, it all comes back to communication, having conversations with, Our young ones and even our older aging parents also just found out that you’ve got teenagers at home and I’ve got one preteen and a younger one and we’re [00:16:00] talking all the time about being good digital citizens not clicking on links on phones.
while they’re, on YouTube and other things online. So that’s really key, but also having those same conversations, different conversations with my aging parents as well, but even being wary ourselves. So talking with our partners, our loved ones at home,, with friends, and then knowing what resources we have available to us.
So Patelco’s got a really great resource on our website, our website called Patelco’s Fraud Center. Can you tell us a little bit about that? So, Patelco publishes the Fraud Center to help the entire community deal with fraud, prevent fraud, and a lot of tools to help be good digital citizens. There are resources there for helping our aging parents, for helping our kids, our teens, and also reaching out into the community because I think a lot of [00:17:00] these things happen.
A lot of these bad episodes occur because we are not connecting with our, our friends and loved ones enough. And when we start to speak these things out loud to our friends, to our loved ones, to people we trust, it takes a different shape inside of our minds and, and we consider it more, more critically.
So if, if I’m considering, you know, Taking advantage of a deal that I found online, I’ll talk to my buddy about it. And he’ll say, Sean, that’s absolutely silly. And then I’ll say, you know what? You’re right, buddy. Like, this is, this is a terrible idea. Let’s not do that. And this is especially true. among the elderly crowd.
So, I do a lot of presentations at, senior centers to help them avoid, fraud because they seem to be one of our more vulnerable populations in this case. And I’ve found that the, the socialization, the, the community, reaching out to your friends is, is so important because, [00:18:00] people who spend too much time alone we, we seek different things to, to fill that hole and a lot of those can end up being taken advantage of by the scammers.
Yep. And things are ever changing, right? So this fraud center that we’ve got is chock full of great information with updated scams that we’re seeing and we see them all the time. Right? Listeners can find more information at patelco. org slash fraud. That’s our fraud center at patelco. org slash fraud. But we talked earlier in the episode about this, this industry, growing, so really just being wary, having those conversations that you’re talking about is really critical to, protecting ourselves and, and being these good digital citizens that we’re talking about.
Sean, it was really great to have you in the studio today. We’re going to have to have you back. I feel like every fifth episode or so we’re talking about fraud because it really is important and it is ever changing, like we keep saying. There’s all these new terms coming out all the [00:19:00] time, too. We might have to do an episode where we just unpack all the terms and make a glossary, maybe.
Well, that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michlle Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and Happy New Year to everyone out there and welcome to season two of our podcast.
We want to just take a moment to reflect on 2023 and some of the topics we covered in our inaugural year. We talked about student loan forgiveness, the interest rate environment, a lot about fraud, some romance, job, student scams, and prevention tactics. We had our CEO in the studio talking about banking with the soul and a credit union difference.
We also talked about things like budgeting and opening your first kid’s accounts and being resilient for the holidays. And all of this really is in the spirit of helping with your financial wellness. And here at Patelco, we talk a ton about financial health and financial wellness. And today we’re going to talk [00:01:00] about really what that even means.
It’s 2024. And we promise you there’s not going to be any false hopes of new year, new me, but we do want to provide a positive and realistic approach to 2024 and meeting your financial goals. And a great way to do that. to talk about financial health and get you to think about what that means to you.
And luckily for all of us, Jennifer Mink is here with us to help us do that. Hi, Jen. Welcome back to the studio. Hello, Michelle. It’s good to be back. Happy New Year, everybody. Happy New Year. And okay, so what’s the appropriate time to say Happy New Year? Is it like a time range, like a month’s time, or is it the first time you see somebody in the New Year?
Like at what point do we stop saying Happy New Year? I feel like halfway through January is probably a good stopping point. But typically I say it if I haven’t seen somebody, so. It’s a good rule. Okay, but not past February. Right. Okay. So to start, and this conversation about financial health. If you [00:02:00] were to rate your financial health, your own personal, on a scale of financially struggling to financially thriving after having taken your family of six to Disneyland recently, what would you rate it, Jen?
Oh, boy, Michelle. What a loaded question. Well, I will have to say that I feel like I am financially thriving and that may surprise some people, but I’ll kind of explain to you why. And I would say probably. Four years ago, I would say that I would be financially struggling after going to Disneyland.
We all know the prices of the tickets, the airfare, all of the little souvenirs, the food, everything that those little ones need becomes quite the expense and, you end up paying three or four car payments while you’re at Disneyland. But about three years ago, my husband and I sat down to actually have a conversation about financial health.
And I’ve been at Patelco for it’ll be 29 years in February and believe it or [00:03:00] not, I still struggled with financial health, right? I am a spender. My husband is a saver. And we’ve been married for about 16 years and we needed to align on how we were going to manage this. So I think the conversation on financial health was actually triggered after about 10 Amazon packages ended up on our porch one day.
And in my defense. Most of them that were in the necessities, but, some were also impulse purchases. So, as a family of six with kids getting old enough to remember and enjoy vacations, we really honed in on how we could take vacations without getting into an enormous amount of debt. We’d done that, the whole time we had had kids.
Our oldest is 12. and we would go on vacations and we would charge it up. we decided we needed to set a savings plan both up for traveling and emergency, savings. And for the first few years of this plan, we didn’t travel at all. We stayed at home. We did staycations. We worked on the house. did things around [00:04:00] town, things, you know, that didn’t cost money.
But on the third year, after we had been saving, we were able to take our four kids to Ohlone in Hawaii this last February. And then this last Christmas, we took them to Disneyland, as you mentioned. And both vacations, I can proudly say, incurred no debt, and they were fully paid in cash. Nice. So, during this three year period, we were able to triple our emergency savings as well and now have better peace of mind that we can navigate through life’s financial challenges, which makes me super happy.
And as the Director of Member Experience and Financial Health, I feel like I need to have that, that down and solid, right? So, , in case you’re wondering after hearing this story, I have morphed into more of a saver throughout this process and I really think that sitting down and creating a budget and sticking to it, that’s the key word is sticking to it, has really helped me and my financial mindset over the last three years.
And Veronica Dangerfield, who’s also been, , on this podcast and [00:05:00] is our financial educator for Patelco, once said something that stuck to me and is, what you focus on is what you put your energy into. And I really did that for the last three years. Yep. Well, first of all, congratulations for surviving two Disney, not one, but two Disney trips, without incurring any debt.
But let’s talk about. Two things that, really resonated there. It’s planning and saving and let’s talk about the definition of financial health a little bit more. So credit unions work closely with the National Financial Health Network and they do tons of and studies around understanding financial health and they talk about it in this way.
Financial health comes about when your daily systems help you build resilience and pursue opportunities. They believe that financial health is the best indicator of a person’s ability to thrive financially from weathering shocks to achieving their goals. Further, financial health is a composite measurement of an individual’s financial life.
So unlike narrow metrics like credit [00:06:00] scores and health assessments, whether people are spending, saving, borrowing, and planning in ways that will enable them to be resilient and pursue opportunities. So there’s four main categories that they mention. And their spend, save, borrow, and plan are what they consider the main components of financial health.
And our team, develops financial education curriculum for a number of audiences. And those four principles really do cover all the important things related to financial stability. I think what it boils down to is understanding where your money is coming and going. And the B word budgeting that you mentioned, , you actively save and have goals, so that’s something that’s intentional for you and your spouse.
You’ve maximized borrowing, meaning you’re taking advantage of the best rates possible, and you have sufficient insurance to weather a financial storm. So the emergency savings that you’re talking about. So with all of those four components, you should feel more in [00:07:00] control and less stressed or healthy as a result.
I want to add that financial health doesn’t necessarily mean you have a ton of money, but that the money that you do have is working comfortably for you. You’re a lifestyle and your goals and it sounds like, you know, you’ve had that conversation about what your goals are. You plan what you’re going to do and then you take action, based on those goals.
So we’re in the business of helping our members achieve financial health or try to achieve financial health. And Jen, you’re close to a lot of that work. What does that mean for Patelco and the way we serve our membership? Yeah. And Michelle, something I want to mention to, to everybody listening to this podcast that the financial health can really vary from person to person, right?
It’s deeply influenced by somebody’s personal goals or even their values. For example, someone who loves to experience adventures and traveling, may prioritize savings for these types of activities, kind of like we did, right? Others may value financial security and work on building their [00:08:00] savings and retirement over time.
And that was another thing that was really important to us, especially with four young kids. And then others may really want to get out of debt and therefore they sacrifice saving money and traveling to meet that goal. And that was actually another part of our three year plan as well, is that we got out of debt except for a car and a house payment.
So it’s really been so freeing to have no credit card debt at all. But, you know, you asked, what does that mean for Patelco in the way we serve our membership? And Patelco is very focused on financial wellness and financial health. We have a financial wellness email newsletter that goes out every month.
We send, updates through email that are, you know, really targeted at keeping the financial health of our members safe, fraud emails, scam alerts, things like that. We have financial wellness on patelco. org. Training. training happens with our team, how can our team talk to a member and really uncover what it is that they need [00:09:00] to move up those building blocks of financial freedom?
And that’s something that we really focus on here at Patelco and something that makes me really proud.
So I mentioned we do develop curriculum for some of our audiences and we teach classes all the time. But I’m a Patelco member too and I get those financial wellness email and they’re chock full of great information. There’s upcoming webinars, of course our podcast, but all kinds of great tips to help with financial wellness.
So if you’re a member and you do receive that email, take a look at it. It’s really intended to not be any kind of sales tool at all, but really genuinely just trying to. Give our members, financial, health and wellness tips. So we said, we’re not going to say new year, new me today, like we always do.
Instead, let’s say, and I’m going to steal this from Veronica Dangerfield, the, our financial educator that you mentioned. She runs a program called Get Ready, Be Ready, Stay Ready, and I love that name so much. It’s so good. The difference for me this year will be, [00:10:00] to stay ready, not just to stop or get started.
So in the spirit of getting ready, these are my financial tips for optimum financial health. And we talked about those four categories. It’s the spend, save, borrow, and plan. So in the spend category, do you have a budget? If not, Get one started. And if you don’t know where to get started, those financial wellness emails that we talked about or our website is a great place to do that.
In the save category, do you have an emergency fund set up like Jen and her spouse started? Again, if you’re not sure where to get started. Our website, patelco. org, is a great place to find more information. In the borrow category, take a deeper look into your credit card debt. Do you know the rates on all your credit accounts and loans?
If not, just make a simple list on paper and try and prioritize the payoff. Our certified financial specialists are great folks to meet with on a complimentary [00:11:00] basis to talk about, prioritizing that payoff list if you do need help. Then the last category, the plan category, if you don’t have a short, mid, or long term goal, think about it.
Put it down on paper. Jen talked about, you know, her vacation goals. Maybe that was a one year goal. It might be a five year goal, , for some folks. But really writing your goals down on paper, thinking about a timeline, and then applying, , specifics to it is a great way to get planning. So, Jen, give us your top Patelco resources to help with learning about any of those financial health topics.
Absolutely. So, I think number one is our webinars. Our webinars are so robust and informational. I attend almost every single webinar that we have, during the year and I, I even being in a credit union industry for 29 years with Patelco, learn something new every time I log in. So, even if you think you know it all, and you’re, you know, you’re at that [00:12:00] achieving financial freedom, state in your, your life.
, check them out. You might find something that you didn’t know. We have a financial resource center at patelco. org, which is full of information. We have different resources such as Bonsai and Balance. They can help you budget. They can help you save, , set up long term and short term goals. We have a new money market account that is absolutely amazing.
It is not an investment account. It is a high yield savings and the rate goes higher with the more money that you save. And so that will really help to build that emergency savings account. And then financial insights, something that we recently released, , on patelco. org through our online banking. You can allocate, Different charges and different transfers within your account to different categories.
And then you can really see at the end of the month where that money’s going to and where you may need to to make some adjustments. And I just wanna [00:13:00] mention too, that, , internally here at Patelco, we have these things called building blocks. And it’s the road to financial freedom and something that we think about when we’re helping our members because we really do want to meet our members where they’re at.
So, at the bottom of the building blocks is managing effectively, so how do we help our members to manage their day to day finances simply, comfortably, and securely? And so that might be someone just starting out. You’re just moving out of the house or maybe you’re, you know, just getting out of high school or whatever that may be.
We want to teach you how to manage effectively, through the beginning of your financial freedom road. And then being resilient, we want to make sure that our members are resilient to life’s ups and downs. And this is by guiding all of our members, everybody listening to this podcast, to save diligently and borrow responsibly.
And that is huge, saving and borrowing responsibly, because there are some not great loans out there, and we want to make sure [00:14:00] that when you do take out a loan, that it is going to help you on your road to financial freedom. And then seizing opportunities. So strengthen strengthening your financial future.
Inspiring you to plan purposefully, and then the last the last block, is achieving financial freedom, and I think that’s where we are all heading and where we want to help you to get, and that is what Patelco is here to do. And please use our resources, talk to our team members.
They are trained to help you, and they are ready and willing to get you on that road and this is why we love having you in the studio so much, Jim, because as much as I think I’ve got this financial health thing down and I’m ready to start this year off on a good start, I’m getting even more great tips and inspiration from you.
So we’re saying, No new year, new me. Let’s say get ready, be ready and stay ready. Be intentional about your financial goals. Sit down and formulate a plan with your loved ones and talk about what financial health means to you. And if you [00:15:00] need help along the way, Patelco’s right here with a lot of great resources, to support you.
So Jen, you’re our very first guest of 2024. I’m probably going to ask you back to the studio to talk more about this subject because we can never really truly talk enough about it, right? Agree. Would you say that we’re in the best way, the best financial health nerds, and we could talk about this all day?
Oh, totally. I geek out on it all the time. Books, webinars, podcasts, you name it. I listen to everything financial related, so I love it all. I also collaborate with other credit unions who I think do a really good job at also educating their members on financial health. So I’m constantly a sponge going around soaking up knowledge that I can help our members with It’s so amazing and we appreciate your expertise so much. So maybe we’ll be back here mid year to check in on our financial health goals. That sounds good. And then maybe a last time at the end of the year. Well, we wish everyone out there a happy new year and happy financial health planning. [00:16:00] That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michelle Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union. And today we’re chatting getting young people set up for financial independence.
And I’ve got my mom hat on with fellow mom and amazing colleague, Kelly Young, who is one of the retail. Branch performance managers here at Patelco. Hey, Kelly. Welcome to the studio. Thanks for having me. This place is super cute. Glad to be here So nice, right? Yeah, so I wasn’t gonna bring up your football team That is from Philly, but you’re wearing a green jacket today, so I couldn’t oh, no I mean, I can’t believe you’re doing that.
So I said that was off the rules, you know, you’re not allowed to do that But yes, it was not the best game So we’re talking you and I talk a lot about our kids and getting them set up Or figuring out what the [00:01:00] right time is to transition from the youth account to really letting the reins go and allowing your child to access funds and use a debit card.
And that’s what we’re talking about today. And there’s no right or wrong answer, um, but I’m excited to talk it through with you, Kelly, because we’ve both got kids that are at that transition age. And Kelly’s a little bit ahead of me. She’s got an 18 year old and a 12 year old, so hoping she can impart her experience on us today.
So We’ve chatted before and we think we’re doing our best to help teach our kids and we’re lucky that we’re exposed to financial know how all the time, but not everybody is, right? It’s top of mind for us, but what would you say about the importance of learning about finances early on? Um, it’s really, really important.
Myself was never taught that by my parents. Uh, I never really saw saving strategies from them. So, when I would get my birthday money or the piggy bank money, I’d want to go out and spend it right away and buy, like, the cool teen magazine that [00:02:00] was out, the candy. Whatever I needed at the exact moment, not thinking about future needs or not thinking about that cool bigger thing I’d want, like the new boom box that was coming out when we were little.
So, I’d immediately always spend it. I wanted to make sure with my kids that I set them up differently and that I taught them to save. So every time that they got a gift, or when we finally did roll their piggy bank, that they put part of it in the bank. And they were able to spend some of it, because you still want to have fun, but then it taught them the value of money more that way.
So, when those purchases did come that they wanted, they had the money in the bank. Also, I wanted them to be excited about banking, because I didn’t know what banking was at all. So, we started at eight years old, their first savings account. We rolled their little piggy bank, took their piggy bank apart, rolled all the money, brought it in, and I made it a really exciting thing for them.
So then, each time they did get money, they were really excited to go in and make that first deposit. I think the importance of doing that then, it’s set up a habit, and those habits then stay with them through the future. So every time then, when they [00:03:00] did get money, they’re like, oh yeah, gotta go to the bank, mom, gotta put some of it in.
Really, really important, I think, to start them at a young age. Yeah, and so much nostalgia there. I think we’re dating ourself a little bit. I did. I said boombox. I dated. Teen magazine, rolling coins, but those are memories. I totally agree. So for me, my parents didn’t really help us understand the why behind saying yes or no to things.
And you know how kids are, right? I’m sure your kids are the same. You know, it’s, they ask for things because, you know, they want them. But, Growing up, we didn’t really get a sense of the value of things or budgeting, so, like, I might have asked for a new piece of sports equipment, like a glove or a softball bat or something, and the answer was either yes or no.
There was no real deeper understanding, maybe, You know, that’s something we can invest in when you get more serious, or if you play another year, or that’s a really expensive item. Is that something you can borrow for now, and maybe you can work towards earning later? Is that something we can buy gently used [00:04:00] at a lower price, or do those things ever go on sale?
So, my point is that there was never any dialogue around needs and wants, which you and I know is the basis for budgeting and spending. Absolutely. So, I’ve got a 9 year old and a 12 year old, and they’re at that transition age right now where their wish lists are getting more and more expensive by the year, right?
You know what I’m talking about. Oh, yes. Earpods and iPhones and expensive tennis shoes. My son is Jordan’s. Jordan’s shoes. Yes. Trendy clothing brands. Skin care products. Yes. I don’t know what’s happening. That’s the teenage daughter that I have. But, before I want to hand them a debit card and start their spending, spending their own money, I just want to make sure that they’re considering Their needs, their wants, our budget and constraints, alternatives, all of that stuff.
So, for you and your oldest one, when did you determine it was time, or that they were ready to make these decisions on their own and manage their own account? So again, [00:05:00] that’s never a right or wrong answer with that one, and it’s really hard as a parent. Because there’s lots of scary things. But, with my son When we decided, after the savings account, to get him a checking, he was a freshman in high school.
The reason we decided to get his first checking account is, of course, as a freshman, you get your first part time job. So we knew, with him getting a job, that he would need a way to be able to access the money I wanted to make sure that it was easy accessible for him too, so we really talked about the direct deposit right away.
So that way he didn’t have to come in and I didn’t have to drive him to the bank because he didn’t have a car yet. So we wanted to make it very easy. As far as him doing it on his own, It was a little scary because he actually wanted to do it on his own. I asked to be on his account and he said, Mom, I got this.
You’ve taught me a lot of stuff. I have my mobile. I’ll show you my balances. It’s gonna be okay. So that was really hard for me to let go and allow him to do that. But I think, like we were talking about, because I had those conversations with him about saving and how to do things ahead of time, I felt a little more confident, letting him go ahead and have his first checking [00:06:00] account without me being on it.
Yeah, outside of that, what else were you worried about? Probably overdrawing. So I had a bad experience when I was younger. I went to a bank, not a credit union. They didn’t really care. You were allowed to overdraw your accounts there. So I went crazy with my debit card. I probably spent more than I really needed to as a teenager.
And again, because my parents never taught and had that conversation. So I was really worried about him maybe doing the same mistake. Luckily, Patelco has guardrails you can put in place, though, so that the teen accounts don’t overdraw themselves. So that gave me a little bit of peace of mind knowing he wasn’t going to go crazy with his debit card.
I also wanted to make sure that he was still saving. I was going to be worried about that. That if he had a checking and the direct deposit went in there, that he was going to go buy those Jordans. Because even though you have talks with them about the needs and wants, they’re still teenagers and want those things.
So, Luckily, we were able to set up, though, that when his direct deposit went in, he had an automatic portion of it going to his savings. So, it made me feel a little better, but definitely I think those were two of my biggest fears. Yeah, and he [00:07:00] sounds pretty responsible for him to come to you and say, like, I’m ready, I got this, I’m going to show you what my balances are.
I think it says a lot about him,, and his own personality, and I do think the personality and their level of responsibility really kind of depends on when you’re going to let, You know, the rains go, so my 12 year old, son is a saver. He hates to spend. Ooh, that’s good. He’s, he will think about things five times before he spends the money, because he just hates to spend it.
He’s a hoarder. I have a feeling he’s going to be super on top of monitoring and checking his balances. My 9 year old daughter, however, she’s the polar opposite. You know, the minute it comes in, it’s gone the next. She’s more frivolous with her money, and she’s also not the kid who
she’s also the kid that’s losing her library book. She’s not on top of her grades, right? So, for her, I’m probably going to wait a little bit longer to get her started. But, again, just personality. You know what? So, my son actually was that. He would lose things in his room. Still [00:08:00] sometimes loses his debit card.
Luckily, we can lock that on the online banking. So I kind of thought that too, but you’d be surprised if you teach them from a young age, they can surprise you. Totally understand personalities. Because my daughter, just like your son, the saver though. She doesn’t want to spend anything. Yeah. My son’s excited though.
We have a milestone set for his 13th birthday. Oh, exciting. He knows that that’s, you know, the, the, the marker for when he can open his own account and get his own debit card and all that. So there’s, you know, something to look forward to and there’s conversation we can have leading up to that. So there’s some excitement and build up toward that, so he knows October 3rd.
Yeah, and it’s fun when you build the excitement, because then that makes him want to learn more about finances, I think. Well, and be good about it when the time comes, right? So, almost he views it as a privilege. Yeah. What about your 18 year old? What is the value about how he banks? What are the things that he really needs with an account based on his values?
Of course, nowadays with kids, everything is [00:09:00] convenience and ease of use. Everything’s at their fingertips. So, for him, that was really, really important. I think because I started him with direct deposit, at a young age, he didn’t have to worry about his paycheck going into his account, or him driving anywhere, so that was great for him.
He rarely has to go into a branch because he does everything through his mobile app. Sometimes he’ll get one off checks from like aunties or uncles because some people still mail checks. And he uses the mobile app deposit. So he loves that because then he doesn’t have to drive anywhere. He just goes to the kitchen table, takes a picture of it.
So he loves that ease of use. The other thing he really, really likes is He doesn’t withdraw cash a lot, but sometimes he wants to have cash in his pocket, and with Patelco, you can go to any 7 Eleven and withdraw cash for free. Not a lot of people know that. But he’s like, Mom, 7 Eleven’s on every corner. I can get money whenever I want it.
So again, very easy, for him. And that’s what he really looks for with his banking. Yep. I totally agree on the digital features. That’s how this next generation is going to bank. We’ve been in a couple [00:10:00] meetings this week talking about, the importance of brick and mortar. So a physical branch, especially when it comes to young people and applying for their first loan or their first credit card.
So while they may not think they’re going to need to go into a branch and talk to someone, just that peace of mind to know, hey, when it’s something important, Like getting your first loan or like if fraud occurs and I really need to talk to somebody in person, knowing that that’s there as an option, is really critical too because my son thinks he’s just going to have PayPal and he’s just going to have,, Venmo and that’s just going to be it.
But they really need to understand that no, there’s so much more value banking with a full service financial institution. So getting them to understand those things, is really important that we talk. So, Patelco’s student checking account that we keep referencing here has the ability to integrate with Apple Wallet, right?
Yes, that is the new cool thing that everybody uses. I was a little late to the train, but my son was the one who told me that I had to do it. So, I was like, oh, okay.[00:11:00] It absolutely has the ability to do that, makes it a lot easier for them. The kids nowadays don’t like to bring their wallets a lot of places.
They just do the tap tap. So absolutely you can do that with our check, the teen checking account. What other kind of features with the account are there? So you can open it with us at, starting at age 13, right? Correct. Okay. And then that goes until 17 and then they can transition to a regular free checking?
Yes. Okay. Okay. And then with the student account, what? How is that different from a regular free check in account, other than the age range of 13 to 17? They still get a debit card? They’ll still get a debit card, so it works almost just the same. It just allows them, there are lower limits. Like I said, there’s some guardrails in place, so they don’t go buck wild with spending or overdrawing.
So that’s something that’s a little different, why they’re still learning about finances. But it still comes with all the great features. Like the mobile banking, you can set up alerts, so if they want to know what their spending habits are. I set that up for my son, and he loves it. Sometimes he forgets,, what [00:12:00] he spent, so it’ll get alerts for certain dollar amounts.
Like every time he has spends more than 50, he has an alert for himself. Gets 50 for him as a big purchase, so he wants to make sure. That also helps protect him from fraud, so if his card was ever compromised, he would know right away. Okay, and then in terms of oversight as a parent, what are the options with the student account?
So, can you be joint on it? Can you not be if they’re ready? , absolutely. You have the option of being joint or not being joint. And so, maybe at 13 till they’re ready, till like 16, maybe with your son, you might want to be joint. And then maybe at 16, he’s like, Hey mom, I’m ready. Training wheels are off.
Let me be by myself. You can remove the parent at that time. So it gives you the flexibility of whatever you feel comfortable with or whatever you decide with your child that works best. Okay. I’m getting ready. You’re building me up. Oh no. You can do it. Take the training wheels off. And I feel like with every episode we record in this studio, fraud always integrates with any subject.
It’s so prevalent out there. It’s, it’s happening all the time and it’s. [00:13:00] Crazy, the fraud that is being seen out there. What are you talking with your kids about, fraud and scams? Yeah, right now I’m trying to teach my kid that easy money is not good money. So there’s a lot of frauds going on with the, the teens where they’re telling them, Hey, if you post this on Instagram, I’ll give you 500 or 1, 000.
To them, that’s a lot of money. But what I need from you is your online banking information so I can go in and make the deposit. And that is a huge red flag, I always tell my son, you never, never compromise your login information or your passwords with anyone, no matter the amount of money they’re giving you.
It is a fraud. It is a scam., the other thing that’s really big right now, too, is the teen saying that they’re going to get a job online. And if you sign up with us, we’re going to send you a check, but we need you to send a portion of that back to us for training or for supplies. Well, that check ends up being a bad check.
And then that teen ends up sending the money back. And now they’re In the loop for the money they sent back, or worse, if they actually spend the remainder of the check, when that check comes back as fraud, their account can be [00:14:00] overdrawn up to 2, 000, I’ve seen in some examples. So, that’s a huge one. Never accept checks from people you don’t know.
And don’t ever share your PIN number. I’ve seen a lot of teens, oh just give me your card, I’m gonna deposit this check in. So, I really tried to instill in my son too, that is not information you ever, ever share with anyone. Yeah, the sending money and the job thing. It blows my mind because you think about it and you’re like, I would never do that.
But then you think about the vulnerability of a young person and they’re trying to get a job and they believe this is the way. Or they want those new Jordans or those cool things out there so they fall for the scam thinking that, hey, I have the money now, I can go do it. So. So it’s no sharing passwords or PIN ever.
Ever., no sending money. No sending money back to anybody ever. It’s an empty promise. It’s an empty promise. And then you gotta be careful with those text messages. Or just any kind of messages in general, right? If it’s an unrecognizable address, prompting you to do something is probably not the job.
Yep, that’s right. If they ever prompt you to put in your personal information on any of those texts. It’s, it’s [00:15:00] fraud usually. Okay. I would say always. Not even usually. Okay. So if our listeners have more questions out there, we’ve got two great resources for you. First of all, the student checking that we’re talking about can be found on patelco.
org. Slash student. So that’s patelco.org/student. To learn more about our Patelco student checking account, we also have some great information related to fraud and protecting yourself against fraud on our fraud resource center, all patelco.org. And Kelly, we’re gonna have to have you back in studio. Oh, I loved it.
That was so much fun. I so enjoyed this. I would love to come back and chat with you again. But also, you’re the best person to pull out all sorts of great information out. So if I need to learn about something else, hey, come see me. Yeah, absolutely. Well, that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and today we’re chatting the return of student loan payments and the challenges the return the payments have had on the government and loan servicers, but also how much strain the return of payments are having on Americans budgets.
And in the studio, we’re welcoming two veterans to the show today to unpack all of this. We’ve got Andrew Farrell, Patelco’s Community Engagement Specialist, and Kristi Longoria, Patelco’s Financial Health Manager. Great to have you here, you guys. Thank you, Michele. It’s great to be here. Thanks, Michele.
So, after more than three years of a pandemic pause on student loan payments, tens of millions of Americans will be required to make a payment on their federal student loans, and this is as of October. We’ll start with you, Kristi. As our financial health [00:01:00] manager and having worked in credit unions, helping students and families understand student loan options and the financial aid process, how did we get here?
Um, what are you seeing? Yeah, you know, it’s been a really long road the past couple of years when it comes to changes, to systems that, you know, are kind of notoriously, black and white, right? When it comes to student loan payments, you pay it, you didn’t pay it, it impacts your credit, it doesn’t impact your credit.
There’s so much that goes into understanding what it means to make a payment to a loan. And when we think about how complicated loans are, right? From the financial institution perspective, we as credit union employees understand that lending money is a process., it takes a lot of judgment. There’s documents, there’s papers.
And one of the things that I think that has really shined through over the past couple of years is a [00:02:00] lack of understanding when it comes to what our students are being asked to do. What their expectation is when it comes to paying a loan back, what it means to borrow, and how old they are when they’re being asked to do these things.
And this narrative that keeps popping up on every sort of media, social media, in the news, is a lack of empathy, a lack of understanding for what our students are going through. And I think like we can talk all day long about, you know, what a Responsible borrower looks like, but do they look 17? Do they look 18?
Should they know inherently what that responsibility looks like? And so much lack of empathy for the fact that our students, who were legitimately kids at that time borrowing these funds, We’re holding them [00:03:00] responsible for now as adults decisions that they made when they were, you know, 17 years old and literally, 17 years old, I’m sitting in my senior, you know, college readiness class and I’m filling out these applications and I don’t really, just click here and yes, and I agree to pay all of these things back.
And then the course of, you know, going to college starts, and then tuition increases, and then, Oh, but I don’t have to worry about that because I’m going to start my payments after graduation and now I’ve got a snowball of debt and I don’t really understand what it means to have to pay it back. So over the, you know, the course of the past few years, these students have been dealing with so much more too on top of just their debt itself.
It’s the family dynamics and hardships that have come because of a pandemic. And I still am hearing and seeing a lot of these surface comments about They should have known better. They should have understood what they were doing. [00:04:00] Everybody else has to pay back what they borrow. But, at the same time, we’re not thinking about the lender.
What is the lender’s responsibility in lending to a population that doesn’t have income, legally restricted from actually making significant income as being students, right? No credit check, there’s no credit in existence because I’m a minor and all of these things. And it’s just shocking to me that we, as a society, can’t take a step back and say, look at what the system has imposed on these students, our expectation of them might actually be too high, and the role of the lender, and in this case that’s the federal government, in providing a loan to a student.
Who doesn’t know if they’re going to have the income to pay it back? That’s the whole purpose of why they’re going to school. So, you know, what we’re talking about, you know, what it is that we’re seeing, [00:05:00] it’s a broad question. We’re seeing a lack of empathy, but we’re also seeing change. We’re seeing a motivation to understand a system better, which can hopefully bring better processes and procedures in.
We’re seeing growth on behalf of our seniors, you know, those that are going to be going off to college, seem to be more aware now. of the implications of borrowing large sums of money, and they’re making, you know, better decisions. But there’s just a lot. Yeah. It’s a lot there. Andrew’s over here, shaking his head.
Oh, yeah. I think in, in, in sympathy here, and frankly, maybe just a little triggered also. But, Andrew, you help, write our curriculum that we’re teaching to our high school students here at Patelco, but you also yourself have, your own student loans. Before we get to that, the average student loan payment is 503 according to the education initiative.
In addition to having to fit the
What has been your personal experience? What has been the [00:06:00] processes that you’ve had to deal with going back with the return of student loan payments? Michele, it has been a nightmare. It has been horrible. I have hated every second of it. So I do have student loans myself. I’ve got about 30k totaled.
Between my federal loans and my private loans, so it’s not a crippling amount, but admittedly I did spend the entirety of the loan deferment period just pretending like my student loans didn’t exist, which I think that was a case for a lot of borrowers that are out there. And with there also being talks of, you know, some type of federal loan forgiveness maybe happening during that time, I was just riding that wave of hope and, and didn’t want to give.
The United States Office of Federal Student Aid, a dollar of my money, unnecessarily. But now unfortunately, you know, here we are. And for me, the process of just trying to figure out what my loans were, where they were, what my balances were, was quite taxing. So I have three loans. I have a private loan and two federal loans.
One is subsidized and one is unsubsidized. I was always making payments on my private loan because I [00:07:00] knew that one was not going to go anywhere. But prior to deferment, my two federal loans were with different loan servicers. However, when I was notified that my payments were going to resume, I got an email that gave me 1 amount and one set date from one loan servicer that I did not recognize.
So my first instinct was to just call the Office of Federal Aid to ask my questions like is this my total amount, could I adjust my due date, what type of repayment plan am I in. And after sitting on hold for three hours, three full, not an exaggeration, three full hours, someone answered and quickly told me that I had to call the actual loan servicer and they could not help me.
Yeah. So I was frustrated, reached out to Nelnet, waited another almost two hours before I ultimately had to just hang up because I had, you know, stuff to do. Went on their website, tried to log in to both studentaid. gov and Nelnet’s website and that was its own. Yeah. Adventure in and of itself. I didn’t know my passwords.
There was like a pin involved that I didn’t remember [00:08:00] setting. But once I got in, I attempted to review my overall plan information myself, but I still had a lot of questions. There are also things you just can’t do online, like I wanted to request a change in my due date, but for that you have to speak to someone, so it kind of sets you up not for the most success in that regard.
Wash that up to a dead end and I figure right now I’m just going to pay this amount as I know it will at least keep me current. And then hopefully in a few months once this return to student loan mania dies down a little bit, I can, I can try calling again. I will say though that enrolling in AutoPay can be done online, and I would definitely recommend that to all borrowers if you’re able to, since any federal student loan enrolled in AutoPay will give you a quarter percent rate reduction, which can be huge when you’re trying to reintegrate a student loan payment back into your budget.
A struggle that I have fitting this into my current budget is that the default due date they gave me is the first of the month. And I already have like four or five bills coming out that day, so having another large one being added, is not the best, you know, due date for [00:09:00] me. So there are some supports available.
Is changing your due date one of them? Changing your due date is something you can do. You have to call somebody, so if you have the patience of a saint, feel free to call and wait three hours and get that done with your loan servicer, though. Not with studentaid. gov. I learned that lesson the hard way. But, you know, enrolling in AutoPay will give you a quarter percent rate discount.
You can also look into what kind of repayment plan you’re in, if you change to like a graduated or an income driven based repayment plan, you could probably save a little bit of money that way. And I would also say just using this reintegration of this payment back into your budget could just be a good opportunity to reassess your budget as a whole, see if there’s some cuts that can be made to where you can fit this in a little bit more organically.
I feel like. A lot of times budgets get pretty set in stone, and they don’t become as flexible as they need to be. So just taking this as a, as a moment to reassess everything, could be better for just a holistic viewpoint of your financial health as well. So let’s talk more about additional resources and [00:10:00] other repayment plans, and there’s a SAVE program that we’ll talk about here in a second, but for borrowers, there won’t be any borrowers reported to the credit bureaus for delinquencies until October of 2024.
Interest on loans will continue to accrue during that time, however, right? But there’s also temporary forbearance option that postpones payments but drives up interest costs. Most appealing and available to most is an income driven repayment program. This is safe. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yes, so the safe program is an income driven or payment program It means your monthly payment is based on your income and your family size. There are a lot of caveats and specifics with the plan. But a general rule is that any individual earning less than around 32, 000 a year will have a 0 monthly payments.
And that income number goes up depending on your family size. So for example, a family of four earning less than around 67, 000 also has zero dollar monthly payments. And [00:11:00] that is not a deferment or a forbearance. That is your actual monthly payment just set to zero dollars. And even if you don’t meet that exact requirement, let’s say you, you make a little bit more, you’ll still likely have much lower monthly payments compared to any other income driven plan, since your payments are based on a smaller portion of your adjusted gross income.
And another cool thing about SAVE is that your loan balance will never grow due to unpaid interest. So typically when you pay a loan, your monthly payment covers interest first and anything left over will then go to principal. On the SAVE plan, however, you may have a super low monthly payment that doesn’t even cover your total interest, but as long as you actually make that minimum monthly payment, the government covers the rest of the unpaid interest for that month.
Even if your monthly payment is actually at $0, government will subsidize your interest accrual entirely every month. , so your principal balance may not go down, but at least it won’t keep getting larger and larger due to interest on the loan compounding. Okay, great. Where can we find out more information about the [00:12:00] save program?
I just went to federal aid.gov. I’m sorry, student aid.gov. And if you just type in save in the search bar, it brings up the chart for what you’re. The dollar amount can be based on your family size and your income,, and you actually can apply for this online as well. So you don’t have to wait on hold forever.
This can be done online. Okay, perfect. So that is any kind of payment adjustment support that you might need. But Kristi, let’s talk about student loan forgiveness, for a second. Last year you helped employees of our partner, employees directly, achieve over 150, 000 in student loan forgiveness, which was Incredible.
