Small Talks for Big Change -
A Patelco Podcast

[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, 今天我们要讨论的是学生贷款的归还，以及归还贷款给政府和贷款服务商带来的挑战, 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.
我认为，在过去几年里，一个非常突出的问题是，当涉及到我们的学生被要求做什么时，他们缺乏理解. 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, [00:03:00]我们让他们为他们成年时所做的决定负责, 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, 不过我不用担心，因为我毕业后就要开始还钱了，现在我的债务像滚雪球一样大，我真的不明白必须还钱是什么意思. 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. 我仍然听到和看到很多表面上的评论，他们应该知道得更好. 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. 借了一大笔钱，他们做出了更好的决定. 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. 在此之前，根据教育倡议，学生贷款的平均支付额是503美元.
In addition to having to fit the
What has been your personal experience? [00:06:00]你必须处理退回学生贷款的程序是什么? 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, 但不可否认的是，在整个贷款延期期间，我都在假装我的学生贷款不存在, 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. 我一直在偿还我的私人贷款，因为我知道一笔贷款不会有什么结果. 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, 我收到一封电子邮件，给了我一个金额和一个日期，从一个贷款服务，我不认识.
所以我的第一反应是打电话给联邦援助办公室问我一些问题，比如这是我的总金额吗, 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, 有人接了电话，并很快告诉我，我必须打电话给实际的贷款服务人员，他们不能帮助我.
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.
把这笔钱洗到一个死胡同，我想我现在就支付这笔钱，因为我知道它至少会让我保持最新状态. 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, 因为在自动转帐上注册的任何联邦学生贷款都会给你25%的减息, which can be huge when you’re trying to reintegrate a student loan payment back into your budget.
在我目前的预算中，我遇到了一个困难，他们给我的默认到期日是每月的第一天. 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. 我还想说，把这笔付款重新纳入你的预算可能是一个重新评估整体预算的好机会, 看看能不能做些删减让你能更有机地融入其中.
I feel like. 很多时候，预算是固定不变的，它们并没有变得像它们需要的那样灵活. 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, 在2024年10月之前，不会有任何借款人向信用局报告违约.
Interest on loans will continue to accrue during that time, however, right? 但也有一种临时延期的选择，可以推迟还款，但会推高利息成本. 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, 所以安全计划是一个收入驱动或付款计划，这意味着你的月付款是根据你的收入和家庭规模来决定的. 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.
关于SAVE的另一个很酷的事情是，你的贷款余额永远不会因为未付利息而增长. 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. 拜登政府在今年夏天被最高法院驳回后，继续推进替代性的联邦学生贷款减免计划, 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, 如果你觉得它给你带来了负担，超出了你提供基本护理需求和所有这些东西的能力, 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, 再融资，合并以及所有这些在过去几年一直在发生.
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, 特别是在这个重新开始的时期，每个人都在努力调整他们的预算，为他们以前不需要支付的东西腾出空间, 会有很多的诱惑去寻找一个解决方案，而不是每个月都要付高额的钱，你会从骗子那里听到，如果你这样做，你的学生贷款就会消失, you know, provide them with your social security number and they’ll do all kinds of stuff to try to, [00:19:00]来获取你的信息因为他们知道我们的一些人有多绝望, , 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, 如果你收到关于你的会员号或者账号的短信或者类似的东西, 最好确保你是打电话给据说直接联系你的机构, 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. 所以我有一种感觉，也许六个月后我们会回到工作室，进行一场与今天完全不同的对话.
But I think just for now, our message to members is stay vigilant with your information. 在你整理这些东西并把它们重新引入你的生活时，要有耐心. 会员和人们在那里有关于学生贷款或支付计划选项的问题应该直接打电话给他们的服务.
Find information at studentaid. gov. 但如果你正在努力将这笔付款纳入你的预算，Patoka也可以提供帮助. 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, 今天我们要讨论的是学生贷款的归还，以及归还贷款给政府和贷款服务商带来的挑战, 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.
我认为，在过去几年里，一个非常突出的问题是，当涉及到我们的学生被要求做什么时，他们缺乏理解. 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, [00:03:00]我们让他们为他们成年时所做的决定负责, 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, 不过我不用担心，因为我毕业后就要开始还钱了，现在我的债务像滚雪球一样大，我真的不明白必须还钱是什么意思. 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. 我仍然听到和看到很多表面上的评论，他们应该知道得更好. 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. 借了一大笔钱，他们做出了更好的决定. 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. 在此之前，根据教育倡议，学生贷款的平均支付额是503美元.
In addition to having to fit the
What has been your personal experience? [00:06:00]你必须处理退回学生贷款的程序是什么? 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, 但不可否认的是，在整个贷款延期期间，我都在假装我的学生贷款不存在, 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. 我一直在偿还我的私人贷款，因为我知道一笔贷款不会有什么结果. 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, 我收到一封电子邮件，给了我一个金额和一个日期，从一个贷款服务，我不认识.
所以我的第一反应是打电话给联邦援助办公室问我一些问题，比如这是我的总金额吗, 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, 有人接了电话，并很快告诉我，我必须打电话给实际的贷款服务人员，他们不能帮助我.
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.
把这笔钱洗到一个死胡同，我想我现在就支付这笔钱，因为我知道它至少会让我保持最新状态. 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, 因为在自动转帐上注册的任何联邦学生贷款都会给你25%的减息, which can be huge when you’re trying to reintegrate a student loan payment back into your budget.
在我目前的预算中，我遇到了一个困难，他们给我的默认到期日是每月的第一天. 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. 我还想说，把这笔付款重新纳入你的预算可能是一个重新评估整体预算的好机会, 看看能不能做些删减让你能更有机地融入其中.
I feel like. 很多时候，预算是固定不变的，它们并没有变得像它们需要的那样灵活. 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, 在2024年10月之前，不会有任何借款人向信用局报告违约.
Interest on loans will continue to accrue during that time, however, right? 但也有一种临时延期的选择，可以推迟还款，但会推高利息成本. 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, 所以安全计划是一个收入驱动或付款计划，这意味着你的月付款是根据你的收入和家庭规模来决定的. 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.
