SRI Federal Credit Union Blog - Page 10 of 13

A Special Thanks From AFS-USA

As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the U.S. Treasury, and Small Business Administration implemented the Paycheck Protection Program in 2020. This was an effort to assist small business owners whose business operations had been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis through a short-term loan relief program.

Posted in Hello World

Deciphering Financial Aid Award Letters

You’ve received your college acceptance letters – congratulations! If you’ve been accepted to multiple schools, one of the biggest determining factors for your final choice may be the out-of-pocket cost for each option. Along with your acceptance letters, you should receive an award letter outlining the financial aid for which you are eligible at each college.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS:
Award Letter – An offer sent from a college or university to the student that details how much financial support the student is eligible for. The award letter is sent following the student’s submission of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and application to attend a college or university.

Cost of Attendance (COA) – A figure provided by college financial aid offices that estimates the total costs of attending that particular school for a period of one year. Included in the estimate are expenses such as tuition, room and board, books and supplies, personal expenses and transportation. Keep in mind that some of these expenses are not set in stone! For example, your costs may be less if you opt to live in a double dorm room versus a single room; select a smaller meal plan; purchase used books, or do not park a car on campus.

Financial Aid – Your award letter provides a list of the aid for which you qualify at each school. You will let the school know which pieces of your financial aid package you wish to accept. (Hint: take the free money first!)

Types of Financial Aid Offered (not all are available to every student):

• Scholarships and Grants (FREE money for college!)
• Federal Direct Loans
• Federal Direct PLUS Loan
• Federal Work Study Program

Comparing Costs – Unfortunately, there is no standard layout for an award letter, so you will need to carefully look at each offer and be sure you are comparing apples to apples. What type of dorm room or meal plan does each school include in their COA? Do both include the cost of books? Are miscellaneous expenses or other fees broken down and labeled? If you’re not sure about any of the numbers, reach out to the school’s financial aid office for clarification.

Can I appeal the decision for my financial aid package?
Yes! You can always reach out to the financial aid office to discuss your award package, especially if your family’s situation has changed. The following situations can be taken into consideration:
• Recent unemployment of family member(s)
• Medical, dental, or nursing care expenses not covered by health insurance
• Changes in the family’s income and/or assets
• Disability/death or divorce
• Homeless youth
• Parents incarcerated

Need more information about paying for college?
You can also schedule a one-on-one consultation with our College Counselor! Send your questions to scholarhelp@studentchoice.org or visit our College Counselor page to access a submission form and more resources. You can also apply online here.

Posted in Hello World, Loans

64th Annual Meeting

SRI Federal Credit Union’s 64th Annual Meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday, March 17^that noon.

Posted in Hello World

Digital wallets: What are they and how do they work

Seeing people pay with their cellphones or watches has become the new normal. The days of printing out your boarding pass before you check into your flight are now in the past. Digital wallets are a new way to stay organized and safe.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, digital payment adoption has seen a large increase. Because of its contactless nature, digital wallets have become popular with the number of cashless businesses in the U.S.

What is a digital wallet?

Digital wallets are a digital version of your financial accounts made easily accessible via computer, smartphone or smart device. In other words, this can eliminate the need to carry around your actual wallet and gives you a contingency plan in case you forget your actual wallet.

Currently, ApplePay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay are three of the most popular digital wallets.

How digital wallets work

Before you get started with a digital wallet, you want to figure out which one you want to use. The device you use will normally dictate which digital wallet you go for. As an example, if you’re an iPhone or Apple Watch user then you’ll probably want to use ApplePay but if you’re an Android user you’ll want to use Google Pay or Samsung Pay.

Click here for instructions on how to add your SRIFCU Visa-branded credit or debit card to the digital wallet of your choice.

In order to make a contactless mobile payment, you simply have to authorize the digital wallet and hold it close enough to the card reader so that your information can be transmitted. Not all retailers accept mobile payments, but you can easily look for the contactless payment indicator on the retailer’s point-of-sale (POS) system or card reader. This symbol looks like a sideways WiFi icon.

What else can digital wallets do?

Digital wallets don’t only make paying for items quick and easy, they also help keep other important documents organized and easily accessible.

Here is a short list of items you can store in a digital wallet to stay organized:

Credit or debit cards
Boarding passes
Hotel reservations
Airbnb reservations
Concert tickets
Gift cards
Coupons
Loyalty rewards cards
Insurance cards

Are digital wallets safe?

A common concern is over safety and security. What happens if your phone gets stolen? Can hackers easily steal your information?

No — digital wallets are actually more secure than your physical cards.

This because mobile payments are heavily encrypted and tokenized, in other words, none of your actual card or account numbers are stored within the digital wallet.

How does that work?

When you add your information to a digital wallet, that information is then converted into a unique code via encryption that can only be accessed by authorized entities. Digital wallets go a step further by also adding in tokenization, which takes that sensitive encrypted data and replaces it with a non-sensitive digital equivalent known as a token. These unique tokens are randomly generated every time a user makes a payment and only the merchant can match this token to accept the payment.

Ultimately, your information is useless and unreadable to fraudsters when encryption and tokenization are used together.

Not only is your information more secure thanks to that technology, but also through user verification. This added layer of security is usually done by fingerprint, facial recognition or PIN.

Bottom line

Digital wallets offer an easy, quick and safe solution for virtual payments, tickets, gift cards and more. While this doesn’t mean you should leave your physical wallet at home, digital wallets and contactless payments will likely see an increase in adoption by U.S. consumers and merchants in the not so distant future.

Posted in Hello World, Online Banking

SRI FCU Virtual Annual Meeting 2020

SRI Federal Credit Union’s 63rd Annual Meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday, September 16^that noon.

Posted in Events, Hello World

We Are Here To Help

Amid ongoing concerns about the Coronavirus COVID-19, we want to reach out and share a few of the ways we are here to serve you during this time:

If you’ve been impacted by COVID-19 and need our support, we’re here to help. Send a message through online banking, contact us or call us at 1-800-9863669 to talk to one of our staff members for assistance. They will be happy to go over all your available options, such as Emergency loans, credit line increases, Special Student Loan Forbearance and Skip-A-Payments.

Special Schedule & Information

Due to the current state of “shelter in place” in the San Francisco Bay Area.

March 16, 2020 – April 6, 2020, the Credit Union Lobby will have limited access

SRI Federal Credit Union Annual meeting has also been officially postponed

Posted in Events, Hello World, Online Banking

Annual Meeting 2020

SRI Federal Credit Union’s 63rd Annual Meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday, March 18^that noon. This change in venue is to aid local efforts in preventing the spread of the Coronavirus.

Posted in Events, Hello World

SRI FCU Fraud Monitoring through text available 02/24/2020

SRIFCU Fraud Monitoring Through Text Messages

Our text alert service allows you to instantly keep tabs on suspicious
card activity.

At SRI Federal Credit Union, we want to make sure that using your debit or credit card is always as safe and convenient as possible. That’s why we use text alerts as part of
our ongoing fraud monitoring program.