From the CEO – March 2022

From the CEO’s Desk

Hello, my name is Matt Jennings, and I am the Chief Executive Officer of Quest Federal Credit Union and I hope this letter finds you enjoying the New Year and staying warm and safe in the winter weather months.

On Saturday, March 19th, Quest held our Annual Meeting. Sarah Wirbel, President gave a summary of accomplishments for the past year, Cam Hemmerly, Treasurer reviewed our financial statement and Allen Barrett, VP/Nominating Chair summarized the annual election cycle. Sarah Wirbel, Cam Hemmerly and Karen Breidenbach were re-elected to the board and Travis King was re-elected to credit committee. Karen was elected at the end of 2021 during our annual election cycle and then re-joined the staff as the Vice President of Branch Operations – Russells Point and at that time, resigned from the board. Karen’s vacancy will be filled at the next board meeting, look for a press release coming shortly thereafter announcing our new board member.

Matt Jennings spoke about 2022 goals and vision for the future and also recognized the following board and staff members for years of service. Kelly Teynor, Connie Poling, Tara Howard, Chasidy Pond, Randy Buxton, Travis King, Mark Light, Tina Hull and Brandon Ramge for 5 years. Karen Breidenbach for combined service to the board and staff for 10 years. Andrea Good for 20 years. Ron Rogers and Matt Jennings for 25 years and John “Pete” Gunn for 40 years.

Our new location in Russells Point is coming along nicely and now that the weather has stabilized from winter, we are making great progress every week. W. Lewis Construction is the General Contractor for the job and is doing a fabulous job managing building supply ordering, keeping the project on time and on budget and we thank Bill and his crew for their hard work and dedication to this job.

2022 is off to a very solid start with strong loan volume. Membership growth remains strong, and we are looking forward to another successful year. We thank our member owners for their loyalty and without our members continuing to use Quest as their primary financial institution, we could not experience the growth and success that we have maintained over the years.

If you have not already, please check out our Exploration Podcast series which you can find on our website or by visiting the podcast app on your smart phone and searching Quest Exploration. We have built a robust library covering many topics that you may find of interest or that can be used for self help for such things as online banking, learning how to apply for loans, student loans and much more.

Listen to Exploration!

In closing, thank you for your patronage, and the Board of Directors and Staff would like to wish you all the best. We view Quest as one big family and we are here to help, so if there is anything that we can do to make your quality of life better, do not hesitate to ask! Stay safe, take care of family, neighbors, friends and yourselves. Thank you and I welcome any comments, suggestions or questions from our member/owners. I can be reached by calling the Main Office or via email at mjennings@questfcu.com. Thank you for your loyal patronage to Quest and I challenge you to Explore the Possibilities!

Matt Jennings, Chief Executive Officer

2022 Annual Meeting – Service Award Winners

Quest Federal Credit Union is pleased to honor and recognize the following board and staff members for their combined years of service.

Awards were presented to the following at the recent 2022 Annual Meeting, held on Saturday, March 19, 2022.

Service Award Recipients

Brandon Ramge, Board Member — 5 years
Tina Hull, Board Intern — 5 years
Mark Light, Supervisory Committee — 5 years
Travis King, Credit Committee — 5 years
Randy Buxton, Board Intern — 5 years
Chasidy Pond, Loan Officer (Bellefontaine Branch) — 5 years
Kelly Teynor, Card Services Coordinator (Upper Sandusky Branch) — 5 years
Tara Howard, Call Center Coordinator (Ada Branch) — 5 years
Connie Poling, Member Service Representative (Jacob Parrott Branch) — 5 years
Karen Breidenbach, VP of Branch Operations & former Board Member (Indian Lake Branch) — 10 years
Andrea Good, Chief Compliance Officer — 20 years
Matt Jennings, Chief Executive Officer — 25 years
Ron Rogers, Board Member — 25 years
Pete Gunn, Credit Committee — 40 years

Matthew Jennings, CEO
Quest Federal Credit Union

From the CEO – March 2022 posted on March 22nd, 2022 by questadmin in From the CEO | Permalink

Supporting Third Party Apps

Support for Third Party Apps

Quest Federal Credit Union has had many members ask how to link their CU account to popular payment, fintech, & investment apps (Venmo, Coinbase, Robinhood, etc.). Many of these apps use a service called Plaid which asks for your online banking credentials (red flag) and asks you to disable two factor authentication (red flag) and security questions (red flag). Quest Federal Credit Union does not advise that our members use this service to link their accounts, nor do we fully support the use of the service at this time. It is ALWAYS a bad idea to use your online banking credentials for a third party service and especially when they ask you to disable security features. If they have a data breach, your online credentials are compromised leaving you open to massive fraud where a bad actor logs into your account and transfers out all of your money. Bad day.

Instead, you can link your account manually. These apps don’t like for you to link your account manually so you really have to dig to find out how to do this. Below, you will find instructions on how to do so. We will use Robinhood as an example, here’s how:

Log into your Robinhood account (app or web browser)
Navigate to your account settings
Navigate to link bank account
Plaid lists all of the big banks or you can search for Quest FCU. Here’s the trick: type in a garbage word… for this example literally type in “garbage”
The search won’t find anything and will then display the “link manually” option in tiny letters at the bottom
Tap the link manually and enter the routing number and the account number

This is the best way to link an account. As with any linking of your account details, it still poses a security risk but it is far less than entering your online banking credentials. This method works with many other apps as well.

In the future, Quest Federal Credit Union may support an integration with Plaid, however, at this time, the integration has been deemed too risky.

