McGarvey's Words: Journalist…Podcaster..Speaker

By Robert McGarvey

I am still wearing a mask when indoors in public spaces – even though the governor of Arizona, where I live, has issued an executive order that lifted Covid-19 restrictions (such as capacity restraints) on businesses and barred local governments from enforcing most mask mandates.  So now ever louder voices are raised insisting that we have a right not to wear a mask – even before the governor’s order a meeting of the Scottsdale school board dissolved into chaos as mask deniers bellowed out their refusals.

A private business can insist on masks but still there are protests that this robs people of their rights.

There is no such right and it is also simply dumb to insist on such a “right.” We are not out of the pandemic yet.  As “As long as there is some degree of activity throughout the world, there’s always a danger of variants emerging and diminishing somewhat the effectiveness of our vaccines,” said Anthony Fauci in an interview with the Guardian.

That’s why it is crucial that we still wear masks, certainly in indoor public spaces, and practice social distancing.  To fail to take such simple steps is to endanger ourselves and others. It will also slow the recovery of the travel and restaurant sectors.

That is reality.

But I expect the wars to get louder, angrier, more violent.

Especially in the places travelers congregate.

As we begin to travel again we will be on the frontlines of these battles. I am looking forward to travel, but not to these skirmishes.

Even in the skies – where a federal mask mandate remains in place until September – there is increasing anti mask violence. There is no exception for the vaccinated (although many think there is) when it comes to mask wearing on airplanes.

Matters are so heated in the skies that both American and Southwest have halted booze sales in coach, mainly because drunken passengers just are more obstreperous and violent.

Airports, too, are mask required zones – although reports multiply of maskless offenders testing the readiness of authorities to act on the ground.  Busses and trains also have many mask refusers.

But transportation isn’t the worst place when it comes to mask issues.

Matters are getting more perilous at restaurants – places not covered by the federal mask mandates and where many governors have been erasing mask requirements. Even Starbucks and Chipotle have dropped their mask requirements wherever they can, saying only the unvaccinated are required to wear masks.

The problem with that – at least going by what I am hearing – is that it is the vaccinated who are still wearing masks indoors.  The unvaccinated, taking advantage of the reality that there is no easy way to prove vaccination status (I don’t carry my CDC card and know nobody who does, at least when we are not traveling), are stripping their masks and pretending they have gotten the shots.

They of course are threats to the rest of us and to each other – and, sadly, it is they who will prolong the pandemic even though they often are also pandemic deniers who also deny the 600,000 who have died from the disease just in the US.

Employees in retail naturally have rising concerns as they interact with maskless, unvaccinated customers. Will many quit? That’s a good guess.

One sector where I expect the mask wars to only get hotter in restaurants.  For instance, in Mendocino CA, a place called the Fiddleheads Cafe charges diners who wear masks a $5 surcharge. What’s weirder is where this is happening.  Biden got two-thirds of the county’s vote in 2020.  Mendo is, shall we say, a laid back place. It has long had an anarchic streak, however, and I suppose that’s what is playing out at Fiddleheads.

I get it, too. In restaurants in particular masks are a complication (when to wear it, when not?).

I have eaten in a restaurant exactly once this year and that was on an outdoor patio.

I do not expect to eat indoors at a restaurant this summer.  Why? To be a witness to anti mask stupidity?  Besides, I am growing fonder of Uber Eats and good food is getting brought to me.  I eat it in peace at home.

Will I next cross air travel off my list because of the mask defiers? We will see as the summer plays out.

By Robert McGarvey

Used to be, as I planned a trip, I’d look at a weather report for the destination and, in very special cases, I’d consult a crime report for a foreign destination at the US Dept. of State.  That about did it for my information curiosities and, note, I don’t believe I ever consulted crime data for US cities, only for some international cities.

But now as I find myself contemplating travel to several destinations, both domestic and foreign, I suddenly want more data – and that is why I am creating new travel bookmarks that I will share with you because you just may have similar needs.

The big difference in my 2021-2022 travel planning: disease, particularly Covid-19, looms large in my thinking.  There are places I just will not go to because I would not feel safe and, yes, I am dually vaccinated. Plus I had the disease 15 months ago so I have antibodies and probably am resistant to Covid-19.

But resistant to all variants? To new strains?  I don’t know and I am not going to risk a trip to a place where I might run into a Covid variant I have no immunity to.

About 5% of the world’s population presently is fully vaccinated – which means 95% aren’t.  It is going to take at least a couple years to distribute vaccines widely and that is a wildly optimistic estimate.  

