This member’s original request was for a $2,000 loan, but his application was denied because of too much existing debt. After receiving that decision, he called back with questions and I was the one who spoke to him. After I answered his questions, and learned the original loan was to pay for his dog’s surgery, I checked on the value of his home and offered to see if an equity loan to consolidate his high rate debt would be a good solution. He liked that idea, so we got started on his equity loan application. When the approval came back, I noticed a full pre-paid appraisal report would be required. I knew he wouldn’t have the amount needed to pay for the report, so I quickly came up with another option to help take care of it. I created an additional application for a Personal Line of Credit, and noted the funds would be used to pay for the full appraisal report, pay off an existing auto loan with us, AND there would be enough left to pay for his dog’s surgery. When I submitted it for a decision, the application came back APPROVED! When I called him back to explain what we could do, he happily accepted the Personal Line of Credit deal to take care of those few expenses, which put him in a better situation to get an equity loan to pay off his other high rate debt.

The appraisal report came back a couple of weeks later, and the $100,000 Advantage Equity loan funded shortly after that. We were able to pay off another existing auto loan and paid off ALL of his (and his wife’s) unsecured credit card debt. We lowered their total monthly payments by over $1,000.00 and he will no longer be struggling to pay all of those individual credit card balances here & there. And most importantly, his dog is doing GREAT!

Back in May, this member came in to do a couple transactions and I saw she was pre-approved for a Gateway Line of Credit. Talking about it with her, it became apparent a Gateway was not what she needed so I started to give her information about our other loan options. We passed by credit cards, autos, personal loans, and we ended on home equity loans – Ivonne assisted me with giving the member all of the necessary information.

I helped this member last month and found out he had credit cards that weren’t giving him any rewards. I let him know about our Visa Rewards credit card, which would give him 1.5 points for each dollar spent on purchases and no annual fee. He seemed interested, but left without applying, so I sent him a follow up card not too long after he was in the branch…

This member would come in regularly to do his shared branching transactions and we would chat about what’s going on with him and his work. After many months of transacting for him he asked, “So, what do I need to do to become a member of Qualstar? I really like coming in here”…

While helping this member with his transaction, I discovered he had just bought a new car and I asked him why it wasn’t financed with us. We discussed his financing at another Credit Union and I figured out we could save him some money and make having the loan more convenient…

This member needed to do dispute as a result of some fraud on his account. I could tell that he was upset so I wanted to make sure we got everything done in a timely matter. I looked at his account I noticed he only uses us for his Vacation Funds. I started chatting with him and asked where his primary institution was and he said, “a different credit union.” I could hear in his voice he wasn’t too happy with them, but he was dealing with it. I asked if they treated him well and he said he guessed they did. I asked if he had any loans with them and he instantly laughed and said, “That will be the day! They won’t even think to look at me with my credit score.”

A few months back this member called to request a $10,000.00 personal loan for home improvements. She had recently inherited some property with a mobile home that she wanted to fix up and sell. After starting the application, it was clear she wasn’t going to be approved because she had an extremely high debt ratio so the request was cancelled. She has been a Qualstar member for a very long time and is now a small business owner with lots of credit card debt.

I first met this member in September when he needed help getting statements printed. It seemed like such a simple interaction but it apparently had a huge affect on him, because within a month he came into the branch and asked for me by name. Long story short, we refinanced his auto from 25.59% to 6.49% APR with a $160/month savings. But there’s so much more…

One day in the Renton branch, I educated this member about the personal loan he was pre-approved for and when he said, “I am interested” I asked about credit cards he might have at other banks. He said, “Yes I do have many cards.” So then I asked, “Do you know with a Qualstar Visa Gold card you can do a balance transfer from your higher rate cards with no fee, and we give you 1% cash back?” Then he said, “Can I just consolidate all my credit cards?”…

This member came into the branch back in August and we started talking about him making his payments on time so he is on track to upgrade out of his Gateway Line of Credit to save some money and help build positive credit. He said he really didn’t think we would even consider upgrading him…