Understanding Your Credit Report

By now, you’ve probably heard it’s in your best interest to check your credit report a couple of times per year for accuracy and errors. But do you know what to actually look for once you’ve got your credit report in front of you?

Getting Your Report

To be able to review your credit report, you first need to get a copy of it. You’re allowed one free credit report per year from one of the major reporting agencies (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian) at annualcreditreport.com. Experts recommend alternating which agency you get your report from every year, you may find something different on each report.

You may want to think about getting all three reports now if you are thinking about buying something big soon such as a new car or home. This gives you the chance to correct any mistakes on all of them right away. If there are no big purchases in your immediate future, requesting them over time might be a better choice. When you spread them out, watch for expected changes or suspicious activity throughout the year.

Reading Your Report

Once you get your credit report, you’ll see it’s separated into six sections. Here’s an overview of what those sections are and what to check:

1. Personal Information
   This section includes your name (and any names you’ve used), current and previous addresses, phone numbers, social security number and birthdate.
   You may find a few various spellings of your name or your maiden/married name. Make sure none stand out. Also, check the listed addresses to verify they’re all places you’ve lived. Unfamiliar addresses might mean someone has opened a fraudulent account in your name.

2. Accounts
   You’ll find all of your accounts, current and closed, in this section. You’ll also find your payment history for each account, listing any late payments. Review your accounts to see if there are any you don’t recognize, if there are any listed as open that are closed, or vice versa.

3. Inquiries
   Any time you apply for a loan or credit card, you’ll get what’s called a hard credit inquiry on your report. A hard inquiry will ding your credit score a bit. The good news is if you’re shopping for a loan or credit card at several places at the same time, the credit reporting agency will usually list them as one hard inquiry.
   You’ll also see soft credit inquiries listed. These are when someone, often a new employer, does a background check on you. Or sometimes a credit card company will do a soft inquiry before making you an unsolicited offer.

4. Public Records
   This area will show records obtained from local, state and federal courts. Listings include bankruptcies (which stay on your report for up to 10 years), judgements (up to seven years) and liens (up to 10 years).

5. Collections
   Here you’ll find any outstanding debt placed by creditors through collection agencies. These will usually have a negative impact on your credit score.

6. Consumer StatementIf there are mistakes on your report or mitigating circumstances that have affected your information, this is where any brief statements you’ve submitted to the bureau will appear.

In conclusion, be sure to keep an eye on your credit report whether it’s yearly or bi-annually. You don’t want any last-minute surprises when you’re looking to make an important purchase.

Want to understand all of the factors that negatively impact your credit score? We’ve got a blog for that! 

Telematics Can Help Reduce Accidents and Improve Fleet Efficiency

Imagine being able to reduce your company’s vehicle accident rate by as much as 50% through GPS technology. That’s what Amerisure policyholders participating in a pilot program have experienced as a result of telematics.
 
Kevin Clary, Amerisure’s Vice President of Loss Control, says the two-year pilot, which began last year, is helping businesses improve safety and reduce operating costs. The telematics program uses a vehicle’s built-in diagnostic software and a simple-to-install GPS tracking device to monitor driving behavior and vehicle location.
 
Through a web-based software program, businesses can monitor the location and movements of vehicles in real time to improve fleet operation. The system can track:

• Speed

• Hard braking

• Swerving

• Rapid acceleration

• Location

• Number of miles driven

• Time of day driven

Clary says Amerisure is piloting telematics on approximately 2,000 vehicles it insures through 30 policyholders — most of them mid-sized companies with a fleet of service vehicles.
 
“What makes our telematics program different than others in the industry is that we are sharing the cost with the policyholder,” he explains. “We’ll pay 30% to 50% of their two-year telematics contract. Our goal is to prove the concept to them. After the contract expires, hopefully they will continue it because they see the value of telematics.”
 
Clary adds that with the recent spike in vehicle accident rates and insurance costs, the motivation is there for policyholders to try telematics. The National Safety Council reported earlier this year that 2016 and 2015 marked the biggest two-year increase (14%) in traffic deaths in 50 years.
 

The Benefits of Telematics
 
Telematics allows businesses to monitor individual drivers to improve their driving habits, but it also provides fleet-wide data so that a business can identify larger trends. “We look at every 100 miles driven and do benchmarking scorecards to help policyholders spot patterns,” Clary says. “For example, they may discover that with certain routes or travel times, there is more traffic. They can adjust their routes or delivery times accordingly.”
 
Telematics also results in greater operational efficiency. Clary points to a contractor in Florida that determined many of its service vehicles were left running during appointments. By reducing engine idling, the contractor was able to significantly lower its fuel costs.
 
