Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

We want everyone to be safe and healthy this Thanksgiving,  so we compiled a few safe cooking tips to keep your gobblers happy this holiday season!

SEPARATE FOODS to prevent cross-contamination

• When you shop, keep the turkey separated from other foods in your cart
• Place the turkey below other foods in your refrigerator to prevent juices leaking and contaminating other items
• Use separate cutting boards for cooked and raw foods
• Never put cooked turkey on a plate that had uncooked turkey on it, unless it’s been washed

CLEAN your hands and food surfaces often

• Wash your hands, cutting boards, kitchen tools and counter tops with hot soapy water after you’re finished fixing the turkey

COOK foods to safe temperatures

• Cook the turkey thoroughly by using a meat thermometer – never go on sight alone to determine if it’s cooked through
• Cook the whole turkey unstuffed to 180 degrees F
• Cook a turkey breast to 170 degrees F

CHILL foods appropriately

It is best to thaw the turkey in the refrigerator, NOT at room temperature

8 to 12 pounds         1 to 2 days
12 to 16 pounds       2 to 3 days
16 to 20 pounds      3 to 4 days
20 to 24 pounds      4 to 5 days

• In a pinch, you can also thaw the turkey in cold water – be sure to cook the thawed turkey immediately
• Put prepared foods and leftover turkey in the refrigerator within two hours
• Split large amounts of leftovers into small bowls and cool them in the refrigerator

Practice safe cooking habits as well – cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires and home fire injuries.

• Never leave food cooking on the stove top or inside the oven unattended
• Create a three-foot kid-free and pet-free zone around your stove
• For an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed to prevent flames from burning you or your clothing
• For small grease fires, put on an oven mitt, turn off the burner and smother the flames with a pan lid – NEVER pour water or use a fire extinguisher on a grease fire, as this can actually spread the fire
• For microwave fires, keep the door closed and unplug the microwave

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Saying Goodbye is Such Sweet Sorrow

The article below shows what a scary world it’s becoming when you have to pay to access your own money.  Many banking customers are  saying goodbye to the word “free”, in all aspects.   At MONEY Federal Credit Union though, free checking has been and always will be a staple.

By PALLAVI GOGOI AP Business Writer

Free checking as we know it is ending.

The days when you could walk into a bank branch and open an account with no charges and no strings attached appear to be over. Now you have to jump through some hoops – keep a high balance, use direct deposit or swipe your debit card several times a month.

One new account at Bank of America charges $8.95 per month if you want to bank with a teller or get a paper statement.

Almost all of the largest U.S. banks are either already making free checking much more difficult to get or expected to do so soon, with fees on even basic banking services.

It’s happening because a raft of new laws enacted in the past year, including the financial overhaul package, have led to an acute shrinking of revenue for the banks. So they are scraping together money however they can.

Bank of America, which does business with half the households in America, announced a dramatic shift Tuesday in how it does business with customers. One key change: Free checking, a mainstay of American banking in recent years, will be nearly unheard of.

“I’ve seen more regulation in last 30 months than in last 30 years,” said Robert Hammer, CEO of RK Hammer, a bank advisory firm. “The bottom line for banks is shifting enormously, swiftly and deeply, and they’re not going to sit by twiddling their thumbs. They’re going to change.”

In the last year, lawmakers in Washington have passed a range of new laws aimed at protecting bank customers from harsh fees, like the $35 charged to some Bank of America customers who overdrafted their account by buying something small like a Starbucks latte.

These and other fees were extremely lucrative. According to financial services firm Sandler O’Neill, they made up 12 percent of Bank of America’s revenue. On Tuesday, the bank took a $10.4 billion charge to its third-quarter earnings because the new regulations limit fees the bank can collect when retailers accept debit cards.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan acknowledged in a conference call that overdraft fees were generating a lot of income. But the bank was also losing customers who were often taken aback by the high hidden fees.

Checking accounts were being closed at an annual rate of 18 percent, he said, and complaints were at an all-time high.

So Moynihan ended overdraft charges on small debit card transactions. He says the rate of account closings have since dropped 27 percent.

To make up for lost fees, he also started thinking of new products. In August, the bank introduced a new “eBanking” account, where customers were offered a free checking account if they banked online. The catch: If they opt for paper statements, or want access to tellers for basic transactions, they would be charged a monthly fee of $8.95.

“Customers never had free checking accounts,” Bank of America spokeswoman Anne Pace said. “They always paid for it in other ways, sometimes with penalty fees.”

This summer, Bank of America also started offering “emergency cash” for a $35 fee to customers who went to the ATM for withdrawals that would exceed their bank balance. Moynihan said 50 percent of these customers opted to go ahead with the fee.