关于SAVE的另一个很酷的事情是，你的贷款余额永远不会因为未付利息而增长. 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. 拜登政府在今年夏天被最高法院驳回后，继续推进替代性的联邦学生贷款减免计划, 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, 如果你觉得它给你带来了负担，超出了你提供基本护理需求和所有这些东西的能力, 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, 再融资，合并以及所有这些在过去几年一直在发生.
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, 特别是在这个重新开始的时期，每个人都在努力调整他们的预算，为他们以前不需要支付的东西腾出空间, 会有很多的诱惑去寻找一个解决方案，而不是每个月都要付高额的钱，你会从骗子那里听到，如果你这样做，你的学生贷款就会消失, you know, provide them with your social security number and they’ll do all kinds of stuff to try to, [00:19:00]来获取你的信息因为他们知道我们的一些人有多绝望, , 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, 如果你收到关于你的会员号或者账号的短信或者类似的东西, 最好确保你是打电话给据说直接联系你的机构, 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. 所以我有一种感觉，也许六个月后我们会回到工作室，进行一场与今天完全不同的对话.
But I think just for now, our message to members is stay vigilant with your information. 在你整理这些东西并把它们重新引入你的生活时，要有耐心. 会员和人们在那里有关于学生贷款或支付计划选项的问题应该直接打电话给他们的服务.
Find information at studentaid. gov. 但如果你正在努力将这笔付款纳入你的预算，Patoka也可以提供帮助. 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, 这让我们感到紧张，因为这样的心态可能会对我们生活中的任何变化产生影响. 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? [00:01:00]这些都是信用记录和良好信用评分发挥作用时需要考虑的问题.
Mel, would you agree with that? Absolutely, Michelle. 拥有良好的信用评分不仅仅是有资格购买或支付生活事件. 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, 我们认为有必要为那些被拒绝使用传统贷款产品的会员提供一个主动的解决方案。[00:02:00. 而我们提供信用报告审查和财务指导，我们的成员如何扭转局面.
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.
他们专门使用行为科学来改善美国中低收入人群的财务状况. S. Together, 我们花了好几个月的时间来制定一个计划，帮助我们的会员建立或修复他们的信用. 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. 市场上的信用建设产品似乎在这样或那样的领域都不尽如人意. 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. 他已经做了大约一年的兼职工作，要么坐公共汽车四处走动，要么在妈妈的车有空的时候借她的车.
He had a small savings but no credit established. 银行家花时间和会员在一起，并利用网站上的信用生成器计算器工具来更好地了解会员的每月支出. 他能够与他分享Skorup如何不仅通过按时付款建立信用记录，而且还增加了储蓄.[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?
这和贷款人考虑向个人贷款时的基本原理是一样的. 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. 因此，无论信用评分如何，这个解决方案都有固定利率，这一点非常重要.
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将还清贷款，并向信用局报告全额贷款，成员在他们付款的几个月里仍然获得积极的付款历史.
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. 因此，每次付款都会向信用机构报告，而付款的资金会在储蓄账户中增长，并在贷款期限结束时可用. 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. 我们的注册金融专家提供一对一的培训[00:08:00]我们非常兴奋和自豪地, 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, 他曾担任Schools First Federal Credit Union的执行副总裁兼首席运营官. Her career began as a part time teller for American Savings Bank, [00:01:00] progressing to SVP of Retail Banking. 艾琳在金融行业有30多年的经验，还包括西部金融银行的首席信息官和运营高级副总裁以及HealthNet的首席技术官, Inc.
Erin was recognized by the California Credit Union. 她的杰出服务奖进入了SKU的名人堂，并得到了美国银行家的认可，以及他们在信用合作社中最具影响力的女性. 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, 当我接到一个招聘人员的电话时，我对信用合作社一无所知，他想找一个人来领导当时奥兰治县教师联邦信用合作社的金融和技术团队。[00:02:00, who is now known as School’s First Federal Credit Union.
You know, my first reaction was, no, 我没有兴趣，因为我的印象是这个组织会很小，而且他们的产品非常有限, 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, 我们的愿景是成为一个信用合作社，使我们的会员能够实现财务自由. 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. 我认为我们的会员最喜欢Patelco的是，当我们说我们的目标是建立我们的会员财务健康和福祉, we really mean it.
对你来说，让整个公司都参与到这一使命中来有多重要?我们有哪些努力实现这一目标的方法? 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. 我和领导团队必须制定框架和指导方针，使团队在服务我们的使命和服务我们的成员时蓬勃发展，使我们的成员得到我们所提供的好处.
但真正让这一切发生的是团队，你需要船上的每个人都为我们的成员工作. 这是真的，你知道，我们的团队很幸运，能够在地面上与太阳集团平台面对面. 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.
但我们也分享一些独特的产品和服务，我们设计这些产品和服务是为了帮助我们的会员更方便地在我们这里存入银行, help increase their credit score, save more, etc. 我们为会员推出了哪些新的东西来支持他们的财务健康，你可能认为这是一种未被利用的隐藏宝石?
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. 这两种产品都是为了帮助我们日常管理和降低银行服务成本而设计的, 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. 无论是我们如何加强与会员的沟通，不断让他们意识到这些骗局, 但我们的网站上也有一个欺诈中心，它解释了很多欺诈骗局，并帮助会员看到, 也许会看到早期的警告，也许他们正在与之打交道的人不是他们应该与之打交道的人.
我们在联络中心设立了一个专门的欺诈专家团队，这样我们的会员就可以直接联系到他们，这样他们就可以在被骗之前和我们谈谈, anytime they have an ill feeling or have a concern about any conversation they’re having. 这些专家可以帮助会员了解什么是真正的骗局, 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. 我们还将继续向我们的数字银行添加功能，会员可以使用这些功能来帮助自己建立财务生活和旅程，并使其变得更好.
We’ve added features that allow you to create. Goals around savings, budgets, 最近还对会员的资金使用情况进行了财务分析，这样会员就可以坐下来决定了, is that how I want to spend my money or should I do it differently? And of course, 所有这些都补充了一个事实，即我们的任何成员都可以帮助设置许多警报，或者我们可以帮助您设置警报.
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. 每一位专家都能让我们的会员做出更好的选择，修复和改善他们的财务状况.
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, 信用社的不同之处和庆祝全球信用社运动的精神.
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, 我们的最终目标是让人们意识到我们共同从事的巨大工作.
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. 您能否与我们的Patelco团队成员分享一下参与世界信用合作社理事会的重要性，以及我们在推动整个运动中所发挥的作用?
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, 她与世界信用合作社理事会的合作使她意识到传播信用合作社差异的重要性. 与我们一起庆祝国际信用合作社日75周年，并了解更多关于Patelco的使命.

