Current News

Fraud notice from our card processing provider:

“Recently some card issuers and financial institutions across the industry have experienced an increase in attempts by unknown fraudsters to break the card verification value / card verification code (CVV / CVC) on compromised cards, and thereby to commit card fraud, including ATM fraud. This attempt to commit fraud is commonly known as a “brute force attack”. To execute these crimes, email is often used to transport phishing scams and malicious software (malware) to obtain personal information including personal identification numbers (PINs) and to take over legitimate merchant accounts to test the compromised cards. You can help to reduce the likelihood of the success of these attempts to commit fraud by being alert for email that (1) contains unfamiliar or suspicious links or attachments, (2) is unsolicited and/or from an unknown sender, (3) is sent multiple times from different senders, or (4) contains poor grammar or incorrectly spelled words. If you receive email that contains any of these elements or any combination of these elements, you should delete it immediately. Do not open it, click on the links or open any attachment. You should not attempt to reply to the email or forward it to anyone.”

DID YOU KNOW? Shared Accounts with Net Branch

As a Pickens Federal Credit Union member, you have access to our online banking tool, Net Branch. With Net Branch, you can grant select family and friends who already have an account at Pickens Federal Credit Union to access to your accounts, with Shared Accounts. Read below on the features and the how to get started with Shared Accounts. You can limit access to: Allow another Member to transfer money to your account, Allow another Member to view your account balance, Allow another Member to view your account history, or Allow another Member to transfer money from your account within certain limits. You can also receive limited access from other member accounts. To set up this access, both members must agree to the limits and share account numbers with each other. Both members must be active users of our Net Branch service to take advantage of this service. The authorizing member must grant authorization through their secure, on-line access via Net Branch's opening page under "Accounts" and then "Share My Account."

1. Enter member number of the individual you want to share your account with. Do not enter leading zeros on the member number.
2. Enter the last name of the member you want to share your account with.
3. Select your account that you want to share.
4. Enter your name you want the other member to see in their Net Branch session. The default is your first name and account ID.
5. Select a date that you want this shared access to expire or choose "Does Not Expire".
6. Choose the level of access that you want to share.
7. Click "Add New Share" to complete the sharing process.

You, the Member, accept full responsibility for allowing access to your account information by those that you choose to authorize access. Pickens Federal Credit Union offers this service as an added convenience to our members.

Need a little help achieving your financial goals? As a Pickens FCU member, you have access to the money management professionals at BALANCE. Call 888-456-2227 to speak to a counselor about how you can become financially fit- or log on to www.balancepro.net for more information.

If you think maintaining a clean credit history isn't that big a deal, take another look: There can be a spread of as much as six percentage points (even more) charged to consumers with excellent credit--often called the prime market--vs. those who have a tarnished history--sometimes called the subprime market. Why pay $17% when you can pay $12% for a good credit history? MSN Autos reports that, "in the world of credit, 'subprime' is actually the rule rather than the exception…. The majority of car buyers--approximately 60%--are classified as subprime. In many cases, all it takes is a 60-day overdue payment to earn a subprime rating. Only 40% of consumers have a squeaky-clean credit rating." Let's add a few more numbers to the analysis. Edmunds.com reports that the average car loan is about $24,000. And Datatrac reports, in CUNA's News Now, that credit unions charge an average one-and-one-half percentage points less for a new car loan, and charge an average two percentage points less for a used vehicle loan. Even without crunching the numbers, two things are crystal clear. 1) It pays to protect your good credit record. 2) It pays to see the people at Pickens Federal Credit Union for your car loans. Copyright 2008 Credit Union National Association Inc. TIPS OF THE DAY: Debit Cards Millions of consumers now enjoy the convenience of debit cards instead of checks. But when you use your debit card, save your sales slips and record all transactions in your share draft/checking account register as soon as possible. That way you'll avoid overspending and costly overdraft fees. AND DON’T FORGET – in most cases signing as a credit usually saves you money! When signing for an item instead of using your pin the Credit Union saves fees, which you as a member means YOU are savings costs. Also in signing for purchases you are covered under the Visa warranty of minimizing your loss to $50.00 if your card is lost or stolen. Your Credit Union Accounts Are Safe, Insured There's no better time to be a credit union member. Virtually all credit unions are insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), which insures savings of at least up to $100,000 per account. Certain retirement accounts such as IRAs benefit from additional coverage of up to $250,000. For the fewer than 170 credit unions with private deposit insurance, their equity ratio typically is even higher than the federal fund, and state regulators oversee these privately insured credit unions. FOR LOST OR STOLEN DEBIT CARDS CALL 1-800-554-8969 Also: If you suspect fraud on your debit card please visit the credit union immediately. * NCUA Insured for $250,000 until 12/31/2013