  
Thank you for booking
your vacations through Get Away Today.
We wanted to let you know that Get Away Today Vacations
recently sent a check to Credit Union for Kids in the amount of
$22,087.50! This amount represents all members of our partnered
credit Unions who have booked their vacations through Get Away
Today from May 1, 2007 through October 31, 2007. This brings our
total annual donation to $41,138! These funds are disbursed among
local children’s hospitals in your area.
Aflac Insurance is now available to SOFCU Members.
Mad City Money
From CUAO Outlook November, 2007
When school began in September, SOFCU Community
Credit Union began offering their financial literacy educational
workshops at local high schools. But this year, they came with
something new. In addition to the Teens and Money financial literacy
workshops, SOFCU is including “Mad City Money”—an
interactive, real-life simulation designed to teach teens budgeting
and basic money management in a fun but realistic setting.
In the simulation, teens are given an instant
family, occupation, credit card debt, student loan debt, and insurance
payments, and then move about Mad City and negotiate with merchants
(played by credit union and business volunteers) to purchase necessities
such as housing, transportation, food, clothing, household items,
day care, and other needs. The challenge is to get everything
they need (and want) while staying within their means.
Mad City Money offers students a glimpse into
some of the issues, concerns, and sacrifices that they will have
to deal with in the real world. Topics such as budgeting, spending
plans, credit and savings are covered in the Mad City Money Simulation.
SOFCU is an advocate for financial literacy.
The financial choices individuals make have a huge impact on their
lives. The financial literacy workshops and the Mad City Money
Simulation will help equip local youth with the education they
need to make sound financial choices, that will enrich their futures.
SOFCU’s first Mad City Money simulation
was held at Hidden Valley High School in Murphy on October 17,
where 26 students from three different high schools in the area
participated. The evening was great fun for all who came—pretend
vendors, students, teachers, and even some parents came to see.
Their comments were so positive that credit union staff is sure
they will be repeating this again and again over in the future.
When students run into a problem trying to figure
out their financial dilemmas, they can always “go to their
credit union” for help. SOFCU Staff prepares for the onslaught
of questions to come.
These four students are talking over their new
“pretend” life in the future and what they hope to
achieve by the end of the evening playing Mad City Money …
it was a great time for all.
CUAO November, 2007
SOFCU Community Credit Union has offered more
than a dozen free home buyer workshops in the communities within
their Circle of Service—10 offices in seven counties. These
home buyer workshops can be a life-changing experience for those
who want to own a home, but don’t have the resources to
help them structure their financial means to meet that end.
Now that their program has been up and running for some time,
Maggie Burrows, real estate loan coordinator and one of SOFCU’s
foreclosure counselors, shares some of her observations and success
stories. Workshops offered through the HUD program are open to
all members of the community. Since credit union membership is
not a requirement, participants are referred to as clients in
this program.
Burrows explained that while SOFCU gets a lot of questions about
foreclosure counseling, half of the battle is getting the client
to follow through with the appointment, before it is too late.
For other clients, help with budgeting and credit issues seems
to point them toward success. SOFCU’s counselors help clients
make goals for the future, like a home purchase, by working with
them on a spending and savings plan.
Burrows shared a classic example of how foreclosure counseling
can help clients meet their goals. “I had a client couple
who were in a horrible mortgage with a now defunct mortgage company.
This was quite a learning experience for all of us, since this
was definitely a predatory loan. The clients were considering
being a part of a class action lawsuit being filed, but found
that they would only get a couple of thousand dollars and would
still be in the bad loans that they were in. I tried several times
to do some workouts with the failed mortgage company’s “loan
retention specialists,” but would always get different answers
and different “specialists.” It came down to the fact
that this company wouldn’t do any kind of modification or
forbearance. They said that my clients didn’t qualify for
it. Another avenue I referred was to an attorney who specializes
in predatory lending cases. Unfortunately, the initial consultation
would
cont. from page 2have cost money and time that they didn’t
have. My clients were about to go for the last resort—bankruptcy—when
a family member passed away. This was a bittersweet occurrence,
since they inherited enough money to bring their home out of foreclosure
(but not to pay off the predatory loans). Yet the failed mortgage
company was not willing to waive any late charges (which were
several thousand dollars). So, the clients are going to have to
bite the bullet, pay the mortgage down as much as possible, and
refinance as soon as their credit scores raise them out of the
subprime pricing.”
Another client had already done a partial claim with their lender.
It became clear that the couple needed to get onto the same page
with their budget. They were not communicating with each other
on spending, nor on how to honor agreements they were making with
their creditors. SOFCU counselors worked up a spending plan and
worked with the lender on a repayment plan to get them caught
up. They also worked with the couple’s other creditors on
reducing interest rates on some credit cards so they could get
caught up. The clients expect to be out of default in the next
60 days.
As these examples attest, the foreclosure counseling provided
by these credit unions have made a significant impact to their
members and HUD clients. Although the end result is not always
clear cut, the fact remains that credit unions are clearly emerging
as consumer advocates in the midst of troubled times.
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