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GCFLASH
Hot Off the Press!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - Edition #458
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Weekly Spotlight
Traveling abroad? Due to a series of fraudulent VISA Card transactions originating outside the United States, GCF is restricting the use of our ATM/Debit card outside of the country. You can rest assured that GCF Bank is doing all we can do to protect you, our valued customer. Visit this page for details on what you need to know before you travel in order to use your card while you're away.
1st Flash:
ONLINE BILL PAY: QUICK AND EASY
One of the advantages of being in the 50+ generation is membership in AARP. Its benefits, discounts and consumer advice are priceless. So it was with great interest I tore into the July/August 2008 issue of AARP Magazine the moment I retrieved it from my mailbox. One cover teaser headline read "Online Banking Nightmares. Don't let this happen to you!" Now I'm intrigued. What could possibly create such a nightmare? A consumer had written in to a help column seeking resolve in an online bill payment gone awry. She had used Bank of America's online bill pay service to pay her monthly $82 cable bill. Instead, the bank transferred $8200 and wiped out her savings. The bank told her she had to get the money back herself from Time Warner. This scenario raised more questions than it answered. If it were a recurring bill, the bank would have sent the identical amount as in previous payments. If they didn't, it would have been the bank's fault and, therefore, their problem to resolve. If the writer had scheduled this as a one-time payment and input the wrong amount, oops!! Mistakes happen, but such an egregious error should have raised some red flags. In any event, the bank still should have resolved the error. The columnist used this opportunity to sound some alarms. His investigation did eventually recoup the writer's money quicker than the several weeks offered by her cable company. But it indicated that online banking is merely a convenience, without a paper trail you're out of luck in this type of situation. It went on to say they couldn't determine who ditched the decimal point, was it the writer's mistake or someone who processed the payment? First of all, the columnist didn't seem to understand electronic banking does leave a trail. The lack of a physical piece of paper doesn't mean the transaction can't be traced. And secondly, he responded as if the writer who banked online was someone different than the person who processed the payment. When you are paying your bills online, YOU ARE the person processing the payment. There is no middleman to input an entry after you have already done so. Fortunately for those of you reading this column, this type of problem would never occur with GCF Online Banker. You've chosen to trust our community bank with your banking needs. And we don't take that trust lightly. With it comes the responsibility of providing quality products and services to our customers. Standing behind you and resolving any problems that may occur ranks among them. GCF Bank uses Fiserv's CheckFree as a third-party bill pay vendor. CheckFree is the original online bill pay provider. When a model has been proven successful, why recreate it? They have the expertise and tools to bring the best product to the market. Any of you who have accounts with other institutions can attest to this fact, as well as I can. I live in Florida and have online bill pay access at my local banks in addition to my GCF account. I choose to use GCF Online Banker because it is the best, and they're not even paying me to say this. You can pay any bill through GCF Web Pay, not only established merchants. You can pay the boy next door who cuts your grass or the girl who walks your dog as well. When you schedule a payment through our Web Pay product, you'll see a dynamic calendar indicating the soonest date that payment can be received. Not when the payment will be processed, but the date it will be received. For certain vendors, it can be the same day you scheduled it provided you did so before 5:00 PM EST. Other vendors who accept electronic payments can receive their money by the following day. This holds true for 85 percent of the payments processed through GCF Web Pay. Merchants that aren't setup to accept electronic payments will receive a corporate check from CheckFree. The funds are still electronically debited from your account, but a corporate check is issued and sent to the vendor. Your lawn boy or dog walker will receive a draft for their services. It will be drawn on your account and posted when the draft is deposited. You can edit any scheduled payment right up to the time it's processed. So if you think there's a chance you forgot a decimal point, you still have time to rescind that $4500 scheduled payment and send $45 instead. CheckFree offers a guarantee that your bills will be paid as scheduled. Should the vendor not receive your payment, simply click on the "Bill History" link near the bottom of the right pane in your bill pay window. From there, you can find details of the payment. Any problem can be directed to their Customer Care group. They will intercede for you and conduct a thorough investigation on your behalf. Still not using GCF Web Pay? Why not? Quick, simple, guaranteed... it doesn't get better than that! 2nd Flash:
IS IT REALLY MADE IN THE USA?
