(207) 945-6264 or 1-800-974-4475 
The results are in from our most recent survey. We want to thank all of you who took the time to fill out the survey. As always, we appreciate your candor in answering our questions. Click here for results and comments.
Again we want to thank all of you who took the time to fill out the survey. Click here for the Summary Report of the results. Please read the following for what we discovered were important to you and what we can do to make things a better.
Location
The responses to our location warranted the most comments and we want to address some of the concerns. Obviously, we can't change where we are located, but want all members to know that we did try to locate near Union Street in Bangor. We worked with Bangor City officials over several months to find land that would allow us to have a drive-thru (required commercial zoning), but were unable to find a convenient, visible location. As we started looking to land further out, we found our current location to be within a short distance of the Bangor town line and felt that even though it was not our first choice, it was quite convenient due to tis proximity to I-95 and I -395.
Shared Branching
To add convenience to those that still find it difficult to get to our location we joined the Shared Branching (SB) network so that our members have over 3700 locations nationwide and many right here in the area. UCU on Union Street is a SB location that is also open on Saturday mornings in the lobby. IT IS A REQUIREMENT OF THE SHARED BRANCHING RULES TO GO INSIDE THE CREDIT UNION TO COMPLETE A SB TRANSACTION AND TO SHOW YOUR ID. THIS IS NOT A RULE THAT INDIVIDUAL CREDIT UNIONS SET UP-WE HAVE TO FOLLOW THE NATIONAL RULES FOR SECURITY REASONS. Other area SB locations include Bangor Federal in Brewer on Dirigo Drive and in Bangor on the Hogan Rd.; Seaboard FCU on Main St in Bucksport, on RT2 in Hermon and also on Main St. in Ellsworth; Down East CU on Springer Drive in Bangor; EMMC FCU on Stillwater Ave in Bangor; Maine Savings FCU on Western Avenue in Hampden, Hammond St. and Broadway in Bangor; and Infinity FCU on Broad St. in Bangor. You can do all the "normal" transactions such as a deposit, withdrawal, loan payment, transfer, check or money order. Please call to ask for a brochure if you are interested in learning of other locations. Just as an FYI---if you go to a SB location and deposit a payroll check, there should never be a hold placed on it. The check has to clearly indicate that it is a payroll check. If a hold is placed on it, call us and we can remove it. PLEASE REMEMBER THERE IS NO CHARGE TO YOU TO DO A SB TRANSACTION. THE CREDIT UNION PAYS THE ENTIRE COST OF THIS WHEN YOU GO TO ANOTHER LOCATION AND WE EARN INCOME WHEN A NON-MEMBER COMES TO DO A TRANSACTION AT OUR LOCATION. Find a location by logging on to www.mainecreditunions.org or www.cuservicecenter.com or call 1-800-919-2872.
Current Interest Rates
Another area that we had several comments is the current interest rates. We monitor our interest rates with other area institutions on a weekly basis and our rates are actually very competitive. We compete locally as most members want to be able to walk into the institution they are dealing with so we do not try to compete with online or out-of-state banks or financial services. We are planning to lower the minimum balance requirements on Monty Moose Certificates from $250 to $150 and regular certificates from $1000 to $500 (per request/comments on the survey). Please be looking for this announcement soon.
More on Certificates
Another comment regarding certificates was that some places offer a no-penalty withdrawal. We have offered a no-penalty withdrawal on 24 and 60 month certificates for some time (advertised periodically in our quarterly newsletter). We also offer a one-time "Step-up" certificate which means that if our rates go up during the term of your certificate you can increase the rate one time. This includes all term certificates that we offer and is also advertised periodically in our quarterly newsletter.
Bill Payer
Bill payer was brought up by several members and we do want to comment on that. We have an "internal" bill payer available to you. It works this way: you supply us with who the check needs to be sent to, the address, account number, date it needs to be mailed out, what account it is to be withdrawn from and the amount. The check must be the same every month or you need to call us before the date it is to be sent and tell us the new amount. A check wil be automatically generated from the system and we will mail it for you on the date you specify. At this time there is no charge for the postage. We have looked into the more robust bill payer software packages and they are quite pricey. The normal set-up charge is around $4,000 and it's a minimum amount per month. The minimum amounts are reasonable for credit unions with a large membership, but since we have a total of 2,070 members, it would be a costly venture for the credit union to offer.
Another tool to help with your bill paying can be found at www.checkfree.com. One of our staff members currently uses this free service. You can receive, view, and pay your online bills from one personalized, secure Web Site. The sign-up process is simple and effiicient-yet detailed enough to ensure security and privacy. It only takes about 5 minutes to complete the process. You just need some basic information: your name, address, phone number, e-mail address and account information, such as account numbers, from billers whose bills you will want to receive. Karla has used this for about 5 yrs for a couple of her bills and she thinks it is a great service and hasn't had any security issues with it.
Online Presence
We asked you if we were to expand our online presence and most said they wanted the online newsletter expanded. We assume this is to tell you more news and keep you informed on what is going on at the credit union. We hope that you have had a chance to go to our new web site and looked at our calendar (can click on this on the front page) which shows upcoming events for Ending Hunger and Community events. We also have an area titled, "Safety Net" on the front page which keeps you updated on how to avoid indentity theft, current scam alerts and security tips. Our "Sale Item" section shows you any repossessed autos we have for sale, items we sell to raise money for Ending Hunger and information about our annual Children's Miracle Network auction. Also on our home page we tell you of any loan special that we are currently running.
Some of you did show an interest in the credit union having a Facebook page and that is something that we are looking into later this year.
Loans
One comment did mention that you would like small unsecured loans for those with less than perfect credit to help build a credit score back up. We already do that in most cases unless there are other factors that need to be considered.
We also had some terrific comments on our auto loan rates, member service and a great group of employees. We thank you for the compliments and will give it our best to live up to them!!!
