CU*Answers strives to accommodate our clients by offering training in many different formats, from full classroom offerings (see the current CU*Answers University Catalog) to online learning and web conference sessions. We also offer individual training sessions, and workshops which can be held either at a credit union site, or here at CU*Answers. For credit union staff to train internally, we offer our web-based online courses as well as hands-on learning using a pretend CU*BASE credit union  More...

It's possible but fairly rare, given how most CUs set up their statement criteria. The two statement types are independent as far as the criteria that determine whether a member gets a statement or not. Typically a CU sets up their regular account statement to look at OC (open credit) accounts, which includes online credit cards, and produce a regular statement if there is any activity. Likewise, a credit card statement is generally set up to produce a CC statement only if there is activi  More...

This comes from Fiserv's records, which are provided to them by the Federal Reserve (through the FRB's Checks Department).

In some cases, the general upload file that is received by CU*Answers on a daily basis only contains accounts where a member has had a change to their account. Contact your OTB vendor to see if you can request a full file to be sent so that all card information would be sent in the upload file to CU*Answers. (In some cases if your CU is already being charged for the upload it is possible there would be no change in price to have the full file sent over.)

Printed Statement Style fees are triggered only by production of a regular account statement (based on a file called STPRINT01, which is generated only with regular statements, not CC statements) . If a member gets only a credit card statement, they wouldn’t get a fee that particular month. If the next month they get both a credit card statement and a regular statement, then they would get a fee that time. (Note: We do always produce a year-end statement for every member, no matter wha  More...

Here are seven things to review if you are trying to research why a loan did not report to the credit bureau. Look to see if the loan is flagged not to report to the credit bureau: Access Tool #20 Update Account Information (shortcut: acct) for the account and click the Credit Reporting Info button. The Report to credit bureau flag must be checked. Look at the Credit Report History located in Loan Account Inquiry via the Delinquency window (F23 or click the lookup button next to the Deli  More...

At some point during the year your credit union's audit firm may contact your credit union to perform a member account verification. This involves sending statements with a special message and unique return address, so that members respond to the auditing firm rather than the credit union directly. Here are some important tips to ensure your audit is successful: CU*Answers cannot change your credit union's return addresses on statements. CU*Answers uses custom statement envelopes for a  More...

The fields are related to Process Codes, in that they are derived from the code attached to the message received from the plastics processor (vendor, or switch). The Type you see in the initial Type column of the Activity screen relates directly to the Transaction Description when you view additional transaction details. Transaction types may not apply to all vendors. Examples of these labels are as follows: DEP (Deposit Transactions) ATM/DEP A deposit made at an ATM. ATM/DEP - including a $  More...

If you pull credit reports using the CU*BASE online credit bureau access system, credit report data is stored online and can therefore be mined for opportunities. There are a couple of ways you can find this information: Use Tool #976 Where Your Members Borrow This tool pulls trade line data from stored credit report files, showing other financial institutions with whom your members do business. This tool lets you make a direct comparison between your credit union and a competitive FI. F  More...

What This Message Means: This appears when the member has tried 3 times to enter their password incorrectly. The message does instruct the member to click I forgot my password and answer all three Security Questions to reset the password themselves. But if the member doesn't know their password or their security questions, they will need to contact the CU. BE CAREFUL: This is a scenario that presents the most risk to your members. If a bad guy finds out a member's name, account nu  More...

Yes. You can pull a credit report for any service using the online credit bureau process. Using Tool #53 Process Member Applications, use action code CR to pull the report without creating a loan request and application. We can then create Member Services denial notices for debit cards, checking accounts, ATM cards, etc.

No. This law actually pertains to merchant card programs where the merchant is collecting payments for services and goods sold. Since we do not run merchant programs on our platform, this reporting requirement does not apply to us.

Credit card finance charges can be confusing as they are different from a normal simple daily interest consumer loan, because billing cycles play a part in the finance charge calculation. Both current and previous billing cycles are required for the calculation to qualify for a configured grace period. Grace period flags are determined by the credit union and disclosed in their credit card disclosures. Finance charges are waived if the account qualifies for the grace period configured in the loa  More...

