HCTA Federal Credit Union
3454 Ellicott Center Drive
Ellicott City, MD 21043
410 461-2257 FAX 410 461-4691
www.hctafcu.org
info@hctafcu.org

Managing Your ATM Debit Card

Managing your ATM/Debit card is very much like managing your checking account.  Since the ATM/Debit card is no a credit card, you cannot purchase or withdraw more than you actually have in the account.

You can move funds from your Share Account (savings) into your Share Draft Account (checking) by going through your  HCTA OnLine Account or by simply calling the office.  If you authorize us to move the funds automatically as a result of a NSF, your account will be charged a $3 fee for each event.

It is necessary to plan ahead to make sure that your funds are available when you need them.  For instance, funds moved or deposited into your Share Draft account is not available to you until after 2:00 PM on the next business day.

Just as you keep track of your deposits and checks in your checking account ledger, you will want to include any Point o Purchase or ATM withdrawals in that same ledger since they are all coming out of the Share Draft account.  Don't forget to list any $23 transfer fees or $25 NSF charges that may apply.

by Eileen Ambrose      eileen.ambrose@baltsun.com

December 13, 2009

By now, you're probably aware of the wide use of credit scores, and how this three-digit number can determine whether you get credit and under what terms.  but there is a lot of misinformation about scores, too, and what you don't know can hurt you.  You could end up unnecessarily paying interest on credit cards or lowering your score in attempts to improve it.  Here are some myths:

MYTH:  You must carry a credit card balance for a good score.

This fallacy is prevalent.  to generate a FICO score, the most widely used score, you must have at least one account older than six months that appears on your credit report and you must have had some activity in that account within the past six months.  It doesn't have to be a credit card.  FICO looks at student loans, mortgages, auto loans and other consumer loans, too.  carrying balances on cards doesn't raise your score.  Creditors ideally want to see that you pay your bills on time and in full each month.  and maintaining a balance could damage your score if it's high in relation to your credit limit

Remember every member of
your immediate family is eligible
to join the credit union.

MYTH:  Closing cards improves a score

Canceling a credit card could lower your score by raising your so-called utilization rate, or how much debt your carry on plastic compared to your total credit limit.  Say you have three cards with a $5,000 credit limit on each, or $15,000 total.  Your total balance is $7,500, so you're using half your total credit limit.  but if you close one card, suddenly you're using 75 percent, even though the balance didn't change.  Your score will drop.
Your amount of debt, including the utilization rate, makes up 30 percent of your FICO score.  The lower the utilization rate, the better.  Aim to keep it under 10 percent, says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit .com.  but you don't have to keep cards open forever for the sake of your score, either.  If you carry very low balances on credit cards, closing one shouldn't change your utilization rate and affect your score, says Craig Watts, a FICO spokesman.  Also closed accounts will stay on your credit report for years, so you will still reap any benefit from that account's history for a long time, Watts says.