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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. HSA旨在将税前收入存入免税账户，仅用于符合条件的医疗费用. 存入HSA的资金或在年底留在HSA中的资金属于符合条件的个人.
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. 根据美国国税局的指导方针，你也不能被认为是另一个人的纳税申报表的依赖人. 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.
最后，提取资金是免税的，只要是符合条件的医疗费用. So, [00:03:00] a company may offer an HSA since they offer a high deductible health plan. 此外，因为他们在HDHP上支付的保费也较低，而且这样做还有一定的税收优惠. 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. 现在听到这篇文章的一些人希望做一些数学计算，并发现HDHP对他们来说也很有意义. Another reason for me to get an HDHP and an HSA was the ease of use.
在我长大的时候，除了房租，每个人都开始不收支票了. 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. 所以，如果你勾选了所有的复选框，你可能有资格获得HSA账户，并对它感兴趣.
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. 但我也对账户管理感到害怕，因为你必须非常谨慎地购买，有报销和国税局的报告. 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.
这些文件的副本将按计划或经核实的要求以实物或数字形式提供给成员. 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. 我们的理解是，无论如何，一个成员应该记录每年花费的资金以及在哪里和贡献了多少.
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.
当日或通过自动清算中心或自动清算所，将所要求的hsa资金交付给另一机构. Mm-hmm. , 将资金从Patelco转到另一个机构的最后步骤必须由会员通过网上银行或直接给自己写一张支票来完成. 这是我的专业意见，会员应该谨慎购买用品，如果他们购买的人不包括在惠普.
or are not dependents, or the member is making a non traditional purchase. 这三种可能性可能有太多的背景，我认为谨慎是有必要的, but outright fear shouldn’t come to mind. 我希望这不会导致会员放弃HSA或非传统购买.
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. 我们强烈建议会员保留他们的原始表格和声明，有时这些信息是关于健康和幸福的个人信息，有时会员自己报销旅行和住宿，以获得非常具体的医疗服务或咨询.
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. 美国国税局发布了一份名为502号出版物的文件，详细介绍了符合条件的医疗费用.
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, 只有当你对你的HSA做一些具体的事情或以一种不寻常的方式使用资金时，我才推荐一个, 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, 我之前提到的5498申请，向国税局和你提供了你所缴纳的税款总额，我之前提到过, 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]如果你觉得所提供的信息与你的记录不符, please contact us. 5498 SA出现得比较晚，因为你可以在当前日历年的纳税截止日期之前为上一个纳税年度供款.
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, 然后你就有了那些方便的东西，比如亚马逊的购物清单，去买那些东西. 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. 你不需要做任何事情就能让资金在年底或纳税时间保持在Patelco的正确位置. 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. 我们将需要您在一些文件上签名，IRA部门将继续这一过程. HSA部门将通过将签署的正式请求发送给当前的托管人来继续这一过程. 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.
相反，其他机构不会在没有您的情况下向Patelco代表提供信息，他们很少会接受不是来自您的信息, 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, 我们给你一个储蓄账户，这样你就可以把你的HSA资金转移到普通基金中提取[00:17:00]或者, 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. 当由于会员或网上银行错误而需要调整时，我们将尽最大努力. But sometimes we are limited in those cases. Simple things like HSA debit card purchase returns, because you can do returns at Amazon, 或者在护理后发生的保险报销可以在同一日历年内可靠地完成.
你也可以在更复杂的过程中提供帮助，比如在整个纳税年度没有被HDHP持续覆盖的情况下按比例供款. 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. 我们的电子邮件地址总是在相同的时间由同一个团队打开并提供服务，在Patelco。O R G. That’s O R G because we’re organized. Now for employers, 你也应该使用我们的电话号码和这封电子邮件[00:20:00]地址H S A雇主服务于Patelco。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, 我们现在有大约100个合作伙伴，他们更喜欢让他们的HSA供应商与他们的财务健康计划的供应商是同一家. 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? 正如我所提到的，只需到分行或通过各种方式与我们联系，虚拟分行或电话号码或您在网上银行的安全信息, 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, 我们需要为您和您想添加为授权签名者或受益人的人提供各种社会安全号码. I know that can be a little tricky, but you should come back to it after you, you know, 打电话给一些家庭成员，问问他们过得怎么样，然后说服他们给你你的社会安全号码.
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. 我们[00:23:00]毕竟是一家特许的、有NCUA保险的、机会均等的贷款人和信用合作社. 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, 今天将是最好的一天，因为我们帕特尔科的帕特尔科在职项目团队和我一起监督我们的雇主财务健康计划.
我们请来了佩吉·怀曼和沙迪斯·阿米米她们是帕特尔科的财务健康合伙人. Hi, ladies. Good morning. Good morning. 那么，我们三个人在演播室里加起来，我们有多少年的银行工作经验? 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, [00:01:00]我们多少年来一直在与信用合作社合作，为合作伙伴的工作场所带来财务健康?
I’m also 16 years. So, for me, 我有一半的时间是在普通的银行业工作，其余的美好时光是在信用合作社度过的. I can ditto that, Patelco是我第一次在信用合作社工作，我在这里工作了三年半，提供财务健康服务. Awesome. So, between us, 我们在这个房间里积累了很长一段时间的经验，我们今天要从解决房间里的大象开始, and that is that economic times are really tough right now.
通货膨胀主要是让很多可能已经感到手头拮据的人难以生活, 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.
[00:02:00]普华永道2023年的一项研究报告称，60%的全职员工对自己的财务状况感到压力. 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, 五分之四的雇主表示，员工的财务问题影响了他们的工作表现. 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. 我们听说过很多关于心理健康支持和身体健康的健身房会员和其他一切, 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. 你能介绍一下这个项目吗?你的人力资源福利联系人是如何看待你这个健康伙伴的?
Absolutely, yeah. 简而言之，PatelCut Work是一个无成本，不需要合同的员工援助项目. I like to call us the financial doctors. 我们实际上帮助诊断财务问题，并提供正确的服务和产品，以帮助每个人实现财务自由.
Unlike the traditional employee assistance, we take a holistic approach. to financial wellness by providing professional counseling sessions. 我们把这些财务顾问称为CFS, CFS是我们虚拟团队的一部分. 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. 我们都非常愿意讨论每个雇主群体的具体需求，为他们提供并满足他们的需求，因为我们希望这个项目对所有人都能取得成功.
One of my recent partners that I launched a couple months ago in the Sacramento area. You know, 他们对所有这些产品都很兴奋，他们无法相信这些产品是免费的, 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, 我首先做了两场演讲，以适应各部门的经理和主管. 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,, 原因是我想让他们成为联络人，这样在他们的部门里，如果他们的员工去找他们要求,, guidance, you know, like where can I go get help, trying to, I don’t know, consolidate that, who do I talk to, that, 然后，经理或主管可以将他们介绍给我，我可以为每位员工获得适当的帮助.
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, 我邀请了萨克拉门托不同分支机构的团队成员参加，如果他们参加, 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. 在他们的信封里有一些关于Patelco at Work项目的东西，以及他们如何获得好处, or if they got electronic, pay stubs, then there was a link with our information as well. 所以我认为这对人力资源部门和帕特尔科来说是一赢的局面，因为我们在很多方面都做到了最大化.
