We look to East County Schools to provide a customized member experience. Technology is ever-changing and we need to know that our credit union is committed to keeping up with the times as newer, faster and more convenient technology is introduced. We rely on ECS to be a high-tech leader.   However, we want to keep the personal interaction, and the hometown feel that we love, including being able to bring branch services directly to our work locations, by appointment, at no cost.

We expect East County Schools will ensure that all of the important services are available on all mobile devices…and that the technology is user-friendly. An up-to-date and easy to navigate website and online banking are also extremely important to us.

Pertaining to High-Tech, we have recently released our updated website which includes several of the suggestions submitted by our member-owners like modern look and feel, more user-friendly, etc. We have also upgraded our online services to include opening and funding a new membership, as well as our online loan applications.  This followed our conversion to a more robust mobile banking app to include such features as “Card Controls” that allow you to suspend authorizations on your debit card if you have temporarily misplaced it, or if you are traveling and elect to only “activate” your card just before using it, and then immediately suspend it again.  Just a few clicks on your ECS app and you can suspend or re-activate your card. We are also working to make sure that virtually all services are available on our remote delivery channels.

In terms of High-Touch, we are continuing our commitment to our free CU2U (Credit-Union-2-YOU) service whereby you can schedule an appointment at your office, at a time that is convenient for you, and we will bring our non-cash lobby services to you. There is never a fee or a maximum number of uses for this service and it is available to all of our member-owners. We will even bring loan documents to sign when we deliver your new or used car to you, at your office.

An important element in our personalized service is that our own staff answers all incoming calls.  We do not contract this important service to a call center or firm that is headquartered in a different country.

Finally, we are expanding our ATM deployments (we currently have 8 ATM’s– 6 that are located in district facilities) to our service areas where our member-owners are considered underserved.

Ensure that your products and services continue to offer the best value possible. We have so many options available to us when it comes to financial services and we need to know that we’re making the best financial decision by choosing East County Schools for our savings and checking accounts, auto loans, credit cards, home purchases and refinancing, and other financial needs.

For the past 10 years East County Schools has offered a 4.00%^APY eChecking Account that includes debit card activity, monthly Direct Deposit & eStatements.  This account features no monthly fees regardless of activity or balance levels.

To bolster the desire for greater debit card and credit card rewards, we are evaluating an alternative to our eChecking Account that will pay rewards on debit cards.

For the start of the 18/19 academic year, East County Schools launched a new Summer Savings Account that will pay 4.00%^APY on all payroll deductions that are directed to this account.  Funds are available throughout the year if needed by coming into the branch to withdraw or transfer to a checking account.  The balance of these funds will be distributed each July.  You do not need to be on a 10 or 11 month payroll cycle to take advantage of this high-rate Summer Savings product.

We have also added a .50%^APY rate buy-down off of our already low-rate auto loans.  When you buy a new or used car from our Auto Buying Service - New Cars, Inc (yes, they also sell used cars), and you finance it at East County Schools Federal Credit Union, New Cars, Inc. will buy-down your interest rate by .50%^APY.

We rely on ECS to offer a variety of ways to contact and communicate with you, so that we can choose the best method for us. When we contact you, be sure you can communicate back to us through that same channel unless we tell you differently.

Further develop your social media presence so that you can ensure that we are getting the information that is important to us, in the places we are most likely to see it.

East County Schools knows how important it is for our members to be able to communicate with us on their terms. We have improved the Online Banking, CU2U Scheduling and Website Messaging/Contact Us features to provide for greater security and flexibility.

There is more communication functionality that we are researching and looking to provide as well, including researching online chat capabilities via our website and Online Banking. Also, we are researching a way for members to send and receive text messages with questions or requests to East County Schools and receive text responses back, when preferred. We think this will be a very popular new method for member-owners and East County Schools to stay connected!

East County Schools will continue to bolster our social media programs and continue to add valuable content that is relevant to our member-owners and our educational community.

