Libro Collabria Credit Card

[Vernon]

Apply for a credit card and start building your credit score and gain the skills you need to manage money effectively. To get you started, you will receive a $50 statement credit after your application has been approved!

Shopping has changed in recent years as more and more of it has moved online. Now, for many consumers, especially younger ones, the way those purchases are paid for is changing too. One of those changes is the rapid growth of buy now, pay later plans that let shoppers buy in four easy payments with just one click, often with the promise of no interest charges or hidden fees.

This dramatic shift in how billions of dollars of purchase transactions occur has implications both for credit unions that may lose credit card or loan revenue and for their members who may find themselves surprised by interest and account fees, especially if they are unable to make one of their payments.

Not surprisingly, the amount of money involved has attracted the big banks and the credit card companies. Visa now offers an Installments enabled by Visa program that is used by Desjardins, Bank of Montreal and RBC, while Scotiabank has ScotiaSelectPay and CIBC has Pace It. These plans let consumers add installments to the way they pay for items they have already purchased.

With BNPL, the first installment is made as a down payment at checkout, while the remaining three payments are due in two-week intervals over six weeks, says Consumer Reports. Borrowers use an existing debit or credit card for the initial down payment, which is automatically debited again later for the remaining three payments.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada wanted to understand what was going on in this space and asked Option Consummateurs, a Quebec consumer rights group, to examine the plans. In October the group released a report, Buy Now, Pay Later: Assessment of Risks and Remedies, that called on governments to protect consumers by regulating the new financing formulas.

Consumer protection is largely a provincial responsibility, with Ottawa only supervising such federally regulated companies as banks and federal credit unions, but the FCAC does play a role in financial literacy.

The BNPL companies have a number of practices that are likely to hit the most vulnerable consumers hard, such as direct and unlimited access to bank accounts for collection purposes; the imposition of insufficient-funds fees by some companies in addition to those charged by banks; loan stacking; and credit file registration, she said.

In addition, the report notes confusion among consumers about whether credit is involved, as well as about the existence of fees or a credit check before obtaining BNPL financing. This confusion stems from the representations made by companies, which may be deemed misleading in certain cases.

Consumers can run into trouble if they are unable to make a payment because the plans are linked to their credit or debit card and they could face NSF and administration fees from the BNPL company and their card issuer.

BNPL products often are presented to shoppers as an alternative to credit that has no fees or interest attached that will help them manage their finances and purchase something that they want now. But the easy access to such programs and the ability to accumulate several plans at once since there are no controls can push consumers into debt.

The report calls on fintechs providing BNPL plans to provide consumers with adequate information about the products they offer and their consequences as well as adequate customer service and dispute-resolution services.

BNPL providers earn their revenue mainly from the fees they charge the merchants. Additional revenue comes from late fees or penalties charged to consumers who do not fulfill the repayment terms, while some providers do charge interest fees.

For example, Wayne Pommen, chief revenue officer at Affirm, told BNN his company has an algorithm that decides within seconds of a shopper clicking their button whether they qualify and whether they should be offered zero interest or charged higher rates.

Credit unions in the U.S. are moving into the BNPL space slowly, if at all. A survey by PYMNTS and PSCU, a CUESolutions provider, found that 39% of credit unions did not plan to offer installment payment options, and even the 41% that said they do plan to do so will not roll out the product in the next year.

The issue of values is key for many credit unions, since the goal of BNPL providers is to make it quick, easy and painless for customers to purchase items, while many credit unions stress their financial coaching and literacy efforts that encourage members to carefully budget and stop and consider any purchase to make sure it fits with their plan.

5.Amex sometimes dont check hard credit check at all but pull soft credit check on both TS & EQ. They did not pull hard credit on me or family members but got rejected on online 2 accounts and they did review on both TS & EQ and it shows they did 4 soft crdit checks on both TS & EQ for Cash back card & Airmiles Gold.

Meridian Credit union offers credit cards through Collabria Financial Services. In my case, credit inquiries are through Equifax but twice (One by Meridian and another by Collabria) for Meridian Visa card

I applied twice for PC financial card and my score was 671 at Transunion, score at equifax was very low at 500. I think PC used equifax for mine. Unless you require a higher score than 671 to get a credit card.

