American Eagle Financial Credit Union

Credit Union
Winter 2015
From the President
...a look back at 2014 and ahead to 2015
I want to take this opportunity to express the deep
appreciation that everyone here at American Eagle Financial
Credit Union and in the local business and philanthropic
community feels for the contributions made by William Dokas,
our President and CEO, who retired at yearend after 42 years
of service to the membership.
News
forever imprinted on those he met and served. I am honored to
have worked with Bill and the rest of the American Eagle Financial Credit Union team and look forward to a great year in 2015.
2014 AEFCU Achievements
As we wrap up the past year with Bill’s retirement as the grand
finale, we also want to take a moment to highlight some of the
new member benefits introduced over the past year.
New Visa® Signature Card with high-security chip card
Bill began his career in 1972 as a management trainee and
before long became a Loan Officer and then Branch Manager
of the Credit Union’s Middletown branch until 1978, when he
was promoted to Manager of Branch Operations for the Credit
Union’s branch network. In 1980, he was promoted to Vice
President of Lending and Branch Administration and held that
position until 1990, when he was promoted to President/CEO.
features and expanded account benefits.
During Bill’s tenure as President/CEO, the Credit Union
grew from $270 million to over $1.3 billion in assets and
evolved into a full-service financial institution with a complete
complement of financial products and services now serving
over 105,000 members. The
Credit Union, under Bill’s
leadership, has evolved from
a single-sponsor relationship
into a true community financial
institution with 13 community
branches now serving anyone
who lives, works, worships, or
attends school in Hartford,
Middlesex, Tolland counties, and
recently added New Haven
county in Connecticut.
New Visa Rewards programs that include more robust
Enhancements and simplification of our mobile banking
platform to make it easier for you to pay bills, transfer money,
and keep informed of the movement of your money instantly.
Don’t forget to enroll and use our mobile remote deposit
capture feature and use your smartphone to take a picture of
your check and deposit it with us electronically!
and expanded choices to use your earned points for travel,
merchandise, and cash credit.
Bill’s legacy of living the American
Eagle Financial Credit Union
values of caring, trust, and
dependability with our memRetired President & CEO Bill Dokas (L) with AEFCU President & CEO
bership and our employees is
Dean Marchessault (R)
The opening of our
Newington branch has helped
to extend our reach into new
communities and helps support
retail and business development
in that area of the state.
The introduction of private
student loan programs that
can help you and your family
meet the cost of education,
especially when federal programs
may have been exhausted.
Many consumer loan
options, with higher amounts
and longer terms than you
typically will see with other
lenders.
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Investments made to ensure that your confidential
information remains that way. We are staying ahead of
the many security and hacker events and doing our best
to keep you informed and advised with timely information.
Articles like the one below and announcements on our
website provide information you need to help understand
how to protect your information against fraud.
Upgrading and adding to our ATM services with more
machines that will allow you to deposit checks and cash
without an envelope. It’s easy and faster for you, and you walk
away with an image of the checks you deposit.
American Eagle Financial Credit Union:
A new name and new opportunities
You have all played an important part in the democratic
process of credit union membership that led to the change
of our charter from federal to state and our new name
and approval to expand our operations and service area to
include New Haven county. We appreciate the support and
we look forward to offering our great products and services in
New Haven county.
While the economy (and maybe the winter weather) will
challenge all of us, American Eagle Financial Credit Union is
ready to serve you in 2015. With our network of convenient
branch locations, free access at thousands of Allpoint® ATMs
at retail outlets, many automobile, credit card, consumer, and
residential loan options, and website and electronic banking
options that are reliable and informative, we continue to offer
great value and the benefit of knowing that we are here to
serve you, our members, for long into the future.
Sincerely,
Dean Marchessault
Did you buy or receive a new device or computer for the holidays?
Below are some tips for protecting your
new technology, securing your personal
data, and spreading some cyber holiday
cheer.
•Configure your device with
security in mind. The “out-of-thebox” configurations of many devices
and system components are default
settings often geared more toward
ease-of-use and extra features rather
than securing your device to protect
your information. Enable security
settings, paying particular attention to
those that control information sharing.
•Turn on your firewall. Firewalls
provide an essential function of
protecting your computer or device
from potentially malicious actors.
Without a firewall, you might be
exposing your personal information to
any computer on the Internet.
•Enable encryption. Encryption makes
it hard for attackers who have gained
access to your device to obtain access
to your information. It’s a powerful tool
that you should consider implementing.
•Lock the device. Locking your device
with a strong PIN/password makes unauthorized access to your information
more difficult. Additionally, make sure
that your device automatically locks
after five minutes of inactivity. This way,
if you misplace your device, you minimize the opportunity for someone to
access your personal information.
•Regularly
apply updates.
Manufacturers
and application
developers update their code
to fix weaknesses
and push out
the updates and
patches. Enable
settings to automatically apply these
patches to ensure that you’re fixing the
identified weaknesses in the applications, especially your operating system,
web browser, and associated thirdparty apps.
