HOME LOAN FASTRACK MORTGAGE If you re one of the millions of Americans that have a Home Equity Line of Credit with a variable rate you could see your rate going up by the end of the year. To make matters worse, those higher rates will almost certainly come with higher monthly payments. Most Home Equity Lines of Credit are variable rate loans that are tied to the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate. The Prime Rate has held steady at a very comfortable 3.25% for the last several years but all indications point to an increase in the Prime Rate by the end of 2015 or early in 2016. How much a rate increase will raise your payment depends on a few factors but here is an example to think about: The interest only payment on a HELOC with a balance of $60,000 at the current rate of 3.25% is roughly $160 per month. If your rate increases to 4.25%, your interest only payment jumps to $210. If your rate goes to 5.25%, your monthly payment will be about $260 per month. A rising payment can have a big impact on your monthly budget, especially if you have a big balance on your Home Equity Line of Credit! So if you have a variable rate Home Equity Line of Credit what should you do? The answer depends on you and your future plans. If you re planning to sell your home in the next year or two you might want to hang on to your current loan. Rates will almost definitely rise during that time but they re not likely to increase quickly in such a short time frame. HELOC s provide great flexibility and the interest only payment can save you some money, even if your payment goes up with a rate increase. If you plan to stay in your home for the foreseeable future, it s definitely a good time to look into refinancing; and Pyramid Federal Credit Union s Fastrack mortgage may be just the right thing for you. With rates as low as 3.25% APR* and fixed closing costs of just $995 you ll save, BIG! We ll combine your First Mortgage and your Home Equity Line of Credit into a 10 or 15 year mortgage with one convenient monthly payment that may be less than what you re paying today. You ll have the peace of mind knowing you ve locked in a great low rate and have a fixed payment that will never go up! Stop by your branch or call Alice Eager at (520) 881-9415 today. Mortgage rates will be on their way up soon and you don t want to miss out on your chance to take advantage of these historically low rates! *APR = Annual Percentage Rate. Some restrictions apply. Your rate may be different based on your credit, your home s value and the balance of your new loan. Rates are subject to change.
PRESIDENT S REPORT Dear Members, It s that time of year when it is HOT but the rains will be here soon. With the monsoons on the way, I have been thinking about one of the main reasons Pyramid FCU was started. Our Founders wanted our members to save for retirement, save for education and save for a rainy day. I have been reading a lot of articles online about how many people live paycheck to paycheck and how they have difficulty saving money. I have a couple of suggestions on how Pyramid FCU can help you save more money. First, try to get the lowest loan rate you can find on every loan you have. Whether it s a credit card loan, a car loan or a mortgage loan, find the lowest interest rate you can. The larger the loan balance, the more you can save by refinancing to a lower rate. When you lower your payments, you have three options: you can spend the money, you can save the difference in the payments, or you can continue to make the previous payments on your loan and pay it off faster. As long as you don t just spend the difference in payment amounts, you are improving your financial life. Second, try to commit to just saving something every week. Saving $10 per week will enable you to have saved more than $500 at the end of a year. Once you get in the habit of saving, it becomes easier. Let s try and save just a little for the rest of this year. We want our members to be able to afford retirement and enjoy life. Just a little effort can bring you great returns in the future. On a different note, interest rates are starting to creep up. If you have been thinking about refinancing your mortgage or converting your Home Equity loan to a fixed rate loan, rates are low and will soon begin to climb. Now is a good time to talk to us about refinancing your mortgage or consolidating your debt. My guess is that rates will be higher one year from now and if you can lock in a lower rate, you will be better off and improving your financial life. Give us a call at 795-7950 and let us help you lower your payments and save some money. Enjoy your summer! Ray Lancaster CEO/President Pyramid Federal Credit Union
July 2015 www.pyramidfcu.com 520.795.7950 1.800.947.9726 FEDERAL CREDIT UNION REACHING YOU MATTERS CHANGE OF ADDRESS We really don t ever want to charge a bad address fee. But the fee reflects the real cost we incur in handling returned mail. Remember to keep your address current with us whenever you move! Use the change of address form, change your address in online banking, or visit a branch to ensure we have your current address, phone numbers, and your email address!