向员工伸出援手，因为我们的最终目标是帮助员工实现财务自由，只有在人力资源合作伙伴理解这一点的情况下，我们才能实现这一目标, 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.
我们一直在谈论这个问题，支持和影响财务健康方面的改变, 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, 对我们来说，这是一个真正的游戏规则改变者，因为我们已经看到，在COVID之后，很多员工现在都是混血儿, 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. 所以，各地的金融机构[00:10:00]都声称关注财务健康，对吧? 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, 就像有较低的借款利率，他们口袋里有额外的钱来申请更多的债务或存入储蓄账户.
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, 这充分说明了我们为社区和那些可能没有最低余额10的成员服务的承诺, 000 required at other funds.
Social Security and you know, financial institutions, there’s no minimum balance and there’s no monthly fee. 你可以把你的钱投进去，你可以从你的低余额中获得更高的利率[00:11:00]，我认为这是很大的. 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. 帕特尔科的理念是，以人为本，以利为先，我认为我们部门也奉行这一理念. 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, 是否已经通过了这个项目和这个认证过程，从而能够在会员和员工的财务旅程中为他们提供任何建议, 我认为这是一个巨大的好处，不应该被遗漏，因为并不是所有人我们都有一个完整的认证金融专家团队, 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, 我们可以根据他们所需要的专业知识对情况进行分类. 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.
所以我们让成为合作伙伴变得很容易，就像佩吉提到的那样，我们为你做了所有繁重的工作, 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, 我认为雇主们很忙，他们担心这会增加他们的工作量，但事实并非如此，因为我们做了所有繁重的工作, 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.
很多公司会举办福利展销会，或者用一周的时间专门举办活动，让员工关注福利，尤其是财务健康. 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.
我要在房间里再转一圈请大家分享一下你最喜欢的隐藏宝石, 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, 祝你在这个开放的注册季节好运，感谢你为支持工作场所的财务健康所做的一切.
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, 我觉得你在帕特尔科的角色就像是在这场欺诈游戏中领跑的投手.
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. 我很高兴加入这个团队，因为我知道Patelco为我们的会员和社区所做的一切. 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, 以及与我们的团队成员合作，以及他们如何工作，如何帮助我们的成员，真正退后一步，看看他们在欺诈方面的经历. 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.
好吧，联邦贸易委员会今年2月的最新数据显示，消费者损失了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?
欺诈行为正在增长，而且随着时间的推移，随着这些欺诈者技术的发展，欺诈行为一直在稳步增长. 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. 在领英上，一个骗子向会员提供了一个绝佳的投资机会. 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, 他们会试着思考你会问他们什么，这样他们就能想出一个故事、一个来源或一份文件, 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& 现在的大趋势是，这些骗子冒充金融机构. 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, 他们会利用这一点，我们会自然地倾向于向帕特尔科提供信息.
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. 当帕特尔科打电话给我或者有人打电话给我时，我通常会认出这个号码. What can, are there questions I can ask? How do I properly vet who I’m engaging with on the phone?
So, 当你接到一个电话，你接了电话，有人告诉你他们是代表Batelco给你打电话时，你能做些什么, 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,
他们恐吓会员提供个人信息，说我不能关闭这张卡，除非你给我这些个人信息. 除非你给我这些信息，否则你不能对这些交易提出异议，也不能拿回你的钱. 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, 我想我们要说的是，我们可以在这里花一天的时间谈论各种各样的骗局.
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. 非常感谢你们邀请我上播客，今天我很高兴能和你们聊聊预算问题. 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. 这一切都始于了解你对金钱的感受，以及当涉及到你的财务健康时，你优先考虑的事情, 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, 就像走进一家商店，到处购物一样，这很容易让我购买不必要的东西，这会让我觉得我想要的东西实际上并不是我想要的.
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, 因为听到他们这么说，我真的开始思考我自己的理财习惯了.
你说的那些作品中有很多我都认同. 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. 到了第30天，我意识到没有那个东西我也过得很好? 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, 你要确保包括哪些关键内容?当涉及到预算时，年轻人是否比其他人更能响应某些策略? 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. 我认为这是让年轻人或任何人在预算问题上有所突破的唯一途径，因为没有人愿意努力工作，让他们的钱被告知应该全部花在自己的钱上.
Boring things like bills and savings, right? 我认为预算这个词本身有时有一种只工作不娱乐的内涵. So I emphasize the play is a necessity as well. 保持预算不会限制你享受乐趣，相反，它会让你拥有乐趣. The freedom to have fun without stress.
Does that make sense? 是的，我完全同意预算这个词对很多人来说可能有负面含义. 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, 我认为最重要的是找出最适合你现有习惯的预算技巧.
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. 它会根据娱乐，杂货，这类东西为你分类.
 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, 确保你所有的账户都是免费的，并且你没有支付任何不必要的服务费, 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, 我把所有的两周循环账单加起来，然后把余额存入它自己的支票账户和每个付款期, 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. 你意识到到学期结束时，5美元或7美元可以变成成百上千美元.
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 watchwandavision.com. 在我们网站的财务健康标签下，还有一个财务健康图书馆，里面有一些关于预算的好文章. And then the last thing we’ll mention is Patel CO’s YouTube channel, 有一些很棒的短视频和记录的预算演示，你可以看看吗.
And of course, that to be overshadowed. 安德鲁提到的我们的手机应用程序可能你已经在用了，它有一个内置的预算功能. 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, [00:02:00]你和团队成员围绕这个问题进行了哪些对话? 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. 但我特别记得，当时我不知所措，不知道该信任谁，也不知道如何权衡贷款选择类型.
[00:03:00]向我们介绍一下与潜在购房者的见面会是什么样的，以及Patelco提供的服务和帮助会员的方式有哪些不同. 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. 因此，我们所做的最重要的事情就是倾听并开始会员的购房之旅.
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. [00:04:00]就像买了双鞋，一双很棒的鞋，但却小了三个码. 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.
我可以告诉任何成员的最重要的事情之一是，拥有住房是一项长期投资. 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, 发现会议是什么样的? [00:06:00]Patelco的产品和帮助会员的方法有哪些不同之处?
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, 有很多人认为在这里买房子是不可能的，或者他们还没有准备好和像你这样的人预约.
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@watchwandavision.com or visit our website@watchwandavision.com 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. 我们在这里讨论虚拟分支，以及我们认为大流行带来的少数亮点之一. 我们的虚拟分行为我们的会员提供了一个屡获殊荣的额外渠道. So very literally a virtual.