That means international travel will slowly rebound and it will be on a destination by destination basis.  

Bookmark this page via Statista that shows Covid infection and death rates by country and offers fine tuned date for the last 7 days.  Places I don’t want to go to right now include Hungary, Peru, and Brazil –  too many cases, too many deaths.

What about India?  It happens not to be on the Statista page I am looking at today and that’s important to understand,  No site I am aware of is comprehensive – all crunch data using their own methods and own feeds. So you have to look at multiple sites.

But any reader of the international news knows India is afire with Covid-19 and the end does not appear near. It is one of the scariest places on the planet right now.

And then there are countries that have released no data.  Tanzania is a case in point and I know I won’t even think about traveling to a place where its Covid infections and deaths are state secrets (or, even worse, just not counted).  Sadly, much of the undeveloped world fits into that category.  They are not hiding information so much as they just don’t know their incidence rate, death count, or when vaccines will be available to their populace.  

Another, useful tool is from the Lowy Institute and it allows us to compare countries in terms of Covid responses.  Search for Portugal and Spain, for instance, and to my eyes their Covid patterns have been quite similar. That’s useful to know especially since many of us are probably weighing options for either/or trips – Jamaica vs Dominican Republic, for instance, and today the differences seem minimal.

Of course the facts are fluid.  Countries that once seemed to have Covid under control now are messes. The Seychelles is a case in point; it had ranked among the most vaccinated countries.  But a majority of the people had gotten China’s Sinopharm vaccine and questions swirl around its efficacy. Now there are lots of active cases in the Seychelles. It’s not a place I would visit.

But fluid facts mean we have to check frequently.  Last week’s reassuring research may take a deadly turn today. Or a country with a bad bout of Covid infections may turn a corner.

Another new twist for me: I plan to check US infection and vaccination stats before traveling to domestic destinations.  Some parts of the country just are stubbornly anti-vax and while I won’t argue with them, I also won’t mingle with them.

That’s why I’ve bookmarked a widget at Becker’s Hospital Review that shows the percentage of a state’s population that has been vaccinated. Mississippi and Alabama bring up the rear but that’s no surprise. They have vaccinated fewer than one in three.

Also useful is a CDC Covid tracker that lets us drill into county specific infection incidence data across the US.  Get specific when looking. Incidence can multiply within a few miles.  

Do I enjoy this data crunching?  I do not.  But I would enjoy being bed-ridden with an encore battle against Covid even less.

But at least, data in view, I am newly confident about traveling.  I just plan to do it as the numbers guide me.

 File this under trends that will rock the ground beneath your feet.  The next wave in financial services will be self-direction, says Vince Bezemer, head of strategy at Backbase, whom you know from CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 110 (and the companion, 111, with Wildfire Credit Union, a Backbase customer).

Now Bezemer is back with a big message: members no longer want you to tell them how to do what they want to do.  You can’t offer 90% account origination online but in the last mile insist a branch visit is key.

In a similar vein, the money centers banks no longer will be able to bully customers into using digital solutions when what they want is high touch analog.

There’s a revolution coming, warns Bezemer, and the FIs that thrive will be the ones that get the message that today’s member calls the shots.

And for the FIs that resist this, there’s the reality that at least some FIs already have heard this message and are charging ahead.

For credit unions, Bezemer’s message is that it’s not enough the digitize, say, 25% of your products and tell members that for the rest, come to the branch.,

It’s something of a different challenge from that facing the mega banks, where cost cutting and branch closures are accelerating a drive to push digital.

Wherever you are on the digital-analog continuum, there are warnings to be had in this podcast – and action steps to take.  But this isn’t a stern lecture, it’s a breezy, fast, fun talk about what financial services need to look like soon, like tomorrow.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto.

by Robert McGarvey

It was the members’ personal stories that hooked Samira Rajan early in her employment at what then was known as the Bushwick Cooperative and now is the Brooklyn Cooperative. When she started there it was in 2001 as a volunteer via AmeriCorp Vista in 2001 when the recently founded credit union had assets of $299,000, four employees (including her), and a membership of under 1000.

Rajan has been there ever since. Today it has assets of $50 million, 2600 members, 16 employees, and two branches (one in Bushwick, the other in Bedford-Stuyvesant).

As for those stories, Rajan spent her early years at the institution as the loan officer and the stories she heard were from this member as to why she needed a $10,000 loan for her business, or from that member on why he needed a $5000 home improvement loan. These are stories about hopes and dreams and Rajan found it exciting to think about making dreams come true and also protecting the credit union’s solvency.

