Thursday, January 28, 2010

Similar Name but Completely Different

2009 Gallup_FCU LogoMany times people confuse Gallup Federal Credit Union with Gallup Inc. and I would like to set the record straight.

Let me first say that Gallup Inc. is our sponsor corporation and we absolutely love and appreciate them for all the support and encouragement they provide to us. Yes, our office does reside in their building and yes we have access to all of the resources that a normal Gallup employee does. It is truly a relationship that we will never even begin to take for granted, they are very good to us.

It is important, however, to clearly define what type of influence Gallup has over the credit union and our member information. Gallup Federal Credit Union is a federally insured credit union that is regulated by the NCUA (our version of the FDIC) and is held to the same privacy laws that  all financial institutions abide by. Our member records are held with the highest privacy standards and our books are separate and independent from all sources. In a word, the access that Gallup Inc. has to private member information is none

People have also, on occasion, expressed concern to us regarding whether or not the credit union is influenced by Gallup Inc. when making loan decisions. Let me tell you, our loans are meticulously credit_unioninspected by our own internal audit committee and by independent auditors as well as our federal governing body, the NCUA. We are required to document all reasons for both approval and denial. If there were ever any indication of discrimination based on any factor, including relationship with an outside entity, the penalties and fines for such a violation would be devastating.

The real bottom line is that although we do share a similar name and location these two entities, Gallup Inc. and Gallup FCU, are independent of each other. Because of heavy regulation there cannot be and there is no information  sharing regarding private member data. Gallup Inc. does not have access to your loan files, deposit account balances, transaction history or even the fact that you are a member. All of this information is extremely private.

One of our most important assets is our reputation as a financial institution. In fact, if we were to ever tarnish that reputation by sharing inappropriate member information, our business could be compromised beyond repair. We realize that the appearance of independence may be blurry at times because most of you see us every day but we want you to know that your information is protected.

If you ever have a concern or question regarding your privacy please do not hesitate to come talk with us about it. The last thing we would ever want is for you to hesitate to use our services because of a fear that your information might be used inappropriately.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

End: The Holidays; Enter: The Credit Card Bills

-January 14th… Just a few more weeks and the credit card statements will start rolling in from the holidays - Ouch. How much did you spend this year? How much were you planning on spending this year?

I’m not going to lie, this was an especially expensive holiday season for us and to be completely honest I don’t think we were prepared nearly enough for it.

True Story:

Every Holiday season we really hit the Holiday hustle hard, we log approximately 3000 miles on our car during the course of about 4 weeks. Our family really does not have a huge gift list since we do not have children yet, so it  seems like the Christmas saving we have set aside will be enough – wrong. I should know better, I talk about this every day, but for some reason I neglected to budget in our Christmas savings for travel expense.

So there we are, cruising down I-29, singing our lungs out to the music; when every drivers worst road-trip nightmare happens. Thump! thump thump thump thump…. Flat tire. Not just one, but both rear tires, to the rim. Now mind you, we are in the middle of no where, it’s – 14 degrees outside, almost dark and I only have about 1/8th of a tank of gas left. If there was ever a memory making family moment, this was it. flat-tire

To make a long story short, after a series of fortunate events we made it home. The not so fortunate event was the purchase of 4 new tires = $600.

We were not prepared. This expense was just not in our holiday spending plan. Should I have known that there was going to be some travel related expenses? Absolutely. Could I have set some money aside for this type of cost? Sure. Did I? No.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, Christmas happens the same time every year. 

Believe it or not there is a solution. At Gallup FCU we call it a “Holiday Savings Account” and I have already changed my automatic savings contribution to include travel expenses next year. You can do it too! A Holiday account is simply a savings account earmarked for Christmas – you can open one at any financial institution.

If you want more information about our Holiday account give me a call! This is a great way to keep your sanity next year when the Holiday hustle hits.