“We are now in an era where consumers will be buying products from banks, even if it’s a checking account,” said Brian Riley, senior research director for bank card practice at consultant TowerGroup. He noted that several banks have started charging $7.50 for paper statements.

“Paper and print costs around $2.25, add postage to that, and if banks are losing income from other avenues, someone has to pay for it,” said Riley.

Economic research firm Moebs Services says free checking usage has been steadily rising in recent years before falling this year. Last year 81.5 percent of U.S. banking customers had free checking, but that fell to 72.5 percent this year.

Large banks are also under additional pressure because of curbs from new laws on high-risk trades with complex derivatives. Their trading desks have been large revenue and profit generators for banks in recent years.

Michael Moebs, the founder of Moebs Services, said it is now up to the smaller Main Street banks to see an opening and grab customers from the big banks.

“Free checking could become a mainstay of community banks and credit unions in the future,” Moebs said.

Protect Your ID Week, October 17-23, 2010

Identity theft continues to grow, with the number of victims in the U.S. reaching 11.1 million in 2009, a 12.5% increase over the previous year, according to Javelin Strategy and Research. Threats exist online and offline, and no one is completely safe, but there are steps you can take to protect yourself against identity theft and limit the damage. There is no reason to live in fear of this crime, but there are ways to ensure you’re doing the best you can to prevent it.

As part of this special week, Cintas Corporation is providing free document destruction at events nationwide with the goal of making the Guinness Book of World Records for the most paper shredded in a 24-hour period.

To find an event near you, visit www.ProtectYourIDNow.org and click on the map of the United States that says “Find a PYIW event Near You”. You will also find tips, quizzes, resources and advice on how to fight ID theft, if you’re a target, and what to do if you’re a victim.

 

Create a Personal Financial Directory

If you were to become incapacitated or pass away, how easy would it be for someone else to take over your financial affairs? Would the responsible party have to search through a mountain of disorganized paperwork in your dresser, or be unable to track your accounts because you handle all your finances online? Would he or she be able to refer to a directory that provides a list of all accounts and other necessary information?

Death and injury are a part of life, no matter how unpleasant a topic it might be. Creating a personal financial directory makes it easier for someone to cancel your accounts or otherwise manage your finances. You may also find it handy if, for example, your wallet is stolen and you need to notify your financial institutions and creditors.

To get started, set aside some time to think about all of the accounts and obligations you have, including:

• Your mortgage or rent
• Loans
• Credit cards
• Utilities
• Checking and savings accounts
• Investments
• Retirement funds
• Insurance

List the following information for each entry:

• Account number
• Company or financial institution
• Phone number, address and website
• Online username and password
• How to access statements
• Monthly payment amount and due date (if applicable)

Your financial directory should also include the name and contact information for any financial advisors, such as an accountant or financial planner.

For safety, keep a copy of your financial directory in a safety deposit box or fireproof safe. Don’t leave it in a desk or dresser drawer, as you run the risk of it being stolen or destroyed somehow.

You’ll also want to let someone know this directory exists, since the reason you created it is so that your finances would not be a mystery.

Another way to make it easier for your financial affairs to be managed is to assign someone as durable power of attorney for finances, and an executor of your estate. You can use the same person or two different people for these roles. A durable power of attorney allows someone to make financial decisions for you while you are alive, and the executor of your estate (as named in your will) handles your financial affairs after your death. Creditors and service providers will typically take payment from anyone, but they may be able to discuss details or close an account unless someone has the legal authority to act on your behalf.

You can create a durable power of attorney and a will with the help of a lawyer or computer software. Make sure to choose a person(s) who is trustworthy – if no relative or friend seems appropriate, you can name your lawyer or accountant to one or both of these roles.

A bit of planning will ensure that your finances are taken care of even when you are not able to manage them yourself.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make me a Monetary Match

APPLETON, Wis. (6/16/10)–No matter how much you love your spouse, chances are there’s something you’d change if you had the chance. Often that desired change is about how your significant other handles money, according to a recent Thrivent Financial and Kiplinger’s survey (June 2).

Nearly two in five Americans said they most wanted to increase their spouse’s earning power, the survey found. Three in 10 respondents said they wish their spouse would talk about money more. Seventeen percent wish their spouse did more of the routine money management duties. Twenty-three percent of respondents want their mate to be less of a spendthrift; one in 10 wish their spouse was less of a tightwad.

A willingness to accept your partner’s money personality is a start, but you have to take action if you really want to achieve financial harmony. Discussing what’s important to each other can help you understand each other.

