CCCS of Rochester/RethinkingDebt Headquarters: 1000 University Ave, Rochester, NY 14607 **FALL 2014** Inside this issue: Military Families 1 Military Family Appreciation Month By: Lynette Baker, Director of Outreach and Marketing Holiday Spending 2 MyMoneyCheckup 2 ElderONE 3 New Website! 4 Ask CCCS 4 FICO Score Changes 5 Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Rochester/ RethinkingDebt want to take this opportunity to salute military families during Military Family Appreciation Month, applauding our service members and those who stand behind the service member by providing support and making sacrifices of their own. CCCS of Rochester/RethinkingDebt have many military-specific national partnerships to assist service members with their financial concerns: Coast Guard Mutual Assistance: Since 2003, NFCC members have offered tailored financial counseling for Coast Guard members and their families. Recently the partnership expanded to include financial education workshops. Military OneSource: Since 2008, NFCC members have offered face-to-face financial counseling to service members and their families under the Military OneSource program. Hands on Banking for Military: Sharpen Your Financial Focus, includes a program exclusively for service members. Hands on Banking for Military is a free financial education program created to address the financial literacy challenges facing military members, veterans, and their families. The program is designed to address military service members' unique needs at every stage of their career. Army OneSource: CCCS of Rochester participates in the Army OneSource NYS Financial Alliance, a group of government agencies and nonprofit collaborators with a mission of promoting financial education to our service members and their families. CCCS of Rochester/ RethinkingDebt are here to help our service members and families with their financial concerns. Call us at 585-546-3440/ 888-724-2227 or visit our website at www.cccsofrochester.org/ www.rethinkingdebt.org.
Holiday Spending Tips By: Anthony DiLuglio, Advisor For many, the holiday season is a time of year that is filled with fun and laughter while being surrounded by family and friends. However, it can also be a time when we can lose track of our financial goals and struggle with keeping a balanced budget. Here are a few tips to allow you to spread holiday joy while maintaining a reasonable budget this holiday season. Pay in cash With debit cards, it is easy to lose track of how much is being spent. Even worse, when items are placed on a credit card, balances are often not paid in full and accrue interest. This throws the idea of a balanced budget out the window. Paying with cash will help you better stick to your spending limits. Make a list of what you will be buying by limiting spontaneous purchases, you are better able to keep your budget in line. Decide how much you will be spending on each person though we often have an idea in our minds, writing things down and updating as we spend helps keep our purchases in line with our budget. Set aside money each month as part of your budget putting money aside each pay period helps people not feel the effects of holiday spending all at once. This can be done by transferring funds to a savings account or even simply putting funds in an envelope that is kept in a safe place. Be Creative personalized gifts that are homemade are not only less expensive, but are unique and show added thought and effort and can be better received. Call us for additional budgeting assistance or help with holiday spending. Sharpen Your Financial Focus 2.0 By: Lynette Baker, Director of Outreach and Marketing Sharpen Your Financial Focus (SYFF) is a program which launched at NFCC member agencies in Fall 2013. This Fall marks year 2 of the program. SYFF is a 3 step personal financial stabilization program. MyMoneyCheckup this is a web-based financial assessment tool. It takes 10-15 minutes to complete and gives you a preliminary idea of how you are doing with your finances. This tool can be accessed on our websites. Comprehensive Financial Review This a more in-depth view of your finances with one of our Certified Financial Professionals. This is a free appointment that can be completed in person or over the phone. You will receive a detailed action plan and a recommended budget. Targeted Education- This step is designed to be a targeted activity that allows for further education. It could be a workshop or a follow-up to your financial review. These 3 steps can be completed in any order and, while we recommend all three steps, not all three steps are required. You can pick and choose which you would like to complete. Remember, all are free of charge, though. CCCS of Rochester/ RethinkingDebt are thrilled that over 1200 people have taken advantage of this program in the first year. We are hoping to have even more participants this year. Start by visiting our websites and clicking on the MyMoneyCheckup link, or call us for an appointment. One of our Client Support representatives is available to answer your call M-F 9a-5p or you can send us an email through our websites. We look forward to helping you get your finances back on track. Page 2
ElderONE By: Doris Green, Director of Managed Financial Services BalancedCare is one of the many programs of CCCS of Rochester. One of the services of BalancedCare is to provide Medicaid Application Assistance for older adults who are seeking community based services in order to remain independent in the community. Access to Medicaid is the only way to qualify for Medicaid Managed Long Term Care (MMLTC) services such as home care, PERS units, day programming, home health care aides and more. BalancedCare receives referrals from many agencies in the Rochester area. In this newsletter, we are highlighting one such agency- ElderONE. We receive many referrals from ElderONE for families that are seeking the unique services offered by BalancedCare. Our role at BalancedCare is to assist these families with the complex Medicaid application process. If needed, we then help our clients gain access to a pooled trust. Pooled trusts are designed to help people with disabilities shelter excess income in order to qualify them for Medicaid and community services. In many instances, we also need to assist in the qualifying process for older adults to use a pooled trust. We provide comprehensive information on all Rochester area agencies that offer these community based services. ElderONE is an affiliate of Rochester Regional Health System and gives elderly men and women an alternative to nursing home placement. Designed for individuals 55 years or older, the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) provides highly coordinated services that enable participants to remain in their own home- maintaining their independence without compromising their medical care or safety. PACE offers all of the necessary health, medical and social services needed to ensure that participants can enjoy their independence while maintaining their dignity and