NEW CAPABILITIES MOBILE CHECK DEPOSIT Mobile check deposit is coming soon to our Pyramid FCU mobile banking application! This capability will replace the current Sprig by CO-OP capability and allows us to have better controls including higher general limits, and individually set limits so we can better meet individual needs and reduce the instance of members being denied due to a limit. When?? When it comes out for general use (expected in August), we will communicate with folks currently using Sprig, and you will notice a new option in online and mobile banking. To use mobile check deposit, first you will need to enroll and accept the disclosure. This is done on the Services Mobile Check Deposit Enrollment menu item. You can do this either on a browser or on your mobile phone. Once you accept the disclosure, you can then use the menu option Transfers - Deposit Check- on the mobile app. We will also have available further documentation at that time.
When you use your Pyramid Federal Credit Union debit card to make a purchase At a store (point of sale) We recommend that you do not use the 4- digit Personal Identification Number (PIN). Instead, press <Cancel> if asked for the PIN (or selec t Credit rather than D ebit yes I m talking about when you use your Visa D ebit Card). You may be asked to sign (but you also may not be for lower dollar amounts). This improves your own protec tion, and reduces fraud risk. It also slightly increases the interchange fee paid to your credit union by the merchant, which merchants build into the price of what they sell. At a gas station If you use signature debit, gas stations often put a hold on a substantial amount of money in your account and don t clear that for many hours after you have paid at the pump and left. That can cause you problems if you want to spend that money while the hold is in effect. If this could make a difference to you, consider paying inside and using your PIN instead, or use your Pyramid FCU cash back credit card and earn 1.5% while you re at it. Online & By Phone You should never provide your PIN over the phone or online. So all such transactions should be signature transactions. The notice below provides further information about your benefits depending on what kind of transaction you process on your card. NON-VISA DEBIT TRANSACTION PROCESSING NOTICE PIN-less (signature) Non-Visa Debit transactions are quite rare, but they re an available option in some cases (examples below). As such we re required to provide you with this notice about them. Pyramid Federal Credit Union enables non-visa debit transaction processing and does not require that all such transactions be authenticated by a PIN. A non-visa debit transaction may occur on your Pyramid Federal Credit Union debit card through the COOP or Star networks. Below are examples to distinguish between a Visa debit and non-visa debit transaction: To initiate a Visa debit transaction at the point-of-sale, the cardholder may swipe the card through a point-of-sale terminal and sign a receipt (or at least choose credit or press <Cancel> when asked for a PIN), or provides a card number (e.g., in e-commerce or mail/telephone order environments). To initiate a non-visa debit transaction, the cardholder enters a PIN at the point-of-sale terminal or, for certain bill payment transactions, provides the account number for an e-commerce or mail/telephone order transaction after clearly indicating a preference to route it as a non-visa transaction. A non-visa debit transaction will not provide the zero liability protection benefit, and may reduce your rights to dispute a transaction. It is always best to sign for any VISA debit transaction. Provisions of the cardholder agreement relating only to Visa transactions are inapplicable to non-visa transactions.
BROADWAY OFFICE 5801 E. Broadway 85711 520.795.7950 fax: 520.790.4859 Drive-Thru, ATM, & Safe Deposit Boxes Fri 9am-6pm & Sat 9am-1pm ORACLE OFFICE Ross Shopping Center 4491 N. Oracle Rd. 85705 520.292.1198 fax: 520.292.1088 ATM Fri 9am-6pm SPEEDWAY OFFICE 7740 E. Speedway Blvd. 85710 520.721.5099 fax: 520.296.4147 Drive-Thru & ATM Fri 9am-6pm RITA RANCH OFFICE 8235 S. Houghton Rd. 85747 520.574.4415 fax: 520.664.0409 Drive-Thru, ATM, & Safe Deposit Boxes Fri 9am-6pm & Sat 9am-1pm GRANT OFFICE 5280 E. Grant Rd. 85712 520.324.5105 fax: 520.324.1899 Drive-Thru, ATM, & Safe Deposit Boxes Mon, Tues, Thur 730am-4pm Wed 9am-4pm Fri 730am-5pm SCHEDULED CLOSINGS INDEPENDENCE DAY Saturday, July 4th LABOR DAY Monday, September 7th SHARED BRANCH LOCATOR Call 888.748.32662 to find locations or go online to https://co-opcreditunions.org/locator/ FEE-FREE ATMS CoOp ATMs: www.co-opnetwork.org Allpoint ATMs: www.allpointnetwork.com e-mail: memberservice@fcu.org Online Banking & BillPay: fcu.com mailing address: PO Box 12100 Tucson, AZ 85732-2100 BANK WITH US WHEREVER YOU ARE. 57,000 FEE-FREEATMs