MSU Extension 4-H Adulting 101

So welcome everyone to the Adulting 101, Keeping Your Money Safe. I'm going to turn it over to Laurie. She's going to get us started. Yeah, welcome everyone to Adulting 101, Keeping Your Money Safe. My name is Laurie Rivetto. We're so excited to have you here learning about this important topic and taking the step in your financial future. I am an extension educator with 4-H at Michigan State University Extension. I am based in Wayne County, which is just the county that's got Detroit in it. I'm excited to be working with you today on this topic of keeping your money safe. I'm going to let Kathy introduce herself. Hello, everyone. You've seen me before. If you've attended these. Kathy Jamieson, I work with Laurie. I teach financial education, career development, and entrepreneurship. And I'm from Macomb County, Michigan, which is about 20 miles north of Detroit. Super happy that you're here and you decided to join us today and then I'll turn it over to Alan. Hi everyone, I'm really excited to be here. Kathy asked me if I could come be a technical person behind the scenes. I'm an Educational Media Coordinator for our Children Youth Institute, and I work with Kathy and Laurie. I'm based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is over on the west side, about 45 miles from that really big lake, Lake Michigan. Thanks again for joining us. We do have a closed caption option if you would like to turn that on. We also have an ASL interpreter Catzian, who's here tonight so you can pin the ASL interpreter onto your screen if that's helpful as well. We are going to get started. We are going to be turning off our chat that we welcome everybody for using that and sharing. Sharing where you're joining us from. We're going to be using Q & A for our question and answer portion, and we'll get to those as best we can, along with the content we have for today. First of all, I just want to note that MSU Extension believes fully in the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. We know that human differences enrich our lives, work and community, we embrace our responsibility to be a resource for all. We're committed to providing programs to all segments of our community. It's also important to understand the longstanding history and legacy of colonialism that's brought us to reside on this land and seek to understand our place within that history and the land acknowledgment that's also on the screen is one step in that process. Later on, we'll be taking a pause and asking for some of your demographic information just to make sure that we are meeting the diverse needs of our community. As noted, we are going to be putting questions in the Q & A. This session is recorded. It's being recorded now. It will be available for review for a couple of months afterwards. We also ask that you have a paper and pen because it will be needed for some reflective activities later on, consider grabbing a pen or pencil, scrap paper nearby so you can do some reflection. As part of today, our plan for today is we're going to talk about keeping your money safe. We're going to talk about financial institutions. We're going to research the research and evaluation that you would do, the major types of financial institutions, opening and maintaining an account and the services that are at financial institutions, the different staff you might encounter. And then we're going to end with some information on person to person apps and how to keep those safe. And a lot of this information came from the Next Gen personal Finance website. There are a ton of resources on Next Gen. If you do a search for Next Gen Personal Finance, you can find games and activities that can help you in your financial learning. We're going to start off with a little quiz. Our quiz question is related to the percent of 13 to 17 year olds that have a bank account. Are you launching that Kathy or am I? Oh, yes, I can launch it. I can do it. I got it. What percent of 13 to 17 year olds have a bank account? 17% 28% 49% or 65% I see we're answering that we've got 74% of you've responded thus far. I'll give it a couple more seconds. All right, It looks like majority of you we're thinking that it's 28% of 13 to 17 year olds. But the correct answer is actually 49% which is pretty awesome. 49% of young people have a bank account. But there's a lot of reasons where young people might not have a bank account. And we're going to talk about some of the benefits to having an account at a financial institution. Hopefully, if you're part of that 51% that don't then maybe you'll consider opening up an account. So, should you have an account in a financial institution? There are a bunch of reasons why it's beneficial. Safety and security, convenience, the opportunity to save money. There's budgeting tools that come along with it, and of course it's beneficial for your financial future. Let's talk about what some of those mean. Safety and security. This is a big one. When you think about keeping your money safe, right? You want your money to be saved from theft, from loss, from fire. Think about it. Even when you keep your money in a safe place. I say that in quotes, at your house, for instance, it can still have several risks, Things like robberies, fires, natural disasters. But when you put your money into a federally insured institution, they are subject to the protections of the FDIC's standard deposit insurance that covers $250,000 per person, per bank, for each account ownership. Since the creation of the FDIC or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, consumers have enjoyed the security offered by FDIC insurance and the knowledge that their deposits are safe. Up to the FDIC coverage limit, the 250,000. So that means that the FDIC will return money to customers. If a bank closes and cannot give its customers the money, you have the safety and security right there. Let's talk