A Free Guide to No-Fee Banking

Recently the Toronto Star published an article entitled A Free Guide to No-Fee Banking in which they compared the services offered from both ING Direct and PC Financial. Considering we’ve been in the business of offering no-fee banking for 70 years we thought we should measure ourselves up to their ratings. Let’s see how the competition holds up.

Roseman: A free guide to no-fee banking
Published On Tue Sep 21 2010
By Ellen Roseman Personal Finance Columnist

Do you have an account with a big bank? Do you pay fees?

Maybe it’s time to switch. President’s Choice Financial and ING Direct are both running ad campaigns about the joys of no-fee banking.

So, let’s compare the two challengers and what they have to offer.

President’s Choice Financial – or PCF for short – is owned by Loblaw Cos. Launched 12 years ago, it’s in every province but Quebec and has more than one million customers with no-fee bank accounts.

ING Direct, owned by a big Dutch bank that came here in 1997, is known for high-interest savings and low-interest loans. It’s launching a no-fee daily chequing account, called Thrive, early next year – but 12,000 people are already trying it out.

Q: How much money can you save with no-fee banking?

A: PCF says up to $200 a year. ING says $185 a year.

The savings that can be obtained through an HCCU account all depends on the amount of services that an individual chooses to use. Without knowing how either PCF or ING are calculating their results we are unable to compare to their claims, but we would be happy to sit down and look at a member’s personal situation and show them how much they would be able to save.

Q: How many automated bank machines can you use without paying fees?

A: PCF offers free access to 3,800 ABMs. This includes its own machines and those operated by CIBC, its online banking partner.
ING offers free access to 2,500 ABMs in the Exchange network, usually located near credit unions (the bulk of the network’s members).

HCCU also offers free access to the 2,500 ABM’s on the Exchange network as well as the 2 ABM’s located in our branches.

Q: Do you pay to order cheques?

A: PCF doesn’t charge for cheques. ING gives you 20 free cheques and charges $10 for each 20 cheques you order after that (or 50 cents apiece). Both offer free cheque clearing services.
ING offers free unlimited email money transfers as an option to using cheques. PCF charges $1.50 for each email money transfer.

HCCU offers unlimited free personal cheques

Q: Do you pay for monthly statements sent by mail?

A: PCF offers free online access, but charges $1 for each monthly statement sent by mail. ING has free online access and won’t send monthly statements by mail for no-fee chequing – no matter what you pay.

HCCU offers free online access as well as free monthly statements

Q: Do you earn interest on your no-fee account?

A: PCF pays a five-tiered interest rate, starting at 0.05 per cent on the first $1,000, going up to 0.25 per cent on the part of the balance between $10,000 and $25,000 and to 0.5 per cent on the balance over $25,000.
ING has a three-tiered interest rate, starting at 0.25 cent on the first $50,000, going up to 1 per cent on the part of the balance from $50,000 to $100,000 and to 1.1 per cent on the balance over $100,000.

HCCU is currently paying 1.25% on our free Self Serve Savings account on every dollar you deposit. And this money can be accessed immediately at any time using telephone or online banking.

Q: Do you pay for overdraft protection?

A: PCF has a $4.97 minimum charge that applies in each month that overdraft protection is used. There’s also a fixed rate of 19 per cent a year on overdraft balances.
ING has a feature called Whoops Protection that covers overdrafts up to $250. You pay no fees or interest, as long as you put the money back into your account within 30 days.

HCCU offers Line of Credit Overdraft protection to a maximum of $10,000.00 at 8.49% interest calculated on the minimum daily balance.

Q: Can you talk to a real person face to face?

A: PCF has people in its pavilions near many grocery stores, including Fortinos, Zehrs and Real Canadian Superstore. An online store locator gave me 50 places to visit in a 60-kilometre radius from downtown Toronto.
ING has one Toronto café where you can talk to a real person. It’s at 111 Gordon Baker Rd., near Highway 404 and Finch Ave. E. A second café is planned for downtown (across from the Eaton Centre) next year.

At HCCU you can always talk to a person face to face. We have two branches serving the Hamilton area with extended hours to meet your schedule.