0:59
分行，为我们的成员提供几乎相同的方式，就像他们在分行所在地，只是远程. 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. 实际上，两个关键的区别是地点和会员如何真正享受银行业务的便利. 我自己就是一个善于交际的人，所以我很高兴我仍然能够与我们的成员进行视觉上的互动. 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. 我们能够在虚拟互动中获得所有这些信息，而且一切都很顺利. That’s so great, That’s amazing. Jocelyn, 你经常和我们的团队一起在社区活动中锻炼，我们仍然喜欢你亲自出来, in the community with us and.

2:19
虚拟分行的另一个巨大的好处是，当我们外出建立账户和服务时，我们的会员可以直接与虚拟分行的代理联系. 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, 我们的合作伙伴公司也可以提供虚拟分支访问他们的地区或国家的员工，他们喜欢.

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. 我们有很多回头客使用我们的虚拟分支机构，他们对这项服务非常兴奋. 通过与真人的面对面互动，几乎没有误解的余地. So virtual branch is growing. You all are a team of 18 now, which is incredible.

3:44
So Justin, 我们的会员称之为虚拟分行的业务和交易类型是什么? 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 watchwandavision.com. 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. 这是一个很好的方式，我们帮助我们的会员，他们真的继续提供一个安全和方便的方式与我们联系. So check out our virtual branch from our website watchwandavision.com 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. 谢谢你让我上播客，我很高兴能在这里谈论我们正在做的事情. So Louise, 你和我都热衷于用金融教育来教育和支持太阳集团平台. 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, 真正有趣的是，让我兴奋的一个主要原因是他们的使命是为社区提供财务健康. 我记得我在这里的第一次会议，我们的首席执行官坚定地谈论这个问题，非常坚定. 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. 那么，请给我们介绍一下帕特尔科的CFS培训计划，以及它在实现我们提供财务健康的使命时是如何发挥重要作用的. 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, 在通往财务自由的道路上，我们致力于帮助会员完成他们的财务旅程. 我们明确提出了四个主要组成部分，我们将自己承担并支持我们的成员, right. 因此，这四个组成部分正在支持我们的会员有效地管理他们的日常财务生活, 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. 因此，我们利用这些数据并采取行动的事实可能并没有像我们最初计划的那样发展, we pivoted based on the data that we received. 我认为这充分说明了我们真正履行了我们的使命，就是这样，这才是真正的使命. 与此同时我们也从世界各地的信用社那里了解到更多的机会.

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. 看着和人们一起设计产品，我们走过了这个过程，了解人们的感受, how people experience the program and we tested out. And so to our surprise, Patelco’s idea was selected as a first place winner. 这个想法被称为Relook，这个想法是一个承诺，支持那些最脆弱的人，并应对.

4:33
With additional support on their financial journey, 我们的想法是，我们不再只是沟通客户的信用请求而不提供信息, 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? 所以我们知道我们需要一个拥有独特技能的团队来帮助我们的成员，所以我们需要建立一个团队，在我们试用了Qunas vicep后不久.

5:02
Counselor training through multiple departments. 这里的目标是让我们看看我们的团队成员如何使用这些知识以及他们与我们成员的日常互动. After learning from the team, 我们了解到，我们的零售团队成员最有能力识别和支持需要财务指导的成员. 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, 但是帮助会员想象实现他们的储蓄目标或信心，告诉他们的钱去哪里，而不是想钱去哪里了.