about convenience. Convenience is about getting your money quickly and easily. You can use direct deposit for instance. Direct deposit allows you to have quicker access to your money because funds are electronically deposited faster than if you have a check. Basically, they're going to move it directly into your account and you don't have to go deposit that money, it's a direct deposit. You can also use automated teller machines or ATMs to get fast access to your money. Most ATM's are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can use a bank ATM or debit card to make purchases instead of cash. Cashing your paycheck doesn't have to be a complex process, which it can be if you don't have an account at a financial institution. Many banks only cash checks for non customers. When the check is issued by that specific bank, you have to go to a specific branch or you have a cashing fee if you're not a customer. There are check cashing services, but now you're also going to have to pay a fee or a percentage fee. And those fees can quickly add up over time. By opening your account, you can avoid those costs and you can set up that direct deposit. Your money just goes in there right away, saving you both time and money. If you have that debit card, you have the convenience of protection in case your card is lost or stolen. It's safer than carrying around a lot of cash, and it's convenient to pay with a debit card. And many of the check cards are within the Mastercard or Visa network, which allows you to use it similar to a credit card. Let's talk about saving money. How do you save money when you have your money in a financial institution, it's usually cheaper, again, because you don't have to cash your check and pay the fees that would go along with cashing a check or trying to obtain money through a financial institution when you're not a holding member there. So bills are a part of life, right? We know that. But this way you don't have to get a money order or physically deliver cash, which can be a chore when you have to pay a bill. You can have a checking account which you can use to write checks. Or you can set up automated bill pay where all of your bills will be paid on time every month without fault. Some banks even allow you to set up auto pay through their online dashboard or through their website. It's pretty convenient way for you to save money and make sure your bills are paid on time. Budgeting tools, you get to see your withdrawals and purchases that are automatically tracked on your accounts. You can get a report of your spending accounts via a monthly statement. It's an excellent way to see where your money goes every month. From there, you can fine tune your budgeting habits. You can even see it sometimes on a desktop or mobile device. You can keep track of your purchase history. And it's a great way to start saving money and making a plan for your financial future. So switching over to financial (institute), you're having that great relationship with a bank or credit union, having a record of paying your bills, saving money, and maybe even get help in the future because you have this relationship, if you need a loan. Great reasons to have an account at a financial institution. What are these financial institutions of which I speak? There are two major types, banks and credit unions. Banks are for profit, they are institutions. They're both insured, insured depository financial institutions. But banks are for profit, for profit institutions. You're able to make loans, pay checks, accept deposits, and they provide other financial services that will go over a little later on. Then the other type is a credit union. Credit unions are nonprofit financial institutions that are owned by people who have something in common. You become a member of the credit union to keep your money there. But credit unions do the same thing. They offer, they make loans, they have checks available, they accept deposits, and they provide financial services as well. Both types of these financial institutions operate under federal and state laws and regulations. I already mentioned about the FDIC that insure the money that's in insured banks and the deposits up to at least $250,000. For credit unions. Most credit unions are insured by the National Credit Union Administration or NCUA. The deposit insurance rules are the same. NCUA insured credit unions as they are FDIC insured banks. Which means, again, your finances are insured up to that $250,000 per person per account. We are going to put your knowledge to test about the difference between banks and credit unions. We are going to do a little quiz here. You got it? All right. There's three questions. You're going to decide whether it's a bank or a credit union. The first question is you must become a member to join. Is that a bank or credit union? The second one is profits are given to shareholders. bank or credit union? The last one is fees tend to be higher. Bank or credit union? and I'll give you a little time to try that out. So we're at 50% (no sound) I always like to try to get to 75. We're almost, we're at 71% A couple more, Okay. If you want to answer, answer now, we're going to end the poll then I'm going to share the results. All right, so our first one you must become a member to join is a credit union. Good job to the 84% of you who got that one right. It is, you become a member. Oftentimes, there are groupings of people. Maybe they have a theme about education or maybe it's a certain profession. But you become a member of the credit union. The second one is profits are given to shareholders. This one was split between banks and credit unions, but the answer is banks because they are for profit organizations. Therefore, there are shareholders that receive some of the success of that bank and receive some of those profits. Then the last one is fees tend to be higher. 