chester’s mentoring initiative

March 2024

Member Announcements:

• Chester Exchange is hosting a math fair on April 20 to help students understand how math make a difference in daily life, and offers compelling career paths. Please contact kvreddchesterexc@gmail.com to learn more.

Our featured speaker was Emily Teofilak of Sun East Credit Union, who discussed the perils of financial illiteracy. Here are some highlights:

• Many people make financial decisions without much thought or consideration for the long-term impact on their budget, including:

  • replacing phones and cars more frequently than necessary.

  • signing up for credit cards with high interest rates, especially at store registers.

• Facilitating financial literacy gives important tools.

  • Cutting unnecessary spending can make a big difference for those on set budgets looking to maximize fixed incomes.

  • The background knowledge sets people up for situations that will eventually become relevant for them.

  • Even people who are not fully engaged in financial literacy may remember at a cash register that they were warned against signing up for a credit card there, and protect themselves better.

• Don’t underestimate the impact of your credit score, which typically affects not just loans but also job applications.

• The most common types of fraud are identity theft, phishing scams (when criminals try to get personal information to access accounts) and card skimming (when criminals use a device, often placed on an ATM machine, to capture card information.)

  • Banks check for skimmers daily but ATM users elsewhere should always be on the lookout for plastic or metal devices placed on the machine before using. Learn more here.

  • Using the “tap to pay” feature protects your card more than inserting your card.

• Criminals are very creative in attempting to steal passwords.

  • Always opt-in for two-factor authorization when possible, as a thief who doesn’t have your phone will be thwarted.

  • When selecting a password, look around the room to choose a generic word that has no personal relevance that could be guessed.

• Check your transaction reports weekly or set up alerts for transactions over a certain dollar amount so that you can report fraud immediately.

• Beware the car salesman who offer to check financing options for customers.

  • They may run the credit report with many local lenders and then offer the one with the best commission for the salesperson rather than the lowest rate.

  • Multiple inquiries on your credit report can hurt your score.

  • Shoppers should walk into the sale with a pre-approved loan from a lender they trust.

• Credit unions who belong to a co-op allow customers to access funds without any fees at any participating location around the country.

Emily is happy to do zoom or in-person financial literacy trainings at no charge. You can also work with her to book Sun East’s mobile branch that brings banking to neighborhoods to minimize transportation challenges. She can be reached at Phone: 610-485-2960  x217, Cell: 215-704-1605 and Email: eteofilak@suneast.org

At our last meeting, our featured speaker was Dr. June Elcock-Messam. She is a pediatrician who specializes in cases involving child abuse and is a co-founder of Every Child Counts. Read important learnings from her work here: https://www.youthdevunited.org/cmifeb2024