Right. So you’re, you’re our go-to you’re our guru and helping them navigate through the public, public service loan forgiveness program. This summer, we had some big news related to the forgiveness programs, right. The Biden administration continues to move forward with alternative federal student loan forgiveness plans after being struck down by the Supreme Court this summer, but they’ve unveiled a new proposal.
And there’s a lot of new news coming out, and it feels like it’s [00:13:00] coming out daily. What’s your recommendation for borrowers to keep up with all the news and all the changes? Yeah, I think first and foremost, understand, and this is such a, an easy thing to say, not an easy thing to implement. It’s to make sure that you are asking questions to the right folks, and also knowing when you might feel Like your student loan payment is too much, if you feel like it is burdening you beyond your ability to provide for your basic care needs and all of those things, that in itself is a question.
You shouldn’t feel like that as a result of your federal student loans. And so if you are, it means connecting with whatever resources you can find available to you to ask, what can I do about my student loan payments? One of the biggest issues that we’re seeing right now too is since the restart of, paying back, folks saying that their, monthly amount that’s due is [00:14:00] too high, or it’s wrong, or I didn’t, I wasn’t expecting to see it this way.
You can request something called administrative forbearance, and it’s something that will allow the, servicers. To get it together, because right now it’s, it’s overwhelming for everybody, for the buyers, or you know, for those who are paying, for those that are trying to collect the payment, like it’s just kind of an all around mess right now, everybody’s kind of swimming in the, with the sharks.
The difference though is when you are the one who’s on the hook for those funds. What the impact to you is a lot greater than my empathy is gonna be for a large, you know, federal loan servicer. Right? But that is gonna be crucial for many folks that are on safe plans, that have, refinanced and consolidated and all of these things that have been happening over the past couple years.
And with this restart, things not going as planned. Making sure that you are taking advantage of every opportunity that you can to. Know what it is your payment should be and pay that amount. When it comes to [00:15:00] Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. Notoriously really complicated program that has a lot of ifs, right?
You can have your loan forgiven if you meet this criteria, and then the criteria is really not that clear, and then, oh, that applied in the past, and now it doesn’t anymore. So the, really, your best resource is going to be, with studentaid. gov, going on and seeing what programs are current in place, when did they,
You know, when did you have to consolidate by, when did you have to do X, Y, and Z by, and making sure that if at any point you are unable to make that payment, the payment is impacting your quality of life. If it is, you know, so burdensome that, you know, you’re having to resort to utilizing public benefits, make sure you ask somebody.
Somebody. Over lunch, we were talking about how Andrew’s enrolled in the SAVE program. He went through that process, but he’s also trying to work toward forgiveness through PSLF. Can you talk [00:16:00] about whether or not you can be in those two programs simultaneously, how that works, and then a little bit about how the student loan pause affected PSLF?
Yeah, so PSLF is its own program that’s separate from the income based, repayment programs. And it’s not necessarily a one or the other. The repayment programs are really strict to what is your income, what can you afford to pay. You have to do a certification every year that shows what your income is to make sure that, you know, it’s an appropriate balance between what your income is and what your payment is, and that can fluctuate over the course of your repayment.
But PSLF is more about the institution that you are working for over the course of, really, your career. PSLF is geared towards those who are working for not for profit institutions, non profit institutions. Generally, you’ll hear them referred to as 501c3s. But it’s also not as easy as just working for a non [00:17:00] profit.
There’s all kinds of ways that you can count your years. You have to have 120 payments over, you know, the course of, you know, 10 years, but it doesn’t have to be all in a row. It could be, you know, maybe you started working at a non profit, and then you moved to a corporate institution, and then you went back to non profit.
As long as over those periods of time, you can get a certification that says that you worked there, and that you qualify. Then add up all of those years over that time, and if you’ve made your 120 payments, then you can submit, for forgiveness. And I think one of the huge benefits of the student loan pause, too, was that those months When you were not making payments, over the pause, count towards, your PSLF payments.
And that’s not something that a lot of people know about. And so I would hate for somebody who maybe was on those last two years, and thinking, oh, okay, well at least I don’t have to make a payment, and now I’ve got two more years to make up for the pause. No, those, those non payments were your [00:18:00] payments, so they counted.
You just made Andrew’s day. Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought. Music to my ears. So, of course, when there’s confusion in the market, predators see opportunity, right? So, in addition to the new repayment plans, servicer switchers, long call wait times, just a lot of… , news and changes. There’s also rising student scam fraud.
So, what do you have, what advice do you have for borrowers just to stay vigilant through all the noise? Yeah, I think it’s just really understanding , that folks are opportunists. Right? And, and especially in this restart period and everyone’s trying to adjust their budgets and make room for what they didn’t have to pay before, that there’s going to be a lot of temptation to find a solution that doesn’t involve making high payments every single month that you will hear from scammers that can do away with your student loan if you, you know, provide them with your social security number and they’ll do all kinds of stuff to try to, to get your [00:19:00] information and it’s all rooted in the fact that they know how desperate some of our, , students are.
And it kind of goes back to that overall question of like, what it is that we’re seeing, you know, it’s a lot of mixture of fear and desperation and how am I going to survive makes you a target, unfortunately. And in order to really keep yourself protected, you know, Patelco has a,, fraud resource. If you’re getting text messages, especially if they’re saying like, this is a text from Patelco and, you know, we can help you with your student loans or something like that.
Make sure you’re utilizing that resource. To ask and make sure that you’re giving information to the right folks, and really, none of that should be by text. You know, if you’re getting text messages about your member number or account numbers or anything of that kind, it’s always best to make sure that you are calling the institution that is reportedly reaching out to you directly, or, asking, even a trusted friend, a professor.
someone on campus if you’re still in school, for support. So we’re closing out [00:20:00] 2024. There’s new legislation that’s being introduced. Next year’s an election year. So I have a feeling we’re going to come back to the studio maybe six months from now and have a completely different conversation that we did today.
But I think just for now, our message to members is stay vigilant with your information. Exercise some patience as you kind of sort through everything and reintroduce these things back into your life. Members and folks out there that have questions about student loans or payment plan options should call their services directly.
Find information at studentaid. gov. But Patoka might be able to help too if you’re struggling to fit this payment back into your budget. We do have certified financial services. specialists, that can help with your budget and help you cut costs. And with that, you can find more information at patelco.
org. Andrew and Kristi, so six months from now, we’ll come back. We’ll figure out what the landscape looks like at that point, but it was really great to have you both here. It was good to be here, Michele. Happy to be here. Thanks. This concludes today’s [00:21:00] episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and today we’re chatting the return of student loan payments and the challenges the return the payments have had on the government and loan servicers, but also how much strain the return of payments are having on Americans budgets.
And in the studio, we’re welcoming two veterans to the show today to unpack all of this. We’ve got Andrew Farrell, Patelco’s Community Engagement Specialist, and Kristi Longoria, Patelco’s Financial Health Manager. Great to have you here, you guys. Thank you, Michele. It’s great to be here. Thanks, Michele.
So, after more than three years of a pandemic pause on student loan payments, tens of millions of Americans will be required to make a payment on their federal student loans, and this is as of October. We’ll start with you, Kristi. As our financial health [00:01:00] manager and having worked in credit unions, helping students and families understand student loan options and the financial aid process, how did we get here?
Um, what are you seeing? Yeah, you know, it’s been a really long road the past couple of years when it comes to changes, to systems that, you know, are kind of notoriously, black and white, right? When it comes to student loan payments, you pay it, you didn’t pay it, it impacts your credit, it doesn’t impact your credit.
There’s so much that goes into understanding what it means to make a payment to a loan. And when we think about how complicated loans are, right? From the financial institution perspective, we as credit union employees understand that lending money is a process., it takes a lot of judgment. There’s documents, there’s papers.
And one of the things that I think that has really shined through over the past couple of years is a [00:02:00] lack of understanding when it comes to what our students are being asked to do. What their expectation is when it comes to paying a loan back, what it means to borrow, and how old they are when they’re being asked to do these things.
And this narrative that keeps popping up on every sort of media, social media, in the news, is a lack of empathy, a lack of understanding for what our students are going through. And I think like we can talk all day long about, you know, what a Responsible borrower looks like, but do they look 17? Do they look 18?
Should they know inherently what that responsibility looks like? And so much lack of empathy for the fact that our students, who were legitimately kids at that time borrowing these funds, We’re holding them [00:03:00] responsible for now as adults decisions that they made when they were, you know, 17 years old and literally, 17 years old, I’m sitting in my senior, you know, college readiness class and I’m filling out these applications and I don’t really, just click here and yes, and I agree to pay all of these things back.
And then the course of, you know, going to college starts, and then tuition increases, and then, Oh, but I don’t have to worry about that because I’m going to start my payments after graduation and now I’ve got a snowball of debt and I don’t really understand what it means to have to pay it back. So over the, you know, the course of the past few years, these students have been dealing with so much more too on top of just their debt itself.
It’s the family dynamics and hardships that have come because of a pandemic. And I still am hearing and seeing a lot of these surface comments about They should have known better. They should have understood what they were doing. [00:04:00] Everybody else has to pay back what they borrow. But, at the same time, we’re not thinking about the lender.
What is the lender’s responsibility in lending to a population that doesn’t have income, legally restricted from actually making significant income as being students, right? No credit check, there’s no credit in existence because I’m a minor and all of these things. And it’s just shocking to me that we, as a society, can’t take a step back and say, look at what the system has imposed on these students, our expectation of them might actually be too high, and the role of the lender, and in this case that’s the federal government, in providing a loan to a student.
Who doesn’t know if they’re going to have the income to pay it back? That’s the whole purpose of why they’re going to school. So, you know, what we’re talking about, you know, what it is that we’re seeing, [00:05:00] it’s a broad question. We’re seeing a lack of empathy, but we’re also seeing change. We’re seeing a motivation to understand a system better, which can hopefully bring better processes and procedures in.
We’re seeing growth on behalf of our seniors, you know, those that are going to be going off to college, seem to be more aware now. of the implications of borrowing large sums of money, and they’re making, you know, better decisions. But there’s just a lot. Yeah. It’s a lot there. Andrew’s over here, shaking his head.
Oh, yeah. I think in, in, in sympathy here, and frankly, maybe just a little triggered also. But, Andrew, you help, write our curriculum that we’re teaching to our high school students here at Patelco, but you also yourself have, your own student loans. Before we get to that, the average student loan payment is 503 according to the education initiative.
In addition to having to fit the
What has been your personal experience? What has been the [00:06:00] processes that you’ve had to deal with going back with the return of student loan payments? Michele, it has been a nightmare. It has been horrible. I have hated every second of it. So I do have student loans myself. I’ve got about 30k totaled.
Between my federal loans and my private loans, so it’s not a crippling amount, but admittedly I did spend the entirety of the loan deferment period just pretending like my student loans didn’t exist, which I think that was a case for a lot of borrowers that are out there. And with there also being talks of, you know, some type of federal loan forgiveness maybe happening during that time, I was just riding that wave of hope and, and didn’t want to give.
The United States Office of Federal Student Aid, a dollar of my money, unnecessarily. But now unfortunately, you know, here we are. And for me, the process of just trying to figure out what my loans were, where they were, what my balances were, was quite taxing. So I have three loans. I have a private loan and two federal loans.
One is subsidized and one is unsubsidized. I was always making payments on my private loan because I [00:07:00] knew that one was not going to go anywhere. But prior to deferment, my two federal loans were with different loan servicers. However, when I was notified that my payments were going to resume, I got an email that gave me 1 amount and one set date from one loan servicer that I did not recognize.
So my first instinct was to just call the Office of Federal Aid to ask my questions like is this my total amount, could I adjust my due date, what type of repayment plan am I in. And after sitting on hold for three hours, three full, not an exaggeration, three full hours, someone answered and quickly told me that I had to call the actual loan servicer and they could not help me.
Yeah. So I was frustrated, reached out to Nelnet, waited another almost two hours before I ultimately had to just hang up because I had, you know, stuff to do. Went on their website, tried to log in to both studentaid. gov and Nelnet’s website and that was its own. Yeah. Adventure in and of itself. I didn’t know my passwords.
There was like a pin involved that I didn’t remember [00:08:00] setting. But once I got in, I attempted to review my overall plan information myself, but I still had a lot of questions. There are also things you just can’t do online, like I wanted to request a change in my due date, but for that you have to speak to someone, so it kind of sets you up not for the most success in that regard.
Wash that up to a dead end and I figure right now I’m just going to pay this amount as I know it will at least keep me current. And then hopefully in a few months once this return to student loan mania dies down a little bit, I can, I can try calling again. I will say though that enrolling in AutoPay can be done online, and I would definitely recommend that to all borrowers if you’re able to, since any federal student loan enrolled in AutoPay will give you a quarter percent rate reduction, which can be huge when you’re trying to reintegrate a student loan payment back into your budget.
A struggle that I have fitting this into my current budget is that the default due date they gave me is the first of the month. And I already have like four or five bills coming out that day, so having another large one being added, is not the best, you know, due date for [00:09:00] me. So there are some supports available.
Is changing your due date one of them? Changing your due date is something you can do. You have to call somebody, so if you have the patience of a saint, feel free to call and wait three hours and get that done with your loan servicer, though. Not with studentaid. gov. I learned that lesson the hard way. But, you know, enrolling in AutoPay will give you a quarter percent rate discount.
You can also look into what kind of repayment plan you’re in, if you change to like a graduated or an income driven based repayment plan, you could probably save a little bit of money that way. And I would also say just using this reintegration of this payment back into your budget could just be a good opportunity to reassess your budget as a whole, see if there’s some cuts that can be made to where you can fit this in a little bit more organically.
I feel like. A lot of times budgets get pretty set in stone, and they don’t become as flexible as they need to be. So just taking this as a, as a moment to reassess everything, could be better for just a holistic viewpoint of your financial health as well. So let’s talk more about additional resources and [00:10:00] other repayment plans, and there’s a SAVE program that we’ll talk about here in a second, but for borrowers, there won’t be any borrowers reported to the credit bureaus for delinquencies until October of 2024.
Interest on loans will continue to accrue during that time, however, right? But there’s also temporary forbearance option that postpones payments but drives up interest costs. Most appealing and available to most is an income driven repayment program. This is safe. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yes, so the safe program is an income driven or payment program It means your monthly payment is based on your income and your family size. There are a lot of caveats and specifics with the plan. But a general rule is that any individual earning less than around 32, 000 a year will have a 0 monthly payments.
And that income number goes up depending on your family size. So for example, a family of four earning less than around 67, 000 also has zero dollar monthly payments. And [00:11:00] that is not a deferment or a forbearance. That is your actual monthly payment just set to zero dollars. And even if you don’t meet that exact requirement, let’s say you, you make a little bit more, you’ll still likely have much lower monthly payments compared to any other income driven plan, since your payments are based on a smaller portion of your adjusted gross income.
And another cool thing about SAVE is that your loan balance will never grow due to unpaid interest. So typically when you pay a loan, your monthly payment covers interest first and anything left over will then go to principal. On the SAVE plan, however, you may have a super low monthly payment that doesn’t even cover your total interest, but as long as you actually make that minimum monthly payment, the government covers the rest of the unpaid interest for that month.
Even if your monthly payment is actually at $0, government will subsidize your interest accrual entirely every month. , so your principal balance may not go down, but at least it won’t keep getting larger and larger due to interest on the loan compounding. Okay, great. Where can we find out more information about the [00:12:00] save program?
I just went to federal aid.gov. I’m sorry, student aid.gov. And if you just type in save in the search bar, it brings up the chart for what you’re. The dollar amount can be based on your family size and your income,, and you actually can apply for this online as well. So you don’t have to wait on hold forever.
This can be done online. Okay, perfect. So that is any kind of payment adjustment support that you might need. But Kristi, let’s talk about student loan forgiveness, for a second. Last year you helped employees of our partner, employees directly, achieve over 150, 000 in student loan forgiveness, which was Incredible.
Right. So you’re, you’re our go-to you’re our guru and helping them navigate through the public, public service loan forgiveness program. This summer, we had some big news related to the forgiveness programs, right. The Biden administration continues to move forward with alternative federal student loan forgiveness plans after being struck down by the Supreme Court this summer, but they’ve unveiled a new proposal.
And there’s a lot of new news coming out, and it feels like it’s [00:13:00] coming out daily. What’s your recommendation for borrowers to keep up with all the news and all the changes? Yeah, I think first and foremost, understand, and this is such a, an easy thing to say, not an easy thing to implement. It’s to make sure that you are asking questions to the right folks, and also knowing when you might feel Like your student loan payment is too much, if you feel like it is burdening you beyond your ability to provide for your basic care needs and all of those things, that in itself is a question.
You shouldn’t feel like that as a result of your federal student loans. And so if you are, it means connecting with whatever resources you can find available to you to ask, what can I do about my student loan payments? One of the biggest issues that we’re seeing right now too is since the restart of, paying back, folks saying that their, monthly amount that’s due is [00:14:00] too high, or it’s wrong, or I didn’t, I wasn’t expecting to see it this way.
You can request something called administrative forbearance, and it’s something that will allow the, servicers. To get it together, because right now it’s, it’s overwhelming for everybody, for the buyers, or you know, for those who are paying, for those that are trying to collect the payment, like it’s just kind of an all around mess right now, everybody’s kind of swimming in the, with the sharks.
The difference though is when you are the one who’s on the hook for those funds. What the impact to you is a lot greater than my empathy is gonna be for a large, you know, federal loan servicer. Right? But that is gonna be crucial for many folks that are on safe plans, that have, refinanced and consolidated and all of these things that have been happening over the past couple years.
And with this restart, things not going as planned. Making sure that you are taking advantage of every opportunity that you can to. Know what it is your payment should be and pay that amount. When it comes to [00:15:00] Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. Notoriously really complicated program that has a lot of ifs, right?
You can have your loan forgiven if you meet this criteria, and then the criteria is really not that clear, and then, oh, that applied in the past, and now it doesn’t anymore. So the, really, your best resource is going to be, with studentaid. gov, going on and seeing what programs are current in place, when did they,
You know, when did you have to consolidate by, when did you have to do X, Y, and Z by, and making sure that if at any point you are unable to make that payment, the payment is impacting your quality of life. If it is, you know, so burdensome that, you know, you’re having to resort to utilizing public benefits, make sure you ask somebody.
Somebody. Over lunch, we were talking about how Andrew’s enrolled in the SAVE program. He went through that process, but he’s also trying to work toward forgiveness through PSLF. Can you talk [00:16:00] about whether or not you can be in those two programs simultaneously, how that works, and then a little bit about how the student loan pause affected PSLF?
Yeah, so PSLF is its own program that’s separate from the income based, repayment programs. And it’s not necessarily a one or the other. The repayment programs are really strict to what is your income, what can you afford to pay. You have to do a certification every year that shows what your income is to make sure that, you know, it’s an appropriate balance between what your income is and what your payment is, and that can fluctuate over the course of your repayment.
But PSLF is more about the institution that you are working for over the course of, really, your career. PSLF is geared towards those who are working for not for profit institutions, non profit institutions. Generally, you’ll hear them referred to as 501c3s. But it’s also not as easy as just working for a non [00:17:00] profit.
There’s all kinds of ways that you can count your years. You have to have 120 payments over, you know, the course of, you know, 10 years, but it doesn’t have to be all in a row. It could be, you know, maybe you started working at a non profit, and then you moved to a corporate institution, and then you went back to non profit.
As long as over those periods of time, you can get a certification that says that you worked there, and that you qualify. Then add up all of those years over that time, and if you’ve made your 120 payments, then you can submit, for forgiveness. And I think one of the huge benefits of the student loan pause, too, was that those months When you were not making payments, over the pause, count towards, your PSLF payments.
And that’s not something that a lot of people know about. And so I would hate for somebody who maybe was on those last two years, and thinking, oh, okay, well at least I don’t have to make a payment, and now I’ve got two more years to make up for the pause. No, those, those non payments were your [00:18:00] payments, so they counted.
You just made Andrew’s day. Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought. Music to my ears. So, of course, when there’s confusion in the market, predators see opportunity, right? So, in addition to the new repayment plans, servicer switchers, long call wait times, just a lot of… , news and changes. There’s also rising student scam fraud.
So, what do you have, what advice do you have for borrowers just to stay vigilant through all the noise? Yeah, I think it’s just really understanding , that folks are opportunists. Right? And, and especially in this restart period and everyone’s trying to adjust their budgets and make room for what they didn’t have to pay before, that there’s going to be a lot of temptation to find a solution that doesn’t involve making high payments every single month that you will hear from scammers that can do away with your student loan if you, you know, provide them with your social security number and they’ll do all kinds of stuff to try to, to get your [00:19:00] information and it’s all rooted in the fact that they know how desperate some of our, , students are.
And it kind of goes back to that overall question of like, what it is that we’re seeing, you know, it’s a lot of mixture of fear and desperation and how am I going to survive makes you a target, unfortunately. And in order to really keep yourself protected, you know, Patelco has a,, fraud resource. If you’re getting text messages, especially if they’re saying like, this is a text from Patelco and, you know, we can help you with your student loans or something like that.
Make sure you’re utilizing that resource. To ask and make sure that you’re giving information to the right folks, and really, none of that should be by text. You know, if you’re getting text messages about your member number or account numbers or anything of that kind, it’s always best to make sure that you are calling the institution that is reportedly reaching out to you directly, or, asking, even a trusted friend, a professor.
someone on campus if you’re still in school, for support. So we’re closing out [00:20:00] 2024. There’s new legislation that’s being introduced. Next year’s an election year. So I have a feeling we’re going to come back to the studio maybe six months from now and have a completely different conversation that we did today.
But I think just for now, our message to members is stay vigilant with your information. Exercise some patience as you kind of sort through everything and reintroduce these things back into your life. Members and folks out there that have questions about student loans or payment plan options should call their services directly.
Find information at studentaid. gov. But Patoka might be able to help too if you’re struggling to fit this payment back into your budget. We do have certified financial services. specialists, that can help with your budget and help you cut costs. And with that, you can find more information at patelco.
org. Andrew and Kristi, so six months from now, we’ll come back. We’ll figure out what the landscape looks like at that point, but it was really great to have you both here. It was good to be here, Michele. Happy to be here. Thanks. This concludes today’s [00:21:00] episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michelle Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and we’ve got Mel Murguia in the studio today. He’s our Product Manager in the Consumer Lending Department here at Patelco.
Hey Mel, how’s it going? It is going great. Excited to be here with you today. We’re going to talk credit score today, Mel. I had a conversation recently with someone who said they would never take out a loan again. They hate owing money and they just use cash. It’s not completely uncommon to hear, right?
But for folks like us, it makes us nervous for the implications that a mindset like that might have for any changes life might have for us. My question for this person immediately was, do you think you might want to own a home one day? Or… What if you prefer to finance a vehicle instead of buy? And these are [00:01:00] questions and things to consider where credit history and a good credit score come into play.
Mel, would you agree with that? Absolutely, Michelle. Having a good credit score goes beyond just qualifying to finance a purchase or pay for a life event. Credit scores are a factor when applying for housing and submitting a rental application. Many employers also review credit reports to gain an understanding of your character, which is one of the five C’s of credit.
Along with capacity, capital, conditions, and collateral. The character basically equals your credit history. The ability to pay on time and satisfy your credit obligations. which can be an indicator of the type of employee you will be. So you’ve got a big role here at Patelco. As the product manager in consumer lending, you help design lending products that help with financial wellness needs.
We have a new ish product called ScoreUp. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Sure thing. You know, we saw a need to provide a proactive solution to members being declined for traditional loan [00:02:00] products. While we offer credit report review and financial coaching to our members on how to turn things around.
There was still something missing. The data was telling us that we had to say no to members who came to us with a need. We felt obligated to provide our members with hope and a plan. It might be a no today, but here is how to get you to a yes in the near future. We partnered with Common Sense Lab from Duke University.
They specialize in using behavioral science to improve the financial well being of low to moderate income people in the U. S. Together, we spent many months working on a program to assist our members with building or repairing their credit. During the research timeframe, we had over 38, 000 members with credit scores less than 630 and over 8, 000 members with no score.
That’s almost 50, 000 members who needed access to some form of credit. The credit building products that were in the market seemed to fall short in one area or another. Secured card, not everyone has the 300 or 500 needed to get one started. In overdraft line of credit, their credit score was not high [00:03:00] enough to qualify.
Asset secured loan, collateral was not eligible or very expensive and predatory, like a car title loan from a payday lender. With ScoreUp, we made it simple and easy. Credit score not required, collateral not required. It builds credit, builds savings, and we also offer payment assistance, which means your bill, your payment never goes late and there’s no negative credit reporting.
One of my favorite member success stories came during my time as a branch manager. ScoreUp had just launched and a younger member came in to look at options to get a car loan. To get to and from school and work. He had been working part time for about a year and would either get around on the bus or borrow his mom’s car when it was available.
He had a small savings but no credit established. The banker spent time with the member and utilized the credit builder calculator tool on the website to get a better understanding of the members monthly expenses. He was able to share with him how not only does Skorup build credit history with on time payments but also grows the savings.[00:04:00]
The Member ultimately chose a nine month loan for 3000. Which helped him create and grow his credit score, he was able to demonstrate that he could afford a monthly payment and when he paid the loan off, he had 3000 down for a down payment. He was ultimately approved for his auto purchase for a used vehicle.
That’s so great, Mel. So a member can come in and they get to choose their own to and their own, um, amount based on what they can afford. Of course. Within our limits. That is correct. Okay. And what are the parent, what’s the minimum and what’s the maximum? Yeah, so the beauty of this product, on top of having a low fix rate, is that the product is fully customizable to fit each member’s budget.
Flexible loan terms from 6 to 36 months. But a loan amounts from 500 to 5, 000. Okay, that’s great. But it’s, again, it’s customized to what works best for the member, what fits in their budget. And I think that’s one of the biggest benefits, of the product. So let’s chat low credit score and little or no credit [00:05:00] history for a minute.
Because if you’re in one of these situations, the likelihood of you getting approved for a loan is not high. And let’s break that down a bit further. So consider yourself as an individual. And someone asks you to borrow money. The questions to consider are, you know, do I know this person and their ability to pay me back?
And those are very much the same type of rationale that lenders have when considering to lend to individuals. And that’s where the relationship and the history are really important when we talk about credit, just going back to those five C’s, that you were talking about. So the fact that this solution has a fixed rate, regardless of credit score, is a really big deal.
Yes. And on top of the things I mentioned prior, we have a dynamic calculator on Patelco. org that can assist our members in determining the right options. Another key feature of ScoreUp is our payment assistance program. If a member has a hardship and can no longer make payments, Patelco will pay off the loan and report the loan paid in full to the credit bureaus with the members still gaining positive payment history for the months that [00:06:00] they made their payments.
No negative reporting, no late payments ever. So this is a Credit Builder loan, and you enter a loan agreement with Patelco by choosing a payment and a term, but it’s not like a traditional loan where you get any money up front. Can you tell us a little bit more about the process and how it works? Yes, the SCORP Credit Builder loan is ultimately doing two key things for a member.
Number one, establishing positive credit history with on time payments. Number two, it’s growing your savings. So each payment that is made is reported to the credit bureaus while the funds from the payment grow in a savings account and become available at the end of the loan term. Okay, awesome. Now, hypothetically, if I come in, get a score up loan, I satisfy my term, I’ve built my credit score up a little bit, can I come back and can I get another score up loan, continue that process?
Absolutely. So, depending on where you’re starting from, you, you can always check your credit. We do offer a credit score, within our online banking. So, you can see where your credit score is at. You can [00:07:00] also get the free credit report annually from the three credit bureaus. If you’re not quite at the score that you need to qualify for your next, purchase that you need to make, you can sign up again and continue to, grow that score with the on time payments.
So SCOREUP’s been around three years for us now. It’s won a national award, which we’re really proud of. Congratulations to you for that. And so far, 3, 700 members have taken advantage of SCORP, and of those 3, 700, 3, 200 have come back to us and have been eligible for another credit product, with us here at Patelco.
Yes, it’s very exciting, very rewarding to see, our members trusting us and, and helping them build and reestablish their credit. You know, we’re, putting our members back in, vehicles that get them to and from work. We’re providing hope. We’re continuing the ongoing financial well being and the financial education.
We have resources on our financial wellness center on our website. We have one on one coaching available with our certified financial specialists [00:08:00] and we are very excited and proud to, to continue to help our members, with their financial journey. That’s what it’s all about folks. Mel, thank you so much for being here today. Members can find more information about SCOREUP by visiting patelco. org slash SCOREUP, S C O R E U P. And that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and today we’ve got Erin Mendez in the studio. Erin, welcome.
Well, thank you, Michelle. Glad to be here. So,
Erin Mendez is President and CEO of Patelco Credit Union. Since her arrival at Patelco in 2013, Erin has transformed the organizational culture to building financial wellness for members. Team members and the community Patelco serves. During this time, Patelco grew from 3. 9 billion to over 9. 4 billion in assets and grew members from 275, 000 to over 470, 000.
Prior to joining Patelco in 2013, Aaron served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Schools First Federal Credit Union. Her career began as a part time teller for American Savings Bank, [00:01:00] progressing to SVP of Retail Banking. Erin’s more than 30 years experience in the financial industry also includes CIO and SVP of Operations at Western Financial Bank and Chief Technology Officer at HealthNet, Inc.
Erin was recognized by the California Credit Union. With her distinguished service award inducted into SKU’s Hall of Fame and was recognized by American Banker and their inaugural top powerful women in credit unions. So today we’re talking credit unions and the credit union difference, and who better to share than Aaron, who is a champion for credit unions and their collective mission to improve people’s lives.
So Erin, you’ve worked for traditional for-profit companies before. What made you make the leap to cu. So, really, I knew nothing about credit unions when I received a call from a recruiter looking for someone who would lead both the finance and the technology [00:02:00] teams at then Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union, who is now known as School’s First Federal Credit Union.
You know, my first reaction was, no, I have no interest because I had the impression that the organization would be tiny and very limited in their products, so I thought the job would be boring, quite frankly. So the basically told me that I should get educated, and that’s what I did. So I went through, learned a lot about Orange County teachers at that time, and so I decided I’d throw my hat in the ring for the opportunity.
And at the end of that, I, was offered the position and I started in January 2003. What I learned fairly quickly was that being at a credit union for me was banking with a soul. You get to do great work while doing good. You only need to worry about members and how you make a difference for [00:03:00] them. It’s a direct relationship where the members benefit, without having to concern yourself with stockholders or earning money for stockholders.
Members are our owners. And they’re one and the same at credit unions. And so your focus… And making a difference is a win win for a member. And I really grabbed onto that, and that’s what I call banking with the soul. Banking with the soul. I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you say that I’m going to have to, maybe steal that, borrow it from you.
I’m going on, uh, year 17 at credit unions myself. I have a similar, story. I learned by credit unions, by accident. The first phase of my career, I made the leap and I never looked back. I think for me what drew me in was Credit Union’s collective mission and what they stand for, and that simply is people helping people.
I’m gonna share Patelcos vision and mission, and that is our vision is to be the credit union that [00:04:00] empowers our members to achieve financial freedom. Our promise is to fuel hope and opportunity for lifelong financial wellbeing, and our mission is to build our members financial health and wellbeing Now.
Everything from employee onboarding, to training, to messaging that we give to our Patelco at Work partners, the community, is all around building financial health and well being. I think what our members love most about Patelco is that when we say we aim to build our members financial health and well being, we really mean it.
How important is it to you to get our whole organization on board with this mission and what are some of the ways we strive to achieve this? Well, there’s nothing more important than it, because it takes all of us to make a difference with our attitudes, our practices, our products and our services, and our connection with people.
How we build our [00:05:00] members and design the services we provide them, how we deliver to their expectations and beyond, how we improve their financial lives, everyone makes this happen at each moment with a member and at each interaction. I and the leadership team must set the framework and the guidelines that allow the team to flourish in serving our mission and in serving our members so that our members receive the benefits that we have to offer.
But it is the team that really makes this happen and you need everyone on board working for our members. It’s so true and you know our team is lucky enough to be face to face with our communities on the ground. Delivering financial wellness programs in a variety of ways, right? We’ve got webinars, in person education delivery, tools, resources, and now this cool podcast.
But we also share some really unique products and services that we really design to help our members bank more [00:06:00] conveniently with us, help increase their credit score, save more, etc. What are some of the newer things that we’ve rolled out to members that support their financial wellness that you maybe think are kind of unutilized hidden gems?
Well, you know, every year we invest in our mission, whether it’s new products and services, upskilling our team, or addressing pressure points that our members have. So let me just talk about this year alone and some of the things that we have done. So we’ve implemented two new products. One’s called BankUp.
It’s a checking account. And the other one is Instant Backup, which is a overdraft on your checking account. And both of these products are designed to help our manage daily and reduce the cost of banking services, and to keep them on the right path to build their financial health. We focused a lot this year on fraud because it’s just unfortunately awful, the social engineering that’s going out there,[00:07:00] , in our world and certainly here at home.
So let me kind of talk about some of the fraud improvements we made. Whether it is in how we’ve stepped up our communication to our members to constantly make them aware of some of these scams, but we also have a fraud center on our website that really explains a lot of fraud scams and to help members see, and maybe see early warnings that perhaps the person they’re dealing with isn’t the person they should be dealing with.
We put in a specialized team of fraud experts in our contact center so that our members actually can get direct access to them so they could talk to us before they’re scammed, anytime they have an ill feeling or have a concern about any conversation they’re having. These experts can really help a member go through and [00:08:00] understand What really looks like a scam, so that they can prevent that from happening.
Because once you’re scammed… It’s really hard to get back any of the funds, so I really hope our members use a lot of that service because it’s been built for them. We also continue to add features to our digital banking that members can use to help themselves build financial lives and journeys and make it better for themselves.
We’ve added features that allow you to create. Goals around savings, budgets, and recently financial insights into how members money is being spent so a member can sit back and determine, is that how I want to spend my money or should I do it differently? And of course, all of these complement the fact that there’s many alerts that any of our members can help set up or we can help you set up.
to manage funds daily and prevent [00:09:00] mishaps. We’ve also added more certified financial specialists to work with our members. And they’re there for more complex matters. And sometimes they’re there for encouragement, too. Each one of these specialists empower our members to make better choices and repair and re and improve their financial situations.
That’s just a few of the things that we’ve done this year. And again, the team… We have a great team and they’re fabulous to work with our members. This is so great. I mean, the, from bank up to instant backup and you know, what was overdraft fees to, to fraud resources, financial insights, certified financial specialists.
These are things that when we talk about the credit union difference, these are the things that really set us apart in the financial industry, and really go back to that. It’s a really old idea of people helping people. Now, International Credit Union Day is coming up, or ICU Day as we call it, [00:10:00] coming up on October 19th, and this year is the 75th anniversary, so it’s a big milestone.
ICU Day exists really to raise awareness and celebrate. You know, all of these things that we’re talking about and what makes credit unions unique. And for us, you know, it’s an opportunity to showcase, the credit union difference and celebrate the spirit of the global credit union movement movement.
So this day is recognized to reflect upon the credit union history, promote its achievements, recognize hard work, and share member experiences. ICU Day has been celebrated the third Thursday of October since 1948. Again, with that ultimate goal to raise awareness about the tremendous work that we’re collectively doing.
Erin, you’re a director for the World Council of Credit Unions, and their vision is to expand financial inclusion,, not just here in the U. S., but worldwide, through this global credit union movement. Can you share with our Patelco team members how [00:11:00] important it is for you to be involved with the World Council of Credit Unions and what role we all play to advance the movement as a whole?
Sure, I’d be happy to. I joined the WOCU board to make a difference globally in helping those of moderate and really, quite frankly, limited means to build their financial lives. It is a way of spreading the Patelco difference throughout our world, bit by bit and member by member, to build resiliency in areas of the world with less.
And others can help create more bearable lives for those people and their families. I get to learn other ways. and other products that matter to these members. And some of this can spark an idea for our Patelco members. Helping others to build a better financial life, whether here at home or internationally, this is doing great work, while doing good.
And all [00:12:00] of us can use more of it. Filling our soul by helping others begin to prosper, or at least make ends meet. Well, for me, that’s the bucket I gladly will fill.
So, in summary, I think if you’re not already a Credit Union member, well, why not? Patelco is a full service financial institution serving the Greater Bay Area and beyond. We make it inclusive, easy, and affordable to join. If you’d like to learn more, we invite you to check out our website at patelco. org or contact us at joinatpatelco.
org. And, Erin, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with us today. That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. We’ll see you next time. The Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA. [00:13:00]