•Install antivirus software. Install
antivirus software if it is available for
your device to protect from known
viruses. Additionally, enable automatic
updating of the antivirus software
to incorporate the most recently
identified threats.
•Be careful downloading apps.
When downloading a new app to your
device, you are potentially providing
that app with a lot of information about
you, some of which you may not want
to share. Be proactive
and make sure that you
read the privacy statement, review permissions, check the app
reviews, and look online
to see if any security
company has identified
the app as malicious. A
good way to prevent
accidental downloading
of malware is to use
a trusted store instead of third-party
stores. Google Play Store and Apple’s
App Store proactively remove known
malicious apps to protect users.
•Disable unwanted services/
calling. Capabilities such as Bluetooth,
network connections, and Near Field
Communications provide ease and
convenience in using your smartphone.
They can also provide an easy way for
a nearby, unauthorized user to gain
access to your data. Turn these features
off when they are not needed.
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The vision of American Eagle Financial Credit Union is to be our community's first choice for financial services.
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­ OFFICE LOCATIONS
Bloomfield
699 Cottage Grove Rd.
Cromwell
4 Hammerhead Pl.
East Hartford
417 Main St.
Enfield
201 Elm St.
Farmington
4 Farm Springs Rd.
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•Set up a non-privileged account
for general web use. Privileged
(such as Administrator or Root)
accounts allow users to make changes
and access processes and functions
that are not needed on a daily basis. A
compromised administrative account
provides attackers with the authority
to access anything on your computer
or possibly even your network. Setting
up a non-privileged account for use
in browsing web sites and checking
e-mails provides one more layer of
defense.
By using caution and following these
tips, you can help secure your new
computer or device and protect your
information.
Provided by:
Glastonbury
109 Sycamore St.
Manchester
304 Broad St.
Newington
3579A Berlin Tpke.
Plainville
378 New Britain Ave.
South Windsor
530 Buckland Rd.
Southington
888 Queen St.
Vernon
455 Hartford Tpke. (Route 30)
West Hartford
1245 New Britain Ave.
­ MEMBER ELIGIBILITY
Membership is open to everyone in Hartford, Middlesex,
Tolland, and New Haven
counties in Connecticut.
­ MEMBER SERVICES
24-Hour Telephone Banking
860.568.3802 or 800.843.1151
24-Hour Online Banking
americaneagle.org
e-mail: [email protected]
Member Contact Center
860.568.2020 or 800.842.0145, ext. 5101
Credit Union News is an informational bulletin
published by American Eagle Financial Credit
Union. We welcome your questions and
comments. Please send your correspondence
to: Marketing, American Eagle FCU, 417 Main
St., East Hartford, CT 06118 or
e-mail us at [email protected].
Federally insured by NCUA.
Equal Opportunity Lender.
AEFCU Donates Time and Money to WTIC/Holiday Store
On December 22, American Eagle Financial
Credit Union donated $3,000 to the WTIC/
Holiday Store to benefit The Salvation Army
in Connecticut during an on-air presentation
at Hilton Homewood Suites located at 65
Glastonbury Boulevard in Glastonbury. Dean
Marchessault, President and CEO at American
Eagle FCU, presented the check to The
Salvation Army. On December 19th and 22nd,
18 American Eagle employees volunteered
65 hours to collect and sort donations at The
Holiday
Store in
Glastonbury.
Dorca Rodriguez, Employee of American
Eagle FCU, volunteering at the Holiday
Store on December 22, 2014.
(L-R) Jim Gordon, Director of Public Relations &
Marketing, The Salvation Army Southern New England
Division; Major Brian Glasco, Greater Hartford Area
Services Coordinator; Dean Marchessault, President
and CEO at American Eagle FCU; and Ray Dunaway,
WTIC-AM 1080 radio personality.
American Eagle FCU has supported the WTIC/
Holiday Store with donations and volunteers since
2005. Over the past 10 years, the Credit Union has
contributed a total of $19,000 to The Salvation Army
in sponsorships and grants. American Eagle FCU
employees have volunteered over 600 hours at the
WTIC-AM Holiday Store over the past decade.
Prepare Your 2014 Taxes with TurboTax
It’s tax time again and American Eagle FCU is offering up to a $15 discount on
TurboTax® Online products.
The site guides you through your tax return step-bystep, double checks for accuracy, and files your federal
and state returns electronically. The site is updated with
all the new tax laws to help you get every deduction
and maximize your tax savings. Have your tax refund direct deposited into your
American Eagle FCU account and receive your refund in as few as eight days.
You can access TurboTax® Online through our website from any computer
connected to the Internet. For member discount prices, please visit TurboTax
Online. Login and take TurboTax Online for a test drive. You only pay when you
print or electronically file your tax return. The deadline for filing your 2014 tax
return is Wednesday, April 15, 2015.
The vision of American Eagle Financial Credit Union is to be our community's first choice for financial services.
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