75% of you said bank and that is the correct answer. Again, going with some of that profit concept, with a bank versus a credit union, the fees can be a little bit higher because they are working as a for profit organization as opposed to a not for profit organization. Great job. Some of those are pretty tricky and you did great. Oops. All right. Okay, we're going to start off with a little journal writing. When we first started, those that have a pen and pencil and paper ready, we want you to answer this question. What is important to you in a financial institution? So take a moment to think about that. What do you want to look for in your bank or credit union? So hopefully you're writing a few things down. I know I have some thoughts on that. Laurie, if you want to go to the next slide, okay, choosing a financial institution. Think about a financial institution as you want characteristics that are maybe similar to a close friend or even a partner. Some of the things that you might look for as somebody who's friendly when you go to the bank or the credit union, that they're nice to you, they welcome you, feel welcome. They also respond when you have questions. If you make a phone call to them, they answer that. They're giving you the information that you need. They're trustworthy. I know for sure that I need something that's close by because it's got to be convenient. They're tech savvy. If you like to use technology, you want to make sure that your financial institution is also tech savvy and has those options for you. Somebody who makes you feel comfortable and safe, that is an accomplished financial institution. Those are a couple of things we're going to watch a little video and it's going to get into more detail about how to choose a financial institution. Choosing a bank. Ask five questions when considering a bank with a focus on fees, convenience, rewards. Ok, you're in college now, which means you've likely made some lifestyle changes recently. Banks know this and are going to work hard to get your business. But before you make a commitment to a new bank, ask yourself the following five questions. 1. What are they offering me for free? You want free checking, free ATM usage at that bank, free online banking, free check writing, free bill pay, no monthly maintenance fee, and no or a very low minimum balance. Simply stated, you want a bank that isn't going to charge you many fees. Be careful not to join a bank because they're offering some rewards if it comes with added fees. 2. How convenient is my banking experience with online bill pay? You'll eliminate the hassle of writing checks and the expense of stamps. With ATM's close to where you work, live and study. You'll avoid fees for using other banks ATM's. But make sure there aren't any monthly restrictions on how often you use your ATM. Finally, see if your bank offers an app to help you manage your account, mobile check deposits, or other helpful services that can improve the convenience of banking with them. 3. Does the account change when I leave school? Banks may persuade you with good introductory accounts that automatically convert to a fee based account. Once you leave school, check with your bank upfront or be prepared to switch banks again once you graduate. Switching banks can be difficult once you've built a relationship. 4. Is overdraft protection free? Hailed as a way to prevent you from ever bouncing a check. Overdraft protection often comes with fees. If it's free, it's a nice protection that transfers money from your savings account or credit card when you have an overdraft. However, if there is a fee involved, it's better to manage your money wisely. Avoid overdrafts and avoid this service. 5. What else can the bank offer me? When you open a checking account, you're just at the tip of the iceberg for all the services your bank can provide. If you're looking to build a long term banking relationship and you might want to see if your bank has competitive rates for an auto or home loan. Check to see if you receive a higher interest rate. If you tie direct deposit to your account. Research online banks and local credit unions for the best available interest rates and services. When answering all of these questions, you should remember that you want low fees, convenience and helpful services. Take the time to find a bank that works with you and you'll get the most bang for your banking buck. Okay. So there was five questions identified. So you want to look at: What are they offering me for free? Free is huge. And then they also mentioned convenience. Is it close to you? Are you able to use the mobile banking? Does the account change if you leave school? And they made reference to, and we're going to talk about that and then about overdraft protection. Is that free? Because that could be a huge savings for you. And then also, what else are they offering? Banks and financial institutions and credit unions, they have a lot of services. So look to see what services they offer and at what interest rates do they provide. Those are just a couple of things to think about using a bank. You can see on this slide here, this was a survey by Forbes. And the number one thing that people were looking for in a financial institution, in shopping for a checking account, was no fees. That's huge. And then the branch access, are they available, when are they available? And then their ATM network. Those are the top three. Of course, some of the banks in financial institutions also offer rewards and cash back. That's another thing to think about, as well as their interest rates. Opening an account, how do you open an account? So now that you've chosen where you want to put your money, now you need to open up that account. Federal law governs the information needed by a bank to open that account. The things that they're going to be asking you for is of course your name, your address. They're going to want to know your date of birth and they're going