6:00
Huge, right? 所以我对此很兴奋，因为我最喜欢的一件事就是我们向会员展示他们的免债日期. 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, 所有这些资源都可以在你刚才谈到的那些类别中利用. 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. 你知道，我以前从来没有做过预算，我需要别人帮我做一个预算，以帮助我节省开支. 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. 因此，从指导到为所有家庭建立合适的账户，再到建议何时去看我们的专家合作伙伴, 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
对任何人来说，在任何时候，这都是一个非常棒的资源，我们绝对鼓励我们的会员利用它，这也是免费的. It’s completely free right. 那么这是什么这是一个会话之后的过程看起来像是一个一次性的互动. We mentioned it’s free but and then how do we sign up for this. Yeah. 所以通常我们的CFS是我们的教练会抓住机会解释这是一种教练关系. 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. 但我们真正寻找的是教练关系是我们如何帮助人们在他们的旅程中理解他们想要完成的目标，然后在这个过程中创造一些标记，告诉他们我们会和你联系. Whether that be. 你知道，一些刚接触财务管理的人可能会说，我需要每周的支持，我们会这样做的. 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. 所以这真的是关于什么对客户有效，我们的教练有能力根据关系安排不同的选择. 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.将鼠标悬停在财务健康下拉菜单上，点击该页面上的个性化建议. 申请表很短，中心会在三个工作日内联系你安排预约，了解你的目标. 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 watchwandavision.com 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, 因为这是对老龄人口的欺诈行为，他们没有能力重返工作岗位，一旦被剥夺资金就无法收回.

1:24
And it’s so sad, 多年来，我有很多故事可以告诉你，关于我参与过的不同的虐待老人的案件. 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, 在我的职业生涯中，我花了很多时间与虐待老年人作斗争，帮助我们的会员预防和解决他们不幸成为受害者的欺诈行为. 我有很多个人故事可以和你们分享，但我现在想到的是. 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. 也可以是他们在网上通过不同的网站认识的人，诸如此类. They establish a personal connection, an emotional connection, and not soon after that fraud and scam starts to take over.

2:48
当会员最终意识到发生了什么时，他们可能已经损失了高达15万美元. I’ve seen it that high. And it’s really, really sad. That’s truly heartbreaking. 你最近给我们的团队做了一个报告，其中包括了国家老龄化委员会的数据, 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, 我们希望这些统计数据能像对我们一样触动我们的听众，并促使我们采取一些可能的预防措施. 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. 因此，受信任的联系人是会员选择的个人，Patelco可以在有限的情况下联系，如果对会员或他们的帐户有疑问. So let me give you some examples of what the purpose of a trusted contact is.

4:28
So you know, Patelco在这里是为了保护我们会员的财务状况，这就是确保我们保护财富和资产免受欺诈，并与我们今天的会员建立关系, but also members with the next generation. 因此，他们的子女和孙辈的可信联系人使Patelco能够更好地保护会员的帐户安全, 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. 值得信赖的联系人可以做的另一件事是确认似乎患有健康问题的成员的健康状况. 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, 这听起来很棒，听起来像一个非常简单的解决方案，为我们的账户持有人增加了很多价值, 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. 我可以告诉你更多关于一个信任的联系人可以做什么，然后帕特尔科将如何使用他们. 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
如果我加你为我信任的联系人有一天你突然好奇我从哪里得到这些钱然后你决定打电话给帕特尔科说, hey, you know, 珍经常来我的办公室买这些东西，我很好奇她的钱是从哪里来的. The trusted contact cannot get any information on any of the transactions. They can’t authorize transactions, 他们不能代表我们的会员做决定，也不能再提供详细的账户信息.

7:02
Such as balances or transaction history. 我们使用可靠联系人的一些方法我有几个例子给你们我在Patelka工作了28年, I’ve been in the branches, I’ve been in several different apartments. 但我想到的一件事与健康有关，这在一个分支中经常发生, we would have a member come in who maybe wasn’t feeling great that day and had a health crisis.

7:28
因此，无论是他们开始感觉不舒服，无法开车回家，还是我甚至遇到过会员在我的大厅昏倒，我们不得不叫救护车. 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. 第二种情况我经常看到有时每周都有成员开始出现认知问题. 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. 在这种情况下，一个值得信赖的联系人也非常重要，因为有人有认知问题.

8:43
Or someone who may be forgetful. As you know, Michelle can be a huge, 对于骗子来说，这可能是一个巨大的漏洞，可以进入并利用那个人的经济优势. 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. 可信联系人的第三个最重要的部分是成为潜在骗局或欺诈活动的路障. 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? 然后，我们会把可信赖的联系人作为最后的手段，让他们知道我们看到了什么，我们担心什么. 所以我知道，如果你们中有人知道我的父母正在经历这些问题，我会很感激有人打电话给我，听起来我们所有的会员都应该考虑在他们的账户中添加一个可信的联系人.

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, 我想快速地说一下，会员应该选择谁作为值得信赖的联系人，因为我认为这非常重要，这个人需要能够处理像我刚才描述的那种困难的对话.

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? 最后但并非最不重要，也可能是最重要的是一个人同意承担这个角色. So you want someone who who’s like, yeah, I want to do that for you, they are going to be your best advocate. 米歇尔，我来回答你的问题，这真的很简单，我们正在尽可能地让它简单. You can come into a branch to add a trusted contact.

11:56
您可以致电我们的会员联络中心，我们可以通过DocuSign向您发送表格以添加受信任的联系人. We also have a landing site on watchwandavision.com which is patelco.联系所有的一个词，将有所有的信息，包括应用程序.

12:16
And then coming in July, 我们有一个令人兴奋的更新，我们的网上银行系统，然后你就可以进入网上银行和添加, 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, 帕特尔科来这里是为了把这个值得信赖的联系人添加到你的账户中，我们希望你能利用它，因为在危急情况下有人能为你辩护是一笔巨大的财富.

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
感谢您参加今天的“小谈话大改变”节目，我们将帮助您简化财务话题，帮助您实现财务健康. 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. 所以让我们进入正题，我会问一些在社区中不断被问到的问题，我意识到这个问题有一个很长的技术性答案, but.