T o order an online credit card for a co-applicant on the loan account, you would complete the following steps: Launch Tool #12 Update/Order Online Credit Cards Enter the member number and suffix for the Visa loan account OR If you have the last 4 digits of the primary member's Visa card number, you may enter that instead Use Enter to continue On the next screen you will see a card that has been ordered for your primary member only. On the lower left corner of the screen, choose Add   More...

There are three choices. 1. Manually add the estimated finance charges to the balance of the account and have the member make the full payoff at that time. Then clear the cumulative balance on the individual buckets to ensure that there are no finance charges assessed on the account. To do this you will launch Tool #20 Update Account Information. Select the credit card account and then select F16/Chg Type Maint. Select the individual bucket and select the Maintenance action code. In the cumulat  More...

If you or your member notice an account is not being updated (or the additional signer on a loan) you should first try to find out if the loan/additional signer was included in the file sent over to the bureau. You can do this for the most recent reporting cycle by running Tool #658 Print Loan Info Sent to Credit Bureau . If the member loan/additional signer information (defined by METRO 2 as the J1 segment or J2 Segment) is present in that file you need to look further into the following types  More...

Use Tool #658 Print Loan Info Sent to Credit Bureau to see all accounts that are reported to the credit bureaus. At the bottom of the report is the listing of all the bureaus to which reports are sent: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, and Factual Data (formerly CBC/Innovis).

To view a credit report attached to a loan, go to the Loan Account Inquiry screen through Phone Operator or Account Inquiry. Once there, click the lookup button (looks like a little magnifying glass) to the right of the Delinquent' field in the box in the upper right area of the screen. On the next screen, select View Credit File (F1).

You can schedule the AFT payment to pay the amount in full every time (for credit cards or lines of credit). Making this selection allows the member to pay the LOC or credit card off every time a transfer is performed. (The recommended frequency with this AFT payment method is Monthly.) For LOCs , this means pay whatever the current balance on the loan is at the time the transfer is performed. If the AFT payment amount will result in an overpayment on the loan, the transfer amount will be adj  More...

Yes, you can designate your credit union's own savings (or checking) account number to receive round-up funds when setting up a member's round-up transfers, if you wish. 1. Launch Tool #14 Member Personal Banker for a member who wants to participate 2. Select the Debit Card Roundup enrollment button and double click on the member's desired suffix 3. Enter in your credit union's internal account for the account to which you'd like the round-up funds transferred (this accou  More...

The following old special Comment codes are no longer valid now that your credit data is being reported using the Metro 2 format: BU BV BW BX BY CA CB Instead, use the Consumer Information Indicator field on the loan account to report bankruptcy. This can be changed using Tool #20 Update Account Information on the loan account (click the Credit Reporting Info button to display the the Credit Bureau Reporting Information screen). NOTE: You only need to report bankrtupcy once. If the bankrupt  More...

Paper Grade lets you set up more than one set of score ranges and rates, each for a different grade. Since you do not receive a paper grade from your credit bureau, just leave that field blank in the loan category amortization defaults and just enter one set of score ranges and rates. This will allow the rates to be automatically pulled into the loan request based on credit score only. configuration

In the past, when reporting credit cards to the bureau, CU*Answers sends the maximum disbursement limit field for both the high credit amount and the max credit limit fields. Effective with the CU*BASE 11.4 Software Release (Nov/Dec 2011), a change was made so that this is no longer true. For open-end loans, we will report the larger of the Crrent Blance or the calculated High Credit Amount. Since members can draw on these loans at any time, the High Credit Amount will be determined using the   More...

As of April 2024, CU*Answers and its cuasterisk.com network partners provide services to 376 credit unions in 42 states, representing 2.81 million members.

Use the CU*BASE Report Builder (Tool #100) to create a Query of the credit bureau report summary file CRBSUM . The employee ID can be found in the CREMPID field within that file. You can also find out who pulled the most recent credit report via Tool #53 Process Member Applications, Action Code LC (Open End Loan Contract / Risk-Based Credit Score Info).