The following is a presentation of FCB Faith. This is Keeping America First with Bishop John T. Cotes and Reverend Jeff Jemison on FCB Faith. Good morning. It's always a great day to get our finances in order and to hear about the great things during this holiday season that we can do to kind of get prepared and take advantage of different things. And again, with the economy the way it is, finances are always of a concern. And we have a guest this morning who's gonna just talk a little bit about savings and finances. And her name is now other than Lorie Guzzy. Laurie, how are you today? I'm great? Thank you. Laurie is the CEO of the Painesville Credit Union in Paynesville, Ohio. Laurie, what are some of the benefits of becoming a member and tell us a little bit about yourself, the credit union and operations. Okay, Well, I started as a teller here twenty five years ago, so I've worked every position in the credit union, which I think gives me some great insight into how we can help our members. I have put together a fantastic team of employees that really listen and want to be here. They want to help members in the community, and our membership is open to anybody who lives, works, worships, or attend school in Lake County. We've been in business since nineteen forty two, so we're not going anywhere. I have four families or four generations of families that bank with us. I think that's kind of cool that there's all these generations that they keep coming back, so there must be a good reason. And we have people that have belonged here for over fifty years. Oh, that's awesome. What are some of the benefits of being a member credit union as opposed to just you know, your traditional banks. I believe the best benefit is that we know you. We get to know our members, We get to know their families, we get to know their finances, we get to know their situations. When you know somebody on a more personal level, you can help them if they're in trouble, you can suggest things, you can help them revise their budget. Just when we we really try to have that personal touch. And I really truly believe that when you're part of the community and you get to know the people who come through your door, you can offer so much more. You can help them more. Absolutely. So. We're in the midst of a holiday season, which I say the holidays. Yes, we're in the midst of it. It's right here. What are some of the programs or things that you have going on right now? Well, currently, we're offering a loan special Holiday loan special. You can qualify for up to two thousand dollars. It's a low interest rate six point ninety nine. The very best part of this loan, in my opinion, is it's twelve months, so you know that you have twelve payments and you were done. You could use it for holiday expenses. You could use it to go on a vacation. I know people who renew it every year because they're remodeling their home, or they want a new couch, and next year they want a new entertainment system. There's so many you can use it for anything you want. But I love the fact that it's a low interest rate, and I love that it's only twelve payments. Well, that's awesome. I know a lot of people would like to take advantage of it. What's the best way for folks that we do need to contact you? How do they get started? They can go online to our website at painswillseee you dot org and fill out a loan application. They can check out some of the extra info on our Facebook page. They can give us a call at the credit union and I would actually love for them to just stop in. I think we have a big, beautiful building and like I said, I have the best staff in the world. They're very welcoming. So they want to stop in and ask questions and see what it's all about, They're more than welcome to do that. Also, what phone number can they call it to reach you? They can call us at four four zho three, five, two eight, nine seven four. Our phones turn on at nine point thirty. A lot of young people start there, would like to start their savings and are there different programs or things that you have for young people. We don't have necessarily programs for young people, but we encourage younger people to learn about finances and banking. So when they come in and they want to open an account, we are more than happy to explain to them interest and how you save and you get paid for saving. We have a really neat program with our debit card called Swipe and Save, and every time you use your debit card it will round that purchase up and put the money into your savings account. We offer Christmas clubs. We teach people about saving for Christmas, and a lot of the young people like that too. So anything that they're looking for, we'll figure out a way to make it work for them. How does the Christmas programs start or work? The Christmas Club? So we have a Christmas Club program. You open the Christmas Club up, you deposit whatever amount you want. You can have it come off your payroll, so a set of amount goes in each pay You can do the Swipe and save and have it going to your Christmas club. We hold those funds until November first, so you have all year to build up. I actually started my Christmas Club again November first. I took my money out and started it all over again. I use the Swipe and Save program, and I can tell you from November first until now, I have twelve dollars in there already, and that's simply from rounding up my purchases. Oh that's awesome. That can make a big difference. I think we need to teach more people to get young people too started saving and understand the benefits of it. Let's see what else we were going to ask you before we close. I would love to tell you about our choice for tis. Okay, let's speak. Let's see. For over twenty years we have participated in the Toys for Tots program of Lake and Jaga County. So we have bins here and anybody who wants to donate can drop off a new, unwrapped toy for children ages zero to twelve. We also have Malley's candy bars for sale and all the proceeds go for Toys for Tots and this year brand new. Dana's hard at work on it right now. We're going to have a basket raffle that you can start buying tickets on on November twenty fifth. She's anticipating at least twenty different baskets. All of our business members have donated them, and all of those proceeds will go for Toys for Tots also. That's awesome. One other thing, Yes, we heard that you're opening a new location. Can you talk about that absolutely. We recently purchased six acres in North Perry Village. It's right en Route twenty, just east of Townline Road. We have the drawings in the building if anybody wants to come and see. It'll be a little smaller branch, but that will be our second branch so that we can serve that part of Lake County. We have many members that already live in Perry and Madison, and when we looked at the big picture and said, how can we help our members and potential members the most, building a branch out that way just came to the top of mind. So that's what we're working on. That's awesome. It's good to be a part of a institution, financial institution that's growing. What about mortgages, I know a lot of people are considering buying a home. Is there anything that you do in that area. We don't write mortgages in a house, but we do partner with a company called Mortgage Center. They're out of Michigan. They strictly work with credit unions and one of the reasons we partnered with them we were referred by several credit unions to them. But the other thing we liked is they offer such a variety of loans. They have home equity loans, they have purchased, they have refinance, they have hobby farm loans, they have mobile home loans, they have property loans, construction loans, so they have a great bunch of products to choose from, and you can go online to Mortgage Center and look at their rates every day, look at all their loan offerings. And then you have to belong to a credit union. So even if you don't belong currently and you look at it and think, wow, I really want to work with them, you can come in and join Painsville Credit Union and we refer you over. Oh wow, that's a great benefit. Well, Laurie, you're going to say thank you for being our guest today and thank you for sharing information that our listeners can take advantage of. And again we want you to just have much success that you and your the institution at Painsville Credit Union, and again thank you for being with us today. Thank you so much. I love talking about the credit union.