0:55
To help us understand, 你知道为什么最近利率这么高，而我们看到的是长期以来最高的存款利率, 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. 事实上，通货膨胀率达到9%左右，比去年略高，这非常令人担忧. Why is it concerning? One, the average inflation rate before that was between 2 to 3% since the 90s. 通胀一直很低，这对消费者来说是件好事因为每次你想买东西的时候, investing in something.

1:53
And you put money on the side for it. 你知道价格不会离开你，你最终会追着价格买你想买的东西. 所以美联储非常重视通胀率他们的目标是使通胀率达到2%到3%. 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, 这对想借钱消费的消费者和企业主来说不是件好事吗, 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%. 这在2008年和2019年的最后两个周期中是前所未有的，当时我们面临的是利率上升的环境，美联储也在加息, it took them roughly about two years to reach 4%. So the speed of the rate going up is matching this.

3:48
关于通货膨胀率有多高，这引起了很多讨论，这确实有点震动了市场. 所以我们在消费者方面看到的是这些高费率，你不能在高速公路上看到大量的高CD费率广告牌. 因此，作为消费者，你需要尝试和破译你知道应该利用哪种利率，使用哪种工具. So I have to tell you a story.

4:16
And as you know, 我的团队在社区与组织合作，为他们的员工带来财务健康. 我最近离开了建筑公司，参加了一个午餐会，学习介绍了我们的一些产品和服务. 我开始谈论储蓄目标和不同的储蓄工具，人们可以考虑储蓄. 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, 但我们必须意识到，我们不能假设我们的会员都知道CD是什么.

5:11
You know how that contrasts against some of our other savings instruments out there. 那么详细分析一下存单对我们来说是什么，你知道，它现在为我们的投资提供了更好的回报，而不是储蓄账户或货币市场账户. 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, 你要把钱存入银行或信用合作社银行和信用合作社称之为存款因为你去找出纳员或以某种方式把钱存入银行. 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. 证书有合同因素，合同因素基本上分为两部分. 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, 你仍然会得到这个利率，你会得到这个利率，这是CD的第二部分，在一个特定的期限内，你已经同意了. 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? 不是说你不能把钱从大额存单里取出来，而是因为这是一个契约性协议.

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. 第二件事基本上是你将得到你的部分权益，而不是你的全部权益. So typically.

8:35
In banks and credit unions, they call that a penalty, 但惩罚基本上只是你本来可以得到的利息，你会失去一部分. 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 watchwandavision.com/rates.

9:28
And patelco.没有风险去看这些储蓄工具之间的利率变化. And Patelco’s a great place to house some of those investments and getting started with savings. 但我们也想让它变得简单，我们今天在这里花了710分钟讨论这个问题，帮助我们的会员做决定, but you may not, you know, completely be ready. So we have our certified financial specialists.

9:56
可以在我们的分支机构，也可以通过我们的虚拟分支机构，这些专家可以帮助我们的会员, you know, determine what the best option for them is going to be based on their goal. 因此，我们当然鼓励我们的会员利用这些免费的认证金融教练. 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
感谢您参加今天的小谈话大改变，我们帮助简化财务话题，帮助您的财务健康. My name is Michelle Enriquez, Membership Development Manager here at Patelco Credit Union. 今天我们非常激动我们请来了维罗妮卡·丹泽菲尔德高级财务健康教育家.

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. 十多年来，我一直在远处观察你在另一家信用合作社的工作，我一直很钦佩你对金融教育的热情，以及在人们的金融旅程中帮助他们.

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. 你在这一行已经很长时间了，多年来你在社区里与无数的团体合作过, 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. 当年轻人明白后，看到他们眼中的灵光一闪，真是太有趣了.

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. 如果你有一个最好的建议给那些还没有开始开户或储蓄的父母或年轻人, 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
最小的女儿我叫她卵石和巴姆巴姆卵石从娘胎里出来就是个会计她可以. 你甚至不用担心她，因为她会数数，她会开支票账户. 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. 所以当你18岁的时候，你所做的决定会影响到28岁的你. 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. 我们必须向我们的年轻人解释这一点，因为他们不明白储蓄不是你在支票账户上支付开支的东西.

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, 我们的行业随着青年月的到来而壮大，因为我们是建立在节约的原则之上的. 因此，我们有专门的时间来庆祝信用合作社青年运动，同时鼓励我们的年轻人储蓄. And to your point, maybe this starts with really understanding our money personalities.

5:59
然后寻找资源，继续教育，产品和服务来帮助我们, to help us be successful. So, so at Patelco you open up an account, 一张支票，一张储蓄，你开了另一个账户，你一直为这个账户提供资金，这就是你成功储蓄的方式，在某种程度上，你成为了自己的救世主.

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. 我认为这里的关键字是分开的，因为很多时候我们把所有的钱都混在一起. 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. 所以我们说的是给你所需的信息，然后给你一个系统，这样你就能成功.

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
对，然后开始管理你自己的钱，这就是我们的学生支票账户. 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 watchwandavision.com/student and Veronica.

8:56
Thanks so much for being with us. I forgot to give you the caveat here. The caveat is, 是指父母在孩子十几岁的时候一起管理他们的财务吗, 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, 这只是你剪掉的其中一件事，我会做的，我稍后会去找出生证明. 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 太阳集团官网. 今天我们要谈论的话题很幸运，对我来说很接近我的家，那就是关于浪漫的话题, 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, 你在帮助我们的会员了解不同类型的欺诈方面做了很多工作. 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, 我提到过，我有一个亲密的家庭成员的亲身经历，他是一段恋情的受害者.

1:00
不幸的是，我明白了像这样的骗局除了造成经济损失之外还有多大的破坏性. So let’s start off Jen. 我刚才提到了你关于工作诈骗的话题，我要告诉你，我听说过各种各样的诈骗，但从来没有听说过工作诈骗. 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. 然后会员会去购买礼品卡，骗子会要求提供礼品卡号码和密码, 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, 然后那个人很快就建立了联系因为他们觉得这个人认识我, 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. 你也提到了礼品卡在工作诈骗和爱情诈骗中都是这个人向我的家人索要的付款方式. 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 太阳集团官网. 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. 因此，我们知道我们的会员需要支持，我们的营销团队在我们的网站上建立了一个欺诈中心，工作非常出色, watchwandavision.com. 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, 你可以太阳集团平台的会员联络中心，他们有一个专门的欺诈小组来帮助我们的会员解决这个问题. 我们正在尽我们所能支持我们会员的财务福利，这只是我们已经开始的两件伟大的事情.