Massive product recalls, the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs and the huge trade deficit are making Americans think twice about the origin of a product before we buy. Buying American made products assures our ability to create jobs and remain a world leader. While patriotism may be one driving force behind the desire to support U.S. manufacturers, foreign trade itself raises risks and issues affecting our global community that extend much further than our borders. Quality standards differ from country to country. One needs look no further back than last year to remember the mayhem this can create. Millions of toys were recalled due to high lead content. Parents everywhere went scrambling through the toy box to assure none of these toys could harm their child. Many foreign countries have a low minimum wage, or none whatsoever. Workers are akin to slave labor with no safety standards. So how can you tell if a product is made in the U.S.A.? It isn't always obvious by the label. With product components coming from all over the world, this can get tricky. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), any product marked "made in the U.S.A." must have "all or virtually all significant parts and processing of U.S. origin." Manufacturers can get creative with this designation, but must be able to back up their claim. Imports must be labeled with their country of origin. When it comes to fresh foods, only imported seafood and shellfish must be labeled. Produce sold in a package must bear its country of origin, but not if it's sold loose in bins. For U.S. made products, only seafood, cars, furs, certain clothing, textiles and woolen goods must be labeled. But you have to read that label carefully to assure where it was made. The origin is not quite a black and white issue, the gray area looms largest. Packages may use the terms "designed in" or "packaged in" to emphasize their U.S. connection. However, the item's conception may have taken place in Seattle but the components may have been built in Taiwan and assembled in China. A product can only be properly designated as being "assembled in the U.S." if the last substantial transformation took place in this country, in other words, the finished product was created here. The presence of an American symbol on a product does not mean it was made here. It may be the product of an American-based company, but made elsewhere. Don't be fooled by a name. Giorgio Foods of Temple, PA distributes Pennsylvania Dutchman mushrooms. Yet even though you'll find their headquarters in the heart of America's mushroom capital, the product is imported from China. Perhaps the hardest to quantify is the automobile. According to the National highway Traffic Safety Administration, a car must have at least 75 percent of its value added in the U.S., Canada or Mexico to be called an American car. This means parts and labor. So when a component is manufactured in one country but the part assembled in another, what is the country of origin? Such designation ceases to exist for all useful purposes. Foreign products can be brought to the marketplace much cheaper since they don't adhere to high industry standards. Yet even in this difficult economic time, one has to wonder if the price outweighs the risk. Financial News
Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke spoke yesterday, giving the financial market clear signals that the central bank is finished lowering interest rates. He said that they will "strongly resist" any surge in inflation expectations. He played down the increase in the unemployment rate in May, the biggest increase in 22 years, saying that the risk of a "substantial downturn" decreased in the past month. The concern with inflation is a result of oil costs doubling in the past year and manufacturers across the country raising prices. The market felt this was a change from the prior posturing by Bernanke. In fact, the knee-jerk reaction to his speech was 75 percent of the market is now betting that there will be an increase to the interest rates at the next Federal Reserve committee meeting on June 25th. Many economists were projecting a Fed adjustment in the second quarter of 2009. This will most likely occur sooner if inflation becomes an issue. The reserve rate is one of the weapons the Fed has to combat inflation. The trade deficit continues to worsen. The increase in oil prices continues to increase the amount of dollars leaving the country compared to dollars coming in. An increase in exports would be a boon to the U.S. economy by increasing domestic production. Bernanke had said in prior meetings that this will continue to be an area the Fed will be watching. The increase in the gas costs have certainly caused the consumer to be more aware of the volume of gas consumed. The hope continues that the government will put more funding behind the development of alternative fuel sources. Certainly, as the dollars become more significant, the commercial market has more incentive to invest in these alternative solutions as well. The consumer may also be finally ready to support some of these solutions. It may well take the economic impact to force the environmental benefits that this type of changes will make! Today's National Market Rates
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In This Issue... 1st Flash: ONLINE BILL PAY: QUICK AND EASY 2nd Flash: IS IT REALLY MADE IN THE USA? Today's Market Rates On the World Wide Web Tip of the Week Financial News Past issues of GCFlash: June 3, 2008 Edition #457 May 27, 2008 Edition #456 May 20, 2008 Edition #455 May 13, 2008 Edition #454 Looking for articles from a past issue of GCFlash not listed above? Find them in our Knowledge Base!
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