To reduce conflict and reach your and your spouse’s financial goals, the Credit Union National Association’s Center for Personal Finance recommends:

• Communicate–It’s vital that you talk about money and your marriage. Set aside time to do so. Remain open-minded rather than insisting your partner do things your way. Make agreements to compromise.
• Set goals together –Start by making separate “wish lists” and then, together, rank the items and work toward those that you both feel are most important. Revisit goals at least annually and make adjustments based on changing priorities and goals.
• Maintain individual accounts–Consider having his, hers, and ours accounts. Use the joint account to pay household expenses, including mortgage and rent, utilities, insurance, and car and home repairs. If there’s money left over, split it into your individual accounts. From these accounts you can pursue individual goals. For a spender, that might mean paying for a dream vacation. For a saver, that might mean beefing up a retirement account.
• Get professional help–If you run into roadblocks, consider getting professional help. Whether you choose to see a marriage counselor, financial planner, or another type of professional such as a member of the clergy will depend partly on whether you believe your issues have more to do with your relationship or your finances. Contact the professionals at your credit union. You also can find a nonprofit, accredited credit counseling agency by visiting the National Foundation for Credit Counseling website at nfcc.org or by calling 800-388-2227.

To learn more, read “Couples and Money: Reconciling a Spender-Saver Marriage” in Home & Family Finance Resource Center.

Fraud Pop Quiz!

Read the following questions! Fraud Prevention Questions

They’re a very good indicator of what scammers target and how they operate.  If you can answer “Yes” to any of them now or in the future, STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING.  Do not transfer money, deposit a check or respond to an email, phone call or text message.

We can not stress enough that MONEY FCU will NEVER ask you to verify or validate your account information via email, text, or direct you to do so via our website.

Please contact us immediately if you have any questions regarding this topic.

Too Good to be True

“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is” seems like an old phrase, but is almost fool-proof when it comes to detecting a scam. It’s almost impossible to keep a current list of ones that are circulating since there is a new one everyday. We urge you to be aware, and be skeptical. Skepticism is your friend when it comes to protecting your information. Below are just a few that are making their way around.

FAKE JOB/MYSTERY SHOPPER – In a down economy, this scam is running rampant. Scammers are using unsolicited email and snail mail “job offers” to trick recipients into thinking they’re being offered a great employment opportunity. The proposition varies from you paying fees up front to receive training or equipment, to one that purports to actually send you money. Nobody sends you money for nothing, except maybe your grandmother.

The scam that offers to send you money typically works by saying you’ll be receiving payments from customers and making further payments to a main office or a regional affiliate. The job supposedly pays by commission, meaning if you get a check for $1,500, you are instructed to keep $150 and reimburse the company for the remaining amount. What the scheme actually does is clean out our bank account by sending you fake checks. These checks, which can easily be mistaken for real ones, seem to clear your account without problem because banking rules require financial institutions give consumers access to their deposited money in less than five days. That is not enough time for a bad check to work its way through the system. By the time the counterfeit check is returned, it can be weeks later – weeks after you’ve sent your hard-earned money to the scammers. That $1,350 you sent back to “the office”, was your money. The amount will be deducted from your account and you can be held responsible for any negative balance. But how can you be held responsible for the counterfeiter’s bad check? You’re not. You’re held responsible for the check you wrote on your own account to the criminal.

A mystery shopper scam works the same way. The scammers may send you a check for $1,900, ask you to spend $100 at a certain store, keep $100 for your “work”, then Western Union or wire the remaining funds back to an account provided. The offer pressures you to do all this within a very short period of time, knowing the check you deposited from them will return. Again, you will already have sent the fake funds back to the scammer before the financial institution gets notice that it’s a bad check.  You’ll be on the hook for that $1,700  you sent back.

The stories that come with these offers are extremely believable. They can use names of real companies or agencies, and even create fake websites that look legitimate.

LOTTERY SCAMS – “You’ve won the Iceland lottery!” Well, if you’re not Icelandic, you can’t win their lottery. If you didn’t play the lottery in some obscure foreign country, you can”t win their lottery. If you did nothing and an email is saying you won something, you’re going to lose in the end.

Lottery scams are one of the most common types of fraudulent email currently hitting inboxes. Be wary of any unsolicited email that informs you that you have won a large sum of money in an international lottery. This is a common Internet scam. There is no lottery and no prize. If you initiate a dialogue with the scammers by replying to the lottery scam emails, you will eventually be asked for advanced fees to cover expenses associated with delivery of the supposed “winnings”. You could also become a victim of identity theft by providing sensitive information.  Remember, if you didn’t play, you can’t win.

PHISHING SCAMS – These scams attempt to trick people into providing sensitive personal information such as credit card or banking details. In order to carry out this trick, the phishing scammers send a fraudulent email disguised as an official request for information from the targeted company. Generally, they also create a “look-a-like” website that is designed to closely resemble the target company’s official site. The fake website may appear almost identical to the official site. Style, logos, images, navigation menus and other structural components may look the same as they do on the genuine website.

