Don’t hurt your credit by forgetting to pay your bills. Consumers Chief Operating Officer Lindsay Land joins Lynne for this episode of Money, I’m Home to learn about all the ways Consumers can help you pay your bills on time.

 

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0:00:02.5 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. You know what, today’s topic is really important because I think we all have gotten back into the swing of things, or we’re trying to after the pandemic. But it’s been interesting reading reports. And I read something this week that really got me thinking. And that’s why we invited Lindsay Land, she is our new Chief Operating Officer here at Consumers Credit Union. And she has really been a guiding force in helping our members be able to bank really fast and easy, secure, but also looking at those finances and realizing, “Holy cow, we can make it easier in advance for our members.” Now, why is this important? I just read an article from the Wall Street Journal, and it was very interesting. It talks about credit card and other delinquencies are rising. Now, many people will think, “Well, oh, that’s because of the fact that there’s a stress on finances.” That is part of it, correct. But what they found that is even more interesting is that the first-time payments that are becoming late. And it’s not because people don’t have money, think about this a minute, it’s because they’re just simply forgetting to pay their bill.

0:01:21.7 LJJ: Now, you might be one of those individuals. COVID has done what they call fog brain, all of these things that are… Kind of creating the perfect storm. Lindsay, thanks so much for joining us, because I think this is a topic we cannot underscore enough, how we can help members and how we can help you learn your finances.

0:01:39.3 Lindsay Land (LL): Yeah, absolutely. It’s a very important topic. And I don’t know if any of our listeners out there are similar to me, but you go from not doing a lot during the pandemic and having kids sports and things like that canceled, to all of a sudden now we’re really back kind of in that new normal where you’re running all over the place and so busy again that you just simply forget to do things like pay your bills sometimes. And so that’s one of things that I hear at Consumers Credit Union. What we really work to do is partner with our members to provide tools and services available to help them manage their finances on a regular basis. And text alerts for loan payments is a great example of that. So just that little reminder that we can provide for members to let them know, “Hey, your payment’s coming due in a few days.”

0:02:24.4 LJJ: So Lindsay, you mentioned text alerts. Now, for individuals who are not a member of Consumers, most of the time take a look at what you have offered in your own financial institution. Because a lot of times, what you can do is obviously you can set yourself reminders on your own calendar. But what if you auto-pay or what if you say, “Yes, I want my bank… ” And Consumers does this automatically for our members. We send you friendly reminders to say, “Hey, your payment’s coming due.” It’s been such a joy to hear members say, “Wow, I’m so glad you’re doing this via text or email,” how they like it.

0:03:02.6 LL: Absolutely. Yeah, and we all are living on our phones these days. So, getting a text alert where you can see in real time and be able to click on a link within that text alert to automatically make your payments so that you don’t set it aside and you don’t forget again, is just such another benefit in how we really partner with our members.

0:03:22.4 LJJ: And one of the things that I’ve done with credit cards is I auto-pay the minimum amount, no matter what. And then I remind myself to go in and see, “Okay, what is truly the balance of that credit card,” and pay it. But it’s interesting because the things like that, I didn’t even think about in the article that they shared was even looking at what you’re paying in taxes with your payroll as an example, are you having enough to go out or all of a sudden now you get a shock tax bill because you forgot to rebalance if you receive, let’s say, a bonus or you received a salary increase, those things are little tiny things that though can make a huge impact on your finances.

0:04:04.1 LL: Yeah, those are great points Lynne, and there’s things that happen on an annual basis that we need to be reminded of and we need to take a look at, and then there’s things that happen really throughout the year, so… Yeah, that’s a really great point.

0:04:15.0 LJJ: No, now Scott Dobson, and he’s our financial educator through at work, and I love how he shows that a budget isn’t the same as it used to be. Now, there are still people who have their checkbook ledger and they write down everything, but that really… Technology has made it so much simpler to be able to set it and forget it, always keep an eye on your finances, but those auto payments are so critical or auto-savings, how simple is that to set up Linds?

0:04:42.8 LL: Yeah, that’s a great point. So we’ve really gone from having a check register, what we’re manually keeping track of, of our finances, to having tools such as online banking where you can quickly log in, you can look at your recent transactions, you can see the available balance in your account and manage your finances that way, and there are so many tools at Consumers Credit Union within our app that it’s very easy to go in and set up that reoccurring or one-time payment, just so that you can help to manage your finances, just like you’re talking about, Lynne, with up an automatic payment to automatically pay your credit card, minimum payment due for the next month, and in that way you’re never going to forget it, because it’s just something that happens regularly.

0:05:23.2 LJJ: And it’s easy to say, “Oh, my brain will remember that,” but really the statistics are showing it that we’re not. And we’re slowly getting into this area where it’s okay to step back, look at what you’re doing and make changes in a proactive manner. Do you think that is the key, is being proactive with your finances?

0:05:43.5 LL: Yeah, I definitely think being proactive is a huge piece, and really maybe even setting a time aside on an annual or regular basis to just take a look at the entire picture from a financial standpoint, head out to Consumers Credit Union, and look at some of our, “How To” guides we have “How To” guides on how to set up things in online banking, such as those reoccurring payments and other pieces that’ll help to manage your finances, and just having that overall financial health check on a regular basis is will really set us up for a success going forward.

0:06:15.3 LJJ: And if you have any questions, obviously, technology is absolutely awesome, everybody loves it, but obviously, just even talking with you Lindsay the face-to-face, the learning from somebody and walking into an office or picking up the phone, our team of experts are really ready to help you, in any situation that you might have. And I’ll tell you, there are situations and you think I’m the only one that got myself in into this… No, you’re not. [chuckle] We are not going to make you feel like, “Oh, darn, I did this wrong.” No, but it is instead, “Hey, how can we learn from it and move forward?”

0:06:51.1 LL: Absolutely, I was just talking actually to a team member yesterday, one of our newer team members who’s just fabulous, and they were helping a member set up online banking for the first time in mobile banking in the office. And they spent over an hour with this individual just very patiently walking through and making sure that they knew all of the tools and benefits available and the member was just absolutely thrilled. So yes, come in and visit us in the office, give us a call on the phone, check out some of our “How To” guides on our website, and we’re more than happy to help.

0:07:21.9 LJJ: Well, thank you, Lindsay. And hey, a little shout out to you. I mentioned your title, but this is a new title, I know I’ve been working with you for almost a decade now, and I’m so thrilled that you have made it up to the C-suite. It is a big deal, and I’m very, very proud of you, Lindsay, Chief Operating Officer. What a joy to work with you!

0:07:42.4 LL: Oh, thank you. I’m still looking forward to serving our members in this new position and continue to work with great folks like you Lynne, so I’m very thankful for the opportunity.

0:07:51.2 LJJ: Well, hey, this was a really important topic, and if you have others that you’d like, have us dig deep into just send them my way. Money, I’m home. Thank you for listening and thank you, Jake Esselink, for your production skills. I hope everybody has a wonderful week.

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