What's Happening at KVFCU?

Protect Your Date From Third-Party Aggregator Services

Are you using a personal finance app to help manage your money? If you are, you aren’t alone.

Consumers across the country are increasingly turning to apps like Dave.com, RobinHood.com, CashApp, and countless others to monitor their spending. While these apps may provide a platform for viewing and working with multiple accounts, they also increase the risk of having financial information breached. In fact, a recent breach at Waydev affected 7.5M consumers.

If you are leveraging any of these tools, there are some important steps you can take to protect your personal information.

1. Examine the terms of service for apps you are using.

   • Review the app’s data retention policies and determine whether the app resells your information.

2. Find out what security features the app offers to ensure your personal information remains safe.

   • Look for things like two-factor authentication.

3. Always confirm the validity of the app.

   • Don’t provide your account numbers or any personal or financial information on the phone or online unless you initiate the conversation and you know the organization.

4. Change your passwords and security settings often and use a highly secure password for your financial accounts.

   • Secure passwords often contain letters, numbers, and special characters.

   • Avoid using the same username and password on multiple sites.

   • Guard your pins and passwords. Don’t store them on your phone or write them down in a location where others might be able to access them.

5. Change your credit union and other account passwords if you want to remove an app’s access to your accounts.

6. Contact us right away if you feel your information has been compromised!

Always use extreme care when using third party apps. The more services you sign up for and the more devices you use provides criminals additional opportunities to steal your information for their personal gain.

We are very excited to reopen our branch lobbies to our members! We have missed you.

A few important notes:

1. Please check our branch hours here: https://kvfcu.org/contact-us

2. Please read our NEW Covid-19 procedures here: https://kvfcu.org/new-procedures

We appreciate and thank you for being patient, kind, courteous and for helping us keep our members and staff safe and well.

We want to help our members navigate the financial challenges that lie ahead during these unprecedented and extraordinary times due to COVID-19. The economy is going through some unexpected and dramatic changes and it is all happening very quickly. Unfortunately, the consequence are loss of income for many families due to reduced hours, job losses, layoffs and loss of revenue for business owners.

We are offering the following options to help our members:

• Skip Payments and Loan Deferments at no charge

• Loan modifications or refinancing options

• Short term Signature Loans of up to $4,000.00 with the first payment deferred up to 3 months

Call one of our offices and ask for a loan officer. They will be able to help assess your particular situation and work with you to find the best solution. We will do everything we can to be flexible and find the right solution for you.

Augusta: (207) 623-5171
Oakland: (207) 465-4423
Waterville: (207) 877-9474

Best Regards, 

Christine Devine
President/CEO

Dear Members, 

With COVID-19 affecting so much of daily life, our team at KV Federal Credit Union wants to reassure you that we are committed to being here for you – just like we always are. Our goal is to ensure the credit union services you depend on remain unaffected by the spread of the virus in our region, and we are working hard to make that happen. Your banking should continue to be easy, convenient, and available to you wherever you are and whenever you need it.

The health and wellbeing of our staff and members will always be our highest priority. So, while our branches remain open at this time, we will continue to monitor recommendations from the World Health Organization and both the state and federal Centers for Disease Control. In the meantime, KVFCU is taking several precautionary measures to ensure our branches remain safe environments, including enhanced cleaning of high-touch surfaces. Our staff is following all hygiene protocols pertaining to handwashing and use of hand sanitizers, and staff that have any form of exposure to COVID-19 or who are not feeling well, will be asked to stay home and seek medical care.

Our only request of our members is that if you have been exposed to someone showing symptoms of COVID-19, or if you are not feeling well, that you remain home and contact your doctor. The best way to limit the spread of this disease is to avoid human-to-human interaction with people who may be infected.

Fortunately, we also can serve you remotely through online banking and our mobile app. Using these tools, you can check balances, transfer funds, make bill payments, and deposit checks—all from the comfort of home. If you have not yet created an online banking account, you easily can enroll by going to our enrollment page.. If you have not downloaded our mobile app, look for “KV Mobile Banking” on the Apple or Android App Store. If you have questions about setting up online or mobile banking, one of our Member Service representatives can help walk you through this process. 

We also do not want you to forget about Shared Branching, which is one of the strengths of the credit union network in Maine. Although we certainly do not want you to enter any credit union branch—or even use the drive-up window—if you are not feeling well, there are over 170 branches around the state that participate in Shared Branching where you can manage your money.

Finally, if you or anyone in your family has been impacted by COVID-19 and need financial support, we are here to help. Our staff is ready to provide financial guidance and discuss solutions that may be available to you. For assistance, please reach out to our help desk at (207) 623-5171. 

KVFCU is always working to serve your financial needs and we hope our ongoing support during this difficult time will provide you with some comfort. We will continue to keep you updated and contact you as circumstances change.

Best regards,
Christine DevineCEO

Criminals are contacting individuals and claiming to work for the World Health Organization (WHO) to solicit data. If you or a member is contacted by a representative claiming to be with WHO, verify their authenticity before responding and remember, the WHO will never:

• Ask you to login to view safety information

• Email attachments you didn’t ask for

• Request you visit a link outside of www.who.int

• Charge money to apply for a job, register for a conference, or reserve a hotel

• Conduct lotteries or offer prizes, grants, certificates, or funding through email

• Ask you to donate directly to emergency response plans or funding appeals

WHO also is warning the public about email phishing scams that ask people to provide personal information, click a suspicious link, and/or open a malicious attachment. According to its website, WHO will not transmit email from addresses ending in ‘@who.com,’ ‘@who.org,’ or ‘@who-safety.org.’ The organization also is encouraging people to visit their website instead of clicking links in emails.

The Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers to ignore online offers for vaccinations or cures claiming they can prevent the Coronavirus. Consumers also should do their homework before making donations to charities or crowdfunding sites to confirm the legitimacy of the organization, and never wire money or send gift cards.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is encouraging people to be cautious about investment opportunities in companies claiming “the products or services of that publicly-traded companies can prevent, detect, or cure coronavirus.”

Remember, criminals prey on peoples’ vulnerabilities and they pay attention to news headlines. By staying diligent and communicating about these latest threats with our members, credit unions can help prevent fraudulent activity.