to need to know your Social Security number or other tax ID, as well as a government issued photo ID. This is governed by federal law what they can be required to ask for. A bank may request additional information when opening accounts, such as your previous addresses. If you've recently moved, the bank will request information on addresses for previous years. They will also ask about your Social Security number. If more than one person's name will be on the account, the bank will ask for the Social Security number of all the people listed on the account. Another thing that they might ask is if you're working and then who your employer is, people not working need to identify a source of income. How are they adding to their accounts? Those are a couple of things that they may require. Now, let's talk a little bit about checking accounts. For checking accounts, that's you, Laurie. Sorry. checking accounts are one of the accounts that you might get to open at a bank or credit union and this is where you're going to be able to have money come in and out. You have the convenience with a checking account to write checks. You can make purchases with a debit card that's connected to your account. We mentioned the debit card earlier. That account will pull money from your checking account. When you make purchases, you're able to use your checking account to make withdrawals and deposits at either the branch or at an ATM. With the checking account, you can use online bill payment. You can set up those automatic payments that I mentioned earlier. You can also transfer funds to and from other bank accounts. You can put money if you have money in a savings account, you can transfer into your checking account to help pay for a bill. Some things you're going to need to consider when you're thinking about your checking account is your identification on any checks, a person may list their full name or initials on printed checks, you just want to be careful about the information that you put on a check because you don't want to have it be a situation where you can be an identity theft victim. Oftentimes, you're going to have to have a signature card showing how the checks or check card receipts will be signed. It should have your current address on it, but it should never have your Social Security number or your driver's license number on your check. Another question or another thing you have to think about is whether it's an individual or a joint account. With an individual account, only the person listed on the account can write checks or withdraw money with a joint account, more than one person will be listed on the account and anybody who's listed on that account can write checks or withdraw money. That's a really important decision in terms of the relationship and the trust that you have to have someone be on a joint account with you. Then you need to think about the type of account that you're going to open. And some of you were asking this question in the chat. There's going to be different kinds of checking accounts available. You could have just a checking account where that's the only service that you're using. Is that in and out having the ATM, the debit card, the writing checks. Or you could have a or a savings account, both of them. Or maybe even a checking account that has a little bit of interest that it can provide on the account balance. ATM's, checks or debit cards can be offered with a checking account without writing a paper check or withdrawing cash from the account. Then of course, there's internet banking services that you can consider as well and what ones you want to take advantage of. And then the last one, or the last thing to consider is the type of printed check. If you're getting printed checks that you want to have, people who want to write paper checks need to have, they need to order printed checks. It's something that you purchase is printed checks. Plain checks cost less than duplicate checks. A duplicate check is going to have a piece of paper underneath that will record the transaction of what that check was. Duplicate checks then provide an automatic record of that written check. This can be really helpful if canceled checks are not returned for keeping track of what checks you wrote. But again, those duplicate checks are going to cost more money when you purchase them. And the checks will be ordered either through your bank or they'll have a check printing business that you will utilize. (no sound) Oh, that's still me, sorry. Other things to know about checking accounts. This was mentioned in the video. But there can be fees in an account to have a certain amount in the account or a certain number of transactions. Someone asked in the Q & A about a certain amount for an account, you need to check into that with the accounts that you're looking at at a bank or credit union. Sometimes they have a certain amount that you need to have as an overall balance in that financial institution. Sometimes they have a certain amount that needs to be in a particular account. You need to be aware of what the expectations are and not go below that particular amount. However, fees may be waived for those if you have a certain amount, if you have a certain account, and for certain terms and conditions, but you have to know what those terms and conditions are. The video mentioned a student account. There may be no fees associated with a student account. However, when you graduate, it turns into a regular account and now the fees apply. If you don't have a certain balance in the account, you need to know these things throughout the time of your account. Let's talk about NSF and Overdraft fees. They mentioned overdraft in the video. Overdraft is when you try to spend money from your account that you don't have. The bank covers that transaction in an overdraft, but a fee is assessed. In this case, you have to pay back the fee and the money that you didn't