In addition to saving on fuel, telematics can:
 

• Increase the number of service calls completed each day because GPS tracking helps identify the optimum routes and can quickly reroute lost vehicles.

• Help recover stolen vehicles by identifying their exact locations.

• Restrict vehicle use to certain locations or hours through “geofencing.”

• Alert drivers and dispatchers to necessary maintenance, thus prolonging the life of the fleet.

Amerisure’s pilot program runs through the end of 2017. Clary says the company will assess the results in the fall and decide whether to continue cost sharing or perhaps offer a premium discount to those policyholders who use telematics.
 
For more information on risk management, loss control and other topics, visit Amerisure’s Insights blog.

Top Holiday Prep Tips

While the holidays are full of fun times with family and friends, there’s a lot of prep work that needs to be done ahead of times so your gatherings go smoothly. Sure, there’s decorating and cooking/baking to do, but there may be a few prep items you missed along the way. To keep your holiday festivities merry and bright, you should check out our prep tips for both the outside and inside of your home.

Outside

The outside of your home is the first thing guests will see when they pull in the driveway. Before they arrive, you may want to:

• Check Your Snowblower’s StatusIf you haven’t looked at your snowblower since early spring, you’ll want to inspect it now – before you really need it.  

  • Check and probably replace the oil

  • Add fuel stabilizer to the gas tank

  • Put in a new spark plug

  • Inspect the tires, auger, scraper blade, slide shoes, etc. for wear

• Trim All Shrubs and Bushes 
  Curb appeal matters, so make sure your shrubs and bushes are neatly trimmed – especially those in the front yard. If you’re hedge trimmer won’t cooperate, check out our Hedge Trimmer Repair Help page to troubleshoot the problem.

Inside

You won’t want your guests to turn into popsicles during their holiday visit, do you? Now is the time to make sure your furnace is running its best.

• Change the Furnace Air Filter Your furnace and family will be happier with when you replace the air filter. Your furnace won’t have to work as hard and there’ll be less dust particles in the air if your company has allergies or asthma. You should get in the habit of changing your furnace air filter every couple of months. 

• Check Your VacuumSpeaking of vacuums, once the company has arrived is not the time to discover yours isn’t working properly. Take a moment to clean the brushroll, replace the air filter and replace the bag if it uses one.  

• Clean Your RefrigeratorThrow out expired items and old leftovers, you’ll need the room! Remove the fridge shelves and drawers and clean them in the sink using soapy water or refrigerator cleaner. You’ll also want to clean the condenser coils. A special long-handled bristle brush or vacuum attachment will do the trick. 

• Don’t Clean Your OvenYes, this may seem counter-intuitive … But using the self-cleaning function on your oven can sometimes cause it to break. Play it safe and use oven cleaning spray and clean the stovetop if it needs it. Wait till after the holidays for the big clean!

Follow these simple holiday prep tips and your entertaining should go off without a hitch. Just watch out for ugly holiday sweaters, we can’t help you with those!

RepairClinic.com has millions of parts available for same-day shipping  and we offer a 365 return policy guarantee. Call 800-269-2609 or click here  if you need help placing an order today.

Why Now is the Time to Market Your Credit Union’s Mobile and Online Services

If you’re in the northern half of the country, take a look out your window. Chances are there’s snow and ice on the ground and the temperatures are careening toward the zero mark. If you’re lucky enough to be working for a credit union in the more southern states, while you don’t have to deal with the white stuff, winter can bring chilly temperatures and rain. All of these weather-related observations mean one thing – your members are probably spending more time in the warm coziness of their homes and less time out running errands.

Baby, it’s Cold Outside

Sometimes you need to think like your members to find the right marketing angles to reach them. CU Solutions Group is in Michigan and I can see inches of snow outside my office window right now. Throw in the single digit temps and you can bet I’d rather do all my banking online or on my phone right now rather than bundle up and drive to my nearby credit union!

Why not take advantage of the inclement weather and create a fun marketing campaign to remind your members they can stay inside and still take care of their banking needs with your online and/or mobile solutions? Not only will this remind your tech-savvy members of all of the time-saving tech tools you offer, you can also get members who may not know about your online/mobile banking up to speed. 

To accomplish a quick turnaround on a winter-related campaign, you could start with email marketing, Web banners and e-statement onserts to promote your e-services. The next step would be lobby posters and take-ones for your tellers and other frontline staff to use.