Erin Mendez, President and CEO of Patelco Credit Union, shares her career journey from the for-profit world to credit unions, highlighting the unique mission of “”banking with a soul.”” Erin discusses Patelco’s commitment to members’ financial wellness, her involvement with the World Council of Credit Unions the importance of spreading the credit union difference. Join us in celebrating the 75th anniversary of International Credit Union Day and learn more about Patelco’s mission.

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Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and we’re approaching open enrollment season, and if you’re unfamiliar with what that is or don’t work for a traditional company, it’s a time of year that companies dedicate toward focusing on benefits.
Typically, the focus is on health, and that includes medical, dental, and vision plans. But it’s also time to focus on total wellness. So, things like financial wellness, setting up direct deposit and savings allocations, investments allocations. Mental wellness, physical wellness, et cetera. But today we have on the show Maurice Catlett, who’s an HSA specialist here at Patelco.
He’s on the show to talk about health savings accounts, also known as HSAs, as kind of a misunderstood health plan option that [00:01:00] also doubles as a savings tool. Maurice, welcome to the show. It’s great to have you in the studio. Thank you. I’m excited to be here. So, Maurice, as you know, Patelco has a complementary financial wellness program for employers.
And one of the employee benefit elements is an offering of a health savings account or an HSA, as we talked about. We get tons and tons of questions from employees at our partners about What even is an HSA? And it can be a lot to explain effectively. You’re a part of a team of HSA specialists in the IRA HSA department here at Patelco.
Break down for us what an HSA is. What type of an individual might benefit most from an HSA? So, okay. So first, an HSA is a tax advantaged account regulated by the IRS. The HSA is designed to place pre-taxed earned income into a tax-free account to only be used for qualified medical expenses. The funds put into an HSA [00:02:00] or remaining in the HSA at the end of the year belong to the qualified individual.
Who has their social security number tied to the HSA, not Patelco and not the employer. A qualified individual is someone covered by a high deductible health plan, or HDHP. And not covered by another primary health insurance at the same time. Dental, vision, and long-term care insurance are allowed, but Medicare is not allowed.
This disqualifies someone from having an HSA. You must also not be claimed as a dependent on another person’s tax returns per the IRS guidelines. It is helpful to remember that an HSA can provide you with triple tax savings. First, from federal tax deductions when you contribute towards your HSA. Second, The earnings on an HSA are tax free.
Finally, the withdrawal of the funds are tax free as long as it is for qualified medical expenses. So, [00:03:00] a company may offer an HSA since they offer a high deductible health plan. Also, because they also pay lower premiums on a HDHP and there are certain tax benefits for doing so. I am not a tax advisor or tax specialist, so I can’t speak on that much more.
Apologies. If you would like to know more or have specific questions, please consult an experienced tax advisor or CPA type professional. Often the HDHP will have lower premiums to offset the higher deductible. The IRS defines this as at least 1, 500 for self only. And $3,000 for family coverage. The IRS also places a limit on the annual out-of-pocket expenses to 7,500 for self only, and a total of 15,000 for family coverage because of the high deductible threshold.
This plan is more appealing to people in certain positions. Mm-hmm. , this [00:04:00] personally is how I came to choose an HDHP and an HSA myself at the time. Nearly a decade ago, I was single. I didn’t have any prescriptions, dependents, chronic conditions, or previous major injuries. I just need glasses to drive, legally, and get my teeth cleaned.
And I still need that. So, saving money on premiums and putting money away for later made a lot of sense for me. Some people listening to this right now are hopefully doing some math and finding that an HDHP would make a lot of sense for them as well. Another reason for me to get an HDHP and an HSA was the ease of use.
I grew up just swiping my HSA debit card at the time when everyone was starting to stop taking checks for anything but rent. So HDHP How do I go about finding out if my company offers one of those? Is that just a simple question to the HR benefits person? Ideally, [00:05:00] yes. An HR benefits person or a manager, which may also know, because some of your coworkers actually may have that plan.
So you might be able also to ask your teammates. So your employer has to have an HDHP plan. You cannot be on Medicare? Correct. One of the other ones? And then, what was the other? You cannot be claimed on someone else’s taxes as a dependent. Can’t be claimed on somebody else’s tax returns. Okay, got it. So, if you checkmark all those boxes, you might qualify for an HSA account and be interested in it.
Yes, oh, and I almost forgot the last one. You can’t have the HDHP in addition to another, uh, another insurance plan from your spouse or someone else. Got it. So if I were to guess, most folks just take the regular HMO, right? You either got your Kaiser, your Blue Cross, or whomever, right? You pay into that plan.
The HSA, would be, an alternative to… Exactly. And rolling into something like that. Okay. So I personally don’t use the HSA option. I’m kind of a creature , of, , comfort. I don’t like to take risks, I think is the reason I [00:06:00] don’t. So even though it’s offered to us here as an employee at Patelco, but, I think my decisions based on a couple of things, I have young kids also and their medical needs are unpredictable.
Yeah. But I’m also intimidated by the administration of the account because you have to be really cautious about purchases and there’s reimbursements and IRS reporting involved. So I just give up entirely. So how does the account work and can technology help with the administration piece? So first answer, yes, technology can help.
This caution, though, that you have is very understandable. Some people are put up by anything involving the IRS or tax filing. That’s okay. So, a disclosure here. Patelco would be your custodian in this situation. We are not here to scrutinize what you purchase each time, nor are we here to interrogate you about them at the end of the year.
Our usual fraud fighting systems are in place, but we are not here to operate… As [00:07:00] the I R S, we’ll report the amount in dollars total spent on a qualified medical expenses in a tax year, in a tax form called the 10 99 sa. You’ll get other 10 90 nines most likely, and we will report the total amount in dollars, contributed to a tax year in a tax form called 54 98 dash sa.
A copy of these documents will be given to the member physically or digitally on schedule or upon verified request. So, right there, that’s one part of the technology. You can just have us email it to you or go to your online banking. Our understanding is that a member should keep a record of money spent and where and how much contributed per year regardless of this.
This is recommended for all tax advantaged accounts, not just the HSA. Our technology allows our members to request reimbursement several ways, and sometimes same day completion, which is my favorite. In branch, virtual branch, [00:08:00] team, calling my department, or using a service called DocuSign if you’re comfortable, there is one instance where we still have difficulties.
Delivering requested H s A funds to another institution same day or automatically via a c h or automatic clearinghouse. Mm-hmm. , the final steps of sending the funds from Patelco to another institution must be completed by the member via online banking or simply writing themselves a check. It is my professional opinion that a member should be cautious about purchases if they are purchasing supplies for someone not covered by the H D H P.
or are not dependents, or the member is making a non traditional purchase. There can be so much context surrounding these three possibilities that I believe caution is warranted, but outright fear shouldn’t come to mind. I hope this does not cause a member [00:09:00] from abstaining from an HSA or non traditional purchases.
Honestly, some of our members in these cases send us copies of receipts or the original receipt. We only copy and digitize what is needed, so we primarily send back originals and destroy copies. So please don’t feel need the need to do so. The member is strongly encouraged to keep their original sheets and statements Sometimes some of this information is deeply personal about health and well being sometimes members reimburse themselves for travel and lodging to get Very specific medical services or consultation.
I only know about this because they sent too much documents. It would be between the member and the relevant tax professionals, if that is a qualified medical expense given the mountains of context. The IRS has released a document called Publication 502 that goes into detail about qualified medical expenses.
As I [00:10:00] said, I’m not a tax advisor, but pages 5 to 8 and 15 to 17 of the publication may be more relevant to our members. But here at Patelco, we move or send the money as instructed. By the member or authorized signer, no further questions. Okay. I’m not saying you must have a tax professional to have an HSA, only that I recommend one if you are doing something specific with your HSA or using the funds in a uncommon fashion, an uncommon fashion.
My understanding is some medical expenses can be tax deductible, so it is possible your uncommon use of funds could be relevant. Please refer to publication 502 for more. You can use your HSA debit card on Amazon and everyone uses Amazon. I’m pretty sure. Amazon and other merchants have an HSA list to help make common purchases [00:11:00] easily.
That’s great. It really is. Personally, I most frequently use my HSA debit card with my doctors. Specifically my optometrist. I need the glasses. And CVS, honestly. No paperwork is needed. I just keep the receipts and only use my HSA debit card for particular things I know. are qualified medical expenses.
Those tax documents I mentioned, I can get digitally or physical copies with my Patelco online banking. The 1099 will be available well before the standard tax filing deadline. Pro tip though, the 5498 essay I mentioned that provides the IRS and you with the total amount you contributed for the tax you’re in question that I mentioned previously, the document is made after the standard tax deadline.
So, it is not required to file taxes. It is for informational purposes only. If you feel the need, for the information prov that sorry. [00:12:00] If you feel the information provided doesn’t match up to the information It doesn’t match up to your record keeping, please contact us. The 5498 SA comes out later because you can make contributions for previous tax year up until the tax deadline in the current calendar year.
In all fairness, special contribution situations do exist, such as the federal disaster declared last year. Please feel free to contact us should you have any concerns. This is just how much. You can keep this record for yourself or request us to tell you the amount before you file taxes. The tax professional you are engaged with should be familiar with this fact about the 5498.
Please exercise caution. Okay, great. So it does sound like you need to have some sort of organization, some kind of preparation before leaping into HSA. You’ve [00:13:00] weighed out the pros and cons. Do I go HMO? Do I go the HSA route? Prior to enrolling, right, check out the list. See what all the qualified… medical qualifications are.
Make sure you’ve got your debit card or you’ve got checks. Do we still do checks here at Patelco? Okay, so you have a choice there. And then, then you’ve got all those convenience things like the Amazon list to go which to purchase those things. And then you’ve got to keep your receipts. I know those CVS receipts are really long.
Yeah. But you got, you got to keep them. And that’s where kind of the organizational piece comes in. Yeah. But as long as you’re making qualified purchases You’re keeping your receipts, you have access to that tax form, which it sounds like it’s easy to get on online banking. Yes. It’s not that intimidating, right?
No, and sometimes if you don’t want to do your online banking, send us an email. Okay, and that’s where kind of the, personalization with Patelco, you know, is beneficial to our members because, because now you know Maurice. You could just call Maurice directly. [00:14:00] Okay, so that’s great. I’m the only one in the company.
Last year in my household, we were pretty super fortunate health wise. We didn’t have any hospital stays, no emergency room visits, prescriptions, just general checkups and such. In hindsight, you know, I didn’t maximize the health. plan that I pay into. I think an HSA account could have helped grow, my savings in comparison to what, you know, I missed out in not having to pay for those things.
So help us understand a little bit more how the HSA can grow savings. Okay. So first, yes, I’m happy to report with supreme confidence that an HSA is not an FSA. Okay. The funds in an HSA do not expire or get returned to an employer. The funds stay where they were for future use. You can call this non expiry funds, but I prefer just to call it saving funds.
With the contribution limit for 2023 being 3, 850 for self only [00:15:00] and 7, 750 for family, you could be saving thousands of dollars. Tax free a year for future health expenses. That adds up nicely and can help you and your loved ones weather many storms. Also, if you’re in the 50 and over crowd, you can contribute about an extra thousand dollars per year per social security number.
This is an important part because, you can’t contribute your spouse’s 1, 000 into your HSA. There is nothing you need to do to have the funds stay right where they are at Patelco at end of year or around tax time. If you would like to bring the funds to Patelco, please let us know to begin the transfer.
You should contact your local branch or the virtual branch team. We will need your signature on a couple of documents and the IRA department will continue the process. The HSA department will continue the process by sending the signed formal request to the current custodian. We ask for your patience in advance.[00:16:00]
If you need to transfer HSA funds from Patelco to another custodian, for whatever reason, please begin by contacting the other institution to start their paperwork. You may need to call us at Patelco to get specifics to pass on to them. That’s okay. We aren’t going to give the specifics to the other institution, only to you.
Other institutions will not give Patelco reps information without you inversely and they rarely will accept information not coming from you, the owner. We thank you in advance for your patience. Okay, got it. So, I’m already a Patelco member. I have my online banking credentials. I can see all the things within my account tree.
If I have an HSA account, that’s just all bundled in there with my other Patelco. Accounts, my savings, my checking, and boom, my HSA is there with it. Yes, actually, and if you just want an HSA here at Patelco, we give you a savings account just so you can move your HSA funds into regular funds to withdrawal [00:17:00] or, as I said, ACH them out to your other institutions.
Okay, great. Okay, so… You’re an HSA specialist in our IRA HSA division. How does you and your team help members? You’ve referenced that a couple times, but, any kind of unique ways that we help, versus other HSA servicers? Thank you. We help our members with every facet of HSAs, from opening and funding.
To using or accessing funds. Transfers to, finally, with deceased members, unfortunately. With that last bit, I must encourage everyone who has not to set up beneficiaries for their various accounts. Not just your HSA. Or to update them, if your life has changed in a significant way. The IRS defines some of these significant ways as life events, qualified life events.
To be honest, probate court is not fun. Please do your best to stay on top of these things. But, speaking of which. We can also help you add people to your HSA as [00:18:00] beneficiaries, but also as authorized signers. Here at Patelco, authorized signers can have checks, or more commonly, debit cards issued to them in their name to use the HSA funds as well, but not to contribute.
Uh, to complete adding someone, we will need a copy of the person’s valid government issued ID and their social security number, and to complete the forms with additional information. Most of the time, we can send the HSA debit card right to your door. But, in some instances, our branch team is able to print debit cards in person.
I’m not in the branch. I cannot promise this. We hope you understand. In addition to everything I’ve previously mentioned, we can also help with some adjustments to the HSAs, as needed, to correct members contributions or disbursements. This is most common when an online banking error has occurred or a clerical misunderstanding.
The HSA team will always correct or adjust when we have reason to believe the cause is clerical. It’s just fair. We will do our utmost when an adjustment is [00:19:00] needed due to member or online banking error. But sometimes we are limited in those cases. Simple things like HSA debit card purchase returns, because you can do returns at Amazon, or insurance reimbursements that happened after care can reliably be done in the same calendar year.
You can also help with more complex processes like a prorated contributions for not being continuously covered by an HDHP for the full tax year. If you don’t know what that means, that means that hasn’t happened to you and that’s okay. For help with what we’ve mentioned and more, our 100 percent California based IRHSA department is available at Patelco Credit Union from 9 a.
m. to 6 p. m., Monday through Friday. Our email address is always opened and serviced those same hours by the same team at I R A H S A at Patelco dot O R G. That’s O R G because we’re organized. Now for employers, you should also use our phone number and this email [00:20:00] address H S A employer servicing at Patelco dot O R G.
If you’re an employer who needs to know more about setting up HSAs for your employees, please call us. If you need help setting up and funding an employee’s HSA, please call us. If you need to send employees documents, please use the HSAemployerServicing at Patelco. org email. I look forward to helping you out.
I appreciate you guys so much, Maurice, because, at our Patelco at Work program, you know, we’ve got about a hundred partners now and they prefer to have their HSA provider be the same provider that hosts their financial wellness program. So to have every kind of a one stop shop for everything’s great, but we also offer a really great personal service through your department.
So when they do have HSA enrollments, you know, they can get a little bit complicated to set up and you guys make that really easy. So. Thank you. Employers, can get that set up easily with our IRA, HSA department and [00:21:00] maybe Maurice, personally. I want to just touch on your mention about avoiding probate court.
You know, stress that enough and totally agree, you know, I think in the setting up of the HSA accounts and sometimes even just your Patelco membership, you kind of bypass the beneficiary section is something you’re going to do later. I’ll fill that in later, but,, it really is important, but you can make it easy again because we’ve got that personalized service.
All right, Maurice, so you’ve given us all the lowdown about this account. I’ve kind of weighed whether I like HMO, HSA. This thing might be for me. It sounds easy. It sounds convenient through the mobile app. I’ve got a debit card. How do we get this thing set up? As I mentioned with just coming down to a branch or contacting us through the various means of virtual branch or phone number or your secured messaging on your online banking, an important distinction that I’ve learned about is You will need a valid form of government ID.
I’ve said that. People, but Telco accepts [00:22:00] several different types of ID. Like I think it’s pronounced, uh, Marticular, Consulate Lauders? Michelle, how do you say it? The matricula. Thank you. Those. However, we don’t accept school or university IDs. So sorry in advance for that, but almost every other government ID is good to go.
Out of state is okay as well. Additionally, we’ll need the various social security numbers for yourself and the people you like to add as authorized signers or beneficiaries. I know that can be a little tricky, but you should come back to it after you, you know, call some family members and ask them how they’re doing and then also convince them to give you your social security number.
I, again, we can, we understand that this can be a bit difficult. And then the last thing we ask for really is your patience as we create everything., if you visit one of our branches, you can also apply for various products and services all in the same visit. So if you have a Patelco errand, you can also update your beneficiaries at the same time.
Or, Get yourself a new, HSA and a HSA debit card. We [00:23:00] are, after all, a chartered, NCUA insured, equal opportunity lender and credit union. Perfect. Maurice, thank you so much for being in the studio, for lending your expertise about health savings accounts. You know, they don’t have to be confusing. It’s easy to connect with you, easy to get those forms and things updated. So thank you for that. Yes. Avoid probate court as much as possible. So, Maurice, super glad to have you on today. Thank you for sharing all of your expertise. You’re very welcome. If you still have questions, just contact us. That’s kind of the beauty about your department. The beauty about reaching us here at Patelco. I’m going to give that email address one more time. It’s a long one. It’s H S A E M. P L O Y E R, S E R V I C I N G at patelco. org, that’s H S A, employer servicing at patelco.
org. You can also visit a branch or virtual branch. And you can call us at the number [00:24:00] +1 800-358-8228 and extension 2 5 2 5. That’s not a direct extension to me, but my team. . And that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

