Conference 7.286::dcu

Homeowners who have adjustable rate mortgages have the
identical problem.  If you prepay any prinicipal, they 
still calculate the monthly payments based on lower balance
but over the life of the loan. 

I wouldn't fault the DCU for this one.  It would be nice
to have a fixed payment option though.

Gim

No matter what the DCU does here it will not be what some members want.  
The only thing it could do is configure the software to allow a preference 
but I seriously doubt the ability is there and it will probably be cost 
prohibitive to add it.

Jilly

    re: .0
    
    I did that too....Citibank Visa is offering 9.9 until Sept 30th
    on any balance transfers, after which it reverts to the regular
    purchase rate which is 15.9%.  Pretty good dealif you have
    something on a charge card you plan on paying off in the next
    6 months.
    
    DCU will remain my no revolving debt card.  It is nice to be able
    to make an ATM payment from saving/checking.  
    
    --bert
    

    It would be nice if it worked the same as the car loan.  The payment
    should be based on your credit line not your outstanding balance.  Then
    the payment would remain fixed until the balance is 0.
    
    I moved this debt to a Fleet MC.  Their rate on this portion of the
    balance is fixed at 9.9% until I pay off that portion of the balance. 
    Any new purchases I make on that MC will be at 14.5 or whatever their
    "then current" rate is.  This deal works the same as the Fleet VISA
    which I moved some other debt to 18 months ago at 12.9%
    
    Back in '91 I saw their ad for 12.9 in the business section of the
    Boston Globe.  Two months ago they had another.  They wouldn't double
    my credit line on the VISA and allow the new loan payoffs to be at 9.9
    because the deal was for new customers only, but they were perfectly
    happy to give me a MC and the new deal on it with the same credit line
    as the VISA.  So I write them two checks instead of one.
    
    I guess I'm not so mad at DCU.  I'm still a very satisfied customer. 
    But I like the weekly payment on the car loan so much and this deal
    with the CRT just seemed so silly.

    
    RE: .4
    
    But Kelly, if DCU based the minimum payment on the total line of crdit
    rather than the current balance, the minimum amount due would be much
    higher and I'm sure *many* more DCU members would be unhappy with that
    arrangement.  I think the key here is that this is a minimum amount
    and you have the flexibility to pay any amount over that, up to the
    total amount due.
    

    Yes, it is more flexible.  But flexible isn't always great.
    
    Anyway, my base unhappiness is that a fixed amount has always been
    withheld from my paycheck every week and I would like a fixed amount
    applied to my CRT.  It would be nice if it could be applied weekly.
    
    Since the beginning, $19 was deposited in my .13 each week.  Then at
    the end of the month (or whenever), $65 was applied to my CRT and the
    rest was moved to my .1.  Why $65?  Why not $76?  For that matter, why
    not the entire balance of my .13 thereby taking advantage of any dividends
    and 5 week months???
    
    The car loan worked basically the same way and I had the same feelings
    about the car loan.
    
    Then the car load switched to weekly payments directly from my paycheck
    instead of monthly thru the intermediate account.  That was great!!!!!
    
    But the CRT changed to put the $19 each week into my checking account
    and then the monthly payment came out of my checking account.  Ok, I
    don't like it as much as what the car loan did, but I can live with it. 
    But, again, why $65 instead of $76??  
    
    A fixed amount, $19, is withheld each week to pay for this loan.  Why
    can't a fixed amount be applied to the loan?

  I drew on my reserve credit (Advantage) for the first time last month. Last
week I got a separate bill from DCU, asking for a $30 min payment.
  I'm confused. If I don't manually pay the $30, will DCU automatically draw
the $30 from my checking account? If so, they should say so on the bill.
  Baybank doesn't send out separate bills for reserve credit payback; they just
announce on the monthly statement that X amount will be drawn on Y date to pay
down the reserve credit balance. I would rather that DCU did it this way.