Robinhood Account Setup Steps

Please Note: these images may be updated in your (current) version of your app.

1. Add Account

2. Tap Continue

3. Type in “garbage”; tap on Link Manually

4. Tap on Checking Account

5. Type in Routing Number & Account Number

Venmo Account Setup Steps

Please Note: these images may be updated in your (current) version of your app.

1. Add Bank or Card

2. Tap on Add Bank

3. Tap on Manual Verification

4. Enter Account Information

Helpful Information

Routing Number

Quest Federal Credit Union’s Routing Number is 241279292 – this is public information and required to link your account to our credit union.

Account Type & Account Number

Quest Federal Credit Union recommends using a checking account only, as a means to send/receive funds. Your account number entered to link your account(s) should be the full account number as it appears on the bottom of a check. If you don’t have a physical check, but do maintain a checking account, you can contact the credit union and request your “MICR line”. This is longer account number but virtually guarantees that all transfers will be sent and received to the right accounts.

Microdeposits

In order to complete the verification process, typically two (2) microdeposits of less than $1.00 will be made and deposited into your checking account once linked. This is done in order to verify that the account information is correct. Most systems require that the microdeposits be verified once received and in the order received. This is the final step required to ensure correct account information has been provided. Look for an email from the service or additional information as provided. This will finalize the account linking steps. (Please note, the monies will be withdrawn once the verification process has occurred, usually within the next 24-48 hours.)

Supporting Third Party Apps posted on March 22nd, 2022 by questadmin in News | Permalink

P2P/Zelle Fraud Warning

P2P/Zelle Fraud – Warning to Members

Fraudsters continue to use advanced/evolved tactics to defraud account holders of funds. Read this important article to learn how to avoid falling victim.

P2P (person-to-person) fraud is a common attack used by criminals to attempt to scam account holders to use electronic means to send and receive money using popular services, such as Zelle. Quest Federal Credit Union does not actively participate or integrate with the Zelle platform, but member/owners should be aware that attackers could use one of many services to perform this scam. The scam is widespread and has been making local and national news recently. Social engineering tactics are used to impersonate a financial institution, such as Quest FCU, via text messages. The scam involves the fraudster impersonating Quest FCU and encouraging the account holder to provide their mobile phone number under the premise that they will be replacing funds “stolen” from their account. However, the funds are transferred out of the accounts to the fraudsters.

These fraud scams result in large losses for the financial institution, banks and credit unions together. In addition, these fraud losses cause impact to members. Credit Union members continue to be targeted; there have been adaptations and changes to the tactics used to perpetuate the criminal activity.

Here’s How It Works:

Fraudsters send text alerts to users – appearing to come from their financial institution – asking the users if they attempted a large dollar Zelle transfer.
Fraudsters immediately call the users who respond ‘NO’ by spoofing the FI’s phone number and claim to be from the FI’s fraud department.
Fraudsters tell the users the Zelle transfers went through, but the funds can be recovered.
Fraudsters tell the users in order to recover the stolen funds they must use Zelle to transfer the funds to themselves using the users’ mobile phone number, but before doing so, the fraudsters instruct the users to disable their mobile phone number associated with their Zelle account.

Note: Fraudsters may have previously opened an account at the user’s FI (likely using a stolen identity) and establishes Zelle through the online or mobile banking channel linking the member’s mobile phone number to Zelle.
When the fraudster links the user’s mobile phone number to the fraudster’s Zelle account, a 2-factor authentication passcode is generated and sent to validate the mobile phone number. The text message containing the passcode is actually sent to the user’s mobile phone; however, the fraudster cons the user into providing the passcode over the phone. (The text containing the passcode has the FI’s name which explains why fraudsters open a fraudulent account at the user’s institution.)
The fraudster enters the passcode to activate the mobile phone number on their Zelle account.
Users are instructed to Zelle themselves the funds.
The Zelle transfers actually go to the fraudsters

Here’s What You Need to Know:

Don’t share your information with anyone contacting you via SMS/text message or over a phone call. If you have questions, hang up or disregard the message and contact Quest FCU directly!
Don’t be pressured into providing information if you’re not comfortable!
Don’t be pressured into using electronic services, such as Zelle, CashApp, Venmo, or other transfer services, if you’ve never used them before or are not comfortable with them!
Don’t be afraid to use these electronic services, but be cautious and enable all available security measures, such as two-factor/multi-factor authentication, strong passwords, and be cautious of all requests to send money.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to Quest FCU if you have questions!

Some information materials provided and used from CUNA Mutual Group RISK Aler Publication.

P2P/Zelle Fraud Warning posted on March 16th, 2022 by questadmin in Fraud | Permalink

Online Banking Password Change

Online Banking Password Change

On April 1, 2022, Quest Federal Credit Union will be increasing the minimum length of passwords for online banking access.

We will be increasing the minimum password length to 12 characters. Complex passwords rules require three of the four following criteria: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Spaces are allowed and do help complexity.

We are making this change on the recommendation of the National Credit Union Administration, or NCUA to encourage improved security for our members who use online and mobile banking.

If your current password is already 12 characters or longer, you will notice no difference and will not be prompted to change your password.

If your current password is less than 12 characters, you will simply be prompted to change your password when you login for the first time on or after 4/1/2022. You will be required to change the password before proceeding to view your account information.

If you change your password now, prior to 4/1/2022, and change it to something 12 or more characters in length, you will not be prompted to do anything on 4/1/2022.

Self-Service Password Reset

Step 1.

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Step 2.

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Step 3.

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Online Banking Password Change posted on March 15th, 2022 by questadmin in News | Permalink