Mastercard credit cards:
Prepaid, ECHO Cashback, World Elite , World Mastercard , Allure , Edition , Platinum, Solutions Banking , Syncro, MC1 , Ovation Gold , Escapade , NBC Ultramar Mastercard, NBC CAA Rewards Mastercard and World Elite Mastercard PB 1859

Very disappointing, and likely a further bad omen for the prospects of their yet-to-formally-launch national ambitions. It likely further solidifies my thesis that Coast never wanted to grow organically nationally; they wanted to grow by amalgamation with other provincially-regulated credit unions. This adds to years of existing cost cuts; back in 2018, they had 52 branches. They're now down to 46, if I'm remembering correctly.

I definitely have no confidence in CEO MacInnis' leadership. He has no vision for its future, no implementation plan, and seems inclined to 'coast' his way to retirement in a few years by merely showing up and collecting a paycheque. His most recent position was the functional division head of TD Direct Investing in Canada, so he doesn't even really have retail banking street cred. ?

Good point, Denise. I hadn't considered that, but indeed, with Coast's federal continuance, they are indeed a federally incorporated company and thus regulated, from a labour perspective, by the Canadian Labour Code.

If Coast Capital Savings has an employee pension plan, I wonder if their pension plan had to be continued from B.C. registration and regulation to federal registration and regulation, too...something to dig into!

Only curious from the perspective that I am from BC and Coast Capital is big, but why does it matter if some employees are let go? Shouldn't members want to see more efficiency and better returns? Shouldn't there be a certain amount of staff turnover annually to renew and insert new ideas? 2-5% annual turnover sounds about right, and a 4% cut in headcount is close to being noise level.

P.S. Unless we know what positions are being cut and from where, it is conjecture. Perhaps if it is at the branch level. it makes sense as fewer branches are needed over time with more and more online banking and older folks more likely to visit branches continue to die off.

AltaRed said
Only curious from the perspective that I am from BC and Coast Capital is big, but why does it matter if some employees are let go? Shouldn't members want to see more efficiency and better returns? Shouldn't there be a certain amount of staff turnover annually to renew and insert new ideas? 2-5% annual turnover sounds about right, and a 4% cut in headcount is close to being noise level.

In theory, yes. I do not believe the branch staff made up the majority, or even any, of the layoffs. If the layoffs were in support departments like Human Resources, Financial Services, or similar, I'd be less concerned. My concern, though, is the layoffs may have been concentrated in Information Technology (i.e., computer programmers) and product development and marketing.

Coast hasn't had compelling new products for years, and refuses to add things like free Interac e-Transfers and even bank-to-bank transfers in an increasing digital era, meaning their once market leading free chequing account has fallen way behind. It's fine to encourage more digital banking, but the thing is, their digital offerings are falling further and further behind because their cost cutting seems to be cutting into bone, so to speak.

They were supposed to launch a new credit card, possibly with a new credit card provider and had been considering switching to Collabria, but that's now fallen by the wayside and they've stuck with their very uncompetitive Desjardins credit card.

With First West Credit Union expected to continue federally next year, they will no longer be the only federal credit union of any size capable of swallowing up provincial credit unions. First West has been making the right investments in product and digital banking, too, whereas Coast has not. There is also a good chance Libro Credit Union and/or FirstOntario Credit Union may opt to continue federally themselves at some point, too. Innovation Credit Union's federal continuance will happen this year, next year at the latest (probably!).

Banks and credit unions cannot use customer deposits to finance their ordinary business operations and corporate actions, such as federal continuance. I'm not quite sure where you might've gotten that idea. To finance their business operations, they can use their "cash and cash equivalents" line on their balance sheet, as well as things like their non-mortgage and -loan balance sheet assets that aren't required regulatory capital. They can also borrow, through debt borrowings. That promotion was just that, a promotion that is dilutive or which has negative consequences to Net Interest Margin to boost their deposits (whether they needed them or not). Boosting those top-line metrics can be a business and marketing strategy to make an institution appear larger and help attract new members.

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