If your credit union doesn’t have the bandwidth or marketing team to pull a campaign together quickly, let CU Solutions Group be your marketing team. We can create campaigns of any size that fit most budgets to get the results you’re looking for. We also offer mobile banking, custom mobile apps and a variety of online tools to enhance your credit union’s e-service solutions.

The "Real" ROI of Credit Union Social Media

Let me introduce myself. Not only am I the main blogger here at CU Solutions Group, I also manage all of our social media platforms and consult with credit unions on their social media strategies. 

Why am I telling you this? Because a recurring comment I hear from credit unions when I’m talking to them about their social media is: “My boss doesn’t think it’s worth our time. He doesn’t think there’s enough ROI.” I’ve explained to my clients the real ROI of social media enough times to decide the topic needs its own article. So, here we go …

Defining ROI

If you check out Investopedia, they give this formula to calculate ROI:

When you’re talking about more concrete, black and white business investments this formula works. But when you’re talking about something more intangible like member loyalty and member service, it’s too gray for the formula to be relevant.

When your credit union hands out suckers its members’ children or pens to its members, does it use this formula? Or, if it takes part in a community event like a cancer walk or holiday fundraising, ROI is never a concern. That’s because all of these touch points fall under the public relations umbrella and are meant to boost goodwill and loyalty, not necessarily ROI.

If you haven’t guessed it, I tend to liken social media to public relations or sometimes member service if a member seeks out your social media platforms with a concern or issue. PR and goodwill can’t be measured concretely enough to be put into a formula. 

Measuring Social Media

All this is well and good, but you still need to appease your management with a measurement even if it doesn’t fit into the ROI formula. A great article in Forbes, Why ROI is Often Wrong for Measuring Marketing Impact includes this statement from Dominique Hanssens, a professor of marketing at UCLA Anderson School of Management and a co-founder of MarketShare:

“Marketers rarely mean ROI when they say ROI. ‘Plain’ ROI is certainly an important metric for managers. But it falls well short of helping us understand marketing’s contribution to business goals, or how those contributions can be improved. ROI is too limited.”

We usually recommend tracking member engagement, which doesn’t always mean Facebook likes or Twitter follows. It means following up with member comments or complaints in the social arena so other members or even potential members can see that you take member service seriously. It means interacting with members when they comment on your posts. It also means keeping track of what posts get the most engagement and going with what works. 

Final Thought

Not everything we do as marketers can translate into real ROI. A final thought you might want to share with your managers should they ask about social media ROI … Why wouldn’t you use social media? It’s where your members live, no matter what demographic you seek and it doesn’t take much time/money to implement. Millennials, soccer moms, high-paid execs – they’re all on social media somewhere. Let them know your credit union is current with the latest marketing channels by engaging with them on social media. And if you don’t, I’m sure your competition will be happy to.

If your credit union needs a little help with social media and is interested in having a channel audit or social media strategy done, please contact CU Solutions Group today.

Dive in to Mobile at Your Credit Union

If your credit union is still dabbling or just tipping its metaphorical toes into the world of mobile, it’s time to dive in. With just a quick look at my Twitter newsfeed this morning I came across several articles and stats focused on the importance of mobile – mobile banking, mobile advertising and mobile data. Here’s a brief look:

• Mobile Banking
  Digital security leader Gemalto released study results showing that (no surprise) young people love mobile banking. 77% of the young adults surveyed (ages 25-34) use online banking services with 42% using them five times or a month or more. And 27% never visit their branch in person anymore.
   
• Mobile Advertising
  The number of smartphone and tablet users keeps increasing – and so does mobile advertising dollars. Net U.S. mobile advertising is expected to increase to $28.48 billion this year, according to eMarketer. Also, mobile search ads will be $12.85 billion by the end of the year, which is over 50% of the search market. Interestingly, Android users are more likely than iOS users to click on mobile app ads, according to a Kenshoo study.
   
• Mobile Data
  A revealing way to gauge mobile usage is by reviewing data traffic. A Cisco Systems study found that mobile data traffic grew by 70% in 2014. Cisco projects that smart devise will increase their share of mobile connections by nearly 127% between 2014 and 2019.

Wondering what these statistics mean for your credit union?

That your members don’t just want access to mobile banking – they require it.
That if you’re not using your mobile app or site to cross-sell your credit union’s products and services, you’re missing a vital and growing opportunity.
That mobile usage is only going up and now is the time to jump in with both feet before it’s too late!

CU Solutions Group can help your credit union with its mobile needs. Whether it’s a mobile app, mobile site or a comprehensive mobile banking app that offers cross-selling opportunities, we have what you need. Contact us today.