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Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michelle Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and today’s going to be the best because I’m joined by our Patelco at Work program team here at Patelco who oversee our financial wellness program for employers.
We’ve got Peggy Wyman and Shadis Amimi in the studio who are financial wellness partners for Patelco. Hi, ladies. Good morning. Good morning. So, combined in the studio between the three of us, how many years of banking experience do we have? I’m 16 years in. How about you guys? Well, I have 15 years. Yeah. 15 years in banking.
How about you, Peg? I will admit to 35 years, probably more than that, but I don’t want to date myself. So I think if we’re doing the math right, that’s about 66 total years here in the studio, but of that time, how [00:01:00] many of our years have been spent working with credit unions and bringing financial wellness to partner workplaces?
I’m also 16 years. So, for me, half of the time was in the regular banking industry and the other wonderful years have been with the credit union. I can ditto that, Patelco is my first credit union experience and I’ve been here three and a half years providing financial wellness. Awesome. So, between us, we’ve got a lot of experience in the room over long periods of time and We’re going to start the conversation today by addressing the elephant in the room, and that is that economic times are really tough right now.
Inflation primarily is making it difficult for a lot of folks who may have already been feeling the pinch, living in one of the most expensive regions in the world. The stress we carry into our daily lives and into the workplace, oftentimes, and I’m going to share some stats and this directly relates to, the work, the great work you guys are doing out there.
So a [00:02:00] PWC 2023 study reports that 60 percent of full time employees are stressed out about their finances. Right? We know this. We hear it directly from the HR partners we work with. Even among employees earning six figures or more, nearly 40 percent are stressed out about their finances. Right? No surprise to us.
73 percent of Americans rank their finances as the number one stress in their life. And that’s according to a Capital One CreditWise survey. Additionally, four out of five employers say that their employees financial issues are impacting their job performance. And that’s from an IFEBP survey. So, we hear this all the time.
We’re meeting with employers. HR partners, and they’re looking for ways to reduce the stress, improve retention and really just find supports for their employees. We’ve heard a lot about mental wellness support and physical wellness with gym memberships and everything else, but it’s a financial wellness piece that’s missing [00:03:00] and frankly that’s growing.
So the two of you serve different regions of the Bay Area to bring this wellness program at work, to employers. Shada, you’re a financial wellness partner. You’ve been doing this a long time. But that’s an interesting title. Can you share a little bit about the program and then how your HR benefit contacts perceive you as a wellness partner?
Absolutely, yeah. So, PatelCut Work, in a nutshell, is a no cost, no contracts required, employee assistance program. I like to call us the financial doctors. We actually help diagnose financial matters and provide the right services and products needed to help everyone achieve their financial freedom.
Unlike the traditional employee assistance, we take a holistic approach. to financial wellness by providing professional counseling sessions. We call them, these financial advisors are called CFS and the CFS is our part of our virtual team. They’re part of our regular branches [00:04:00] and they’re able to give kind of coaching, you know, about products and services, repairing credit, building credit.
Budgeting savings. I mean, the list goes on and on. You just have to ask and we’re able to help them so that each partner, for example, that we work with each employer is unique. The needs of their employees are different. And the wonderful thing is, is between the whole team. We’re all very open to discuss The specific needs of each employer group and provide them and accommodate them with those needs because we want this program to be successful for everyone across the board.
One of my recent partners that I launched a couple months ago in the Sacramento area. You know, they were really excited about all of these products that they could not believe that there was no charge or, you know, no contracts like what’s, you know, what are we getting?
What, you know, what are you getting? This and that. So anyhow, to make it best, you know, everything that I suggested, they agreed. For example, a launch email. When out [00:05:00] in the launch email announced briefly, you know, just hitting the tip of the iceberg about what is their benefits, how it works a little bit.
Initially, I started off by having two presentations to accommodate the managers and supervisors of all their departments. They had about 12 offices in different parts of Sacramento County. So. The two sessions that I had via Zoom meeting, I explained this to the managers and to the supervisors,, the reason being is I want them to be that liaison so that in their departments if their employees go to them asking for,, guidance, you know, like where can I go get help, trying to, I don’t know, consolidate that, who do I talk to, that, Manager or supervisor can then refer them over to me and I can get the appropriate help for that individual employee.
Once, the webinars were done with the managers, in this particular, relationship is, I went and started touring every site. Sometimes different shifts to accommodate and meet and greet the employees in person. I took As much [00:06:00] pertinent information about our program, I invited team members from different branches throughout Sacramento to attend so that if they do, for example, go into one of our offices, they’re familiar with the employees in the Sacramento area and feel comfortable to talk to them.
You know, they provided us space in their break rooms. We gave small presentations. I hung out with the employees for a couple of hours at a time, and this tour went on for a whole month, but it was amazing. And they also provide all of our information via the intranet, so whenever we have any types of incentives, promotions, things like that going on, I share this with the HR managers and they post it up for me, the employees are aware.
And I thought this was really Old school, but it was really cool. They asked me something which the light bulb went on for me, and I’ve been doing it with a lot of my other partners recently. They asked me for paycheck stuffers, like, it’s pretty neat. So a paycheck stuffers, basically, again, it’s a different way of reaching [00:07:00] out to the employees.
So those individuals that receive a physical check received. A little stuff for inside their envelope about Patelco at Work program and how they can get the benefits, or if they got electronic, pay stubs, then there was a link with our information as well. So I think it’s a one win situation for the HR people plus Patelco at Work because we are maximizing as many ways.
To reach out to the employees because our goal together ultimately is to help the employees achieve financial freedom And we can only do that by working together and when the HR partners understand this, this is beautiful. It just flows like a symphony So it sounds like it’s It’s customizable, right?
Because we know that not all organizations are one size fits all, so really whatever the needs are of the HR partners, whatever the needs are of the employees, we can be flexible in terms of [00:08:00] what we offer, and the program’s really diverse in nature, too. So we think it’s got a little bit. of something for everyone.
And we talk about this all the time and supporting and affecting change when it comes to financial wellness, one of the key elements to achieve that is to be able to meet people where they are. And we’re talking both figuratively and literally speaking, so meeting them in their financial journey, but also physically or virtual, connection with them so we can engage with them.
So, Shada, you’ve had a lot of success working with our virtual branch team to support your companies. Tell us how this collaboration is unique to Patelco. How are the employees receiving it? Well, I appreciate our virtual team, they take a lot of load off of me, by, Allowing me that flexibility to refer.
Members, actually potential members and employees. to them. For example, I have a partnership out of Monterey, and we don’t have an actual branch in Monterey at all. They’re one of our partners that started off in San Francisco, but [00:09:00] moved out there, so we’re still accommodating them. So whenever they need assistance in opening any types of accounts, whether it’s It’s the membership, whether it’s an HSA account, checking products, loan products, they’ll send me an email and I’ll refer them to virtual branch, share the QR code and the team is amazing.
They will assist them. They will keep me posted. They will see, see me on outgoing emails to this potential member. And it just makes it very easy., we’re both on the same page and those employees. They don’t have to drive all the way out here to get help. They’re getting help from their offices.
They’re getting help from, you know, their homes. So it makes it very convenient and easy for them to reach us. Yeah, it’s been a real game changer for us because we’ve seen post COVID that a lot of workforces now have hybrid, employees and hybrid setups. So we’re able to meet people virtually through virtual branch, but also any of our.
Partners that happen to have, out of state offices also were able to accommodate. So, virtual branch has just been, great for us. So, financial institutions [00:10:00] everywhere claim to be focused on financial wellness, right? And we’re no different. You guys hear it all the time. It’s commercials about financial wellness this, financial wellness that.
Peggy, I’m going to ask you, because I hear you talk about this all the time. When it comes to actually delivering on financial wellness, where do you see that credit unions really stand out? The savings that they make on, like having a lower borrowing rate is extra money in their pocket to apply to more debt or to put into a savings account.
Our interest, savings accounts, I do want to mention because we have a money market, two money market products that you can view at www. patelco. org slash money market. But one of our money market products, the lower your balance, the higher your interest rate. And to me, that speaks volumes about our commitment to serving the community and the members who might not have the minimum balance of 10, 000 required at other funds.
Social Security and you know, financial institutions, there’s no minimum balance and there’s no monthly fee. And you can put your money in and you can make a higher interest rate on your lower balance [00:11:00] which I think is huge. Also our commitment to financial wellness and literacy, I mean our entire department is focused on this on financial wellness, and I don’t think many banks have, entire departments working on providing financial wellness, education, and literacy.
to employers to offer their employees so they can be more productive. And all of that is at no cost. I’m especially fond of our, coaching. As Shada mentioned, we have CFSs, Certified Financial Coaches. Our team is all certified as well, and we offer one on one coaching to, employees of our partners, and there is no cost for that.
So if they need help, you know, getting, you know, their debt down or improving their credit score, to name a few, we can certainly help with that. Patelco has a philosophy of, people before profits, and I think we also live that in our department. Also, our mission is to strengthen financial wellness, and we’re certainly doing that, you know, with our partner employers.
And then lastly, I might add that the biggest difference between a bank and a credit union is no shareholders. So we do not have [00:12:00] to pay shareholders their dividends, which means all of our profits go right back into products and services, which is why we, have the better products and services that we offer to our members and our partner employees.
That’s so great. And I forgot to introduce you, in the beginning as certified financial, counselors. You both, and I’m a counselor as well, have gone through this program and this certification process by which to be able to counsel members and employees alike on anything in their financial journey, and I think that’s a huge benefit and not to be left out as an element of the program because not all We have a full team of certified financial specialists, but you yourselves are counselors yourselves.
So when we do have an employee that’s referred by their HR partner, they get to talk to us first and we get to either.
So, we can kind of triage the situation depending on any kind of area of expertise that we can refer them to. So, [00:13:00] I love that so much. So, alright, we’ve talked financial wellness, we’ve talked about the need for it, it’s growing, not a whole lot of people know about it. The thing is free. We’re a full service financial institution.
We’ve got things like virtual branch. We know this is a growing request from employees and employers alike, and again, it’s free. So what’s holding people back from getting started? What do you think, Shada? I think people think that there’s a cost to this program. Well, guess what? There’s no cost. It’s free and there’s no contracts required.
So we make it very easy to become a partner and we do all the heavy lifting as Peggy mentioned for you, for the employers and for the HR people. So it’s free and there’s no cost. There’s no cost. No. Peggy, what’s, what’s holding people back from getting started? You meet with folks all the time, what’s, what’s always their last question at the end?
Well, I think, I think employers are busy and that they’re concerned that this is going to add more to [00:14:00] their plate and that’s not the case because we do all the heavy lifting, right? So, we distribute a newsletter monthly via email, in the newsletter we mention the educational opportunities via webinar or we can, do in person presentations which we’ve done.
Many, many times now that COVID’s lightening up a bit, we can also be on site just to table in lunchrooms, lunch and learn presentations. We try to make it fun, like Shada said, and it gives the employees the opportunity to approach us one to one and ask their questions. Michelle was talking about the coaching and I think many times people are embarrassed if they’ve, you know, messed up their finances, they have too much debt, but in reality, we’ve all been there.
So it’s, and there is no shame in, making mistakes. You know, most of us learn the hard way, you know, including me. So I think that’s mainly just the fact that they think it’s going to add work to their plate. Yeah. So it’s open enrollment time for a lot of organizations out there. We’ve talked about all the different ways that we can support organizations, usually for open enrollment.
A lot of folks have [00:15:00] benefits fairs or they’re having a week dedicated to events and things to get employees to focus on benefits and financial wellness in particular. So we can do a whole lot of stuff, right? We’ve got webinars. We can be on site for just a regular table, for fairs. We can come in and bring donuts and do, you know, all team presentations.
If you’re interested in learning more or connecting with one of our financial wellness partners, you can find more information on our website. We’ve got a dedicated page on patelco. org. The friendly link is slash at work, A T W O R K, patelco. org slash at work. Ladies, it was so fun having you in today.
I’m going to go one more time around the room and ask you to share your favorite kind of hidden gem, favorite element of the Patelco financial wellness program. Peg, we’ll start with you. I would have to say that I love being on site, and I love interacting with employees. I think it’s great fun. I think they enjoy having us as well.
So that would be my, my favorite part. [00:16:00] Yeah. How about you, Shade? A hidden gem of the program. We make it fun. I take that whole energy there, and we make it fun.
I like to take Goody’s appreciation and, you know, showing them appreciation by taking them pizza, taking them donuts, you know, hanging out with the employees, hanging out with the HR managers, you know, just getting to know them more, because this program is ongoing and there’s always room to make it better.
So by listening to our HR partners. Getting the word about what their employees are talking about, what’s working, what’s not working, it’s very helpful for our program to make sure that we keep improving it, for our audience. Okay, gals, good luck with this open enrollment season out there and thanks for all you’re doing to support financial wellness in the workplace.
That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. We’ll see you next time. Patelco [00:17:00] Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00]
Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michelle Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and today we’re back to talk fraud. And of our inaugural podcast season and 10 episodes in, we’ve chatted fraud now twice and we’re back for a third episode because, frankly, fraud is wild, folks.
And joining us today is Tiffany Kiefer, principal of our fraud program in our fraud division, but also Slow Pitch softball player. Hey, Tiffany, great to have you on today. Thanks for having me, Michelle. So, Tiffany, you’re an awesome softball player, I got to say, and I kind of see your role here at Patelco much like a pitcher leading the way in this fraud game.
Oh, yes, Michelle. Thank you for that fantastic softball plug. Tell us a little bit about your background and your role here at [00:01:00] Patelco, as our fraud program principal. I’m very happy to do so. So, I had the pleasure of joining Patelco in December of 2022. I have been working in fraud for the financial industry for about 15 years now.
I am a certified fraud examiner and I have my master’s degree in fraud and forensics. I was thrilled to join the team knowing what Patelco does for our membership, does for our community. And so, of course, I jumped for that opportunity. What I do here at Patelco as the Principal Fraud Program partner is I work with the fraud team, really working on processes of how we can help our members, make sure we are efficiently preventing fraud, and as well as working with our team members and how they work and help with our members to really step back and look at that member experience when it comes to fraud. How can we better educate ? How can we[00:02:00] provide tools and processes for our team members to assist our members.
And so, it’s something that I really love. I have a complete and total passion for educating individuals in how to step back
and to identify fraud and to prevent it from negatively impacting their lives.
Alright, so new Federal Trade Commission data as of February of this year reports consumers losing 8. 8 billion to scams in 2022. That’s worth repeating, 8. 8 billion to scams last year, and that’s more than 30% over 2021, so it’s serious. And from what we’ve seen here at Patelco this year so far, this seems to be continuing to grow.
So, Tiffany, what new trends are you seeing? How are these scams evolving?
Fraud is growing, and it has been steadily over time as techniques develop out by these fraudsters. And so what we’re seeing recently are investment scams [00:03:00] involving social media, as well as romance scams continue with evolving methods of how fraudsters perform those. They do, continue, but they morph over time in how they, portray themselves, right? So, we’ve recently have had a member report falling victim to an investment scam. On LinkedIn where a fraudster reached out to the member offering A fantastic investment opportunity. So, yeah. So this member asked the questions, you know, trying to vet out this person, thinking that they were asking the correct questions, but these fraudsters are good.
They’re savvy. They prepare their information. They prepare documents. This fraudster had a video of, her meeting. potential clients and so this member was under the impression that this, this was a legitimate opportunity and sent out a very large dollar wire. Unfortunately, when that wire went out, [00:04:00] there’s no request to pull those funds back, due to the scam.
And so you have to be very careful when you engage with individuals, especially when it comes to investments. Yeah. Investments. We haven’t, we haven’t heard, we haven’t talked about LinkedIn. We’ve talked about social media channels, and you think LinkedIn is a professional social media outlet and that that might happen there. So that’s a first because we’ve chatted on the show, romance scams and Facebook and other social media platforms, but not linked in, and specifically fraudsters, they’re taking on these personas to connect emotionally.
Anytime you ask a question, They try to think out what you’re going to ask them so that they can come up with a story or a source or a document, something to convince you that they are real. Because that’s their job. It’s a confidence game. And that’s what they did with this member. And so this member was convinced to send out a very large dollar wire.
And unfortunately, because of [00:05:00] how the funds are sent out, there’s no recourse to pull those funds back.
We know that to try and, you know, in their attempts to take advantage of people, we’ve talked elder abuse. And manipulating seniors who, may be less tech savvy and vulnerable. We’ve talked about job scams, with younger people and manipulating those, , eager to get a job. There’s so many types to cover, right?
But there’s a common theme between all of this, and that’s that these crooks, they’re, they take on an imposter persona. I read an NPR article recently about imposter scams, and they had described these scammers as psychologists in the wild, and I had never heard a more accurate description of what this is.
And these scams are highly sophisticated now. They’re using new technology like caller ID spoofing and voice cloning. Can you tell us a little bit more about this and how we stay resilient, specific to voice calls? Spoofing is the [00:06:00] technique where a fraudster will impersonate a trusted source, such as your credit union, right?
Just because your caller ID tells you that it’s somebody else on the other, end of the line, that does not mean that it’s always so. There is technology out there , where anybody can impersonate a phone number.
Years ago, these fraudsters were focusing on contacting individuals, victims, as though they were the IRS. Mm hmm. And so we were getting the IRS calls. That morphed into the, Social Security Administration.
Mm hmm. And recently, I’ve been hearing about utility companies, PG& E, and really the big trend right now, these fraudsters are impersonating financial institutions. So what these fraudsters will do, they will spoof Patelco’s phone number by sending out voice calls to you. And so when you go to pick up that phone, it will show up on your caller ID as Patelco, even though it’s not, right? And so for us to have those words [00:07:00] flash on the phone, we’re under the impression that this is our trusted source.
This is my financial institution. This is someone who is going to help me. And so we’re in that mindset when we answer that call, right? And so when these fraudsters engage with us, When we answer the call thinking that this is Patelco, they will use that to their advantage where we will tend to have that natural inclination to provide information to Patelco.
Patelco is asking me this. Patelco needs information from me in order to help me. And so that’s when we give up that information, right? And so that’s really the technique of these financial institution imposters. And this is not Just specific to Patelco. This is happening widespread. This is all over the country.
These fraudsters will go from one financial institution to the other. And so this is not just a Patelco thing. [00:08:00] This is an trade. every financial institution thing. Yeah. So I’ve almost resorted to not picking up the phone. It gets to be so many and just replying to any voice messages that I get, you know, but I shouldn’t have to do that.
I know. I think you’re right. If, if I’m picking up the phone. Yeah. How, how do I vet? Who I’m engaging with. So this spoofing is happening. The number is the same number that I would normally recognize when Patelco does call or when someone does call me. What can, are there questions I can ask? How do I properly vet who I’m engaging with on the phone?
So, what you can do when you’re getting this phone call and you answer it and somebody tells you that they’re calling you on behalf of Batelco, for this trend that we’re seeing, these fraudsters are calling people and saying that they have fraud on their card.
That’s usually why they’re reaching out to you. They may or may not know your card number. They may or may not [00:09:00] know your specific details or information, where you live, your account information. You receive this call in from this individual, do not provide information to them. You want to know what information they have as they’re calling out to you.
Legitimate phone calls that come from Patelco’s card fraud team , they will ask you if you have performed activity in a certain location, for whatever amount, if it’s valid. They say thank you, and they end the call. If it’s not valid, they will tell you, Okay, this is fraud, we’re gonna have to shut down your card, replace it.
And, if the transaction does go through, a card dispute’s gonna have to be filed. They will not ask you for your online banking information. They will not ask you for your verbal password, or your online banking password. And so what these fraudsters are doing,
they are intimidating… members into [00:10:00] providing personal information by saying I cannot shut this card down until you give me this personal information. You will not be able to dispute these transactions and get your money back unless you give me this information. And so they’re holding access above these members, right?
They are. In, in effect, it’s a threat where you have to do this. You have to give me this information. And if you do engage in a conversation with somebody that you’re not quite sure, if they are who they say they are, you’ve mentioned this on other podcasts and, and employee trainings before. This is a partnership.
Your membership with Patelco is really a partnership and the most part, the most effective partnerships are built on communication. Call us is what you’ve, you’ve always, said to our employees, our external folks. So if you do engage in a conversation like [00:11:00] this and you’re not sure, take their phone number.
Let them know you’ll call them back. Call us. Is that your best advice? Absolutely. Disconnect the call and call the Patelco member contact center. Call 800 358 8228. That is the safest way to make sure that your information is secure, your accounts are not being compromised, and to let them know that you were contacted by a Botelco impersonator.
If this does happen to you, call in, let us know, here at Botelco, exactly what took place. Okay, because we want to protect you. This fraudster may or may not have information. So find out what they have and then contact us so we can help you. Yeah, and I think what we’re saying is we could be here all day talking about all the different scams that are out there.
If you’re unsure, I mean, you’re not going to possibly remember all of these things were three episodes and [00:12:00] now, you know, a couple months from now, we’ll probably be talking about a new engineering scam. But if you’re unsure, call. If you are going to pick up the phone, ask the questions, collect your questions, and contact us.
We’ve also got a really great new resource in our Fraud Resource Center. What’s that all about? Okay, so our Fraud Resource Center on Patelco. org slash fraud. is a fantastic section of the website that we have recently launched. It provides a lot of information on trends, scams, and how you can protect yourself from fraud.
And how to recover. And so we really encourage our members to take a look at this resource. We are here to help you. Awesome. Tiffany, I’m so glad you were here with us today. Thanks for being here. And I’m thinking on it more now, and you’re actually not like a pitcher. I think you’re more of like the catcher position in this [00:13:00] fraud game.
You’re calling the pitches. You have the best view of the playing field. So in, in this fraud game, you’re our, our leader and in the catching position. I love that. So thank you for navigating this game for us. And we want to thank you for joining us, and that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

