Next time you’re in the branch or on the phone take a moment to update your information with WECU. 

Do we have your current address?

Is your ID on file for account security?

Do we have your correct contact numbers? 

Do we have your email address? 

Would you prefer that we call you on your cell or at work? 

Do you know who your ‘payable on death’ beneficiary is? 

Are you headed anywhere on vacation and plan to use your WECU debit or credit card in the near future?

It only takes a few moments to update your information and it can save loads of time in the long run. 

In February, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This act provides a one-time payment of $250 to those who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Benefits.

Beginning in May and continuing through the month, everyone who is scheduled to receive the one-time payment should receive it by late May 2009. To make it easy on you, no action is required on your part and you will receive the payment in the same method you receive your normal Social Security benefits.

Thank you for your support!

For years WECU has been the go-to source for your consumer loan needs.  While we have already helped lots of our members with WECU Visas, personal loans or auto loans, many members are now turning to our growing real estate department for their real estate needs.  Our goal has always been to be a major part of your lives; from your first checking account to your first home, WECU wants to help you realize your financial goals and dreams.  Thank you for turning to WECU for your financial needs.  Thank you for recommending us to your friends and neighbors! 

According to a report from Rocky Mountain Statistics provided to WECU by a local title company, WECU is leading the way in both dollar amount and number of real estate loans in Whatcom County -and it is all because of you!

WECU has become the number one real estate lender in the county so far in 2009!  Way to go WECU Real Estate!!

Once again, WECU is proud to support and take part in Denim Day on Friday, April 24, 2009. WECU staff and members are encouraged to take part in this worthy cause by simply wearing jeans to work or school on April 24th.

For more information about Denim Day and what it is all about visit http://www.wecu.com/external.cfm?link=http://www.dvsas.org/denimday or stop by any branch.

If you would like to donate to the cause, you can to do so online here, call our call center at 360.676.1168 and speak to any of our call center representatives, or visit any branches and a teller would be more than happy to assist you.

WECU’s response to this threat:

You may have heard in recent news reports about a new virus-like computer worm, called “Conficker”, which has been infecting large numbers of computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system.

WECU uses a number of methods to automatically distribute patches and monitor all of our computers. An emergency patch was released by Microsoft on October 15, 2008 to deal with the flaw in the Windows operating system which was making Conficker’s spread possible. This patch was deployed to all of our computers on that day. Our Antivirus and anti spyware systems are constantly releasing updated virus and spyware definitions which are distributed to our computers as they become available. Each of WECU’s workstations is provided with real-time protection, as well as a complete nightly scan to assure our systems are clean of viruses, worms, and spyware.

As an added precaution, WECU IT staff performed additional maintenance and monitoring of our systems on the evening of March 31st and morning of April 1st in the event that any previous measures were unsuccessful.  There were no traces of Conficker present on any of our systems and there has been no impact to any of our services.

Background on Conficker:
Conficker first appeared in October 2008, and has since infected millions of computers worldwide. There are multiple variants of Conficker, with each new variant containing code to sidestep countermeasures taken to thwart the previous versions. The payload of the latest variant was disabled until April 1, 2009, at which time the worm was programmed to start attempting to “phone home” to its author to gain further instructions. Experts believe that these infected computers will begin to work together (in a system called a Bot-net) to carry out their payload.  As of the morning of April 1, there have been no reports of any network disruptions, data loss or an increase in spam related to the Conficker worm.

How Conficker spreads:
Low security networks
Memory sticks
PCs without current updates

Symptoms of infection include:
Certain Microsoft Windows services such as Automatic Updates, Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), Windows Defender and Error Reporting Services disabled.
Websites related to antivirus software becoming inaccessible. 

Information on how to protect yourself can be found on Microsoft’s web site and United States Department of Homeland Security.

Have you recently received a new card due to the recent card compromise?

Call 877.746.6746 to choose your new PIN number. Your new PIN can take up to two business days to activate.  If you need your PIN set right away please bring your card and current, valid photo ID to any WECU branch.

March 23, 2009

Recently the National Credit Union Administration placed two ‘corporate’ credit unions; U.S. Central Federal Credit Union and Western Corporate Credit Union, under conservatorship. The NCUA has assumed conservatorship –taken over the operation of these two corporate credit unions, to protect the operations and investments of natural person credit unions.  Corporate credit unions are not natural person credit unions like WECU; they work for natural person credit unions –providing valuable products and services similar to what the Federal Reserve does for banks. 

WECU has relationships with two corporate credit unions- Wescorp and Southwest Corp. We do not have a relationship with US Central Corporate Credit Union. We primarily use our two corporate credit unions for investments, including liquid overnight deposits and share certificates. All of WECU’s investments at Wescorp and Southwest Corporate are fully insured. We are also required to have some membership capital at our corporate credit unions because capital is required to become a member and conduct business with them.
The NCUA’s conservatorship of U.S. Central Federal Credit Union and Western Corporate Credit Union should not have an operational impact on WECU or WECU members. All WECU member deposits are federally insured up to $250,000 through the NCUA. WECU is safe and secure and in an excellent position to successfully make it through this challenging economic time. As of the end of February, we had approximately $109 million in reserves, undivided earnings and net income and a net worth ratio over 18%, which is substantially higher than the average credit union’s 11%.