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
要注意，我知道我们不可能是专家，因为今天留给听众的只有两件事，那就是对欺诈保持警惕. What would you say? 实际上有三件事，我认为第一件事就是要知道并接受骗子和骗子的存在. 我认为意识到如果有人开始询问你的个人信息，你将永远处于防御而不是进攻的状态, red flag, online banking credentials, they want to gain access to your.

9:36
电脑可能会影子会话，让你登录网上银行，他们想看你做那个大红旗. 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. 我确实想提一下，我们的很多会员确实来过，想要进行电汇，他们有时甚至会把骗子的手机放在口袋里. 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. 我们知道，有时候你甚至会觉得自己上当受骗，这真的很尴尬. 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. 我有一种感觉，你很快就会回来，这样我们就可以谈谈希望不是更多的欺诈和骗局. 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
感谢您加入我们的第一集“大改变的小谈话”，我们帮助简化财务话题. To help with your financial Wellness, my name is Michelle Enriquez, membership development manager here at Patelco Credit Union. 我很高兴能和我的好朋友兼同事克里斯蒂·朗格利亚一起拍摄第一集. 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. 我从2022年1月的人口普查数据中提取了一些数据，显示目前学生集体债务为1.75 trillion in the United States. It’s, it’s crazy. 因此，在过去的六个月里，你和我一直在谈论我们可以为会员做些什么，以减轻学生贷款债务和申请学生贷款减免. 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, 我们有什么责任教育我们的会员和太阳集团平台关于财政援助的选择? 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
社区需要帮助理解储蓄、预算、信贷等所有这些东西的基本概念. And when you think about financial aid right, what is it?

2:10
It’s, 这是对需要上大学的人的帮助，帮助他们弄清楚如何支付学费或其他你需要做的事情. 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. 你不必拿你收到的钱，但你正在填写一份贷款申请. And for a lot of our students, this is the first time that they are being asked questions about their finances. 大多数家庭不会在家里和他们的学生谈论经济问题，也不会谈论这些经济援助的细节程度.

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. 但我心里总有一小部分会想，是否有人坐下来和我谈过金融教育, 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
我们所拥有的权力与那些最了解这些东西的机构为伍, 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
所以当我开始在这个领域工作时，我意识到我在自己的位置上学到了很多东西, 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, 但只要有机会学习，然后看到它对我自己的金融教育和福祉的影响，并能够回到社区，然后教其他人从中获得力量. It’s huge. So personally, it’s really important to me.

6:30
But it’s also critical, I think, 信用社承担并承担这一责任，因为我们的会员绝对需要它. Absolutely. 我很高兴能加入你们的社区，与高中一起工作，真正了解高中需要帮助将教育传递给家庭，为家庭提供资源，并鼓励他们填写FAFSA. So, you know, I’ve learned over time.

7:00
Why it’s important to not only have all that education, 但也要确保学生在接受任何经济援助之前已经以自己的名义建立了一个账户, 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? 这是决定学生是否有资格获得财政援助的关键问题之一, 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. 你可以看到，当家长们在学生面前被问及支票储蓄账户的余额时，他们的压力有多大，他们的目光来来回回，就像有人给了我一个答案，让我把它放在这个盒子里. And it’s more complicated than that.

8:40
所以我们真的想鼓励我们的年轻人在他们还在家里的时候就开始用他们自己的账户发展这些基本的金融教育技能, 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, 不幸的是，并不是我们所有的家庭成员，我们所爱的人和我们认为可以信任的人, 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, 不管是谁的账户，让那个人把这笔钱用在与他们上大学无关的事情上. 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
但如果你把1万5千美元的流动资金，基本上是现金，存入支票账户.

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. 他们懂得牺牲，他们总是把自己放在前面，帮助同样在那里的弟弟妹妹.

11:50
But one thing that we can do is just let them be in charge. Let them make decisions for themselves. 让他们在自己周围筑起这些墙，以确保他们为上大学而拿出的资金用于他们认为适合上大学的地方. 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. 非常高兴你今天能和我们的观众分享这一点，这也是为什么我们的学生拥有自己的电脑非常重要的另一个原因.

12:51
开设账户可以控制他们自己的申请流程，因为我们的学生没有很好的资金管理基础，有很多机会成为掠夺性网站的受害者, 从我们的学生身上赚钱的企业，这些学生不知道他们被要求用这个应用程序做什么. 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. 我们要强调的是，没有人能比诚实地回答这些问题更能帮助你在申请过程中赚到更多的钱, legitimately, and asking questions about what those.

13:49
组织和网站提供支持，以换取某种类型的咨询费，这样他们就可以通过提交经济援助申请获得额外的支持和更好的结果, right. So it’s almost like, hey, student family, you know, did you not get everything that you wanted from financial aid? Well, 我们可以通过更新一些答案来帮助你得到更多，或者做一些你知道的事情，这些事情对那些可能没有的学生来说是很好的.

14:19
Gotten whatever it is that they needed.

14:21
But also be a red flag right for U.S. financial institutions. 我们知道，这些类型的企业是为了利用这些优势，所以我们的学生可以做的一件事是.

14:35
当涉及到支付服务和商品时，这是一种预防措施，他们不需要与负责任的金融机构结盟. 确保他们在社区中有人可以寻求答案，这样他们就不会给那些可能以不正当方式利用它的人提供更多信息.

14:56
所以我们的家庭在那里，甚至我们的一些学生正在探索开始使用免费支票账户，或者只是在探索寻找更多关于金融教育的资源，并希望从克里斯蒂那里听到更多关于经济援助的信息. We’ve got webinars posted on our website, watchwandavision.com, 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.网站，了解更多关于我们的免费支票产品，并查看我们的金融教育资源. 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