Page 16 - MCUL: Contact Magazine - Q4 2019

determine which assistance option was best for them during
this time of hardship.

The two options available were “Pause My Payment,” in which
the members could suspend a KCCU loan payment for 90
days; or get a short-term, 0% annual percentage rate loan,
in which their first payment wouldn’t be due for 90 days.
When Pam Overweg, the KCCU branch manager in Three
Rivers, a community highly impacted by the UAW strike, was
told about the two options to assist our members, she said,
“I love that we will be offering this help to our members!
There has been a lot of talk about hardships, and choosing
what bills are more important than others, and how they are
cutting back to save money. I know they will really appreciate
our help!”

KCCU said it is proud to offer these assistance options by
working on a case-by-case basis with members to ensure
they are getting the financial help they need to get through
to do with their money, but we allow an opportunity for our these challenging times.
members to meet with our staff of over 30 CUNA-certified
financial counselors,” said Heron. “They can come in and “Everyone has their own trials and
talk about pretty much anything in regard to their finances,
be it as simple as trying to create a budget, questions about tribulations, whether it’s a lost job
tax season or something more elaborate. We consider this a
supplemental piece, recognizing they’re going to have some or some kind of tragedy that affects
extra bills and might want to sit down with someone to create
a plan to make sure they feel confident moving forward. a loss of income. We’re always
willing to work with our members.”
“It doesn’t necessarily take an event like this for us to work
with our members. Everyone has their own trials and tribu-
lations, whether it’s a lost job or some kind of tragedy that Situations like this strike and the government shutdown are
affects a loss of income. We’re always going to be willing to bound to happen on occasion. Credit unions know that. And
work with our members and if they need help, we’re going to as a result of the action the Michigan credit union community
do what we can to keep them in the loan they’re in or help has taken in such times, more and more state residents
them find the additional money they need to get through know where they can turn to during financially tough times. ■
whatever that time is. Obviously, this is just on a bigger
scale, so it’s more top of mind, but we understand that
members go through life changes throughout the year at
all different times.”

Battle Creek-based Kellogg Community Credit Union (KCCU)
developed two assistance programs early in 2019 to aid its
members who were affected by the government shutdown
and felt it was necessary to relaunch these programs to help
members who were impacted by the UAW strike.
KCCU encouraged its members who were affected to reach
out for help. A KCCU member service representative met
with them one-on-one to review their financial situation to

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