[00:00:00] Thanks for joining today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
My name is Michelle Enriquez, membership development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and today’s a special day because we’ve got Andrew Ferrell in the studio, and I have the privilege of being on the same team as Andrew. So when the concept came up for a budgeting episode, I knew exactly who to call.
Welcome Andrew Studio’s. Neat, right. Hi Michelle. The studio is super cool and I’m so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast and I am excited to chat with you a little bit about budgeting today. So Andrew, I knew you’d be great for this conversation about budgeting because you like me, we like to splurge on food, travel and entertainment.
Oh yeah. Is that accurate? And would you agree that those are dangerous hobbies, financially speaking? Yes, Michelle, that is definitely, definitely accurate. I very much adhere to the school of thought that you can’t take your money with you when you go. So I make it a point to use my [00:01:00] money to enjoy life as much as possible.
However, the trick there kind of becomes finding that sweet spot to do it responsibly. So you can still live large, but you know within your means. I guess for your earlier question, I don’t necessarily think that splurging on things that make you happy is inherently dangerous. Mm-hmm. In fact, I think that allowing yourself to splurge a little is totally healthy.
But it can be a slippery slope if it’s not done, you know, mindfully. Totally, totally with you. It all starts with the understanding your feelings about money and the things you prioritize when it comes to your financial health, and that’s different for everyone, right? So, The first line item in the needs category in my budget is sporting events.
That is something that brings me joy in what I consider to be a need. And we talk about needs and wants all the time when we’re talking with, the folks that we teach out in the community. So, I don’t know if you’ve been to a Warrior or 49 er game recently, but sporting events for a family requires like financial planning, like some time it requires like a second mortgage.
Yeah, [00:02:00] absolutely. And I know you know this cuz you scored Beyonce tickets, so you know, I know. You know what I mean? Oh yeah. So I did a little Googling. There are different ways to categorize your money personalities. So first one’s broken down by the investors. Savers, big spenders. Debtors and shoppers.
Okay. And when I look at those options, I think I would call myself a shopper in this category. How about you? Ooh. In those categories, I would probably, I. Call myself a shopper as well, although I myself am more of a spender than a shopper. Mm-hmm. If that makes sense. Mm-hmm. Um, for me, aimless shopping, like just walking into a store and kind of shopping around is a very easy way to invite in unnecessary purchases and kind of make me think that I want things that I don’t actually want.
But I cannot deny that I am not shy about buying the things that I already know. I want just kind of, you know, on the go like that. However, I do everything in my [00:03:00] power to avoid unnecessary debt, especially credit card debt, because those interest rates, I mean, yes, yes. But yeah, that also helps me kind of manage my big spending in that sense because I’m.
Managing my debt in that way. Yeah. Yolo, but within reason. Exactly right. So I like these personality categories better. And there’s a couple that I totally identify with. So they are the moneymaker, the worrier, the compulsive saver, the compulsive spender. The gambler, the Indifferent to Money, which was a one I’d heard for the first time.
Okay. And then the Saver, splurger, I’m totally the saver. Splurger again, that kind of balance. So I’m not quite either the extremes, just kind of a healthy mix of both, I think. How about you in this category? First of all, I love these categories, because hearing them all laid out like that has really got me thinking about my own financial habits.
There were quite a few of there that you said in those that I identified with in one way or another. Um, if we are being honest, I [00:04:00] would say I am currently on the path. Towards being a saver splurger, maybe from being a compulsive spender. I’ve said it a few times in this podcast already, but you know, your boy likes to splurge.
Yep., and while I certainly do budget for saving and I’m pretty risk averse with my money, I am admittedly not always one to say no to a nice dinner or a weekend trip., and I also do have a tendency to impulse buy. So I’ll get an idea of something I want in my head. And you know, with the help of Amazon at my fingertips, that thing can usually arrive at my doorstep in one to two business days.
Definitely dangerous. Very dangerous, one thing that’s really been working for me lately though, in curbing the impulse buying is what’s called the 30 day rule. So what that is essentially is if I think of something I want, I will add it to my cart. , maybe I’ll take a picture of it if it’s at the store, but I will wait 30 days to actually make the purchase.
I find that typically by about day three or four, the kind of visceral urge to make that purchase mm-hmm. Has [00:05:00] diminished pretty substantially. And by the 30th day, I realize I’m living life just fine without whatever that thing was, you know? I’ve also actually recently been hit with some car troubles.
Mm-hmm., and while I’m very grateful that I had the money saved for an emergency like this, it made me reevaluate how much I prioritize saving myself. Because when that occurred, I was certainly more of the worrier personality type than I would’ve liked to have been. But that’s why budgeting is, is so crucial for everything, right?
Mm-hmm. Because it allows you to balance everything. You can ensure your needs are met and your bills are paid. You can ensure money is put away for emergencies, but you can also ensure that you have money set aside for splurging on the fun things, and you can do it worry free. Yeah, we all got those pesky car exp unexpected car expenses.
I’m sorry to hear that. But we talk about with our folks all the time, set aside a separate budget for things like that. Exactly. So, you know, the, the budgeting kind of helped you in that area there and I’m glad for that. So you were closely with our higher education partners, and [00:06:00] not only do you give presentations to college students at local campuses, but you help design the curriculum that we build for young adults also.
So, When you’re trying to break through to young people about budgeting, what are the key things you make sure to include and do young people respond to certain strategies when it comes to budgeting more so than others? Young people, definitely like all of the budgeting tools and apps that are out there.
By the way, we sound so old, like these young people and their apps and their budgeting tools., but yeah, they, they like to use the apps. They like to use, you know, the, the. Electronic resources of which there are, you know, a smorgasbord to choose from. Mm-hmm. But with our young demographic being so tech savvy and so keen on using these apps, which the apps really do a lot of the work for you as far as guiding you on creating your budget, categorizing your purchases, things of that nature. 
, the challenge then becomes teaching why budgeting is so important to begin with. So I always make sure to include bringing it back to splurging again. Mm-hmm. Because, you know, I [00:07:00] love to spend money, that allocating money for fun should be a part of any budget. Mm-hmm. I think that’s the only way to break through to young people or really anyone for that matter about budgeting because nobody wants to work hard for their money to be told that it should all go toward.
Boring things like bills and savings, right? , I think the word budget in and of itself sometimes has kind of an all work and no play connotation. So I emphasize the play is a necessity as well. And maintaining a budget doesn’t restrict you from having fun, but instead it allows you to have. The freedom to have fun without stress.
Does that make sense? , yes, and I totally agree that the word budget can have a negative connotation for a lot of people. So they avoid it all together as a result. But also maybe the thought that it’s hard to get started or to maintain. And the truth is with technology, it can be pretty simple.
I’m from the checkbook register generation. Thank you very much. It would’ve been so helpful for me back in the olden days, as my kids like to call it, if I could check my [00:08:00] account balance on a mobile device, because you know, without that you’d have to go to an atm, get your balance, call it one 800 number.
So, That would’ve been super convenient at the time. So I’ve advanced a little bit, not a whole lot, but a little bit. Congratulations. Thank you. About 10 years ago, I started a basic Excel spreadsheet with built in categories for fixed expenses, things like health related costs, the car expenses that we mentioned.
Hair and nails is a category in my budget. Kids, sports and activities, also another category now in my budget. But the point is, you know, it works for me and it’s something. So for our listeners out there, you know, what would you recommend for the budgeting? Novice, something, you know, for somebody just to get started, just dabble in,, to get started with the budget.
First of all, that’s so funny about the check register. When I was 16 and I got my first job and my first checking account, my dad would actually be on me about using and balancing my check register. Like I would tell him like, Hey, I’m just going to look online at my transactions. And he’d be like, no, you [00:09:00] gotta write it down.
Right. So he’s still, to this day, is not fully on board with all the features of online banking. Like I tried to sell him once and he acted like it was. You know, a national security issue, but it’s all right., and it’s fine because he, he does what works for him. And going back to kind of your question about the recommendation, I think that’s what’s most important is just finding out what budgeting technique best fits your existing habits.
So for me, everything is digital. Like I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of great budgeting apps out there. Mint is my personal favorite, and it’s also very beginner friendly. If you’re looking to get started into budgeting, you link it to your bank account. It’ll categorize your purchases for you based on entertainment, groceries, things of that nature.
 You can set limits for how much you wanna spend in each category, and then the app will notify you if you’re overspending in any of those areas. That’s awesome. Very cool. Yes. Patel’s online banking app actually has tons of built-in tools that you can use as well. So you can create budgets by adding and categorizing your income and your expenses.
Using [00:10:00] our budgets widget on the website. You can create savings goals, you can set transaction alerts and low balance alerts and things like that. So many options to stay on top of your finances. Mm-hmm. Just built within the app. I also recommend, first and foremost, ensuring that all of your accounts are free and that you’re not paying any unnecessary service fees, right?
Because that is the most avoidable thing that you can do. Mm-hmm. To, you know, ha conserve your money a little bit better. And then secondly, have multiple checking and savings accounts for different purposes. Like you said, you have budgets for, you know, sporting events, hair and nails, emergencies.
Having those divided separately within your bank account helps a lot. For me, I total all of my biweekly recurring bills and I put that balance in its own checking account and each pay period, I don’t have to think at all about bills being paid. It just happens like clockwork. Oh, I love that. Yeah. I also have different savings accounts for emergencies, vacations, things of that nature.
 So they’re all separated and you can make sure that. You’re properly tending to all your savings [00:11:00] goals. Yeah. And data is our friend. You know, if we, you go through this process, you have a budget, you got an Excel spreadsheet like I do, you’re able to go back at the end of the year and figure out where your money went.
Exactly Right. Okay. So this year wasn’t great. Let me go back and look at which category maybe I, I overspent in and then make adjustments because the, the. Biggest thing about budgeting that we share with our folks out there is, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but make adjustments as you go along based on your lifestyle, make adjustments.
And like you said, the data is also your friend because small purchases really do add up. Yes. And if you go back and see like maybe you spent five or $6 here and there, but. If you have a, a total of it through the month or the year mm-hmm. You realize that five or $7 can equate to hundreds and hundreds of dollars by the end of the term.
So Yes. The old Starbucks equation. Exactly. Running Starbucks every day. So, all right folks. In summary, sticking to a budget is hard or can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, we wanna help. So we’ve got certified financial coaches here at Patelco that you can connect with. If you need [00:12:00] to talk to somebody about getting started, you can find information on how to connect with them.
And sessions are no cost on patelco.org. Also on our website under the financial wellness tab is a financial wellness library with some great articles on budgeting. And then the last thing we’ll mention is Patel CO’s YouTube channel, which has got some great short videos and recorded budgeting presentations that you can check out.
And of course, that to be overshadowed. Our mobile app that Andrew mentioned is probably something you might already be using that has a built-in budgeting feature. So definitely check it out. So Andrew, it’s always great to see you, but so glad that you shared with your budgeting hacks With everyone, thanks for being here today.
Thank you for having me here today, Michelle. Budgeting is one of my favorite topics to discuss, so I had a great time chatting about it today, and of course, it’s always great to see you as well. That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness.
We’ll see you next time. [00:13:00] Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

