MANAGING YOUR MONEY IN THE NEW YEAR
In keeping with the tradition of New Year's resolutions, we have put together a few bits of information and ideas to make managing your finances easier in the coming year.
Enroll in home banking. Access your account information and transaction history over the internet at your convenience. The credit union plans to update its home banking interface in the first half of 2009. This upgrade will allow members to save statements in PDF format and allow credit union staff to alert members of NSF and Overdraft fees electronically.
Save monthly for annual expenses. For large annual expenses such as car insurance, set aside 1/12 of the annual expense each month in advance to save the monthly payment fee. You can also set up and label multiple secondary share savings accounts to make it easy to keep track of your savings goals. Many members already do this for purposes which include saving for vacations, gifts, dental work, weddings, home repairs, property taxes, etc... These accounts are free to set up and there are no monthly maintenance fees.
Set up a separate checking account for your Debit Card. Keep your debit card purchases separate from your checks and Automatic payments. Put your spending money into the “debit card draft account” and stop worrying that you'll accidentally spend your rent money before your landlord cashes the check. You can attach this account to an overdraft loan or line of credit for added convenience.
Checking your balance with your Debit Card is not an indication of your actual account balance. The account balance which is displayed when you do a balance inquiry at an ATM shows what VISA has as an Open To Buy Limit. It includes the most recently uploaded share draft checking account balance PLUS available funds in your overdraft loan or line of credit PLUS the available balance in your share savings MINUS current transaction balance holds. To get your most up to date balance, log into you home banking account each evening after 6:30pm.
Use your BCFCU overdraft loan or Line of Credit to augment your cash flow. Use your overdraft loan or Line of Credit to cover shortfalls between paychecks or to pay for unexpected expenses. Make the minimum monthly payments or pay the entire balance at any time. Funds are available to use again as soon as they have been repaid. If you don't currently have an overdraft loan or Line of Credit you can get the application from our website: www.coopcreditunion.com .
