Reading about money can be a snooze. Don’t sweat it, here is some quick, fun and basic info you need to open a checking account. These tidbits could save you big hassles and hundreds of dollars each year in fees, so check it out. (Don’t worry, this is completely painless.)

Oh yeah, as an added bonus for reading this info and passing our short quizlet at the end, we'll give you a $10 iTunes gift certificate. This is good for ten free music downloads when you open your checking account.

You want a checking account you don't have to pay for
See, you’ve already shown how smart you are by choosing Linn Area Credit Union because our checking accounts are free with no minimum balance! You can open an account with just $50 and we’ll give you a free box of checks and a free debit card (which looks pretty cool, by the way). You can open this checking account without your parents as a joint owner. If you’re 17 and under though, we’ll just need to give your parents a heads up. Sorry man, it’s the law.

Account comes complete with a free debit card (unless you don’t want it)
A debit card looks like a credit card but works like a check. When you use it the money comes right out of your checking account. You can pick your PIN number (a 4 digit number you use with your debit card) or you can let us pick one for you. Information about your card will arrive shortly after you set up the account and your brand-spankin’-new card will arrive several days after that.

DON’T PAY A FEE TO GET YOUR OWN MONEY
You can use your debit card for purchases as many times as you want with no fees. But if you're withdrawing money at an ATM watch out for surcharges. Financial institutions that own ATM machines can charge you a fee to withdraw money at their ATM... it's called a surcharge and around here it's usually between $1.50 and $2.50 per withdrawal. There’s no surcharge fee if you use a Linn Area Credit Union ATM machine (at any of our offices Kirkwood College or by the Blue Strawberry downtown) or withdraw money at any ATM machine with either of these symbols on them... If you withdraw money at an ATM machine that does charge a surcharge fee, the screen will tell you how much it charges. Be sure to subtract both the fee and the amount of cash you withdrew in your checkbook register (more info on that below).

LOGOS ON THE BACK OF THE CARD
The Allpoint and MoneyPass logos are printed on the back of the card to remind you which ATM machines don’t surcharge. There is also a Cirrus logo back there. If you can’t find a machine with an Allpoint or MoneyPass logo on it, look for the Cirrus logo. It won’t necessarily be a surcharge-free transaction, but it means your card will work at that ATM.

SECURITY
Make sure not to keep your PIN number with your card - memorize it or keep it someplace safe.

If you lose your debit card, let someone at the credit union know ASAP by either calling or stopping in. We will cancel your current card and issue a new one. Each replacement card costs $5.00 and it will be sent to your home in 7 to 10 business days. Your PIN will stay the same unless you request otherwise.

To report a lost or stolen ATM/debit card after hours or on the weekend, call 1-800-383-8000.

CHECKS
When you sign up for your Plugged In checking account, you will get a free box of checks. They’re duplicate checks, which means that as you write out a check, you are left with a carbon copy of it for your records. Whether or not you use them, you should still keep track of all your transactions so you know how much money you have in your account.

THE CHECKBOOK REGISTER (AKA: TRANSACTION REGISTER)
This is the grid-like book thingy at the top of your checkbook. (It comes with your box of checks and you can get more from a teller at LACU.) You need to write down every penny that goes in and out of your checking account-that way you’ll always know exactly how much money you have available in there.

BEING OVERDRAWN
If you write a check or use your debit card to spend more than you have in your checking account, you’ll become overdrawn (this means you have a negative balance). When this happens, you have to pay some fees called overdraft charges. That's a $20 charge for each transaction that makes your account go negative! If you have money in savings that will cover the overdrawn amount, we’ll transfer it to your checking and the charge for that is only $2.10. Not quite so bad... so try to keep some money in savings, too, just in case you mess up in your checking account.

OVERDRAFT ADVANCE
If you’re 18 or older, and your account has been opened and in good standing for at least 90 days, we have a program called Overdraft Advance that will cover your negative balance up to $500, but you have to pay that money back within 30 days. So keep track of the balance in your account and don’t spend more than you have!

BOUNCING CHECKS
If you don't have enough money in your checking account to pay the checks you wrote, your checks could "bounce". This means we'll "bounce" it back to the person or store you wrote the check to and the money will "bounce" back out of their account. Many retailers try to prevent bounced checks (sometimes called NSF checks meaning "Non Sufficient Funds") so they will charge a fee as high as $35 per check to the person who wrote it. Don't let this happen to you! You don't want to have a $20 overdraft fee plus a $35 fee from the store! So keep track of the balance in your account in your checkbook register.

If you don't have enough money in your account and you're trying to buy something using your debit card, the clerk will tell you that the purchase has been "declined" or "denied," which is kind of embarrassing.

THE CHECKBOOK REGISTER
Click here to see what a checkbook register looks like.

Item Number: If you’ve written a check, put the number here (it’s in the upper right hand corner of the check). For other transactions, leave it blank.

Date: Write the date each transaction occurs. That was a tough one, huh?

Description of Transaction: Write out what happened and who was involved. Some examples:

• For a deposit write: Deposit – paycheck
• For a check write: Best Buy - CDs
• For a purchase with a debit card write: HandiMart- gas
• For an ATM withdrawal write: ATM withdrawal
• For any fees hitting your account write: NSF fee

You’ll notice there are 2 columns to list the amount of your transactions:

Payment, Withdrawal or Fee Amount (-): Put the dollar amount of the transaction here if it is going out of your account.
Payment, Deposit or Interest (+): Put the dollar amount of the transaction here if it is coming into your account.