As for how she wound up at the credit union in the first place, listen to the podcast. You need to hear the story from her but I will tell you it involves a bachelor’s degree at Bryn Mawr where she doubled majored in economics and Spanish (and the Spanish matters in Bushwick where over half the residents are Latino). She then worked as an economist at the Federal Reserve in New York. But she got restless, she wanted to see if financial services could in fact help address economic inequalities. So she went to Harvard and earned a master’s degree in public policy at the Kennedy School.

Flashback to 2001 when she earned that degree and she was back home in New York, the economy was sluggish, New York City was still recovering from 9/11, and she heard about this start up credit union in Bushwick and decided to check it out.

Next thing she knew she was a volunteer and soon that became a staff job.

In 2008 she became CEO.

In this podcast you will hear about the day to day challenge of keeping a small credit union vital, about the help Brooklyn Cooperative has gotten (or not gotten) from large banks and credit unions, and why it matters to be a CDFI, a community development financial institution.

Related podcasts mentioned in this one include CU 2.0 Podcast #15 with Cathie Mahon, CEO of Inclusiv. 

Also listen to CU 2.0 Podcast #37 with Cliff Rosenthal, a pioneer in the CDFI world.

And Luis Pastor at Latino Community Credit Union in Durham.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto.

By Robert McGarvey

I hear the buzz – you do too – all around us now is the sound of travelers planning, packing, moving.  After 16 months of no travel (in my own case), it is plainly exciting to be again thinking about hitting the road.

But in my own case – and I am not preaching to you, just relating – I plan to travel in a much more sustainable way.  Climate change is real.  It’s nonsensical to deny it and where I live, in Phoenix, it is easy to see.  KTAR sums up the numbers: “[In 2020] Phoenix broke records for the most 95-degree days (172), 100-degree days (145), 105-degree days (102), 110-degree days (53) and 115-degree days (14) in a year with daily heat records being shattered 18 times throughout 2020 and tied another 15 times.”

Meantime, we are depleting our groundwater reservoirs and the Colorado River, which supplies much of the water that irrigates the west, just is coming up short.

In Arizona, climate change is not a parlor game word.  It’s become a matter of life or death, for many plants and animals and very possibly, in the long term, even humans.  Don’t snigger about the last. A 2019 Sierra Club Magazine headline told why: Can Phoenix Remain Habitable?  It asked.  The article is a good read and it spells out how Phoenix could dodge this bullet. But it is not optimistic that sanity will prevail because the city talks a good game…but real steps are fewer.

Which is why it comes down to me, by which I mean all of us who live in Phoenix – and since the planet is facing the same climate changes, pretty much all of us everywhere

That is why I am mulling where, how and why I travel.

Understand, I remain deeply skeptical that we will soon see a vigorous return to 2019 level business travel.  Between the frugality of CFOs and the lethal state of Covid-19 around much of the globe – to say nothing about the one in two Americans who are not yet fully vaccinated – there simply is no rational forecast that sees business travel rebounding this year and possibly not next.  Will there be more business travel in the second half of 2021 than there was in 2020? Of course there will be and that is because there were less than half as many business trips in 2020 as in 2019.  It won’t take much to log higher numbers in the second half of 2021 and that won’t prove much, either.  

Personally, my position will be that I will take business trips where and only where an in person appearance (as opposed to a virtual appearance via Zoom) is likely to produce better results.  Face it, hitherto, we took a lot of trips because, well, that’s how it always had been done. But the long travel hiatus has made it easy – necessary – to experiment with alternatives and, guess what, often they work. 

Before booking a business trip I will ask is it necessary? Is it wise?

A lot of times I probably will decide the trip simply isn’t needed. That will save money, save my time (business travel is hideously wasteful of the traveler’s time), and perhaps help save the planet.

Flying is bad for the environment. According to the BBC, “Around 2.4% of global CO2 emissions come from aviation. Together with other gases and the water vapour trails produced by aircraft, the industry is responsible for around 5% of global warming.”

That seems a small number?  Perhaps.  Indeed, buildings and cars are by far the biggest producers. 

But I already am very mindful of how much I drive (just a few thousand miles per year) and where the thermostat is set.  So I will also do my bit to cut out unnecessary business travel too.

Another target will be unnecessary leisure travel – and already there is talk of a lot more of exactly that.  I cannot tell you how many people I know who are dreaming of a trip to Antarctica and that has to count as perhaps the most unnecessary trip imaginable.  Watch the Bourdain show and if you want realer sensations, stick your head in an icebox for a few minutes and finger the ice cubes.  