I’ll give each contender a closing argument.

Barry Columb, president of President’s Choice Financial: “We cater to all your banking needs, including index mutual funds with our partner CIBC. We also have a loyalty program that lets you earn PC points on transactions and redeem them for free groceries in our stores.”

Brenda Rideout, chief marketing officer, ING Direct: “We’re giving Canadians the features they want to use, including access to mobile banking. People love the email money transfers and email alerts. They’re telling us it’s about time we offered a no-fee chequing account.”

Malcolm Stoffman, CEO of Hamilton Community Credit Union: “At HCCU we’ve been offering no fee accounts for over 70 years. This is not a new concept to us. Being a full service financial institution means offering all the conveniences like Internet and telephone banking, surcharge free ATMs and high interest savings accounts, but being a Credit Union means offering fair pricing to everyone who walks through our front door.

Student Loan and LOC Contest Winners

Congratulations go out to all of the winners of our 2010 Student Loan and LOC contest. Below are the results:

1st Prize – iPod Touch – Sara Giglia

2nd Prize – iPod Nano – Ian Caldwell

3rd Prize – iPod Nano – Yvonne Fordham

Look for future contest coming up from HCCU

A Neu Hope

Debbie Foley, one of your friendly staff members of HCCU, has been volunteering her time with a local organization that will be hosting a fundraiser on Saturday October 23rd. Below is a letter from Debbie concerning the event and donations:

“A NEU HOPE”

Dear Community Friends:

Friends and family are joining together to organize a fundraiser for a 20 year old Hamilton man named Billy Neu. Billy, a 4th year engineering student at Western University, suffered a life altering swimming pool accident on Friday, June 4th. As a result of a spinal cord injury, Billy has been left a paraplegic and will never walk again.

To ease the financial impact his family is now faced with, we are holding a dinner, dance and silent auction at the Ancaster Rotary Centre (Morgan Firestone Arena) located at 385 Jerseyville Road West in Ancaster on Saturday, October 23rd, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. for an anticipated 850 attendees.
Our committed group of volunteers are firm and dedicated in the belief that the family needs the support of everyone to make the transition easier to bring Billy home.

All proceeds raised from this fundraiser will go toward the costs of renovating the family home and vehicle, so they are wheelchair accessible for Billy. The parents, who have both devoted their lives to raise four wonderful boys, have had some financial setbacks in the past couple of years. Billy’s father was laid off after 30 years of service with his company, and without the benefit of a pension.
In order to reach our goal and raise the funds necessary to help Billy and his family, we are turning to community minded individuals and organizations for their support. We are hoping you will be able to provide a silent auction item or monetary donation to our cause.

Arrangements can be made for donations to be picked up by calling me or by faxing the attached sheet back to 905-546-3830. If you have any questions or wish to purchase tickets, please feel free to contact me at 905-388-3478

Thank you for your consideration and your anticipated generosity.

Very Sincerely,


Debbie Foley
Committee Member

Heart and Stroke Big Bike Update

As you may remember, HCCU staff along with staff from Hamilton Municipal Employees Credit Union (HMECU) participated in the Big Bike for Heart and Stroke back in May. The evening was a great success raising funds for the Heart and Stroke.

The Big Bike season has now come to an end and we recently received notice from the Heart and Stoke outlining some of the successes from this year’s campaign including some highlights that we are personally proud of.

HELLO CAPTAINS!

This is the final Big Bike e-mail of the SEASON! We want to thank EACH and EVERY ONE of you for making this BIG BIKE experience special and a lot of fun. We hope that everyone had a great time and are very proud to have had such a great year!

This could not have been done without the tireless work that each and every organization has put into forming a team, encouraging them to fundraise and putting their hearts into it! It takes very special people to accomplish this task and we have had the privilege of working with some very wonderful individuals in the Hamilton, Ancaster, Dundas, Waterdown & Stoney Creek areas.

Thank you for everything! Now, without further ado - here is the final update of the season

2010 Big Bike Total:

$140 220!!!! (PLUS MORE TO COME!!)