have in the account to start off with, basically that the bank or credit union loaned you to make that purchase. NSF is non sufficient funds. That's when you tried to purchase something and don't have the money in the account and now the bank or credit union denies that transaction. That would overdraw the account that leads in a bounced check or a declined electronic payment and again another fee. What happens with this is that if you don't deposit money into your overdrawn account to eliminate the negative balance in those associated fees, your account can end up being turned over to a debt collection agency. At that point, it can end up getting on your credit report, it will mess up your credit score. It could lead to other issues, even having your account closed. Repeated overdraft or repeated NSF means that your account could end up being closed by a bank or a credit union. State laws will guide the policy for whether the account will be closed or not. You need to know what your state laws are. We have people from across the United States on this. You need to know what the laws are in your state. But it can also affect the opening of a new account. It could be up to five years that you are unable to open a new account. Unpaid overdraft can be prosecuted by the law as well. It's really important to think about that. There are some things that you can do to protect yourself with this, the main one being. Keep an eye on your account keep close tabs on your account balance so that you're not having any transactions that you're not able to cover. You can also sign up to receive low balance alerts from your bank so that if your balance is getting low or getting close to where you either would overdraw or have NSF or you would meet that threshold where you might get a fee for your account. You would be notified so you know that you need to put more money into that account. The video mentioned overdraft protection. That's a service that will automatically transfer money from a savings account. When you're getting low on funds and you try to make that transaction, it will transfer the amount over to cover that transaction amount. However, there are often fees that go along with it. You have to keep that in mind that now you're paying a fee to have that overdraft protection. You can opt out of overdrafts as well. Basically just setting a standard, opting out of overdrafts with your bank or credit union so that they will not allow any overdraft to take place. They will deny those transactions that will put your account into a negative balance. There are some banks that don't have the fees, no overdraft fees or NSF fees. But remember, just because there's no fee, it doesn't mean you wouldn't have to pay back that money and still be responsible for that overdraft. Again, keeping a really close eye on your account is your responsibility and the best way to protect yourself from having any issues with overdrafts. Next we're going to talk about savings account. So Laurie just went over checking accounts. Savings accounts are an interest bearing deposit account held at a bank or credit union or other financial institution. Think about savings accounts. They're used for short to long term savings. While a checking account is used for your day to day spending. You can have a savings account at a bank, a credit union or one that is entirely online. The online savings account typically offers a higher interest rate that is managed entirely online with no physical bank branch. So there's a couple of different kinds of savings accounts. First of all, you have your traditional savings account. And that could be a savings account at a bank, or a credit union, or an online savings account. But there's also a money market account. People don't necessarily think of that as a savings account, but a money market account, it's a type of savings account. The cool thing about that is it allows debit cards and check writing privileges. And you typically have a higher interest rate than a traditional savings account, then you have a certificate of deposit. Now this is a savings product that earns interest on a lump sum deposit that's untouched for a predetermined period of time. You put some money in and you tell the financial institution you're not going to touch that. It could be three months, it could be six months, it could be nine months, it could be five years. It depends on the terms of the deposit. If you do touch it, then there's going to be a fee. And then there's specialty savings accounts. Now these are accounts that are pegged to a certain goal, such as maybe you're saving for a down payment of a house, or you're going to school and you need to save for tuition, or you're thinking long term, retirement. Some examples of those, you might have heard of a 529 savings account that's specifically for college and tuition. There's also a health savings account that's for your health bills. That's often something that you would get at your place of employment or your IRA's. Those are your retirement savings accounts. Things to think about on a savings account is the fees, we talked about at that in the video. Are there transaction fees? Often banks will set a limit on how many withdrawals you can make. At one point there was a limit of six. The Federal Reserve set that, but they did change that. Banks still might have that six withdrawal limit. You have to check and look at that fine print. But there might be a maintenance fee. Just a fee for having an account. Laurie mentioned ATM fees. If you use an ATM that's not at your bank or financial institution, or your credit union, there might be an additional fee. So think about fees. Some of these certificate of deposits or money managements or IRAs, they might have fees. What are the fees associated with that account? What is the minimum balance you have to have to open this account and to keep in order to not have fees. Some banks