Thank you for joining us for today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union. Hi. Hi, Fred. Hello. How are you doing? I’m doing all right.
So I’m gonna, I’m gonna be real to start the episode here today, and we’re talking about home buying, and when we first conceptualized this episode, we got a lot of comments. It’s mainly folks saying, why a home buying episode? No one’s buying homes right now. But the truth is, everyone’s always in the market to buy homes, right? Buying a home is one of the most important parts of our life. It’s something you own. It’s where you have your 4th of July birthday parties.
It really is part of the American dream. And even if you’re not looking at the moment, most people. Much more, much rather own a home than rent a home for the rest of the life. It really is something that’s really [00:01:00] important to people.
So welcome to the studio, Fred. Let’s unpack this. So you are one of our esteemed home loan consultants here at Patelco. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. So I’m a regional home loan officer. I have been in the business for 30 years. I stop at 30, it’s actually longer. I’ve been at Patelco seven years, and what I do is help people buy homes. So when I work with a member, they’re the beneficiary of my experience. The previous mistakes I made, even if we, or even if Patelco can’t do the particular loan, I can typically direct people to, I. A path that will lead them to their goal. And ultimately that’s what we do at Patelco. It’s helping people reach this huge financial goal of owning a home.
Amazing. So let’s debunk this myth that home loan rates are keeping future homeowners. From achieving their goals, what [00:02:00] are some of the conversations you and the team are having with members around this? Boy, that’s a, that’s a great question. Everyone wants to know, you know, what’s going on in the market?
Is this a good time to buy? Are housing prices going up, or are housing prices going down and where interest rates going? The simple truth is, is I try to give people perspective. The 30 year fixed rate over the last 50 plus years is around seven and a half percent. The market is currently in the six and half to 7% range.
Mm-hmm. So from a long range perspective, rates are actually okay. Mm-hmm. So that should not prohibit someone from purchasing a home. Right. I remember going through the home buying process myself, and it’s super stressful. Particularly for those buying a home for the first time. But I specifically remember being overwhelmed with not knowing who to trust and how to weigh the loan option types.
So walk us [00:03:00] through what a discovery meeting looks like with the potential home buyer and some of the ways that Patelco is different with our offerings and our approach to helping members. Well, I believe the biggest, factor that distinguishes Patelco is we’re here to help the member or the home buyer.
So the first most important thing that we’re going to do is to listen. There’s a lot of information in the marketplace. I think some of it is noise or it doesn’t fit anymore. It’s always a changing market. So the most important thing we do is to listen and start this home buying journey where the member is.
There are, there’s just a myriad of loan products. People think if you don’t have 20% down, you can’t buy. That’s why we need to have the conversation. That’s why one size doesn’t fit all. There’s a lot of options. Once again, it’s learning the information and even if you can’t buy today, you can buy in the future, but most of that isn’t true.
It’s just taken out of context, but it doesn’t fit to you. It’s like [00:04:00] having shoes, like they’re phenomenal shoes, but they’re three sizes too small. It doesn’t fit you. It doesn’t mean they aren’t good shoes, they just don’t fit you. And that’s what I’ve found. More and more people are at different speeds. Financial literacy. And that’s the difference, is we’re working toward our members financial literacy, not just trying to close a loan, not just trying to sell them a home. We have a relationship with people and that’s why members appreciate Patelco so much.
We don’t sell products. We sell people their dream and we give them the information. To buy the house they want. That’s a program. And that’s the nonprofit financial literacy. That’s the part of us that’s different. It ain’t the program, it’s the dream. , and that dream looks different on every member. 
The truth is you buy a home when you can, where you can in the best location you can.
One of the most important things I can tell any member is that owning a home is a long-term investment. And I, I don’t like to generalize this because for every member, this is different. [00:05:00] Our financial situation changes. You never know when that opportunity is for you to buy. So that’s the best part of getting to meet people.
Don’t let outside influences So the first thing is just to reassure people that this, these are all things we can learn and just to give them the information. You know, so that we can advise, consult, and inform, and that’s really the biggest part. prevent you from at least finding out what you can afford. When you can buy and what the possibility is for you. Man, I wish I had you available when I was going through the home buying process myself. It can be super stressful, particularly for those buying a home for the first time.
And I specifically remember just being overwhelmed with not knowing who to trust, how to weigh the loan type options among other things. So walk us through what a discovery meeting looks like. So a member reaches out to us. They’re interested in first time home buying or home buying. So, What does that discovery meeting look like and what are some of the ways that [00:06:00] Patelco might be different with our offerings and our approach to helping our members?
If they wanna have a phone conversation, you can do that. Or there any of the ways that we can connect with our members, make it convenient? Yes. To all above. I’ve had Zoom calls with people. I’ve met people in person, which we’re doing again, sometimes, a lot of times we can do it over the phone. It just depends on, I’m gonna meet the member where they are and what’s convenient for them.
So it’s the most important thing we do is first to make sure why we’re there and then to listen. Perfect. So our community team is talking with. Future home buyers all the time, and there’s a lot of folks out there who think it’s impossible to buy here or they’re not quite ready to set an appointment with somebody like yourself.
So we offer educational seminars and we have other resources online, don’t we? So tell folks how they can learn more. I’m gonna tell you the easiest thing to do, and you know we do a great [00:07:00] job of this, forgive me for bragging on Patelco, is allowing people to know that they can buy a home. You know, what we tell clients is the hardest thing I say to people is, It’s not if you can buy a home, it’s when you can buy a home.
Buying a home is a journey. It’s an information journey. It’s very interesting. I just had a couple of new members, both of them have PhDs. They did not know how to buy a home. These are brilliant people. Stanford Medical Center, one of them. I mean, they’re just really smart folks. So everyone starts at the same place.
Now, Fred, these discovery meetings, these time with you, this is complimentary.
This is all free. All free. It’s, it’s the best part of getting to meet, the members. I just met with a first time home buyer. We were having difficulty communicating over the phone. We sat down for a half hour and it was so amazing to see this first time home buyer get it, you know, young, making great money.
They can buy a home. And often it’s that moment of looking at [00:08:00] someone, it buying a home’s emotional. And so you can be the smartest person in the world, but it’s emotional. And just the realization that he could do this. He looked at me, he looked at the computer. It was one of the best parts about being here, which is helping people realize their dream. So we lend all over California. my branches are in the Walnut Creek, Pittsburgh, Antioch, Concord area, but we can lend all over California as far as our service area. So, Whatever is most convenient for the member is how we typically have meetings. Great. And we’ve got home loan consultants all across our service area, so our 37 branches.
 Fred, thank you so much for being here today. If you wanna schedule an appointment with Fred himself, you can contact him direct at fWilliams@patelco.org or visit our website@patelco.org to schedule an appointment with one of our home loan consultants.
That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify [00:09:00] financial topics to help with your financial wellness. We’ll see you next time. Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

0:08
Thanks for joining us for today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. My name is Michele Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco, and today we’ve got not one, but two guests in the studio. We’ve got Justlyn Flynn, Troy, who is a certified Financial Counselor.

0:29
And Ginger Smith and they are both senior financial specialists at our virtual branch. Welcome, ladies. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you. Glad to be here. So let’s roll right into it. We’re here to talk about virtual branch and what we like to consider one of the few bright spots that came out of the pandemic. Our virtual branch is an award winning additional channel for our members to bank and connect with us. So very literally a virtual.

0:59
Branch that serves our members nearly the same way as they would in a branch location, only remotely. And your team is now serving over 1000 members per month, which is just incredible and clearly our members are loving it. So Jeslyn, we’ll start with you. You’ve worked at a branch before and now you're serving members via the virtual branch. Jeslyn will start with you. So you’ve worked at a branch before and now you’re serving members via the virtual branch. How is this experience different?

1:29
Well Michelle, I worked in a physical branch in Sacramento for about 6 1/2 years. Really the two key differences would be the venue and how the members are truly enjoying the ease of banking from wherever they are. I am a people person myself, so I love that I am able to still visually interact with our members. In one situation, I had a member 93 years of age who was unable to visit a physical branch due to mobility issues.

1:54
She wanted to add her grandson as a joint and as we know, you know, we have to have authorization ID’s. We were able to get all of that information while interacting virtually and it all worked out well. That’s so great, That’s amazing. Jocelyn, you work out in the community quite often with our team at events and we still love having you out in person, in the community with us and.

2:19
Another huge benefit of virtual branch is that our members can connect directly with an agent at the virtual branch when we’re out to set up accounts and services in the moment. And this is particularly popular and convenient at our partner companies when we’re on site. In addition to having that connection while when we’re in the field, our partner companies can also offer virtual branch access to their out of area or state employees which they love.

2:47
So, Ginger, this is not the first virtual banking support concept. There have been some services like virtual teller out there or virtual representative, but that’s not what this is, right? No, not at all. We’re not the typical bot that some may think we are. In fact, most of our members are in disbelief when they reach a human being, you know, where you would think that you would text back and forth and misinterpret things.

3:15
I love their reactions when they do reach us. I love their reactions like, oh, a live person. We have so many returning members that use our virtual branch who are just thrilled to have this service available to them. With that Facetoface interaction with an actual person, there’s little room for misinterpretation. So virtual branch is growing. You all are a team of 18 now, which is incredible.

3:44
So Justin, what are the kinds of things and types of transactions that our members come to call it virtual branch for? Virtual branch members stop by for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common are new memberships, loans, iris services and even basic account servicing such as account to account transfers. Virtual branch seems to be most popular for our out of area members, very convenient.

4:10
Because they’re not near a physical branch, but they get the physical branch experience. And I’ve heard that folks even call us from out of the country. Is that right? That is correct. I had a member in India that is so amazing, I must agree with Jesslyn. There’s a wide variety of assistance that we do provide our members. Although they may come in for one specific service, they do realize we can do a whole lot more. At the end of the day, we’re a branch just with more convenience.

4:37
So how do we get connected to you all at Virtual Branch? Our virtual branch is easy to reach if you have a smartphone, tablet or computer. We can be reached by simply going to our website at patelco.org. Virtual Branch and you could select the Meet Now option during business hours. Great. And can we set up an appointment if needed? Yes, definitely set an appointment that best fits your schedule. And just to let you know, we are open Monday through Friday.

5:05
From 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Saturdays 1:50 and that is Pacific Standard Time. We look forward to seeing you. Thank you both so much for the details on virtual branch. It’s such a great way that we’re helping meet our members where they are really continue to provide a safe and convenient way to connect with us. So check out our virtual branch from our website patelco.org under locations is the first location listed there.

5:31
Thanks, Ginger and Jeslyn. Hopefully our members will hop on and say hello to you. That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. We’ll see you next time Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

0:04
Thanks for joining us for today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. My name is Michelle Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union. And today we’re joined by Luis Hata, Retail Program Partner. Luis, it’s so great to have you here. Welcome to the studio. Hi, Michelle. Thanks for having me.

0:29
It is such an honor to be here with you. Thank you for having me on the podcast that just excited to be here and talk about what we’re doing. So Louise, you and I have a shared passion for educating and supporting our communities with financial education. So how many years combined have we been at it? I’m going on 17 and I know we’re going to date ourselves here. I started out with credit unions in 2001, so been working with financial institutions ever since.

0:58
It looks like today’s chat brings a combined industry experience of almost 40 years. Wow. Yeah, you know, and really interesting is one of the main reasons that excited me to make the move to Patelco was their mission to provide financial Wellness in the community. I remember my very first meeting here in our CEO talk about it with conviction, so much conviction. And I knew that I was with a team that not only talked about financial Wellness.

1:24
But we were determined to help our members actually achieve it. So tell us a little bit about Patelco’s CFS coaching program and how it’s an important differentiator when it comes to delivering on our mission of providing financial Wellness. Oh God, how much time do we have? I just got so much to say. I get so excited anytime I hear CFS, the team is amazing. Just a little bit of background. We knew the mission to build our members financial, health and will being was no easy task.

1:53
Right. And so there’s many markers on this journey. There’s a lot of things to do. But before we thought about to do is we took A to learn approach, which means that we we wanted to 1st understand what what’s happening, what are our members doing, right. We started on this journey by learning about our members and community, what they were experiencing in their financial journey. In 2016, we conducted a financial health assessment that received several 1000 completions.

2:21
We were hearing from our members across three key financial health categories, those that were financially vulnerable, those that were financially coping. And then of course also we had a strong group of those feeling financially healthy. And so once we learned that we knew okay, there’s what do we do now, how do we use this information and and what can we do next. And so you know, the following year we added to our financial wellbeing mission, the Road to Financial Freedom.

2:49
And so super cool, right the the road to financial freedom was our commitment to helping members on their financial journey. We articulated the four major building blocks that we would commit it ourselves and supporting our members, right. So these four building blocks are supporting our members to manage their daytoday financial lives effectively, to teach our members to be resilient during lives ups and downs, to encourage our members to seize opportunities and finally.

3:16
To support our members to rise up and achieve financial freedom. And this is great, Luis, because you know a lot of times as consumer we get surveyed right. You never know where the survey results go, right. And it sounds like in this case, you know, Patelco really took serious the results that we were getting from members and said, you know what, we’ve got members.

3:35
Who were struggling financially, who are being vulnerable and telling us that they need support. So the fact that we took this data and took action and it may have not gone as how we originally planned, we pivoted based on the data that we received. I think that speaks volumes about us really living our mission that that’s it, that’s the real deal. And you know during the same time we we also were learning about additional opportunities from credit unions all over the world.

4:03
So thanks to the Filing Research Institute, we entered a financial health challenge which supported ideation through human centered design. Really cool ideas. Looking at designing products with people in my We walked through this process of understanding how people feel, how people experience the program and we tested out. And so to our surprise, Patelco’s idea was selected as a first place winner. This idea was called Relook and the idea was a commitment to supporting those most vulnerable and coping.

4:33
With additional support on their financial journey, the idea was we no longer just communicated the client credit request without providing information, guidance and support on how they might start on the journey to one day qualify for their request. Now I know what you’re thinking that that’s a lot of work, right? And so we knew we were going to need a team with a unique skill set to help our members and so we needed to build a team and shortly after we piloted Qunas vicep.