Checkmark: You’ll use this for balancing. More on that later…

Code: Put the abbreviation of your transaction here. There are examples of these abbreviations along the top of each page in your checkbook register.

Balance:The amount you’re subtracting or adding goes on the white line and the total is listed on each of the gray lines.

So that’s how to use your checkbook register. Got it? If not, just call the credit union or stop by if you still have any questions. Remember to write down each transaction as it happens before you forget because missing transactions will throw off your balance.

WRITING A CHECK

Click here to see a check.

1. You can fill in the date any way you want; either with numbers (like 9 / 1 / 05) or written out (like September 1, 2005). A check is good for 6 months from the date you write it – after that it may be worthless.
   
   
2. Write the name of the store or person you are paying on the Pay to the Order of line. Start writing at the left edge of the line so no one can add their name in front of who you wrote it to and be sure to spell the name right.
   
   
3. In the $ box, write the amount of the check with numbers (like $100.53). Write legibly and mark the decimal point clearly… if a teller can't read your writing, your check could be cashed for the wrong amount. Again, start writing at the left edge of that box… you don’t want some scammer to write a 5 in front and try to cash your check for $5,100.53 do you???
   
   
4. Write out the amount of your check in words on the legal line. For example: "One hundred and 53/100---------------------." Cents are listed as a fraction over 100. Start writing at the left edge of this line too, and draw a line clear to the right to fill up the space so no one can add anything.
   
   
5. Write a note to remember what the check was for in the memo area... like "Textbooks" or "Pizza". This part of the check is optional but it can be helpful if you write checks to this store or person a lot.
   
   
6. The signature line is where you where you sign (don’t print) your name. Sign your name the same way each time and you should write it as your name appears in the upper left corner (no nicknames). Always do this step last and don’t sign checks in advance to save time - a signed check is just like money. If someone stole a check with your signature on it, they could adjust the rest of the info to give themselves some extra mula.
   
   
7. You don’t need to do anything with those numbers along the bottom; they are used by electronic processing systems. Some of these numbers identify your credit union, some are your account number and some of them are the check number. These numbers are used to clear the checks.

BALANCING YOUR CHECKBOOK

I know, balancing your checkbook sounds like a lot of work. But it’s just comparing your checkbook register to the monthly statement (or online e-statement) that you get from the credit union. You should balance your checkbook every month when you receive your statement.

Remember that checkbox column in the checkbook register? This is where you use it. Okay, say you’ve written some checks, you’ve made some deposits and now you’re sitting down to balance your checkbook.

Lay your printed statement next to your checkbook register and go through each transaction on your statement. Once you find that item in your checkbook register, put a mark in the checkbox column and a mark next to that item on your statement. Make sure that the amount of each transaction is the same amount you wrote in your register.

After you’ve checked off all the transactions on the statement, you’ll usually see some in your checkbook register that weren’t on the statement. Those items haven’t "cleared" or come out of your account yet. Sometimes people or businesses do not deposit a check you wrote right away. In fact, they can carry it around for a long time (remember, checks are good for 6 months from the date you wrote them).

In that checkmark column, circle each item that hasn’t cleared yet. When it finally does come out of your account you’ll check it off then. In the meantime, that is considered an "outstanding item". On the back of the statement, there’s a fill-in-the-blank balancing sheet. Follow the directions on this worksheet to balance the month-end total on your statement with your month-end total in your check register.

What if you don’t balance?
If the amounts don’t match (meaning you don’t balance), here are some things to check:

• Recheck your math since the last time you balanced. Add and subtract everything one more time.
• Did you forget to write down a check? Look at the check numbers you wrote in your register… did you miss one?
• Did you forget to write down an ATM withdrawal?
• Were there some charges or fees that you didn’t write down? They’d be on your statement, but may not have been written in your check register.
• Did you write an entry twice?
• Do you have any automatic withdrawals or deposits that didn’t get recorded?

If you can’t figure it out, ask someone for help or bring your checkbook register in to the credit union. We want you to know exactly how much money you have and we’ll help you balance your checkbook while you’re learning.

Okay- ready to take the "Quizlet"? (Don’t forget, you can’t get any free stuff without this…)

Checking & Debit Quizlet

---

First Name:
Last Name:
Date Of Birth:	(MM/DD/YYYY)

---

1. The number of ATM withdrawals you can make from your checking account each month without having to pay a fee is:
four
five
six
seven

2. You can find the check number in the:
Upper right corner of the check
Lower left corner of the check
Upper left corner of the check
Back of check

3. An overdraft charge is:
A fee for writing checks for more than the balance in the checking account
$20 per occurrence or $2.10 if there is money in savings to be transferred to checking
Something that can be avoided
All of the above

4. It’s important to balance your checking account because:
You might become overdrawn if you don’t
You won't know how much money you have left to spend
You might not catch errors in your checkbook register
All of the above

5. When you write a check, you should sign it first before filling in the rest:
True
False

6. If you balance your checking account and the amount you have in the register doesn't match the balance the credit union shows, you should:
Add and subtract everything in the register again checking for math errors
Make sure you wrote down every transaction that showed upon the statement
Ask for help if you can't figure it out
All of the Above

7. If you withdraw money at an ATM, you have to subtract it from your balance in your checkbook register:
True
False

8. What should you do if you lose (or a machine eats) your debit card?
Open a new checking account somewhere else
Shrug it off and just write checks
Take someone else's card
Call Linn Area Credit Union and get a replacement card

Or call 370-0101 and we will send you an application.