Top 3 Fundraising Teams

1. HMECU & HCCU

Top 10 Fundraisers

4. JENN VANDEHAAR – HCCU

Thank you once again for such a great season and joining us to:

www.heartandstroke.ca

Canada Day BBQ

On Wednesday June 30th HCCU will be having a BBQ at both of our branches to celebrate Canada Day.

Bring the family in for a hotdog, pop, and maybe some dessert.

All of the funds raised will be donated to the Cancer Assistance Program. Hope to see you there!

Savings through CUMIS Insurance

Most of you are aware of the savings that can be earned through an account with HCCU. You might use one of our no to low fee chequing or savings account, or maybe you’re using our Debit One plan and saving on Interac Fees. Or maybe you’re saving money with a low interest rate on a Consolidation Loan, or a great rate on a mortgage, but many of you may not be aware of the savings that can be earned by using some of our business partners.

By being a member of HCCU you can take advantage of a discounted rate on Home and Auto insurance through CUMIS.

Recently Jenn Vandehaar, HCCU Manager of Operations, had her insurance up for renewal and gave CUMIS a call to see if the rates were any better.

“I had insurance on my house and our two family vehicles and after switching to CUMIS, I saved a combined total of $950.17 a year.”

Now that’s some incredible savings.

If you’d like to get a quote from CUMIS insurance click here and follow the instructions on their webpage. Be sure to let them know you’re a member of Hamilton Community Credit Union to take advantage of their great rates.

If you’d like to share some of your stories of savings we’d love to hear from you. Please comment below or send off an email to jmoat@hccu.on.ca

HCCU on the Big Bike Update

Last night HCCU staff along with staff from Hamilton Municipal Employees Credit Union (HMECU) participated in the Big Bike for Heart and Stroke.

The evening was a great success and we are extremely proud that HCCU raised over $4000, and together with HMECU, were able to donate just over $8500 to this great cause!

Below are some pictures from this fantastic event.

HCCU on the Big Bike

Later this month, HCCU will be participating in the Big Bike for Heart & Stroke and we are looking for your support!

Last year, the Heart & Stroke raised over $7 million as a result of the big bike ride, with all funds going to heart & stroke research.

Our ride is taking place May 27th at 6pm, departing from Slainte. If you wish to make a donation, please Click Here or visit either of our branches.

Thank you for helping make a difference in the lives of thousands of Canadians, and for helping us reach our goal of $1000.00!

We hope to see you there!

Spring Raffle Winners

Our Spring Raffle has come to a close and we would like to take the time to congratulate the following winners:

King St Branch
BBQ – Robert Reid
Home depot Gift Card – Al Gallant
Tim’s Card – Harvey Smith
Tim’s Card – Jose Gomez
Tim’s Card – William Guigue

Mohawk Branch
BBQ – Jack Lambie
Home depot Gift Card – John Scott
Tim’s Card – Monique Vaughan
Tim’s Card – William Carter
Tim’s Card – Kimberly Czajkowsky

With all of your help HCCU was able to raise over $1000.00 for the Cancer Assistance Program.

Update - Haiti Relief Effort through CanHelp & The Canadian Red Cross

Below is an excerpt from OCUCF Newsletter dated April 16th 2010

Thanks to so many generous credit unions and their members, the Foundation was able to raise over $75,000 towards the Haiti Earthquake Relief effort through the Canadian Red Cross. Much of this amount was eligible for the matching program through the Federal Government.

Hamilton Community Credit Union was able to donate $1,000.00 to help towards this important cause.

Interest Rates on the Rise.

The article below was published last week in the Financial Post regarding the recent hike of mortgage interest rates.

Bank of Montreal completes the count: All Big Five banks raise five-year rates

With a late-day announcement yesterday, Bank of Montreal became the fifth of Canada's Big Five banks to raise its mortgage rates this week. BMO hiked its five-year fixed-rate closed-term mortgage by 60 basis points to 5.85%, matching increases announced earlier in the day by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of Nova Scotia, National Bank and Desjardins Group. Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Laurentian Bank announced on Monday that their benchmark five-year rates would increase to 5.85%. "The era of historically low mortgage rates is coming to an end," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist, BMO Capital Markets.

