At Salal, we’re strong believers in spring cleaning—especially of your sensitive documents! So we’re once again offering our free, annual Shredathon so our members and the public can “spring clean” that pile of personal documents securely and easily. And we’re accepting donations of non-perishable food for Northwest Harvest. Please see their website for details on donating: northwestharvest.org.

 So save the date: Saturday, April 28, from 10 am to 2 pm at our Northgate Branch, 11023 8th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98125. Please limit your shredables to no more than two paper grocery bags’ worth.

What should you shred?

• Tax information and returns. You should keep documents that support declarations on your tax returns for at least three years, then shred them. The tax returns themselves you should keep indefinitely.
• ATM and credit card receipts. Once you’ve verified these against your statement, you can go ahead and shred.
• Paycheck stubs. If you’re planning to apply for a loan soon, you should have at least three months’ worth of these available to prove income. Otherwise, the most recent stub is plenty, but you should definitely shred the rest.
• Financial institution statements and cancelled checks. These are great for checking for fraud on your account or for establishing a family budget, so you may want to hold on to these for a few years. After that, though, these are definitely shredables. Keep cancelled checks if they have bearing on your taxes; otherwise, shred.
  Homeowner info. Deeds, mortgages and home improvement receipts and information should be kept for as long as you own your home plus three years after the sale. Then into the shredder they go!
• Utility bills. If your home is also your office, you may need to keep these as part of your tax records. Otherwise, these are good candidates for the shredder.
• Insurance info. Keep the information and documentation for as long as the insurance is in effect, then shred.
• Miscellaneous. If it contains personal information (Social Security number, PINs, financial institution account numbers, etc.), and you don’t want or need to keep it, SHRED IT. Don’t make your garbage can or recycle bin a fraudster’s dream!

Never shred wills, marriage licenses or divorce documents, birth certificates, powers of attorney, child care orders, trust documents, military records or business agreements. Be sure you have a secure place to store these in case of home intruders or disasters such as fires or flood.

Bring us your sensitive documents, and we’ll shred ‘em for free. You can watch your documents be fed directly into the machine and enjoy the peace of mind such a sight can bring.

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Salal members are cordially invited to attend our Annual Meeting, to be held March 28 at the Salal Administrative Offices, 1515 Dexter Avenue North, in Seattle. The meeting will run from 7-8 pm, and light refreshments will be served.

The Annual Meeting is a great opportunity for members to vote for nominees to the Board of Directors, help set Salal’s goals for the future, and participate in making decisions that affect the Credit Union.

Parking at 1515 Dexter is limited, but there is some street parking in the area and public lots nearby. If you plan to attend, please RSVP with your name and the number of people in your party to Cindy Bjur at cindyb@salalcu.org. We look forward to seeing you there!

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Many homeowners would like to take advantage of the historically low mortgage loan rates we’ve been seeing in recent months, but they’ve been unable to because their homes are now “underwater”—their homes are worth less than the amount they still owe. The government has instituted an enhancement to its current assistance program to allow these homeowners to refinance, no matter what the current value of the home is compared to the amount still owing. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have adopted changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), and you may be eligible to take advantage of these changes.

Do you qualify for the enhanced Home Affordable Refinance Plan (HARP)? Here are the eligibility requirements:

•  If your mortgage is owned or guaranteed by either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, you may be eligible to refinance your mortgage under the enhanced and expanded provisions of HARP.
•  You can determine whether your mortgage is owned by either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae by checking the following websites: www.freddiemac.com/mymortgage  or http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/.
• Your mortgage must have been sold to Fannie or Freddie prior to June 1, 2009.
• You must be current on your payments. You must have paid on time for the prior 6 months and for 11 of the last 12 months. Payments made late previous to the last 12 months won’t affect your eligibility as long as you meet the current requirements.
• You must not have used HARP before—the government allows only one HARP refinance per mortgage.

Borrowers are not required to refinance with their original lender. 

If you think you may be eligible, here are some tips to prepare for a discussion with a lender.

• Get all your mortgage paperwork in order.
• Determine if your mortgage is eligible. Have you stayed current on your payments for the last year, and is your loan held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac?
• Talk with a mortgage loan specialist to determine if you can shorten your loan term. Those who choose a shorter loan term may qualify for additional benefits.
• Not all mortgage lenders can work with all borrowers, so be sure you establish your eligibility. For example, regarding the HARP program, Salal CU can only work with borrowers whose mortgages are owned by Fannie Mae (but we may have other options available, so don’t hesitate to ask for assistance).
• Schedule your free, confidential, one-on-one with a Salal Senior Residential Loan Specialist by calling 800.562.5515.*

For more information on HARP, check the website of the Federal Housing Finance Agency at fhfa.gov.

