The prospect of big loan demand from state employees resulting from Illinois' current budget crisis has one credit union prepared with revised procedures "so we don't waste a lot of staff time with inactive accounts."
"Two years ago when this happened we were inundated with 1,000 applications but 20% were never activated," explained Paul Simons, president/CEO of the $575 million Credit Union 1, a Rantoul-based CU with a large number of state employees as members.
Under the new rules on special low-rate loans, non-member apps will be turned away, said Simons noting also that employees must have direct deposit, payroll and have a minimum 600 credit score.
Credit Union 1 is also imposing a $2.5 million cap on the loans, said Simons. "We simply made our whole program wide open last time around and we've learned our lesson."
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