Recipients of the scam email are requested to click on an included hyperlink. Clicking this link will cause the fake website to open in the user’s browser. Once at this fake website, the user may be presented with a form that requests private information such as credit card and banking details, and other account data such as a home address and phone number. Often, the visitor is requested to login using his or her username and password. All information entered into this fake website, including login details, can then be collected and used at will by the criminals operating the scam.

The scam emails are randomly mass-mailed to many thousands of Internet users in the hope of netting even a few victims. The majority of people who receive these scam emails will probably not even be customers of the targeted institution. However, the scammers rely on the statistical probability that at least a few recipients will have accounts with the company or merchant the email is supposedly from, or be unaware of these types of scams and believe the email to be legitimate.

Always be suspicious of an unsolicited email from a financial institution or other company that asks you to verify sensitive information. MONEY FCU will never ask you to verify your account information or “re-activate” your account via email.  Your best bet is to contact the company or go directly to their known website address.

If you ever have questions or concerns about your account, please feel free to contact us!  Our job is to help you and protect your accounts with MONEY Federal Credit Union. We’ll post what we know and anything new we find out on our fraud prevention page.  We also recommend you get a free copy of your credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com.  Make sure all accounts listed are yours, and that you opened or requested them.  If you see anything suspicious, contact the credit reporting agency immediately.

The Credit Card Game: Protect Your Credit Score

This is a hot topic right now, and rightly so, since it’s imperative to your financial well-being.

Credit card companies are imposing new and creative fees as they react to the credit-card reform law. As a consequence, like many Americans, you may be afraid you’ll get hit with an inactivity fee for not using a credit card. But closing that account could hurt your credit score. What to do?

It’s a tough call but, if you’re careful, you can close the cards you don’t use with little effect on your credit score. The best strategy is to pay down all your balances before closing any credit-card accounts.

Here’s why: Your credit-utilization ratio–the total of your card balances divided by the total credit limit on all of your cards–traditionally has been the second-most influential factor in your credit score. Since the three credit bureaus rolled out a new formula to calculate scores in 2009, that credit-utilization ratio may be the most influential factor in your credit score.

If you close cards you haven’t used in awhile without paying down the others, your total balance due becomes a higher percentage of your new, smaller, overall limit. Your credit-utilization ratio goes up. The best credit utilization is 0%; a good utilization ratio is less than 30%.

And it doesn’t matter if you pay your credit card balances in full each month. What counts in credit scoring is the amount you’ve charged that month, because you never know on which day the score is calculated. Your best strategy: Pay down your balances before closing any card accounts to minimize the impact on your credit score.

Be on the lookout for these five factors that carry the most weight in affecting your credit score:

1. Your overall revolving debt. This is the amount of credit card debt you owe in relation to your available balances, both on an individual account basis and overall. Historically it weighed a little less than your payment history (30%) in determining your credit score. Now it counts the same or even more. Contrary to popular belief, it is better to owe a smaller amount on several cards than to max one card to its limit. A good long-term approach is to keep your balances between 10% and 35% of your available credit, and definitely at 10% in the three-to-six month period before you apply for any sizable loan.
2. Your payment history. Before 2009 it weighed the most (35%) in determining your credit score. Your payment history is still a big factor, but may weigh less than overall debt. Paying before the due date can mean the difference between an average and an exceptional credit score. By the way, your most recent history is more important than what you did a few years ago.
3. The length of your credit history. Raise your score by keeping accounts open for more than seven years. The length of your credit history accounts for about 15% of your credit score. Instead of closing accounts, work toward paying them off and then let the accounts remain open. Use them for small purchases that you pay off each month.
4. The number of inquiries and new debt in your records. Inquiries and new debt account for about 10% of your score. Fortunately, all mortgage inquiries within 30 days are grouped as one inquiry. Auto inquiries similarly have a 14-day limit. Since the formula changed in 2009, inquiries have less of an effect.
5. The kind of debt you incur. It’s still true that 10% of your score is based on the kind of debt you incur: installment debt (auto loans, for example) vs. revolving debt (credit cards). Credit bureaus look more favorably on installment debt than revolving debt. What’s new since 2009? You get points for successfully managing multiple types of debt (mortgage, auto loan, and credit cards).

If you’re more confused now than you were before, just make sure to pay every credit card bill on time. Paying a bill late can cause more of a headache than trying to understand the mathematical equation the credit score Gods are using these days.

If you’d rather stay away from credit cards altogether, why not try an Overdraft Line of Credit with MONEY FCU?  It’s a low-rate loan, currently at 8.00%, that you can use instead of a credit card.  It can be tied to your debit card and checking account so it’s there when you need it.  You can also take advances from it (with no extra fees like credit cards), make payments on it, and see all information about the loan right from your online banking account.

For more information, feel free to contact a Loan Specialist at 315-671-4000, or visit our website to apply online today!