In 2019-2020 about 74,000 of us traveled to Antarctica and, according to research published by Cambridge University, “The average tourist trip to Antarctica results in 5.44 t of CO2 emissions per passenger, or 0.49 t per passenger and day.”

OK, maybe some travelers in fact have good reasons for this trip. I don’t get it but that might be my failing. We each have to do our own calculations.

But the point stands: my commitment going forward is that the leisure travel I take will be done with a mindfulness of the environment and I won’t take the trip if there are other ways to gain the experience.  

That means I won’t be taking impulse weekend trips to Madrid, as I have done, or Berlin.  But travel I will…just not so much and only after I weigh the pros and cons.  

It’s the least I can do to help save the planet.

by Robert McGarvey

A new report from the CFPB, “Consumer use of of payday, auto title and pawn loans,” underlines the magnitude of this issue. Nine percent of unbanked consumers are habitual users of high interest, high fee loans.

But that market size also gives credit unions—especially CDFI institutions with their overt community development focus but, really, just all about all credit unions with an active retail arm—a shiny, bright new member target that just may welcome attention from a credit union.

9% Is a Lot of People

That’s millions of consumers who may repay a helping hand with real loyalty.

How much loyalty? Samira Rajan, CEO of the $60 million Brooklyn Cooperative Credit Union, told us about a member whose loan had gone into default when she was deported. But flashforward a few months and that member was now in Arizona and she resumed paying on the loan.

(Hear the Rajan podcast with many, similar stories here.)

Keep reading here

By Robert McGarvey

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cannot have it both ways when it comes to the return of cruising.  He is trying but he won’t succeed.

And he is threatening the vacation plans of many of us who had looked forward to the resumption of safe cruising.

DeSantis – pursuing political agendas that lack commonsense but in an era of alternative facts such has become something of a norm – now has some big players in the industry close to telling him to go pound sand.

Back in early April Florida, at DeSantis’ direction, filed suit against the CDC demanding an immediate resumption of cruises.  “We don’t believe the federal government has the right to mothball a major industry for over a year based on very little evidence and very little data,” DeSantis said in a news conference at Miami’s seaport.

DeSantis of course wants cruising back because Florida wants the money it produces for the state. Some $9 billion annually is brought in by cruise lines in Florida and many millions more in paychecks for cruise employees and DeSantis, presumably blinded by the glitter of so much gold, simply no longer sees the many thousands of Covid-19 deaths that hit the cruise industry in the first half of 2020 and the tens of thousands of cases.

He may think there is little evidence and less data but he simply is wrong.

But saying DeSantis is a demagogue with no respect for facts hardly is news or even interesting.  What is interesting is that when the return of cruising to his state has become imminent he has thrown a spanner into the ships’ engines mainly because he wants to be seen as a “courageous” campaigner against forced vaccinations.

Idiocy? Of course. But this is special stupidity because it might actually prompt many cruise lines to pull out of Florida and shift their home ports into friendly Caribbean nations that, you bet, will do what needs doing to build up their cruise related income.

Flashback a year ago and I thought I’d never cruise again.  The industry’s handling of the virus was inept, mendacious, and deadly.  But now the CDC has issued guidance designed to get cruises safely sailing again.  Masks are required, shore excursions are tightly controlled, and in lots of ways cruising will be different.

But a reality – understood by many cruise executives, even if politicians do not get it – is that many of us were not going to cruise again unless significant steps were taken to assure the safety and health of passengers and crew alike.

In that vein many cruise lines now promise all crew will have been vaccinated and ditto passengers. Here’s a list of lines requiring passengers to be vaccinated and, yes, this includes most of the ships an American is likely to sail on.

I applaud this decision and I realize it is driven by economics. The data just had become overwhelming that a vaccine requirement is a sine qua non for a return to cruising.

But not if DeSantis has his way.  You will remember we left the governor as he filed suit against CDC demanding a green light for cruising.

I don’t know that you can say CDC had issued a green light but it definitely turned off the red and the light now is amber.  Do as CDC asks and a line can sail. And a line can do it faster if it requires a high percentage of passengers be vaccinated. Are the requirements onerous? Yes.  But desperate and dangerous times call for dramatic measures.

And yet DeSantis now has taken steps to ban businesses in Florida from requiring vaccination passports from customers.  “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society,” DeSantis said at a press conference.