quality of life with confidence. These services include medical care, home health and personal care, social services, prescription and over the-counterdrugs, home nursing services, medical specialists, rehabilitative and supportive services, transportation to program-related medical and social services, adult day care, acute hospital care and nursing home services. All ElderONE participants must be 55 years old or older and fit the following criteria: You must be determined to be in need of nursing home level of care, based on an accepted standard guideline set by New York State. You must be determined to need ElderONE services for more than 120 days and you must be capable of residing safely in the community with ElderONE support services at the time of enrollment. You must also be a resident of Monroe County. Upon determination of eligibility you must complete the ElderONE assessment and enrollment process. Contact Doris Green at CCCS of Rochester if you would like to know more about BalancedCare and our Medicaid Application Assistance Program- 585-360-1856. You can also visit our website for more information www.cccsofrochester.org/ balancedcare Page 3
CCCS of Rochester/ RethinkingDebt are very happy to announce the launch of our newly updated websites. We have recently made significant changes to our websites, while still retaining all the information and tools you have always used on the sites. They have been streamlined to make them easier to read and navigate. The websites are also now mobile optimized so you can access our website on your cell phone, tablet or other mobile device in the proper format. The layout is much cleaner and easier to read and we have made it very simple to contact us or to find the information that you are looking for. The menus are mega drop down menus and we have narrowed the options but have still retained all the important features. The Quick Links feature makes it effortless to quickly get to the things that most people seek on our websites. New Websites By: Lynette Baker, Director of Outreach and Marketing There are now multiple services that can be paid for online. You can make online payments for the Debt Management Program, Student Loan Counseling, Medicaid Application Assistance and New Homebuyer Education. Social Media is another enhanced feature. It is now easier than ever to connect with us on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. A simple click of the proper button will take you directly to our listing on the chosen social media. We hope you will visit our new sites and look around at all the great features and information that is there for you. www.cccsofrochester.org www.rethinkingdebt.org Don t forget that while we have tried to make it easier for you to contact us via the digital world, our staff is still here to answer your calls and questions. If you prefer contacting us the old fashioned way, we are here M-F 9a-1p and 2-5p. Call us at 585-546-3440 or 888-724- 2227. Ask CCCS By: Michael Riley, Client Support Supervisor Each newsletter, we will choose a question or two that comes from our clients. These questions will be ones that we feel could be beneficial to all of our clients. Question: Can I get a mortgage loan or auto loan while on the debt management program? Answer: This is actually a very common question from many of our clients, and with good reason. When a client enters into the Debt Management Program with Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Rochester/ RethinkingDebt, they agree not to acquire any additional debt. However, exceptions are made for necessities. Such necessities could include but are not limited to car loans, mortgages, and/or refinancing a mortgage. CCCS, like any debt management agency, does not decide whether or not a client is able to qualify for a mortgage or car loan. The fact is, that CCCS has had many clients successfully obtain car loans, purchase new homes, and secure home repair loans. Many times CCCS has even assisted clients in obtaining these types of loans by providing letters and documentation that our clients were able to provide to their lending institutions. So the answer is, yes, it is possible, but will depend on your personal circumstances. Page 4
FICO Score Changes Have you ever wondered what effect not paying a medical copay or ambulance ride can have on your credit score? Currently, not making an on time payment at your doctors office or local hospital could make you either ineligible for mortgages or credit cards, or force you to pay a higher interest rates when obtaining an auto or other loan. The steadily rising number of Americans with medical collection accounts / debts has caused Fair Issac Co. to re-evaluate the way medical delinquencies are reported. Soon, medical delinquencies will be weighted differently than credit card and other types of debt. This means that your medical debt will not count as heavily against your credit score. This change will allow more people to obtain mortgages and car loans with reasonable interest rates. The following is a list of items used to calculate credit scores and how much each item affects your score. Payment History 35% Amounts Owed 30% Length of Credit History 15% New Credit 10% Types of Credit Used 10% The graph below is an example of how your credit score can effect your rates and as a result, your payments. We should begin seeing this FICO score change around late Fall 2014. There is also good news for people who are currently renting but are contemplating purchasing their first home. Previously, paying your rent on time every month would have no bearing on your credit score, possibly making it more difficult to obtain a mortgage. By: Lynette Rieke, Advisor However, when purchasing a home, on time rent payments could be the most accurate indication a lender can have when trying to determine a borrowers ability to repay their mortgage. Experian and Transunion are collaborating with RentTrack, a service that enables tenants across the country to pay their rent online and benefit by having those monthly payments included in their credit reports. These new changes to FICO score calculations are expected to help many raise their credit score thus enabling them to secure loans to help purchase homes, cars, etc at better interest rates than were possible in the past. If you have questions, feel free to call our Client Support department or sign up for one of our free credit score workshops. Page 5
Non-Profit Org US Postage PAID Rochester, NY Permit NO. 986 Stay Connected with CCCS/RethinkingDebt Headquarters: 1000 University Ave., Suite 900 Rochester, NY 14607 Phone: (585) 546-3440 Fax: (585) 546-5693 Toll Free- (888) 724-2227 Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Toll Free Phone: 1-888-724-2227 Email: cccsinfo@cccsofrochester.org This newsletter is a publication of CCCS of Rochester/ RethinkingDebt.org, a Not-for-Profit agency. It is a source of information for clients, sponsors, representatives of the credit industry, and the service networks supportive of our mission and vision.