if you go below a certain amount, they might charge you a fee. Money markets often will require you to have a certain amount before they'll even consider having you open up a money market account. Also, think about your interest income, how much interest is going to be accruing on these accounts. Traditional savings account is probably one of the lowest, your money market and your CD's, you'll get a little bit more. IRA's are a little bit different because they might be tied to other investments, such as mutual funds and stocks and so forth. There might be some risk associated with that, even some loss. Also, you want to think about the liquidity of these accounts. How accessible is this money? With a traditional account, it's very liquid. You can access it pretty much any time, 24/7, especially if there's mobile banking options. Now a money market, it's still pretty liquid, but they might limit the amount of transactions you can do. It might not be as liquid as a traditional account, whereas a CD, a certificate of deposit, you're going to be penalized if you take the money out before it matures. It's not super liquid because it's tied to the bank and you can access it with fees. That's the time period. Also, how long do you have to keep it in there in order to accumulate this amount of money or this interest? Those are a couple of things to think about when it comes to savings accounts. Now we have a video because with all of these accounts will come statements. And it's very important for you to know what's in your accounts. We're going to watch this and they're going to give you some tips on reading your statements. Your monthly bank statements provide a range of information about your account, whether you receive your statement by mail or as an E statement. It's important to review your statement each month to confirm you and your bank are aligned on the transactions that took place during the past 30 days and to make sure there are no errors or questionable charges on your account. Looking at your bank statement, you'll notice the statement period in the upper right hand corner. Below that are phone numbers for customer service and other online resources. Note your balance at the beginning of that month. A number and amount of credits and debits, your ending monthly balance, and any service fees. A detailed list of every transaction involving your account will be listed on the following pages. Review the date, vendor, location, and amount to make sure there's nothing out of the ordinary. If you see a mistake anywhere on your bank statement, contact your bank immediately so they can look into it. Your bank also will post any notices or changes to terms and conditions on your monthly statement to make sure your statements are as accurate as possible. Track your account activity when you make a purchase or deposit money into your account. Then compare your list with your monthly statement. Be sure to keep all of your transaction receipts, ATM, debits, and deposits until you have reconciled your account with your monthly statement. Your bank statements are a convenient way to ensure your account is in order, so be sure to review them thoroughly. Bottom line, it's really important for you to review your statements and do it at least monthly, to make sure there's no errors or questionable charges. And keep your receipts and reconcile. Make sure that your transactions are what you actually spent money on. If there is a mistake, make sure to contact your financial institution immediately to get it resolved. We are going to take a quick pause here. We'd love for you to tell us about you. We mentioned earlier that we want to make sure our programs are open to all and reaching a diverse demographic. We appreciate you taking a couple minutes to complete the demographic survey from either the QR code on the screen or I put the links in the chat. There is one for adults and there is one for youth. You can complete this if you're watching this on the recording or if you're watching it live with us right now. We appreciate answering the questions as best you can for all that you're comfortable responding to, and I will just give you a minute to complete that. ( no sound) Thank you for doing that. So now that we have talked about these financial institutions, let's talk a little bit about the people that you are going to encounter when you go to a bank or credit union. So who is who? You're going to meet a teller. You'll possibly interact with a customer service representative, a loan officer, and branch manager. Let's find out who these individuals are. A teller, when you walk into a bank or credit union, odds are the first person you're going to meet is the teller. Tellers provide the direct service to customers. They accept deposits. They cash checks. They exchange currency. They will receive check orders from customers. They will provide travelers checks. A teller needs to have excellent accuracy in handling money. They are required to tally their cash stores at the beginning and end of the work day. They're typically the person you're going to encounter at the front counters when you walk in. However, if you are interested in opening a new account, modifying an account, starting up other products or services at that bank or credit union like the certificate of deposit or money market that Kathy Jamieson just mentioned. You're going to end up talking to a customer service representative. What often happens is you will come in and take a seat or notify a teller that you're interested in having that additional support, opening a new account, modifying your account, or getting help with an account. And they will direct you to where to wait or get called on by a customer service representative. They'll answer questions about the bank's products and services. They'll help you with any of your needs for completing paperwork. They'll also answer phone calls or assist