*All Salal loans are subject to approval.

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Debt can seem overwhelming. We add up our several credit cards, those department store cards that maybe saved us 15% once but are now costing more in finance charges, student loans, car loans… Getting debt under control can seem like an impossible task, but it doesn’t have to be. And better yet, you don’t have to try to figure it out alone.

Financial writers Pat Mertz Esswein and Kimberly Lankford of Kiplinger have written a great article detailing ways to get free of financial woes and where to go for help. 

Click here to read the full text of “Escape the Great Debt Trap.” Below are some interesting did-you-knows from the article:

1. One in five US homeowners is underwater (owe more on their mortgage than the value of their home).

2. Transfering credit card debt to a new card with an introductory rate (sometimes as low as 0%) can help you pay off debt faster. However, know when the introductory period ends, what the rate will increase to when the period is over, and how much of a fee the financial institution charges for the transfer of debt. Also, be sure you pay on time so you don’t risk losing that introductory rate.

3. With the new HARP (Home Affordable Refinance Program), you may be able to refinance your home, even if you’re underwater. Check with your financial institution to see if you’re eligible.

You don’t have to go it alone. Talk to an offical credit counseling service and get a get-out-of-debt program tailored to your situation. The National Foundation of Credit Counseling (NFCC) maintains a registry of trained and certified counselors. Find one in your area by clicking here.

One note of caution: be wary of counselors who demand payment or make unrealistic promises. Scammers pretend to be financial counselors in order to get you to reveal personal information.

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Forbes‘ Kelly Phillips Erb (@taxgirl, for you Twitter-types) has written an article on the IRS’s annual “Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2012. Get informed and protect yourself!

Not surprisingly, Identity Theft tops the list. (Now is perhaps a good time to remind you about Salal’s Shredables and Edibles FREE annual Shredathon, April 28). According to Erb and the IRS, attacks on identity are on the rise, and one popular ruse is stealing identities, filing fake tax returns, and collecting false refunds. Now more than ever, we need to be vigilant about protecting our sensitive information.

Other Scams of 2012 include phishing (attempts to get you to enter personal information in an email or website), return preparer fraud (be sure your tax preparer has the proper credentials), and scams that try to convince you to provide false information on your tax forms in order to get a reward or refund that doesn’t exist. These can land you in seriously hot water, so if anything looks, smells or feels wrong, protect your future by walking away.

To read all of Erb’s article for Forbes, click here.

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At Salal, we’re strong believers in spring cleaning—especially of your sensitive documents! So we’re once again offering our free, annual Shredathon so our members and the public can “spring clean” that pile of personal documents securely and easily. And we’re accepting donations of non-perishable food for Northwest Harvest. Please see their website for details on donating: northwestharvest.org.

So save the date: Saturday, April 28, from 10 am to 2 pm at our Northgate Branch, 11023 8^th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98125. Please limit your shredables to no more than two paper grocery bags’ worth.

What should you shred?

• Tax information and returns. You should keep documents that support declarations on your tax returns for at least three years, then shred them. The tax returns themselves you should keep forever.
• ATM and credit card receipts. Once you’ve verified these against your statement, you can go ahead and shred.
• Paycheck stubs. If you’re planning to apply for a loan soon, you should have at least three months’ worth of these available to prove income. Otherwise, the most recent stub is plenty, but you should definitely shred the rest.
• Financial institution statements and cancelled checks. These are great for checking for fraud on your account or for establishing a family budget, so you may want to hold on to these for a few years. After that, though, these are definitely shredables. Keep cancelled checks if they have bearing on your taxes; otherwise, shred.
• Homeowner info. Deeds, mortgages and home improvement receipts and information should be kept for as long as you own your home plus three years after the sale. Then into the shredder they go!
• Utility bills. If your home is also your office, you may need to keep these as part of your tax records. Otherwise, these are good candidates for the shredder.
• Insurance info. Keep the information and documentation for as long as the insurance is in effect, then shred.
•  Miscellaneous. If it contains personal information (Social Security number, PINs, financial institution account numbers, etc.), and you don’t want or need to keep it, SHRED IT! Don’t make your garbage can or recycle bin a fraudster’s dream!