I beg to differ Sal. At Hamilton Community Credit Union our Five Year Closed mortgage rate is at 4.15%, still near our historic lows. That’s a difference of 1.70% from the big 5 banks.

Better yet HCCU is currently offering a promotion on our mortgages. Yes it gets better.

If you apply for a mortgage before June 1st you can take advantage of our introductory interest rate of 1% for the first four months of your 5 year term. After the four months the interest rate will adjust to whatever our 5 year rate is at that time, currently at 4.15%, to a maximum of 4.50%.

Apparently the era of historically low mortgage rates is still alive at HCCU.

The Ins and Outs of your Credit Score - Part II

To many people a credit score is a magical number derived by the powers that be, a number so important as it can decide your borrowing fate. However, most people have no idea how this number is equated. Obviously paying your bills on time is key, but what else determines a good score from a bad score.

In Part I we looked at how a Credit Score is composed and what affects the score. Today we’ll look at exactly what actions will hurt a score and how you can improve your score.

Please note that Hamilton Community Credit Union may use credit scores in conjunction with many other factors to establish an approval on loans or mortgages including your Credit Bureau. We feel that knowing how credit scores are derived is important to you for now and for your future.

What actions will hurt the score?

Missing payments. Regardless of the dollar amounts, It will take 24 mo to restore your credit score after one late payment

Credit cards at capacity (i.e., maxing out credit cards)

Closing credit cards out. Many people believe they should close cards they are not using however this lowers your available credit capacity, which in turns lowers your score.

Shopping for credit excessively. If you are constantly applying for different types of credit it will lower your score.

Opening up numerous credit accounts in a short period of time.

Having more revolving loans in relation to installment loans. Revolving loans are Credit Cards or Lines of Credit as apposed to Installment loans such as a loan for a vehicle.

Borrowing from finance companies

How to improve the score?

• Pay down on credit cards
• Do not close credit cards because capacity will decrease
• Continue to make payments on time as older late pays will become less significant with time
• Slow down on opening new accounts
• Acquire a solid credit history with years of experienc

We hope these two posts on Credit Scores have been helpful. If you have any other questions regarding Personal Credit and Credit Scores contact either branch and speak with a Member Relationship Officer today.

The Ins and Outs of Your Credit Score

To many people a credit score is a magical number derived by the powers that be, a number so important as it can decide your borrowing fate. However, most people have no idea how this number is equated. Obviously paying your bills on time is key, but what else determines a good score from a bad score.

Over the next couple posts I plan to outline exactly that. To help shed some light on the mystery of Credit Scores.

Please note that Hamilton Community Credit Union may use credit scores in conjunction with many other factors to establish an approval on loans or mortgages including your Credit Bureau. We feel that knowing how credit scores are derived is important to you for now and for your future.

How is your Credit Score Composed

Your credit score is calculated and weighted based on different factors associated with your debt repayment and available credit.

• 35% of your score is based on payment history, if you’re on time or delinquent
• More of that is weighted on current pay history than past performance
• 30% is based on you credit capacity. This means how much credit do you have available to you. If you have a Credit Card with a $10,000 limit and owe only $1,000 that gives you a high credit capacity.
• 15% is based on the amount of time you’ve had each debt or credit card
• 10% is based on how much debt you’ve accumulated in the last 12-18 months
• 10% is based on a mix of the types of credit you have. Installment loans are rated better than revolving credit cards
• Finally, the number of finance company loans, the lower your score

Your score is also based on the number of inquiries you make. Your score will go down if you are constantly searching for credit. However, if for instance you are looking for a mortgage and apply at 5 different places within a couple weeks these would be grouped together and would be scored as only one inquiry.

As mentioned above your score is more heavily weighted on your most recent activity. The following is a break down of the weight of each year of your credit history.

• 40% is based on your last 12 months
• 30% is based on your last 13 – 24 months
• 20% is based on your last 25 – 36 months
• 10% is based on your last 37+ months

What doesn’t affect the score?

There are certain items that people thing should affect your score, but don’t.