�  I drew on my reserve credit (Advantage) for the first time last month. Last
�week I got a separate bill from DCU, asking for a $30 min payment.
�  I'm confused. If I don't manually pay the $30, will DCU automatically draw
�the $30 from my checking account? If so, they should say so on the bill.
    
    I don't think so unless things have changed recently or you have
    authorized automatic transfers to pay off the credit line.

You should check with DCU to be certain, but I suspect they sent you the
bill to let you know what the automatic xfer amount would be from your SHARE 5
account; once you are past the first month, I think they will be putting the
xfer amount on your monthly statement and won't send you these "bills".

It used to be that DCU sent these every month; you were never expected to
pay that bill because it was simply a notification that your share 5 would
get that amount xfered.  Then DCU started putting the amount that would be
xfered on your monthly statement, and stopped sending the individual monthly
bills (at least that's what they did with me).  The only problem with using
the statement, would be for the first billing.

    	I just got bitten by something for the first time. I got hit with
    a penalty for missing an (automatic) CRT payment. I made an error in my 
    checkbook and thought I had plenty of money to cover it.
    
    	Rather than get a bill, or ANY indication that this happened,
    instead I got a 15 day late notice and a $5 penalty. DCU will not
    retry the deduction, nor will they notify you that this has happened
    until AFTER you get hit with the penalty.
    
    	Since there is no retry, and by the time you get your statment and
    balance the checkbook it's probably already too late, why not send the
    notice right away stating that you will be charged a late fee unless 
    the payment is made by xx/xx/xx ?
    
    	Ray

>DCU will not
>    retry the deduction, nor will they notify you that this has happened
>    until AFTER you get hit with the penalty.

Interesting.  I had this happen a few months back - same type of reason, a data
entry error on my part in quicken; I did get the letter you mentioned, but when
I checked with PCbranch, I found that DCU had re-tried the transaction a few
days later, and things were fine.  I don't recall a penalty but I could be wrong.

--Scott

    re:11
    
    	I asked that specific question in the NIO DCU (about retrying a few 
    days later) and was told specifically that they don't. I got multiple 
    renditions of "but it's your responsibility to make sure there's enough
    money...". Yes, I understand that. I also understand that people do make 
    mistakes. The way you find them is to reconcile your account. As I said, 
    by the time you get your statement it's probably already too late.
    
    	I know that I can use PC Branch to get up to date info, but even
    then, unless I suspect a problem, I'd be inclined not to use it and
    could still have this problem. Either pulling the money weekly to pay
    this, or changing the notice they send slightly (i.e. penalty will be
    applied if payment isn't received by ...) and sending it the day after 
    the failed payment would be a much better (and user friendly ;-) solution. 
    
    	Seeing as how one of the CRT's purposes is to prevent you from bounced
    check penalties, I find the ease that it in itself can be yet another 
    source of penalties ironic. Unfortunately, I don't see why it must be
    this way.
    
    	Ray

        RE: last couple

    	I thought as long as you weren't maxed out on your credit limit 
    they would just advance whatever was needed to cover the check.  How
    come that didn't happen?

    Joe  

    re:-1
    
    	The CRT will cover you for any "check" or "cash withdrawal" related 
    over-drafts. You apparently, however, can't make your CRT payment with a 
    CRT loan, at least not automatically anyway ;-)
    
    	Ray

In general, you cannot have your accounts set up so that
a loan of one type is used to make a payment for the same
loan - automatically. 

An example would be using 
 - a home equity loan to make a home equity payment,
 - a Advantage line to make an Advantage payment,
 - a credit card advance to make a monthly credit card payment.

Though it cannot be done automatically, you can certainly
do it manually.

Gim

    re:-1
    
    	I agree. I really wouldn't want that to happen. I WOULD like to get
    notified immediately though, when there is insufficient funds to cover
    an auto-payment. 
    
    	As I said, everyone makes mistakes and waiting until after the
    grace period to inform you that you missed an auto-payment is not very
    user friendly. Especially since the statement needed to show you your
    mistake typically arrives with barely enough (if any) time to note your
    mistake and correct it before getting hit with the penalty.
    
    	Ray