This member called in looking to make sure he had overdraft protection on his account. While looking into what type of Courtesy Pay he currently had, I asked why he was looking into this. He said because of COVID, he was getting a limited amount of hours with his union and money had been tight the last couple months. I let him know if he felt like he needed something to fall back on, we offer personal lines of credit as well as personal loans so he doesn’t have to worry about overdraft fees.

I was helping this member with a transaction, and while having a great conversation I asked if he had any loans we can help him with lower payments. He said he did want to see if we can get him a personal loan, “to consolidate debt.” I let him know we could definitely get started right away if he had time, and fortunately he did.

I was helping this member with his RV application, and I told him we could refinance his auto loan at another credit union for a lower rate. He was definitely interested, so he gave me some information about his vehicle and said, “Show me numbers before I decide.” I ran some projections and was able to get his interest rate lowered from 5.79% to 2.99%. When I emailed him the numbers, he said he will pass since the payment didn’t change very much. I replied to remind him he also qualified for a 90 Day No Payment and his next reply was, “Call me!” When we spoke, he let me know he is trying to pay off another auto and if we do 90 Day No Payment on his refinanced loan, he will be able to pay that off before he starts paying us. I said, "I can make that happen!” and we even added our lower-cost GAP to the loan!

In addition to the auto refinance, we discussed consolidating some of his other high rate debts, specifically a personal loan. He was hesitant to get another loan because he was wanting to pay off the other credit union auto loan first. I explained how we could do one personal loan at a lower rate in order to combine BOTH of the other loans he wanted to pay off. We went over some more projections and he agreed it was a good idea, so we submitted the application to cover both loans and he was approved! His previous monthly payment for both loans was $945.00, and his new Qualstar loan payment is only $445.00 – a huge savings $500 a month! By combining his loans at a lower rate and extended term, he now has one lower payment instead of two and the convenience of having all his debt in one place!

When this member came in to the Tacoma branch, I realized he only had a savings account and I offered to open a Simply Checking so he could have a Visa Debit Card. I also noticed he had been making regular payments on his Gateway Line of Credit for over a year, so I asked about upgrading him to our Visa Gold Card in order to lower his rate and give him more access. He agreed that would be great to help him save some money.

I reached out to one of our new union members, who set up his Online Services and had even done a check deposit using the Mobile Banking app. But, because he hadn’t yet upgraded his Vacation Fund account, the full deposit was not immediately available in his account. I confirmed he was eligible to upgrade to a Simply Checking, so he would have more access to his deposits and the ability to transfer funds to and from other bank and credit union accounts quickly and easily. When I explained all of this to him, he agreed upgrading his account was the way to go!

The other day I helped a member who had been with the union for a while, but hadn’t been to the branch to access his account, and wanted to get more information about his Vacation Fund at Qualstar. We hadn’t yet received all of the information to fully complete his membership, so I told him about the benefits of being a member at Qualstar; such as, access to our Online Services with Mobile Check Deposit, a full selection of financial services, and so much more!

When this member called to apply for an auto refinance to move his high rate auto loan to a lower rate Qualstar loan, I knew I could help him save some of his hard-earned money. I asked his current rate and if he had an idea of his credit score, and after he provided that information I told him we can definitely get him out of that horrible high rate loan. After taking the loan application and running some initial numbers, I asked about his other auto loan that might also be in need of a lower rate and/or payment since he had a good amount of equity in his vehicle.

I assisted a member who came in simply to deposit his check with cash back, and while processing his request I asked where his vehicle was financed to see if we could save him some money. He said it was, “some bank in California” and wasn’t sure on the rate, but he knew it was high. I asked if he wanted to see if we could get him a better rate – he said his credit wasn’t good, and he didn’t have time to do an application right then, but he was interested in lower payments.

This member called in back in November to get some help with his personal loan due to having a hard time with his finances, and wanted to ask about options for reducing the monthly payments. We talked about solutions other than a loan modification and I thought, if the member was struggling with this one payment, was he struggling with others…?

I followed up with this member after she submitted an online application to convert her Gateway Line of Credit to a Visa Gold Credit Card for additional benefits. While going over her application, I noticed she had two auto loans and additional credit cards that appeared to have high interest rates. After we finished the Visa Gold request, I asked if she knew what her interest rates were on those other loans, and after a few quiet moments she said, “Not good at all.” I told her I would do some calculations to see if we could help her refinance the auto loans, and possibly consolidate the credit cards at a lower interest rate. She liked the idea, but was in hurry to go back to work and promised to call back and let me know how to proceed.