He means for that ban to apply to cruise ships.  Some lawyers argue – and they probably are right – that what the ships do is a federal matter, outside the purview of a governor.  But already Norwegian Cruise line is threatening to pull its ships out of Florida and sail out of those Caribbean ports we mentioned earlier.  

“Cruise ships have motors, propellers and rudders, and god forbid we can’t operate in the state of Florida for whatever reason, then there are other states that we do operate from,” said Norwegian CEO Frank Del Rio. “And we can operate from the Caribbean for ships that otherwise would’ve gone to Florida.”

Meantime, Carnival, the largest cruise line, now says it wants to start sailing from Florida in July – if it can reach an accord with CDC which has said it will relax some restrictions for ships where virtually all crew and passengers are vaccinated. Carnival has plainly indicated it is prepared to deal with CDC. “We continue to have constructive discussions with the CDC but still have many questions that remain unanswered.  We are working diligently to resume sailing in the U.S. and meet the CDC guidelines,” Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said in the statement.

No mention is made of DeSantis and his attempt to outlaw vaccination passports in Florida.

Let’s review. DeSantis has a fit and sues CDC to end its ban on cruising because of the adverse economic impacts on Florida, the nation’s biggest cruise port.  CDC modifies its orders, the cruise lines decide they can work within the new rules and – to solidify passenger confidence – they decide to require vaccinations of passengers and crew.  And now DeSantis says a business cannot require vaccination passports of its customers.

Which means many won’t feel comfortable cruising, especially not if the ships are welcome zones for wacky anti vaxxers.

If DeSantis gets his way, just forget about cruising from Florida.

Sigh. I said it earlier but it’s worth repeating: Go pound sand, DeSantis.

by Robert McGarvey

Cathi Kim’s job title at Inclusiv, a trade association for community development credit unions, tells you why you need to listen to her. She’s Director of Inclusiv/Capital which means her focus is on finding ways for community development credit unions, often very small, to bring in new capital, which can come from a range of places – government programs, big credit unions, foundations, the list goes on.

How can the CEO of a small CDCU find out about these capital sources? Probably she/he can’t because there are only so many hours in the day and usually leadership in a CDCU wears many hats and a chunk of time to research funding possibilities just is hard to come by.

That’s why Cathi Kim has to be in your contact list. Here’s how Inclusiv describes her job duties: “Her role includes leading underwriting, market analysis and strategy development, advising on credit union regulations, business planning, and impact design to help credit unions strengthen their double bottom line of financial growth and community impact.”

Understand, too, that Kim believes there’s increasing interest in – and support for – purpose driven institutions and that, definitionally, is what a CDCU is. It’s there to make a difference in its community and, according to Kim, there are many organizations that want to lend a helping hand.

Some have been writing the obituaries for America’s small credit unions. Cathi Kim is about proving those notices are, shall we say, premature. There is plenty of life in front of the nation’s small CDCUs – if they grab the helping hands that are out there.

For a broader view of Inclusiv, listen to CU 2.0 Podcast #15 with Cathie Mahon, CEO of Inclusiv.

Also listen to CU 2.0 Podcast #37 with Cliff Rosenthal, a pioneer in the CDFI world.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto.

By Robert McGarvey

Looking at my May bill from Amex, I was struck by something I had never noticed before: green dollar amounts, at least in the bill I look at online.

Nope, Amex is not on a new sustainability kick.  The green is there to make me notice credits to my account.  Like what?  $18.07 in a PayPal credit (reimbursing me for a New York Times subscription paid via PayPal).  $50 for a purchase of Maryland crab cakes via Goldbelly (the initial charge was $119, but Amex kicks back $50 each on up to three purchases by June 30).  $50 for a Saks purchase (that amounted to $60 initially).

Not noted on the monthly bill, there also was a $15 Uber credit that I used for an Uber Eats lunch.

Add in another $12 for cellphone coverage, also not noted on the bill.

That’s $149.07 in credits.  In one month.  

Sure, I have not set food in a Centurion Lounge this year (in fact not in a full year).  I did not use the Amex $200 airline credit last year and may not use it this year.

But when I see credits actually flowing into my account that may hit $1000 for the year and almost certainly will eclipse the $550 annual fee, I am less peeved about the perks I am not using than I am satisfied with the perks I am claiming.

Am I thoroughly content? I am not.  That is because for some years I have had a lazy man’s relationship with the Platinum card.  I used it frequently to access the Centurion lounge and that alone justified the fee by my calculus.  (Amex now dings a cardholder $50 per guest and that valuation would put breakeven at 11 visits.  But factor in the annual $200 Uber credit and 7 visits is breakeven.)  Toss in the cellphone protection and I would have gotten plenty from my Plat card.  