• Debt ratio – the amount you make compared to the amount you pay out for monthly expenses does not affect your score
• The amount of income you make does not affect your score
• The length of time you’ve resided at your current address does not affect your score
• The length of time at your current place of employment does not affect your score

In the next post we’ll discuss what actions can hurt your score as well as what you can do to improve your score.

If you have any other questions regarding this topic please do not hesitate to comment below.

Please note that these are basic guidelines that make up your credit scores. Scores are calculated differently by different score providers. This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Please talk to a Member Relationship Officer at HCCU to address any of your specific questions or concerns.

Federal Government Announces Changes to Mortgage Insurance

Hamilton Community Credit Union has just received this News Brief from Central 1

The federal government announced today three changes to the underwriting
criteria for its mortgage insurance. The move is intended to pre-empt potential
problems in the mortgage and housing markets by reducing the availability of
mortgage credit.

The changes to the rules for government-backed insured mortgages:

• Require that a borrower qualify at a five-year fixed mortgage rate even if
  he/she chooses a mortgage with a lower interest rate and shorter term.
  Currently, borrowers qualify at a three-year term;


• Lower the maximum amount homeowners can withdraw in refinancing
  their mortgages to 90% from 95% of the value of their homes; and


• Increase the minimum down payment to 20% from 5% on non-owneroccupied
  properties purchased for speculation.

These adjustments to mortgage insurance come into force on April 19, 2010, with
exceptions allowed after April 19 where necessary to satisfy a binding purchase
and sale, financing, or refinancing agreement entered into before April 19, 2010.
These changes will have a minor negative impact on housing sales activity since
some potential borrowers will not be able to qualify at the five-year rate versus
the three-year rate. The main intent of this change is to limit future mortgagereset
problems when interest rates rise.

The Hamilton Spectator also had this article regarding the changes.

For more information regarding these changes or to obtain clarification on any outstanding questions please contact a Member Service Representative at either of our branches.

HCCU 71st AGM

Tuesday March 9th 2010

Michelangelo's banquet Centre

Beginning at 7:00pm

Credit Union Central to Help Earthquake Survivors

In response to the tragic events that have unfolded in Haiti, Credit Union Central has issued a release with regards to how Credit Unions can assist members in donating to this much needed cause.


Credit unions across the country are mobilizing efforts to provide aid to victims of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti.

"The credit union difference is defined by our belief in the co-operative principle of 'people helping people.' Our actions reflect this belief. As such, credit unions are urged to donate in response to this disaster and to consider reaching out to their members and facilitate the collection of member donations to help the people of Haiti survive this crisis."

Ontario credit unions can help members who want to donate by using the Ontario Credit Union Charitable Foundation's CanHelp program.

All individual donations may qualify for the federal government's $50 million matching program. The funds collected through the CanHelp program will be aggregated by the Foundation and then remitted to the Canadian Red Cross.

The Red Cross is also accepting corporate and individual donations here.


To insure your donations are put to their intended use in the fastest way possible, Hamilton Community Credit Union is directing all individual donations to the above mentioned charitable foundations.

For more information on how you can donate please contact Jordan Moat at jmoat@hccu.on.ca or by phone at 905-383-3395 x 104

Participation Rebate

On December 31st Hamilton Community Credit Union once again paid a Participation Rebate to our members who either earned or paid interest throughout 2009. For over 20 years now, HCCU has been sharing its profits with members in the form of a Participation Rebate.

The following is a message from our CEO Malcolm Stoffman regarding the 2009 Participation Rebate:

We have just gone through the year end process and as expected the Participation Rebate fell within the approved range of 3-4% range. In fact, HCCU paid a participation rebate of 4% with the full amount going to the member’s savings account.

While this amount is less than we have paid over the past several years it is still a very healthy return in comparison to what most other Credit Unions (and all banks) pay, and shows our commitment to this valuable benefit of membership even in challenging economic times. The total amount returned to members as a dollar value is $133,303.74.

Thanks to the staff and directors of HCCU for making this year a success through what will certainly be regarded as one of the most difficult years our local, national and international economies have seen in a very long time.

Hope you all have great New Years and a happy and healthy 2010.

Malcolm

If you have any questions regarding the Participation Rebate please contact either of our branches.