Wayne Langei
President/CEO

Effective February 1st, 2009, the Overdraft Transfer by Computer Fee increased from $1.00 to $2.00 per transfer. If there are funds in your savings account, we will automatically transfer funds in increments of $100 to cover overdrafts. You may choose which savings account you want the transfer to come from. The $2.00 transfer fee will be charged for these automatic transfers.

WECU has not increased the Overdraft Transfer by Computer Fee in over 10 years.  As we are required to send you notification via mail when one of these transfers is made, we have increased this fee to cover the costs of staff time and the rising cost of postage.

In addition as of February 1st, 2009, we began charging $10 per check for Stop Payments on checks.

On April 1st, 2009, WECU will begin charging a $1 fee for each money order. For many years we were able to offer money orders with no fee to our members because we subsidized this product. Recently, the money order stock price increased to $0.70 per item. We therefore determined we could no longer subsidize this cost.

On April 1st, 2009, WECU will begin charging a $2 fee for each cashier’s check. However, we will still offer one free cashier’s check per month. Since most members who use cashier’s checks need only one a month, we believe this will take care of most members’ needs.

In addition, (as noted on your February statement), effective April 1st, 2009, the Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on Money Market accounts changed to 1.26% with a dividend rate of 1.25% and the Annual Percentage Yield on Check Plus changed to 0.10% with a dividend rate of 0.10%.

Please see our Rate and Fee schedule or talk to a WECU representative for additional information.

We have had a fantastic showing already from all of our WECU photographers, so keep the photos coming!  Thirteen lucky photographers will have their work featured in the 2010 WECU calendar. 

In order to submit you must be a WECU member.   Please note that photo contest winners will not receive monetary compensation for use of their photos.  You may submit a maximum of 3 photos; photos must be of scenes in Whatcom County and should focus on landscapes rather than people.  Photos must be at least 300 dpi resolution and 11.25” by 7.75”. They can be in tif eps or jpeg format but must be high resolution. 

Please email photos to kessa.volland@wecu.com or drop them off Attn: Kessa Volland on disk at any branch - be sure to include your name and contact information. 

The deadline for photo submissions is May 1st, 2009.

Individuals or families of low to moderate income with basic tax filing needs can receive free assistance from Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). 

Volunteers help you claim deductions, apply for credits such as Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).  If qualified, EITC can be up to $4,824, depending on income and family size.

Please click here to see locations and times as well as other important information regarding this free assistance.

Early Tuesday morning, WECU’s Whatcom Community College ATM was stolen.  The machine has since been recovered.  We are pleased to report that the thieves were unable to open the ATM and all the important portions of the machine including cash and operating information remained intact. 
WECU is working with the police to verify if any cards were captured by the machine between 10/29/08 and 11/03/08. If a card was retained, the cardholder would need to contact their financial institution to have it blocked.

As noted in last month's newsletter, due to changing requirements with the Federal Reserve Bank, WECU will be clearing and returning checks through the Check 21 process beginning September 8, 2008. This means that checks you write from your WECU account will attempt to post to your account throughout the day - possibly clearing your account or being returned unpaid much faster than they were previously. To ensure that your checks are paid and no fees are assessed make sure that you have funds in your account to cover your check at the time the check is written.

WECU has several products and services available to help you track spending and keep on top of your account balance. If you haven’t already, check out E-Max (our online banking system), Tele-Max (our phone system) or check your balance at our ATMs, through the call center or face to face with one of our smiling tellers!

Next time you call to reorder checks you may be offered a new service.  Clarke American, the company that provides WECU checks to our members, now offers ID Reclaim, a service that fully manages identity recovery assistance if your identity is compromised. 

ID Reclaim costs $8.95 for 12 months of coverage.  Should your identity become compromised, you will have access to a professional who will work with you until your identity has been restored to pre-theft level.

At WECU we consider it our mission to provide our members with legendary financial products and services in a financially safe and sound environment.  In order to protect you and your investments WECU is federally insured.

WECU’s insurance fund is well-capitalized, and we are regulated by the National Credit Union Administration, a U.S. Government agency.  The fund protecting Federally-insured credit unions is backed by the United States Government. The National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) is:

• Exceptionally Strong: Federal reserves are more than adequate to insure your deposits. Not one penny of insured savings has ever been lost by a member of a Federally-insured credit union. 
• Growing to meet deposit growth:  Each year we adjust our contribution to the NCUSIF to reflect our growth. As savings grow, the fund grows to protect them.
• Insured by investment policies for continued safety and soundness:  As a Federally-insured credit union, we can only invest in federally approved institutions and in their members. We are prohibited, by law, from investing in risky ventures to increase profits.

Not only is WECU well insured, we are also well capitalized, which is your first line of protection. A credit union would only need to use insurance if our capital was depleted.  So, every time you make a transaction or visit your neighborhood WECU branch, take comfort in the fact that your money is safe with us!

WECU is proud to have established a partnership with Born Learning.  Parents and caregivers of young children understand that the early years are important, yet many aren’t sure how to encourage early learning, or feel they don’t have time to do what it takes to help their child succeed in school. Through awareness, education, and action, Born Learning and its partners are working on the preparedness of our youth children for the future.  To learn more click on WECU Partners With BornLearning at the top of this article or ask one of our tellers for a playbook.