Easy peasy.  

That was before, when I traveled and used the benefits I had acquired the card to enjoy.

Now I have to work to breakeven and, honestly, I am too lazy to enjoy it.  It takes sorting through possibilities whilst wearing a green eyeshade. Amex showed me 100 credits and perks I am eligible for – my understanding is that the lists are personalized for the cardholder.  Your 100 won’t be identical to mine.

Most of the benefits are meaningless to me.  20% off on purchases at Adidas.com. Bonus miles when shopping at Macy’s. $20 back on a purchase of $100 at Lamps Plus – you get the drift.  Lots of places where I don’t shop and don’t plan to shop.

I am open to new places – in fact I had never shopped at Goldbelly until a JoeSentMe reader praised the $50 cashback offer. When I looked I saw Chris Bianco, Russ & Daughters, Langer’s Deli and already there are more places where I want to shop than I can claim $50 refunds.

For every store that interests me there are five or ten that don’t. Blue by ADT, Terrain, Persol eyewear, and more that I ignore as I scroll through the list.

And even the offers that interest me have varying strings attached. With Saks, it’s $50 twice yearly at six months intervals. With Goldbelly it’s $50 on three purchases of $100 or more. Before clicking buy, if you are counting on an Amex refund, remember to check the fine print on the offer.

Many offers can be used only by the primary cardholder. But some are available to secondary cardholders. But you have to know which is which.

You also have to remember to enroll in programs you want to use. Enrollment is not automatic in most cases.

And now I also have to monitor several sites that report on new Plat benefits (and rumored benefits).  I found the cellphone coverage at one such site, and now see that Amex has made permanent access to Lufthansa lounges for cardholders flying that carrier.  A cool perk in Europe, one I may use before the year is out.

But I had to work to discover it. 

I want credit cards that work for me, not the other way around.

Of course there also are rumors of a Plat card revamp – with talk of a fee boost to $700 and a bunch of new perks including an annual Clear membership (worth $179), an entertainment media credit ($20 monthly for select streaming services) and the list goes on  Nothing is certain about any of this – we’ll report on it when the facts are known – but it may introduce new variables into the keep or jettison decision.

In my current frame of mind, unless travel in fact rebounds I will probably let the card go if the fee jumps to $700. It’s just too much work to make it pay off. 

But maybe I’m just a lazy guy.

by Robert McGarvey

 Latino Community Credit Union was founded in 2000 in Durham NC when the community was rocked by a wave of robberies – even murders – of Latino workers who were paid in cash and were believed to walk around with their pockets stuffed with cash because they were unbanked.

Enter John Herrera – whom you know from CU 2.0 Podcast 142 – and a handful more helpers and visionaries who founded the credit union which now has about $600 million in assets.

Among the early volunteers was Luis Pastor who was in the US from his native Spain because his wife was pursuing graduate school and he had time on his hands. But soon he was offered the job of CEO and he took the offer. It’s a job he is still in 21 years later and, he says, the fulfillment the job brings is what keeps him in it. 

Like what? Pastor tells of borrowers who have been deported who are still paying their loans – that seems unthinkable but it is a reality in Durham because this is a credit union that engages in helping people who have been ignored by traditional financial institutions. Extend a helping hand to them and these are people who remember that and value the relationship.

A proof is that in 2020 Latino Community had a lower delinquency rate on loans than it had had in 2019. Despite the pandemic. And despite the fact that few of its members got stimulus checks.

Another pandemic fact about Latino Community Credit Union is that it did not close any branches. “Our community needed us,” said Pastor. He adds that the credit union is planning an expansion into South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia and it now has 15 branches but plans are afoot for adding three more.

Pastor has a word of advice: “If credit unions are trying to steal members from Bank of America we are going to lose this battle.”

Focus instead on the people who really need the services you offer and aren’t getting them elsewhere.

Along the way, you will hear about some truly out of the box thinking. For instance: the credit union has sponsored vaccination days, where – working with Duke University – it has put shots in the arms of some 7000 members. You’d heard that Latinos are vaccine skeptics? True enough. But when people trust a place where their money, they also trust that institution to get them vaccinated. 

Listen up.

Along the way, many mentions are made of Jim Blaine, the retired CEO of State Employees’ Credit Union of North Carolina. Hear the Blaine podcast here. Read more of Blaine’s thinking in this CUInsight blog.  

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com