5:02
Counselor training through multiple departments. The goal here was let’s see how our team members can use these learnings and their everyday interactions with our members. After learning from the team, we learned that our retail team members had the most capacity to identify and support members needing a financial coach. So here comes the gist of our CFS program. So our CFS program is now alive and was focused on 4 main areas of support.

5:31
These were the ways that we thought we were going to be able to help. We were challenged to consider the ways that we can support our our members, and they were ready to support members needing help to save, needing help to create a budget, needing help to monitor or build credit, and also needing support and guidance to pay off debt. It might seem simple for most or many, but helping a member visualize reaching their savings goals or the confidence and telling their money where to go versus wondering where it went is.

6:00
Huge, right? And so I get so excited about this because one of the things I love the most is when we show a member their debt free date. Yes, I have never seen a dry eye. Yes. And this is such an amazing tool for our members and community and frankly so underutilized. So I happen to be a certified financial counselor myself and I share with folks all the time.

6:24
This certification process is you know exactly what you would expect. You know, one learns over the course of a six month program all about financial principles, including creating a spending plan, savings tools, credit. You know, all those resources that one can take advantage of in within those categories that you just talked about. But for me, the training is equally about connecting with people.

6:47
So good, you know, it’s understanding different personality types, generational nuances, empathy. And that is almost as important as the tangible stuff. Because if we can’t connect and listen to what our members goals are, we can’t even begin to effectively suggest a plan forward to help them achieve. You know what it is they contacted us for in the 1st place. So you know, over the years I’ve canceled and coached and to be clear, this service isn’t one that anyone should feel shame.

7:17
About seeking, it’s like having a personal financial accountability partner because we like to look at it, right. Cheerleader. Yes. So sessions really run the gamut of needs. You know from I’ve never had a budget before and I need help creating one to help stretch my dollars. Especially now to, you know, I want to buy a house sometime soon, but I’m not ready to apply. I don’t have my down payment ready or you know, another common one is, you know, I have.

7:43
I have debt and I need help coming up with the plan to pay it off. You know, the list goes on. But what are some of the other kinds of things that members can come to or CFS is for? Yeah, no, it’s so good. And I just, I love how you touched on the connection, the human connection. It’s so valuable with our coaches. It’s really that’s what stands out in establishing rapport with a coach and a client, with them even trusting us to provide us their story and tell us their story.

8:11
That is so important to the coaching relationship. Yes, I I just, I love that you shared that. Thank you so much. You know, in addition to being a CFS, our coaches are often also a first step in all things Patelco has to offer. So from guidance to setting up appropriate accounts for all the family to recommending when it’s time to see one of our expert partners, they’re truly a fantastic partner to have in Patelco. So they touch pretty much every area of the organization and they can be a resource.

8:41
For anybody at any point it’s it’s such an amazing resource and one that we absolutely encourage our members to take advantage of which is also complimentary. It’s completely free right. So what is this what is this process look like following a session is this like a one and done type interaction. We mentioned it’s free but and then how do we sign up for this. Yeah. So typically our CFS is our coaches will take an opportunity to explain that this is a coaching relationship. So we’re not simply.

9:11
Helping them when and done. We’re not just completing of course unless that’s that’s what the need is, is a simple question we support with that. But what we’re really looking for is the coaching relationship is how do we help somebody on their journey understanding what they’re trying to accomplish and then creating a few markers along that way and saying we’re going to connect with you. Whether that be. You know some folks that may be new to financial management might say I I need support weekly and we’ll do that. Some may say hey I’m okay I can handle.

9:40
A monthly connection or maybe there are a few folks that kind of like me, they have a pretty good handle on control and getting things done. And so they might be like, hey, I’ll check in every three to six months and and that works. So it’s really about what works for the client and our coaches are have the capacity to schedule different options depending on the relationship. And so there there are a couple of ways to request financial guidance with the CFS. You can speak to any Patelco team member to be referred directly to a CFS.

10:10
Or you can visit patelco.org, hovering over the Financial Wellness drop down and clicking personalized advice on that page. There’s a so short request form and the CFS will reach out to you within three business days to schedule an appointment and learn about your goals. Louise, thank you so much for being here today and sharing this information. Like you mentioned, members can submit a request for Financial coaching on patelco.org or you can get connected by tapping the link in the description.

10:40
So that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. We’ll see you next time the Telco Credit union is insured by NCUA.

0:03
Thanks for joining us for today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help you with your financial Wellness. My name is Michelle Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union, and we’ve got Jennifer Mink back in the studio today. Jenn, it’s so great to have you back. It is awesome to be back. Hello. So you’ve been on the show before to talk about fraud.

0:30
And we did an episode recently about romance and job scams, but those are just a few of the types of financial fraud that can occur. But today we have you back to chat elder abuse, which I think is the worst kind of fraud. So Patelco has a commitment, you know, to protect all of our members, but especially our aging membership with fraud prevention and fraud resolution. So as the manager of member experience here at Patelco.

0:59
And part of my previous role at Patelco, being in our specialized accounts, was working with elder abuse cases here. And like you said, Michelle, it is the worst kind of fraud. And I think it is the worst kind of fraud #1, because you’re having fraud committed against an aging population of members who don’t have the ability to go back to work and recoup funds once they’ve been taken from them.

1:24
And it’s so sad, and I have so many stories I could tell you over the years about different elder abuse cases that I’ve been part of. The scammers are targeting our aging members. So 65 plus is what the state of California says is considered elder financial abuse. And these members are typically people who have already retired. They don’t have the ability to reearn income that they’ve lost due to a scam.

1:51
So it’s really terrible that the scammers go after these most vulnerable people. And working at Patelka now for 28 years, I’ve spent a lot of my career battling elder abuse and helping our members to prevent and resolve the fraud that they’ve unfortunately been victims of. And I have so many personal stories that I can share with you, but one that comes to mind right now. And I know we talked about romance scams before, but these are so prevalent, especially with our aging members.

2:20
So they’ve either lost somebody in their life, there’s lonely, they’re isolated, and these scammers just really hone in on those vulnerabilities and come for them. And it can be somebody that they meet on the Internet through different websites, things like that. They establish a personal connection, an emotional connection, and not soon after that fraud and scam starts to take over.

2:48
And when the member finally realizes what’s happening to them, they could have lost up to $150,000. I’ve seen it that high. And it’s really, really sad. That’s truly heartbreaking. And you gave a presentation to our team recently and included this stat from the National Council on Aging, and it reads like this. It says up to five million older Americans are victims of financial abuse every year.

3:14
And the annual loss by victim is estimated to be at least 36.5 billion. OK, but in addition to that, one in ten Americans 60 and over have experienced some form of elder abuse. So we’re talking about someone’s parents, someone’s grandparents, someone’s loved ones.

3:33
And frankly, we’re hoping that these stats really trigger our listeners like they do us and prompt us to take some kind of preventative action if possible. So your team is working tirelessly to find solutions for our members to combat fraud. And you’ve recently rolled out a great new feature for Patelco members to assist. So tell us about Trusted Contacts. Absolutely. And I am so, so excited that Patelco has taken this step.

4:01
To really protect not only our aging membership at all of our members that are 18 plus. So a lot of our listeners may not have ever heard about a trusted contact. So a trusted contact is an individual that the member chooses that Patelco can contact in limited circumstances if there are concerns about the member or their account. So let me give you some examples of what the purpose of a trusted contact is.

4:28
So you know, Patelco is here to protect the financial well-being of our membership and that is making sure that we protect the wealth and assets from fraud and build relationships with not only our members today, but also members with the next generation. So their children and grandchildren Trusted Contacts allows Patelco to be in a better position to keep a member’s account safe, especially when the member is aging and is likely more more vulnerable to that fraud.

4:58
The elder abuse, the romance scams, things like that. And if Patelco does suspect that there is some type of fraud, it allows us to act quickly and address that suspected fraudulent activity again, especially for our aging members. And another thing that a trusted contact can do is confirm the wellbeing of a member who appears to be suffering from a health issue. And I can talk a little bit of more about that later.

5:22
Or somebody that appears to be lacking capacity to make important financial decisions. OK, so this sounds great and sounds like a really simple solution that adds so much value to our account holders, but sounds a little bit too good to be true, right? So walk us through some scenarios. So say I add a trusted contact to my mom’s account.

5:43
What can I expect to be able to communicate with Patelco about regarding my mom’s account? So can I call and inquire about things? Will Patelco contact me? How does this work? Yeah. So because it is fairly new, not a lot of people have heard about it. I can tell you a little bit more about what a trusted contact can do and then how Patelco will use them. And we can go over some scenarios. So what a trusted contact can do, again, is respond to any suspicions of financial exploitation.

6:12
For our member identify someone who’s a legal guardian, a trustee, power of attorney, something to that nature, and then helped Patelco to connect with a member we are unable to reach. So what they can’t do is they can’t call Patelco and ask questions about your account. So Michelle, if.

6:32
If I added you as my trusted contact and you just became curious one day where I’m getting all this money from and you decided to call Patelco and say, hey, you know, Jen’s been coming in and to my job and buying all of these things and I’m really curious where she’s getting her money from. The trusted contact cannot get any information on any of the transactions. They can’t authorize transactions, They can’t make decisions on our members behalf or be provided with detailed account information again.

7:02
Such as balances or transaction history. So some of the ways that we would use a trusted contact and I have a few examples for you and having been at Patelka 28 years, I’ve been in the branches, I’ve been in several different apartments. But one thing that comes to mind health related and something that would happen every so often in a branches, we would have a member come in who maybe wasn’t feeling great that day and had a health crisis.

7:28
So whether it be they started to not feel good and weren’t able to drive home or I’ve even had it where members have literally passed out in my lobby and we’ve had to call an ambulance. And sometimes we’re challenged with what do we do now that this member is in this situation, who do we call? And that is where trusted contact would come in. It would allow Patelco to contact somebody that the member knows and trusts, that they’ve added to their account to get that member help.

7:55
So whether it be a ride home or somebody to meet them at the hospital, this person is someone that the members chosen in advance to be their advocate. And so that’s an example of health related things that a trusted contact can do. The second one which I’ve seen unfortunately often enough sometimes weekly is a member who starts to have cognitive issues. So we start to you know being at Patelco and.

8:22
Being here for members and being in the branches, you get to know people on a daily basis. You see them all the time. You start to realize when things are changing with the member, they start to have cognitive issues, or they’re forgetful, or maybe they come in and they’re just not looking themselves. A trusted contact is also extremely important in this situation because someone who’s having cognitive issues.

8:43
Or someone who may be forgetful. As you know, Michelle can be a huge, could be a huge vulnerability for a scammer to come in and take financial advantage of that person. So if we start to notice that a member comes in and they’re acting different than normal, we could utilize A trusted contact to just reach out to them and say, hey, we’ve noticed Miss Smith is coming in, she’s acting different. It’s not what we’re used to seeing. We’re hoping you can just check on her.

9:11
And we’re not going to give much more information than that. But it puts that person, that trusted contact, in a position to verify that the member’s okay and if they need help, they can step in. And then the third most important part of a trusted contact is to be a roadblock for a potential scam or fraudulent activity. And again, I’ve told you about the romance scams and the job scams, but we have members that come in and they’re asking to withdraw large sums of money.

9:41
And this can be anybody from, you know, 18 to an aging member. It’s mostly our aging membership that tends to be targeted. But I’ve seen it across the board. And when a trusted contact comes into play, here is the branch can only do so much, right? We have to educate our members about the what we believe may be a scam, give them the red flags, try to help them to see what’s happening and if all of our resources that we have.

10:09
Can’t help them to see what’s happening? Then the trusted contact would be the resource that we would reach out to as a last resort to kind of let them know what we’re seeing and what our concerns are. So I know that I would appreciate a phone call from someone if any of you know my parents were experiencing these issues and sounds like all of our members should consider adding a trusted contact to their accounts.

10:34
But is this a painful process? How do I get this started? So do I? Do I call in? Do I go to a branch? Can I visit the virtual branch to get this set up? It is not a difficult process at all, and I want to just touch quickly on who a member should choose as a trusted contact because I think that’s really important and it needs to be somebody that can handle difficult conversations such as what I just described to you.

10:59
So when you’re thinking about adding a trusted contact to your account, think about someone in your life that would protect your interests. Maybe that’s a family member, Maybe a best friend, Maybe a coworker. We all develop relationships at work. Somebody that would really look out for you if if things were to go wrong. Also someone that would feel comfortable talking to Patelco if we were to call them, and someone that knows you well enough to notice when there are changes in habits and behaviors.

11:27
Another thing to look for in a trusted contact is are they familiar with my support system? Do they know how to who to contact in the case of an emergency? And last but not least, and probably the most important is a person who agrees to take on the role. So you want someone who who’s like, yeah, I want to do that for you, they are going to be your best advocate. So to answer your question Michelle, it’s it’s really easy and we’re making it as easy as possible. You can come into a branch to add a trusted contact.

11:56
You can call our member Contact center and we can send you a form through DocuSign to add a trusted contact. We also have a landing site on patelco.org which is patelco.org/trusted Contact all one word which will have all of the information there including the application.

12:16
And then coming in July, we have an exciting update to our online banking system where you’ll then be able to just go into online banking and add, remove, edit a trusted contact right through your online banking portal. So that’s going to be super convenient. We’re looking forward to that, but through the branch, through our call center, through virtual branch, Patelco’s here to get that trusted contact added to your account and we hope you take advantage because it is a huge asset to have somebody that can advocate for you in critical situations.

12:46
This is such great information, Jen, and more and more. You know, I feel really proud that we’re, you know, seeking solutions to help our members be better advocates for their own financial health. And thanks for all your efforts personally in helping our members better protect their accounts. So thanks for being here with us again today, Jen. That concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. We’ll see you next time.

13:16
Patelco Credit Union is insured by NCUA.

0:03
Thanks for joining us for today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. My name is Michelle Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union. And today we are joined by Walid Hissen, who is our Vice President of Deposits. Walid, so happy to have you here on the show today with us. Oh, thank you for having me. Always happy to be here.

0:29
So you’ve been busy lately with everything that’s been going on in this savings rate environment. As our Vice President of Deposits, you also recently did a radio spot to talk about IRA savings. So let’s get right into it and I’ll ask the question that were asked in the community nonstop and realizing that there’s a very long and technical answer to this, but.

0:55
To help us understand, you know why rates are so high lately and while we’re seeing some of the highest rates on deposits in a long time, rates on loans are also very high. So to help us understand why that is so, there is a very long and technical answer to that question, but I’m going to spare you that. Let’s let’s go back your back in time, okay. So in the last year, what have we observed happening?

1:23
In our economic environment, we hear a lot about inflation. In fact, inflation hit about 9%, a little bit over that in the last year and that’s very concerning. Why is it concerning? One, the average inflation rate before that was between 2 to 3% since the 90s. So inflation has been fairly low and that’s good thing for consumers because every time you’re thinking of buying something, investing in something.

1:53
And you put money on the side for it. You know the price is not going to go get away from you and you’re going to end up chasing the price to buy what you want to buy. So the Fed takes the inflation rate fairly seriously and their objective is to get it to that 2 to 3% rate. OK, Now the Fed has a lot of tools to work on inflation, the.

2:20
And one of the most important tools is what they call the discount rate. And what they’re doing is they raise the rate for banks. And that forces banks to raise rates on the deposit side, which is good for consumers that have cash and on the lending side, which is not so good for the consumer and business owners who want to borrow money to spend additional cash, OK. So the idea there is by increasing the rate, people will borrow less and spend less.

2:49
And then you take a heated economy where people are overspending. And when people are overspending, you know, more people want to buy the same thing and that drives the price up. So when less people want to buy the same thing, that drives the prices down and that reins in inflation from a Fed perspective. So the discount rate is what raises the what the Fed raises the rate with, and that impacts bank and it forces banks to also increase the rate now.

3:19
What has happened over the last year is the Fed has increased rates by roughly 5%. That’s unprecedented the last two cycles in 2008 and in 2019 when we had a rising rate environment where the Fed was raising rate, it took them roughly about two years to reach 4%. So the speed of the rate going up is matching this.

3:48
Of how high the inflation rate is and it’s creating a lot of talk and and it it’s it’s really shaking up the markets a little bit. So what we see on the consumer side are these high rates and you can’t get down the freeway without seeing tons of billboards for high CD rates. And so as a consumer you’re kind of left to try and decipher you know which rate to take advantage of and which instrument to use. So I have to tell you a story.

4:16
And as you know, my team is out in the community working with organizations to bring financial Wellness to their employees. I was out of the architectural firm recently giving a lunch and learn presentation about some of our products and services. And I get to talking about savings goals and different savings instruments that one can consider for savings. And I bring up CD’s, how great the rates are. And I get stopped by a young person in their 20s and their question for me was what is a CD?

4:46
And in that moment, once I got past my initial confusion of the question, I realized, you know, we haven’t talked about CD’s for maybe longer than a decade just because the rates were so low. We weren’t in this savings environment that we have now. So I stopped and apologized and explained, but we have to realize that we can’t assume that our members out there all know what a CD is and.

5:11
You know how that contrasts against some of our other savings instruments out there. So breakdown what a CD is for us and you know is that offering a better return on our on our investments these days versus something like a savings account or a money market account. Great, great question. Let’s start by kind of focusing just on the on the term CD. CD is an acronym and it’s the letter C is certificate and the letter D is deposit. So it’s a certificate of deposit.

5:41
And I’m going to stop here just for a second because deposit is banking lingo. And basically what it means is you have cash, you’re going to put it in a bank or a credit union and banks and credit union call that a deposit because you go to a teller or or somehow and you deposit it into the bank. So we call these deposits. So a certificate of deposit is basically a certificate and the reason it’s a certificate.

6:10
Is because unlike the other instruments that the bank has, for example, the checking account where you put money in it and use that to spend, or a money market or savings where you put money in and that’s fairly liquid, you can pull money out anytime you want. A certificate has a contractual element to it and that contractual element is basically two parts. The first part is a Guaranteed Rate, the other part is a specified term.

6:38
So let’s go to the Guaranteed Rate first. When you make that agreement with your credit union on the certificate of your choice, you’re going to get that rate and it’s going to be guaranteed. So let’s take, for example, the day before COVID, the day before COVID lockdowns. And that basically what we saw is that rates were normal the day after.

7:06
All rates dropped in a second. Now if you got a CD just the day before, you would have been locked into that rate. And even though rates go down, you still get that rate and you get it for this is the second piece of the CD for a specified term that you had agreed upon. For example, it’s 3618 months, three years. So there there’s a lot of variability in terms and they go up all the way to five years.

7:36
Now the difference between a CD and a money market is in a money market, you’re going to get a money market rate, which tends to be lower, and at the same time you’re going to be able to pull your money out anytime you want. So here’s where people get really, really anxious. What do you mean I can’t pull my money out of the CDI? Did not say that you can’t pull your money out of the CD, but because it’s a contractual agreement.

8:05
You know, there is some forfeiture you have to do. So you what you typically do is let’s say 6-7 months, eight months into your CD, you decide, you know what, I’ve got an emergency. I need to pull my money out. What happens? Typically what the first thing that you’ll get is you’ll get your money back, OK. The second thing is basically you’re going to get a portion of your interest as opposed to all of your interest. So typically.

8:35
In banks and credit unions, they call that a penalty, but the penalty is basically just going into the interest that you would have gotten and you would forfeit A portion of it. So we’re looking at our highest yields, living with our CD’s and then money markets and then our savings accounts. Is that kind of the structure of where we get the best bang for our buck, so to speak? Correct. You typically would get your best rates with the CD.

9:01
OK, wonderful. So it’s that time of the year where you know, our members might be receiving tax refunds, you might be receiving a bonus or a pay increase. And you know, we’re always telling our members, put any kind of extra cash away, pay yourself first as we like to say. And we’ve got plenty of options to help our members maximize that savings. So we’re encouraging our members to visit us at patelco.org/rates.

9:28
And patelco.org/no risk to go see all the varying rates between those savings instruments that you just talked about. And Patelco’s a great place to house some of those investments and getting started with savings. But we also like to make it easy and you know we’re here for 710 minutes and we’re we’re talking about it today and helping our members make decisions, but you may not, you know, completely be ready. So we have our certified financial specialists.

9:56
Available at our branch locations and also via our virtual branch where these specialists can help our members, you know, determine what the best option for them is going to be based on their goal. So we certainly encourage our members to take advantage of those free certified financial coaches. So Walid, thanks so much for joining us today. I have a feeling we’re going to have you back. As you know, the year goes on and when we experienced these ebbs and flows.

10:24
Always love to talk about deposits, so ping me anytime. Yeah, we we know you love that. So that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. We’ll see you next time. Insured by NC Way.

0:05
Thanks for joining for today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. My name is Michelle Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union. We are so excited today that we have the Veronica Dangerfield Senior Financial well-being Educator.

0:29
Also known as Patelka’s financial cheerleader on the show today. Veronica, it is a my great pleasure to have you on today. Welcome. Oh, it is my honor to be here with you today. Michel, thank you so much. I'm so excited. So I've been watching your work from afar at a different credit union for over a decade now and I’ve always admired your passion for financial education and uplifting people in their financial journeys.

0:59
And that really shines through every time you host an event, you’re on a webinar, you’re delivering a workshop, or you’re in the classroom. And you’ve been at this a long time and you’ve worked with countless groups over the years in the community, and you have personal experience having raised three children of your own. So I’ve always wondered and hoping you can share with your audience and our members.

1:25
About where this passion for educating our youth derives from, and how does that translate into your work in helping thousands educate young people? Absolutely, Michelle. But as a parent and as a consumer and as an exteenager, I understand the longterm implications of finding and discovering financial health. And it’s all about relationships, right?

1:54
I was put on this planet to teach about money, to preach about love. Because love is, I think, very, extremely important in the financial equation. Because when you love yourself, you can use your finances as a compassionate response to taking care of yourself. And and it’s just so much fun to actually see the light bulb go off in young people’s eyes when they understand.

2:23
That money is a tool, and you don’t work for money. At least you do. In the early part, you might work for money, yes. But in the long term, you use money as a tool to increase the quality of your life, to increase the quality of your community, and to serve. I love that.

2:43
I’d love that. Now, I’ve heard you over the years with, you know, all your sayings and things before our audience today. If you’ve got one best tip for parents or young people out there that haven’t gotten started with an account yet or with savings, what would you share with them? Well, you know, in our industry we have a tendency to say things that don’t mean anything to young people. I have three children.

3:11
The youngest I call Pebbles and Bam Bam Pebbles came out of the womb being an accountant she could actually. You don’t even have to worry about her because she can count numbers, she can do a checking account. And then I have Bam Bam who is a wonderful, loving, compassionate soul and he would give you a shirt off his bag and money from his Mama. He just has no no boundaries around that. But our youth need to understand.

3:40
That having money is a privilege, but with it comes responsibility and the all those spending feels good. You’re making decisions now as a youth that’s going to affect your future self. So when you’re 18 years old, you’re making decisions that’s going to affect your 28 year old self. So I try to give them the information with fun. I try to give them the information with love.