callers and connect them with the proper department. They're handling some of those new accounts in those accounts start up and account support. A loan officer is someone who's going to help complete a loan application. They're going to answer questions about the different types of loans that the bank offers or the credit union offers. They're going to explain any of the contract provisions. Some of you are asking about purchasing a home and getting a mortgage for a car or a home. This is the individual that you would end up talking to. The loan officer is going to verify any of the information in your application. They're going to see if you'd be able to satisfy the loan terms. In some places, in some financial institutions, they make the final decision on loan approval or denial. In other places, maybe they only make a recommendation and a higher level executive then makes the final decision. But they are there to help you through the process of creating that loan application. Then the last individual that you might encounter or experience is the financial or branch manager. I'm having a hard time with the word branch today. In the financial business world, financial managers examine finance reports and prepare statements for upper management and the owners. They often work in supervisory roles. They manage the employees, the bookkeeping, the accounting clerks. They work closely with upper management, advising on ways to reduce costs and increase profits, particularly in banks. But again, they're building relationships in the community as banks, credit unions, and sharing the services with others. Let's talk about some of the other services that might take place at financial institutions. Both Kathy and I mentioned that it's really important to consider what other services are available and what ones are important to you in choosing a financial institution. Other services might include direct deposit, which we mentioned earlier, referring to the positive funds electronically into a bank account rather than through a physical paper check. They might offer money orders. They might do telephone banking, online banking, have those ATM's, They might have money transfers, which is called ACH, or Automated Clearing House, which is bank to bank electronic transfers. They might have debit card or stored value cards, where you put a certain amount of money on a card and loans. All of these things might not be at every financial institution. Some of them might have fees for some of the services. So it's really important to know what services are available, what ones you might have interest in in the future, and if there are fees, keeping track of what those fees are for which particular services? Oh, I'm sorry. Mine Mobile banking. A little bit about mobile banking. There's a lot of benefits to mobile banking. Number one, it allows you to have 24/7 access to your funds. It makes it very convenient way of paying your bills, your taxes, and dealing with loans. The convenience is huge. One of the disadvantages of mobile banking is there are some potential security risks. It could be hacked, potential of identity theft. There might be some tech issues. Also, in some cases, there might be extra charges for those mobile banking services. So they might charge you fees for it. So those are some of the risks you have to weigh, the pros and the cons. So question for you. Do consumers spend more money on Venmo or spend sorry- Do consumers send more money on Venmo or spend more money on Amazon? What are your thoughts? (waiting) So we're at about 60% okay. We're almost at my goal of 75 looking for a few more. What do you think to consumers? Send more money on Venmo or spend more money on Amazon. Okay, so I am going to end the poll and share the results, The actual answer. And you might be surprised it's actually Venmo. I was surprised, Believe it or not, those that had 90% of you got it right. So you could see from the statistic here on the screen, this was in 2022. 304,000 every minute was sent on Venmo versus 283(thousand) spent on Amazon. What it is today, I don't know if it's changed, but this was 2022 stat. I thought it was pretty interesting. A lot of money is being sent on Venmo. Of course. A lot of spent spent on Amazon as well. Let's talk a little bit about I have a question for you. What percent of Gen Z are the 14 to 21 year olds have a payment app on their phone? What do you think? We can just let's see that. It isn't a poll. Yeah, it's just Yeah, just if you want to maybe make a note of it, because I'm going to tell you in a second here, it's actually more than 80% The curious thing is if you look at the stats on how many of the Gen Z's a bank account, it's a much lower number. I think it's like 20% We're going to do some reflection. What are the key factors to consider when selecting a payment app? We talked about some key factors in selecting a financial institution. What are the key factors in selecting a payment app? This is your moment to write in your little journal and take a note on what's important. I would imagine it's very similar to financial institutions, making it safe, and convenient. But we do have another poll for you Because there's such a high usage of payment apps. Do you think payment apps at one point can replace actual checking accounts? Because they serve a lot of the same purposes, but they're a little bit different. The options are absolutely, it's already happening. That would be A, B as I'm not sure, and C no way. We will always need checking accounts. What are your thoughts here? Okay, for time purposes, I'm going to end the poll and share the results. This was 44% The majority of you indicate that it's already happening. There was a nice chunk. At least a third of you said, I'm not sure. And then 24% said, no, absolutely not, We're going to need checking accounts for sure. Always. So interesting. I always like to get a pulse on what people