Never shred wills, marriage licenses or divorce documents, birth certificates, powers of attorney, child care orders, trust documents, military records or business agreements. Be sure you have a secure place to store these in case of home intruders or disasters such as fires or flood.

Bring us your sensitive documents, and we’ll shred ‘em for free. You can watch your documents be fed directly into the machine and enjoy the peace of mind such a sight can bring.

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If holiday bills or other expenses have you feeling a little ruffled, don’t forget that you may be eligible to skip a payment on a Salal loan. That little extra cash can be just what we need sometimes, when the cost of living seems to be more about “cost” than “living!”

Some considerations: not every Salal loan is eligible for the Skip a Payment program, so please check our website for details. Also, please remember there is a $25 fee per skip, payable by check or via a transfer from a Salal account. You are extending the term of your loan by one month per skip; interest will continue to accumulate, even during a “skipped” month—this may increase the overall cost of your loan. 

If skipping a payment on a Salal loan might make breathing a little easier, requesting a skip is simple:

1. Go to our website, salalcu.org.
2. Click on the “Loans” tab and choose “Skip a Payment” from the list on the left.
3. Print the form, fill it out and mail it or bring it to a branch.
4. You can also request a skip form from your branch or by calling 800.562.5515 to have one mailed to you.

*Other restrictions may apply.

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Salal has exciting news! Coming February 2012, we will be rolling out a line of Visa credit cards, including a rich Visa Rewards card, a Visa Classic card, a Visa Student card and a Visa Secured card. In 2008, Salal sold its credit card portfolio to an outside vendor. In order to expand our offerings to our members, we’ve decided to let that contract conclude and launch our own Visa cards!

Our cards come with numerous benefits you won’t want to miss out on:

• Free, secure and simple account access. Track your spending, make a payment and monitor your account online, 24/7. For Visa Rewards card holders, redeem your points, 24/7, online!
• Overdraft protection for your Salal checking account
• Great rates, Salal’s exceptional personal service, and no annual fees!

If you have an existing Visa card with the Salal name and logo, there are some things you need to know: your card, your account number, rate, automatic payments, etc. are not affected as a result of this change. Your cards are still managed by the same company and will still be accepted, but when your current card expires, you’ll receive a new card that no longer bears the Salal name or logo. You will receive separate billing from Cardmember Service.

Stay tuned to salalcu.org for further details!

*Some restrictions apply. All Salal loans are subject to credit approval.

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The 2012 Annual Meeting for Salal Credit Union will be held Wednesday, March 28, at our Administrative Building, 1515 Dexter Avenue North, Seattle, 98109. Salal members and their families are invited to attend. We will be voting on candidates for open seats on the Board of Directors or supporting committees. See the February News You Can Use for details on candidates.

The meeting is from 7-8 pm, and refreshments will be served. If you plan on attending, please RSVP with your name and the number of people in your party to cindyb@salalcu.org by March 15, 2012.

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Once again, Salal is offering our members access to TurboTax at a reduced price—even a free version! Now have the power, accuracy, speed and Total Assurance™ protection of TurboTax for 15% less. And because you sign on via Salal Online Banking, much of your tax return will be pre-filled for you, including your 2010 tax information, even if the TurboTax program you used wasn’t offered by Salal.

TurboTax is the best-selling tax software in America, offering guidance for first-time users, access to the “Live Community” where users can get answers and advice from tax experts and each other, speedy returns with the TurboTax Refund Card, a “life change” expert who will help you navigate the tax ramifications of a new baby, change in marital status, and so on. This kind of help and support can make doing your taxes a whole lot less “taxing.”

To access TurboTax for Salal members, you’ll need to be registered for Salal’s Online Banking. If you’re already an Online Banking user, you can find the “My TurboTax” tab at the top of your Account Summary screen. TurboTax via Salal Online Banking is secure and convenient, so sign on today!

If you are not currently registered with Salal’s Online Banking, you may do so by going to our homepage, salalcu.org. In the blue box labeled “Online Banking,” type in your member number and the last four digits of your Social Security number. Then follow the instructions to request Online Banking with Salal.

TurboTax is a great way to get your taxes completed quickly, easily and accurately, and thanks to your Salal membership, for 15% less!

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