4:05
And I always tell them you create what you pay attention to. Are you paying attention to your money? Are you paying attention to budgeting? Because if you are, the results are going to show in your finances. I love that so much. And really, everyone has a money personality. Everybody’s got their nuances with the way they feel or treat money or their financial Wellness. And you know, April is National Credit Union month.

4:34
And that’s our gym. I was telling my son, my oldest son, I was saying, you know, you got to pay yourself first. He goes, mom, what are you talking about? You know, that’s crazy. I work for the money. What do you mean, pay myself first. So I had to break it down. And we have to break it down to our young people because they don’t understand that savings is not something you do in your checking account where you pay your expenses.

5:02
I go to the Cal State East Bay, I go to universities all over the Bay Area, and I ask people, do they have a checking and a savings account and it’s attached? They all say yes. And then I tell them you don’t have any money and they all laugh. Why? Because it’s true. In order to save successfully, you have to save in a separate account that is safe and secure.

5:30
And you have to fund that savings. So April’s National Credit Union Youth Month and you know, our industry goes big with Youth Month because really we were founded on the principles of savings. And so we’ve got this dedicated time to both celebrating the credit union youth movement and also encouraging our young people to save. And to your point, maybe this starts with really understanding our money personalities.

5:59
And then taking that and finding resources and further education and then products and services to help us with that, to help us be successful. So, so at Patelco you open up an account, a checking and a savings and you open up another account and you fund that account consistently and that is how you save successfully and in a way you become your own savior.

6:29
I love that. So how many S’s do we have in there? Are these the Veronica 5S’s? Yes of savings? Safe, secure, separate for your sacred self?

6:41
And save successfully. I love that. And I think the keyword there is separate because so many times we have all of our our monies muddled together. We’re paying bills, we’ve got life things that happen right? And it’s so easy to dip into that account. Paying yourself first is you taking the first amount of money that you get. Not paying it to Metro Getro, are not paying it to go out and get some coffee. But use that money for your future self.

7:10
You’re going to take 10 percent, 20%, and you’re going to put it in a secret, safe, sacred, secure, separate savings account, love it, all of those S’s. And then what you’re going to do is you’re going to fund it and ignore it. You’re going to set it and forget it. So what we’re talking about is giving you the information that you need and then giving you a system so that you can be successful.

7:38
Because if you set up the system and you’re automatically giving money to it, you don’t have to use willpower or think about it. And then that money grows. It makes you safe, it makes you secure, and it gives you financial health, financial wellbeing, and it makes you feel good about yourself, because the more the more you save, the more you save.

8:03
I love that. So OK, the 5S’s, I think we got that, but pay yourself 1st and set it and forget it. But unless it’s separate, we’re not really keeping disciplined with the savings and paying ourselves first. So I love that. So Patelka is a great place to get started with an account. And so for, you know, youth anywhere from the day they’re born until age of 13. Anyone can get a regular youth account, but at the age of 13 you can get a debit card.

8:33
Right, and get started with managing your own money, and that’s with our student checking account. So we make it super simple to open a youth account via our 37 branch locations. Our virtual branch can assist with opening a youth account also, but we’re inviting our members to find out more information on patelco.org/student and Veronica.

8:56
Thanks so much for being with us. I forgot to give you the caveat here. The caveat is, is that when the parents are together supervising their young people with their finances when they’re teenagers, it opens up an opportunity for them to make the mistakes under supervision. And you can watch and teach and mentor your young folks.

9:23
Because when they get into College in the university, unfortunately that is the wrong time. They graduate from the school of Hard Knocks, and then their mindset isn’t very positive because they have so many negative experiences. So take advantage of Patelco’s account so that you can mentor your young person. Now they’re not going to want to hear it, but the good news is, if they make the mistakes, you can at least have the conversations.

9:52
And when they leave your home, they go out with great financial well-being. They feel good about their money and they know how to control and manage it. So important. That’s incredible. And as a parent, a guardian or an adult attached to a youth account, we can also help them and monitor.

10:10
Their spending and their behaviors. I’ve worked at a financial institution as long as my kids have been alive, but you know, it’s just one of those things that you cut off and I’ll do it and I’ll look for the birth certificate later. But we make it easy at Patelco. Another great benefit of Patelco Salute accounts.

10:28
OK, Veronica. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. I have a feeling this isn’t the last time you’re going to be in the studio with us. Not. I love it. I love talking with you, Michelle, and that’s likewise. So that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. We’ll see you next time, insured by NCUA.

0:01
Thanks for joining us for small talks for big change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness, I’m your host, Michelle Enriquez, membership development manager here at PATELCO. And today we’re going to talk about a subject that’s fortunately close to home for me that’s on the topic of romance, scams and fraud. And we have the pleasure of having Jennifer Mink on the show today. Hi, Jen. Hello, good to see you. Thanks for being here with us.

0:30
Absolutely. So Jen is the manager of member experience here at Patelco and it seems lately, Jen, that you’ve been doing quite a bit in the way of helping educate our members about different types of fraud. Yep, just recently you did a radio spot with the breeze to talk about job scams, which was amazing information. Today we’re going to talk romance scams and you know, I mentioned I have this first hand experience with a close family member that was victim of a romance.

1:00
Am so unfortunately I understand how much more devastating a scam can like this can be beyond the financial damage that it can do. So let’s start off Jen. So I mentioned the spot that you did with the breeze about job scams and I’ll tell you I have heard of all types of different fraud but never jobs scam fraud. So tell us a little bit about that and and what we can look out for in the way of job scam. Absolutely so would.

1:30
Scams. These have really become prevalent since the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately. And we all know that scammers capitalize on tragedy, right? And So what we’ve seen specifically at Patelco is members that are out there looking for work, they’ve either lost their job or something’s happened that they need to, they need to find work. So of course they go to reputable sites, you know, like LinkedIn, and these scammers are on there and they’re looking for these vulnerable people.

2:00
So what happens is, is the scammer may hire somebody, um, our member, and say, I have a remote work job for you. And in order to get you the equipment that you need for this job, I’m going to send you a check for $2500. And with that check, I want you to purchase a computer, a printer, and they give them a dollar amount, right? Don’t spend more than 800 and they’ll deposit the check to their account. They’ll go and they’ll purchase the computer equipment.

2:30
And then the scammer will say something to the nature of OK, and with the remainder you keep 200, but send me the rest back in gift cards. And then the Member will go purchase gift cards and the scammer will ask for the gift card number and pin, and that will be provided to the scammer by the member. And then a few days later that check comes back as fraud. So not only has this person’s hopes and dreams died that they’re going to have a job, but now they have a loss of 2500.

3:01
And could it actually end up being even more than that? So people need to really be careful, make sure that you’re validating who you’re, you’re working with. If they say they’re from a reputable company, just verify, just make sure. And so we’ve got the financial, you know, piece of it, but then there’s also the emotional piece of it. So let’s talk about romance scams. And, you know, I mentioned, you know, my close family member was a victim of a romance scam. Actually. It’s still, you know, going through the process now.

3:31
But in their situation, their Facebook profiles public all of their interests and photos and, you know, hopes, dreams, goals, it’s it’s all out there for, you know anyone to see. And, you know, with likes of Google and all the social media platforms out there, it could be very easy for somebody to do a quick search. Absolutely, you know, engaging conversation with you and appear to you know, be somebody that you connect with. So.

4:01
Tell us how is is that how this romance scams start? Tell us how this works and tell us what our Members are experiencing here. It’s devastating and not only the financial loss of it, but the emotional abuse that comes with a romance scam is is horrible. And unfortunately working at patelco, I’ve seen it multiple times. These scammers are they’re crafty, like you said. They go to social media, Facebook, they look at your pictures, they look at like.

4:31
Said hopes and dreams. They look at their posts, they try to kind of build a relationship with the person based on what they’re posting, and and then that person establishes a connection quickly because they feel like this person knows me, this person wants to be with me, they’re professing love to me, and it can happen quickly and people don’t even realize it. We also see these things happening through apps, like words with friends. You’re just there to play an innocent game, and somebody starts a conversation.

5:02
With you, and before you know it, you’re in the middle of a romance scam. And one of the big red flags is that if somebody communicates with you and is professing love, have you met this person? Have you seen them in real life? If the person is saying I can’t meet with you because of this, or I’m out of the country or my job just doesn’t allow, that is a huge red flag. If you can’t just call up that person or text that person and say, hey, let’s get together for dinner or lunch.

5:32
And they always have an excuse. You should be be suspicious of that. And you’ve mentioned gift cards both within the job scams and the romance scams that happen to be the form of payment that this individual happened to be asking of my family member. So gift cards always a ragged fly and it always happened to be Apple gift cards in my situation, right the case, absolutely they will send them into grocery stores. Apple gift cards that can be target Amazon. It’s usually high dollar amounts of 500.

6:03
Um, 250, things like that. You should always be suspicious. And these people are really good at what they do, right? They establish that connection, that emotional connection, and not shortly after that they will start asking you to send the money. And and that’s when the scam begins, OK? And I know for for me and my family during that time, we didn’t have a whole lot of options. We called our financial institutions. And for us here at patelco, you know, once that money’s left your hand and if it is in the form of a gift card.

6:34
Or wire, not a whole lot that we can do to retrieve the funds. So in those situations. And I’ll just add that, you know, relying on your local law enforcement, you know, doesn’t really get you anywhere. Also, because these types of scams are just so prevalent, there’s so much going on in me. How could anyone possibly catch everything that’s out there? So what what what’s talk about what Patelco’s doing to help educate?

7:05
Members and helped to support our Members through this because we’re, we’ve made this a priority here at PATELCO. So I’ve heard that there is a fraud center coming soon. I’m super excited. Tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah, absolutely. So we know that our Members need support and our marketing team has done a phenomenal job of building a fraud center on our website, patelco.org. We realize that our Members don’t have a lot of resources out there like you.

7:35
Mentioned law enforcement. It’s really hard. It’s hard to catch these scammers right. So we need to have a place where Members can educate themselves, look for what the scam red flags may be, what to do if they are scammed, kind of like a one stop shop for scams and fraud. And this fraud center is robust, it has a ton of information, how to prevent a scam, what to do if you are scammed, who to report it to, things like that. So this is going to be a great resource for our Members well-being and I am so excited. It’s wonderful.

8:05
Amazing. So when a Member does call, also I heard that we’re doing some things on the back end too, to navigate those calls to a specialized team to support with fraud. Super exciting. We knew we have a new fraud team in our member contact center. So red flags, if you’re seeing red flags, if you are a victim of fraud, you can contact our member contact center and they have a fraud team specifically to help our members with that. We’re doing everything we can to support the financial well-being of our Members and these are just two of the things that we have started that’s so great.

8:36
Here I think you know because there’s so much fraud that’s occurring, we have accepted that, you know, a portion of our Members are going to experience. So what can we do to just help our Members feel less anxious about what’s going on? We’re going to give them a direct pathway to remedy. So with everything out there, I feel like it’s so hard for us to keep up with everything, right, educate on the front end as much as possible. So if you were to give us one or two key red flags.

9:06
To lookout for and I know we can’t be experts as it all but two things that leave with our listeners today in terms of staying vigilant with fraud. What would you say? Three things actually and I think #1 is to just know and accept that there are scammers and fraudsters out there. I think realizing that you will always be on the defense instead of the offense #2 if somebody starts asking you for personal information, red flag, online banking credentials, they want to gain access to your.

9:36
Computer maybe Shadow a session and ask you to log into online banking and they want to watch you do that big red flag. The third red flag is if they start asking you for money or gift cards.

9:49
Call us. We can walk you through that. We can tell you what to do. I do want to mention that a lot of our Members do come in and and want to do wire transfers and they can sometimes even have the scammer on the phone in their pocket. Anytime somebody tells you to lie to your financial institution or not share the truth, that is a red flag and you need to let us know. We know you’re scared. We know sometimes it’s even really embarrassing that you feel like maybe you’ve fallen for a scam. But we are here.

10:19
Help. And that is our mission. So always let us know. Incredible. So thank you so much for sharing all this information to. I have a feeling you’re going to be back soon so we can talk about hopefully not more frauds and scams. But the reality of it, I think to your very first point is that it is really prevalent. It is a growing industry and at this point with, you know up to a trillion dollars in fraud occurring out there. So we’ll be excited to hear.

10:49
Wait to be back in the future. So thanks so much for being with us, Jen. That concludes our episode of Small Talks for Big Change today, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. We’ll see you next time.

0:03
Thanks for joining us for a very first episode of small talks for Big Change where we help simplify financial topics. To help with your financial Wellness, my name is Michelle Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union. And I’m so excited that we get to shoot this inaugural episode with my good friend and colleague Christy Longoria. Christy is our manager of financial health.

0:30
Here at patelco. Hi, Christy. I’m so glad we get your time today. I’m super excited to be here. Thanks, Michelle.

0:37
So we’re here to talk about financial aid. Yes. And I pulled some stats from some January 2022 Census data that reads at the collective student debt currently stands at 1.75 trillion in the United States. It’s, it’s crazy. So you and I have been talking so much over the last six months about what we can do for our Members in the way of student loan debt and applying for student loan forgiveness. But there’s an opportunity.

1:08
To help us educate our Members about loan options and obligations on the front end, perhaps. So you know Patelco credit union credit unions in general, yes, we specialize in education. We offer webinars and all kinds of tools and resources for our Members. But in your eyes, what’s our as the manager of financial health, what is our responsibility to educate our Members and our Community regarding financial aid options? Yeah, it’s a really huge question and again, thanks so much for having me.

1:39
Here today, as Michelle mentioned, she and I have known each other for a long time and she also knows that I am a storyteller. Yes. So every question that she asked me is likely going to turn into some kind of story. And here we go. So this is a really big question and it’s an important one, right, because I think a lot of.

1:56
Communities need help understanding basic concepts of saving, budgeting, credit, all of these things. And when you think about financial aid right, what is it?

2:10
It’s, it’s the assistance of somebody needing to go to college and figuring out how to pay for it or that thing that you’re required to do. Yeah, that’s exactly, yeah. The thing that your teacher said at the end of the, towards the end of the, you know, your senior year that you’re gonna have to go and do, right.

2:27
But when you think about applying for financial aid, you’re essentially applying for a loan. It, it’s a loan application. You don’t have to take the money right that you receive, but you’re filling out a loan application. And for a lot of our students, this is the first time that they are being asked questions about their finances. Most families don’t talk about finances with their students at home and the level of detail that these financial aid.

2:56
Applications go into.

2:59
Can make families a little bit uncomfortable when it comes to what is your income? Who makes what within the house? What did you as a student you know, how much did you work over summer? How much did you make? Did you file taxes? All of these really critical, foundational pieces of information that most of our students don’t have access to.

3:21
Come right in front of them on a computer screen.

3:24
And they’re trying to like, navigate all of this stuff and it’s just a lot. It’s really overwhelming. And me personally when I was, you know, applying to go to college.

3:35
I didn’t have the expertise of someone to sit next to me, explain to me how to answer these questions. What are they asking for? Like yes, we can read the question and we know what it says, but like what are they actually asking for? Right? So I’m feeling this application out and like, not really sure of, you know, the importance or the significance of all of these things. I end up filling my application out wrong right when I was going to transfer. So I went to Community College first. I was going to transfer to a four year institution.

4:06
I’ve got no financial aid for it.

4:09
Was expected to come out of college probably like it was like $47,000 a year. I was hoping to be out in two years or something, right? So a significant amount of money.

4:19
And I just couldn’t do it right. I just couldn’t make that decision to say, like, I’m going to invest all of this money and take out loans and do this thing. Not because I didn’t see the value in it, because I’m also the kind of person that just wants to know what I’m doing before I do it.

4:36
And that was terrifying to me. So I decided, you know, at that point I got a couple scholarships to go to another school. It was I could go there and just not pay for anything. So I decided to do that.

4:49
And even though I think that was the right decision for me, right it.

4:54
I will always wonder.

4:57
What did I leave at the table?

5:00
When I decided not to go to prestigious university and go to one in my backyard, which was perfect for me anyways. But there will always be that really tiny piece of me that wonders if somebody had sat down and talked to me about financial education, financial Wellness preparedness application processes. What am I signing on this, you know, line? What does this mean for me? I might have made a different choice and I might have ended up somewhere else. So when I started working in credit unions, I started understanding the importance.

5:31
Of the power that we have being next to and within the institutions that know this stuff the best, right? We know it in practice. We know we develop products and services, we have the products and services, we train on them, we go out and we talk about them.

5:51
And so much of that is just.

5:54
Power for the individual, education for the individual.

5:59
And so when I started working within this space and realizing how much I was learning in my own position, I’ve long said that, you know, I’m a product of my own financial education program. I came in not necessarily knowing everything for sure, not knowing everything, right, but just having the opportunity to learn and then seeing what that did for my own financial education and well-being and being able to go back out into the community and then teach others to be empowered by that. It’s huge. So personally, it’s really important to me.

6:30
But it’s also critical, I think, for credit unions to take and own that responsibility because we have Members that absolutely need it. Absolutely. And I have had first-hand pleasure of joining you in the Community and being able to work with high schools and really understand the need that the high schools have to help pass that education on to families and provide resources for families and encourage them to fill out the FAFSA. So, you know, I’ve learned over time.

7:00
Why it’s important to not only have all that education, but to also make sure that the students have established an account in their own name before they accept any financial aid, before they take off to school. So share a little bit with our audience in your eyes, your opinion, why it’s important that that happens on the front end. Also, that they set up a relationship with a financial institution. Yeah. So one of the main questions on your financial aid applications is what is the?

7:30
Balance in your checking and savings account, right? It is one of the create key critical questions that is going to determine financial aid eligibility, especially if you’re planning to go to a College in California.

7:47
So typically, and you’ve been with me at these workshops before, you get to that question and you ask the student, you know how much is in your checking and savings account and they say I don’t have one, right. And then you ask the parent, you know, how much is in your checking and savings account and they say I don’t have one. And then you’re in this a little bit of a, you know, kind of a situation, right, where you’re being asked on a on a formal application, you know what, what’s in your checking account? And they’re like, I don’t have one.

8:17
See, we can put zero like what is that going to imply? And all of those things start to, you know, create anxiety right in front of you. You can see how stressed the parents get when they’re asked about balances in their checking savings account in front of their student and and all of these glances going back and forth like somebody just give me an answer to put in this box. And it’s more complicated than that.

8:40
So we really want to encourage our youth to start developing those foundational financial education skills with their own accounts while they’re still at home, while they still have the support, hopefully, of a parent, guardian, family, friend, somebody that can teach them why it’s so important.

9:00
To have their own account. So not only are we aiming to answer the question accurately, right? We want to be able to say my balance is this, and if it is zero then it’s zero, but at least you’ve reported what’s in the account.

9:13
But throughout, you know, my career of helping families, with the application process, with, you know, all of the paying for college topics, unfortunately not all of our family members and our loved ones and people that we think we can trust, we can’t trust them all the time. And one of the worst things that I think I have to do every year is talk to a student.

9:44
Who had scholarship funds or financial aid funds deposited into a parent, guardian, family, friend, whoever’s account and having that person take the funds and utilize it for something that is not related to them going to college. And we see it all the time, all the time. And it sounds like something like, oh, you know, my family would never do that to me or, you know, nobody would ever. I can’t imagine that happening.

10:12
And I think it’s just part of a.

10:15
Risk, right, that is associated with.

10:19
You can trust somebody.

10:21
But if you put 10 thousand $15,000 of liquid, you know, essentially cash, into a checking account.

10:29
Can you trust them?

10:31
To leave it for you and for the betterment of your college education.

10:36
And then you’ve got the complexities right of just living in maybe you’re from the Bay Area, maybe you’re you’re not. Maybe you have somewhere that you know has a higher cost of living too.

10:46
But we see all the time, hey, I need to utilize some of the scholarship funds because our refrigerator broke. I can’t pay the PG&E bills. I can’t pay for water or shelter, all of these critical things that without it, you also wouldn’t be able to go and have a place, a safe place for you to study. And so all of these things will just start seeping in, right? And opportunities are then created for someone to potentially take advantage, even if it’s not entirely malicious.

11:16
And those are the really unfortunate, like Gray areas that we see.

11:21
When it comes to well-being right and it.

11:26
Can you blame the parent that is like.

11:30
I can’t keep my lights on. I can’t feed you all. I can’t do this. I can’t do that without access to these funds.

11:37
And our students are so.

11:40
They’re wholesome, their family oriented. They they understand the sacrifice that they always put themselves out front to help little brothers and sisters that are also there too.

11:50
But one thing that we can do is just let them be in charge. Let them make decisions for themselves. Let them put up those walls right around themselves to ensure that the funds that they are taking out for college go towards what they deem as being appropriate for going to college. And let’s face it, by the time you’re a senior in high school, you’re 1718 years old. If you don’t have your an account in your own name yet, it’s it’s time and especially.

12:21
Since these awards can be significant and you’re going to have to learn how to manage all that, save what you can for books or rent or whatnot. So it’s time by that time to do it. And Patelco is a great place to obtain a free checking account before you go off to college, before you receive financial aid funds, scholarships, etcetera. So super glad you’re sharing that with our audience today and another reason why it’s super important for our students to have their own.

12:51
Making accounts have control over their own application processes because there’s a lot of opportunities for our students who don’t have great money management foundations to fall victim of predatory websites, businesses that make money off of our students who don’t know what it is that they’re being asked to do with this application. And you’ll and every year we see folks that are like, well, you know, there’s an organization or a company that’s promoting.

13:23
And that they can get us extra money through our financial aid application if we, you know, consult with them. And it’s so important for us to emphasize that there is nobody that is going to be able to help you get more money out of an application process than you can by answering these questions honestly, legitimately, and asking questions about what those.

13:49
Organizations and websites that offer support in exchange for some type of consultation fee so that they can receive additional support and better results from submitting that financial aid application, right. So it’s almost like, hey, student family, you know, did you not get everything that you wanted from financial aid? Well, we can help you get more by updating some answer or like doing things that you just know are going to sit really well with the student who may not have.

14:19
Gotten whatever it is that they needed.

14:21
But also be a red flag right for U.S. financial institutions. We understand that those types of businesses are there to take advantage and so one of the things that our students can do.

14:35
That is so preventative when it comes to paying for services and goods that they don’t need is to align themselves with responsible financial institutions. Make sure that they have somebody within the community that they can seek answers to so that they don’t give more information to folks who might utilize it in an improper way.

14:56
So our families out there that are tuned in and maybe even some of our students that are exploring getting started with the free checking account or maybe just exploring finding out more resources about financial education and wanting to hear maybe more from Christy about financial aid. We’ve got webinars posted on our website, patelco.org, where you can find recorded webinars from the past. But there’s also a financial aid session where you can hear more from Christy about financial.

15:25
Aid options and scholarship options. So check out patelco.org to learn more about our free checking products and to check out our financial education resources. So happy that you’re joining us. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the last time you’re with us. In fact, I hope you’re back with us on a monthly basis, folks. Christy Longoria, our manager of financial health. Super glad you were able to join us today. Thanks so much for having me.

15:50
So that concludes today’s episode of Small Talks for Big Change, where we help simplify financial topics to help with your financial Wellness. We’ll see you next time.

16:01