RALEIGH, N.C.–Coastal Credit Unionhas launched an expedited self-service Skip-A-Pay program, available inside of online banking and Coastal’s mobile banking app.
The credit union said the Skip-A-Pay tool is a way to help members who are feeling financial impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, by quickly and easily modifying their upcoming loan due dates.
Coastal Credit Union said Skip-a-Pay is presented upon login to members who have eligible loans. If a member accepts enrollment in the program, the due dates on all of their eligible loans are postponed for three months. There’s no fee to use the service, and postponing a payment will not affect a member’s credit reporting. Interest will continue to accrue and skipped payments may result in additional payments at the end of the loan or a larger final payoff amount, Coastal CU said.
‘What a Credit Union is All About’
“This is exactly what being a credit union is all about,” said Coastal President/CEO Chuck Purvis. “Our mission is to help members bank better, to live better. Right now, that means we’re being called upon to support people through tough times. And we absolutely will.
“We have a team that’s putting in maximum effort, every day, to put new services and systems changes in place to help soften the impact of this crisis on our members, and to quickly get them back on their feet once it’s all over,” continued Purvis.
Coastal CU said it also offering a Member Assistance Program that offers loan deferrals (and has scaled up its MAP team from four employees to more than 60 by redeploying staff from other departments), emergency loan relief, reductions on fees including not charging any new mortgage late payment fees for April, May and June payments and waivers on unpaid late payment charges from March; a lowering of the non-sufficient funds fee for checking, savings and money market accounts to one penny through June 30, and more.
Del Norte Holding Webinar for Members
SANTA FE, N.M.–Del Norte Credit Union is hosting a free virtual seminar for its members with Del Norte Investment Services, which it offers through CUNA Brokerage Services.
The complimentary webinar will focus on The Return of Conservative Investing.
“Market volatility. Low interest rates. Retirement risks. All of these headwinds are making it tougher than ever to know where to invest your retirement savings,” the credit union said. “With today’s economic risks, many investors are turning to more conservative options.”
The webinar is being held twice.
Finance Council Cancels Event
The CUNA Financial Council officially announced its conference, set for May 17-19 in Anaheim, has been cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The meeting has not yet been rescheduled.
What’s Trending in Searches
In Austin, Texas, Kasasa said its analysis has foundonline account openings for community financial institutions across the nation have increased by 14.5% as social distancing measures increase and thousands of branch locations close to prevent the spread of the virus. Additionally, account closures have declined by 28%, the company said.
Kasasa said its latest research also found changes in keyword searches over the last 30 days. Searches related to opening an account increased consistently with "open a bank account" and "open a checking account" searches increasing in volume over the past two weeks. Meanwhile, "open bank account online" and" open checking account online" also saw a sharp increase, Kasasa said.
The company cited Google Trends, search volume for "open bank account online" was higher than it has ever been before and is actually driving customers to open up accounts as an end result. Additionally, searches for auto loans and personal loans are trending, the company said.