Our community is very important to us. We work in schools to better our community by helping its people. This is a very important value and we look to ECS to continue to be a part of those efforts by staying involved and doing special things for us, our schools, and our colleagues. We want East County Schools to always remain a credit union that we are proud to share with our colleagues as well as our families.

Active engagement with our East County education community is something that our entire staff takes to heart. All of our staff members donate their time to at least two separate East County school initiatives. We serve on:

        Education Foundations
        Pathway Advisory councils
        Business & Education collaborations
        Citizens Bond Oversight committees
        Welcome Back to School events
        Major school event committees
        Junior Achievement Days
        Site Councils
        New-hire search committees
        PTA/PTO/ASB snack bars

We also serve as Treasurer for several district facilities and technology bonds, and attend monthly school board meetings to ensure that we stay current on changes that impact our member-owners.

In fact, over the past 5 years alone, East County Schools Federal Credit Union has been recognized by the San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce three times, twice for our efforts to connect the Business & Education communities for the betterment of all East County students, and also being recognized as the leading organization in the Finance sector. In addition we were honored from among all of the nominees from the 42 San Diego County school districts as the recipient of the distinguished “Community Partner of the Year” award at the 2015 “Honoring Our Own” gala sponsored by the San Diego County School Boards Association.

Furthermore, to underscore our consistency of going above and beyond in our service to the East County education community, prior to 2015 we were nominated twice by different districts for the Community Partner of the Year award. Giving back to our education community has been a hallmark of East County Schools Federal Credit Union for the past 20 years. We work as hard to make a difference in the lives of our East County school employees, as they do in the lives of the students they serve.

When we come into the branch for services, we want it to be an easy and pleasant experience. The branch should be clean, modern-looking and comfortable. We want caring and knowledgeable staff available who are empowered to go above and beyond.

Our offices are clean and efficient facilities that are welcoming and safe for our member-owners.  A recent change to the layout of our lobby added comfortable and quiet seating for member-owners waiting to speak privately with our staff, and bottles of water available for those on the go. Due to our exclusive membership, we often witness members that come into our lobby and see former colleagues that they haven’t seen in years.  This “club environment” adds to the In-Branch experience that is so rare these days.

We are planning to refresh our lobby so that it will be more representative of all of the districts we serve.  District representations will include a wide variety of logos, pictures, program videos, social media posts, etc. that are produced by us, or provided by each district.  This will give our member-owners and visitors a real sense of the strong connection and relationship that we have with our local school districts.

Another exciting member service enhancement is our work-in-progress on a formal program we call “A CEO at Every Desk”. We are very proud of our employees, their experience and tenure with East County Schools Federal Credit Union, and their familiarity with all of the East County School Districts in which we serve. Couple that with our passion for providing service beyond your expectations, and you have the framework for our staff to make many decisions on their own.  By taking ownership of challenges that are brought to their attention, they will make your time in our office or on the phone more efficient, be more accountable, and in doing so develop greater trust and deeper relationships with our member-owners.

At times we will need your expertise and advice regarding financial services. We want you to understand and anticipate our needs at every stage of our lives--whether we are new to managing finances, buying a home, or planning for retirement. We want ECS to have the information we need when we have a question or need your help, and put that information in an easy to find place on your website, in your mobile app, and have someone we can speak to if we prefer the High-Touch approach.

As always, East County Schools has friendly, caring and highly-trained staff available to assist our member-owners as they navigate the many financial services available to them. We have Loan Representatives on-site to pre-qualify our member-owners for planned home or car purchases. We meet one-on-one for free financial wellness checkups – especially helpful for those who are trying to build credit or are unsure what their next steps should be. We are committed to helping our member-owners achieve their financial goals. The relationships we forge are the backbone of East County Schools.

For those member-owners who want more of a self-service approach to learning and planning for present and future life events, we have included a new Learning Center on our East County Schools website. With dozens of topics on financial services for our younger member-owners, to those who are focused on planning for retirement, these fast and easy to watch videos are packed with information. Pick a topic or two, or watch them all – there’s something in the Learning Center that’s valuable to everyone!