are thinking. It'll be interesting to see where the world takes us, right? Because absolutely peer to peer payment systems or person to person payments, P2P, money transfer apps, things like Venmo, Paypal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash app, these might be names you're familiar with, allow users to send one another money from their mobile devices through a linked bank account or a credit card. And it can make splitting bills between friends and family pretty painless. But there are some things you need to consider in terms of safety and security. You do have to pay attention to fees for speedy processing or to certain accounts. Transaction notifications are often sent right away, but the money itself may take one to three or even more business days to arrive in your linked account if you choose to transfer it out of the app. Some providers are faster. Some also offer that instant transfer for a fee. However, there are some considerations you need to have about how you can lose money through a peer to peer or person to person app. We mentioned those fees. Some charge those transactions fees 2 or 3% if it's drawn from a credit or debit card for example, or for other payment methods. You can lose money if you miss type a recipient's E mail address, their phone number, or their name and the money could go to the wrong person. I know sometimes it has options to then make sure confirm you're sending it to the right person by having parts of the phone number and the name or the e mail. But again, you could risk sending money to the wrong person. The platform can be hacked. We know that these things happen with any online platform. There can be issues of fraud and security risks within the platform. Someone can figure out your password or gain access to your phone and then have access to all of that money, your account, your card, if it's linked, and any of the money that's in that platform. Refunds are hard and possibly nonexistent. Unlike the banks or credit unions with the protection from for up to $250,000 you will not have that option through a peer to peer app. Refunds can be really hard. So if you did send the money to the wrong person or the wrong amounts, you probably won't be able to get that back. Those linked accounts, as I already mentioned, between a bank account and your peer to peer app means possible access to your bank accounts. You can send money to someone who isn't who they say they are or don't provide the goods or services. There's a risk if you send money before you receive the good or service and there's no way to reclaim that funds without going through a lengthier process of potentially civil court or something along those lines, or criminal court, depending on what it is, safety practices for person to person apps, things to consider. Add a PIN to your account that you have some login number that you have to use. You can add a PIN or two, make sure you're securing your phone as well. Because again, if it's easy access when you open it on your phone or a tablet, then anybody who has access to your phone can access it as well, have a password or ID or something on your phone. It creates a second barrier for getting access to your peer to peer app. Include notification for transactions so that you get notified if transactions start occurring. So you can make sure you're monitoring that those transactions are ones that you have approved, pay and receive funds with. People you know don't use it to pay people that you've not had experiences with, have not connected with, and have no previous history for trust. Set your account to private. This way everyone isn't seeing the types of transactions you're engaging in or the people that you're exchanging funds with. This way, it keeps it safer for no one to tap into what you're trying to purchase and avoid carrying a balance. I hear about a lot of people who have large amounts of money in their peer to peer apps, but again, this is not a safe place to store it, transfer that over into your credit union or your bank where it will be safe and it is insured. As opposed to keeping it in an app that can be hacked and there will be no way to retrieve that money. Again, a few things to consider. Okay, We're nearing the end of our presentation, but for those that are in Michigan, we have a bonus for you. We have a contest. And this webinar helped prepare you to do well in It youth ages 13.19 As of January 1, you have a chance to win $50 by signing up for our Show Your Money Smarts contest. Laurie just put a link in there and we will send this out in a follow up e mail. Basically, it's 30 questions on keeping your money safe. Things that we just talked about. Those that have high school scores will have a chance to win 50$ I encourage you if you're in Michigan to register. You have till April 29 to register and take the quiz. Then we have a short survey here. I think it's like two to three questions. We would love to have you share what you learned today. You can access it through the QR code and then also, Laurie just put the link in the chat. We did try to answer a lot of the questions online in the Q & A. If you did put a question in there, we did answer most of them. There was a couple of them that were on investing. This class really isn't an investment class. It was really about financial institutions in general. We do have investing classes and I will share that information in a follow up e mail for you to learn more. I just want to invite you to join us for our next Adulting 101. That class will be on April 10 at 06:00 Eastern Time. And it will be on cover letters and resumes. If you have one, bring it and we'll give you tips on how to update it. If you don't have one, bring paper and pencil and take lots of notes so you can get one started. Thank you all for joining us today. We hope you have a great evening. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye everyone.