A mortgage is a loan from a financial institution to purchase a home or other property. The borrower agrees to repay the loan amount plus interest over an extended period, usually 15 to 30 years, in monthly installments. The property being purchased serves as collateral for the loan.

PFFCU offers several types of mortgages, including fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) in multiple term lengths. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy – your best choice will depend on a few factors, including your desired monthly payment and how long you plan to stay in your home. Our expert Mortgage Advisors are here to help you decide.

Closing costs are expenses associated with finalizing a real estate transaction. They vary based on a number of factors, including the type of home loan you choose. Fees paid to PFFCU are generally lower than what traditional banks charge. Aside from lender fees, common examples of closing costs include:

• Title insurance
• Title agent fees
• Government recording charges
• Appraisal fees
• Attorney fees

Points are essentially prepaid interest. One point is equal to one percent of your loan amount. By paying points at settlement, you reduce the interest rate you pay on a loan. Paying more points at closing will lower your mortgage loan rate and monthly mortgage payment.

The four main components of a homeowner’s monthly payment often go by the acronym PITI:

1. Principal – the part of your mortgage payment that goes toward paying down your balance
2. Interest – the cost of borrowing money from PFFCU, paid according to an amortization schedule
3. Taxes – property tax payments that are collected by PFFCU, held in escrow, and paid when due
4. Insurance – homeowner’s and PMI (private mortgage insurance), also collected and paid by us

Your PITI payment amount will depend on your home’s purchase price, the type of loan you choose, and other factors.

A rate lock-in, or rate lock, is an agreement between a borrower and a lender that guarantees a certain interest rate on a mortgage loan for a specified period.

If you want to “lock in” your interest rate, speak with your Mortgage Advisor or Loan Processor at 267.332.3400.

Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is required when your loan exceeds 80% of the value of your property. This insurance protects the lender against loan default. Disclosures regarding PMI are provided to you when you apply.

PFFCU has a “No PMI” EXPRESS Refi product that offers a cost-effective way to avoid private mortgage insurance.

Yes. Some other lenders may charge you a prepayment penalty, but at PFFCU, you can make extra principal payments, in any amount, without penalty.

Trust our expert mortgage team to handle the home loan process quickly and efficiently, giving you peace of mind all the way through closing. To get started, complete our online application or call our Mortgage Advisors directly at 267.332.3400.

Request a mortgage pre-approval before you start shopping, so you’ll have a better sense of what you can afford. To get started, fill out our online application or call our Mortgage Advisors directly at 267.332.3400.

A Home Equity Loan (also known as a second mortgage) allows homeowners to borrow against the equity in their property. Equity is the difference between the outstanding liens and the property’s fair market value. Homeowners often apply for this loan to pay for home improvements, consolidate high-interest debt, or pay for an education. A Home Equity Loan has a fixed rate and disburses funds in one lump sum.

A Home Equity Line of Credit is a secured, variable-rate revolving loan that allows you to borrow against the available equity in your primary residence. A HELOC can be used to pay for home improvements, consolidate high-interest debt, or pay for an education. A HELOC works well for projects where expenses may fluctuate, and you will only pay interest on the amount you borrow.

Take the current fair market value of your home and subtract any outstanding loans or liens against the property. For example, if your home is worth $400,000, your primary mortgage balance is $100,000,  then the equity in your home is $300,000.

To make a subordination decision, we’ll need:

• A copy of the title insurance commitment
• A copy of the appraisal (except in the case of an FHA Streamline Refinance)
• A copy of the mortgage commitment letter
• The subordination agreement (to be supplied by the mortgage lender requesting subordination)
• A $50 fee payable to PFFCU

The above may be sent via UPS, FedEx, or any vendor your mortgage lender chooses, along with a return envelope, to:
PFFCU Loan Center
One Greenwood Square Office Park
3333 Street Road
Bensalem, PA 19020
Attention: Home Equity Subordination

Please allow seven business days for the subordination to be completed.

Refinancing to a lower rate can save you money. Our refinance calculator can provide you with information on these savings.

To manually determine if refinancing is beneficial, subtract the new monthly mortgage payment amount from your current mortgage payment. Divide the closing costs by that amount to see how many months it will take to recover your costs. Refinancing may be a good idea if you plan to be in your home for at least that many months.

You may email a scanned copy of your tax bill to retaxes@pffcu.org or fax a copy to 215.931.1422. If the Tax Authority requires the ORIGINAL bill, please mail the ORIGINAL to:
PFFCU
Attn: Mortgage Servicing Department
One Greenwood Square Office Park
3333 Street Road
Bensalem, PA 19020

Tax bills are only needed for Philadelphia and New Jersey properties if it is an additional/interim bill.

Yes. PFFCU requires members who close Mortgage and Home Equity Loans to maintain adequate homeowner’s insurance as long as we hold the mortgage lien on their property. PFFCU may need you to pay a portion of your homeowner’s insurance premium as part of your monthly payment, and PFFCU will pay the premium when it comes due.

Learn more about the home insurance plans that PFFCU offers through TruStage^TM Homeowners Insurance.

Title insurance protects the lender and homeowner against any loss from a title error or dispute. Title insurance protects the homeowner until the property is sold. A title search is a search of public records to confirm the property’s owner and determine if there are any liens against the property. New title insurance policies are required on mortgages for home purchases and traditional refinance mortgages. Title insurance is not required on our Home Equity Loans or our EXPRESS Refi Mortgages.

Flood insurance is required for properties in federally designated flood areas as determined by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration). When you apply for a Mortgage or Home Equity Loan with PFFCU, a flood determination certificate is purchased to determine if you are in a flood plain. It is important to note that regular homeowner’s insurance does not cover flood losses.

The amount you qualify for will depend on several factors in your Checking Account, including, but not limited to, deposit activity and transaction activity. The Courtesy Overdraft limit may change depending on these factors. FREE overdraft protection from your Savings and/or Personal Line of Credit will be used before Courtesy Overdraft protection is accessed.

PFFCU offers a Courtesy Overdraft Program (COD), where PFFCU will pay overdrafts, up to a predetermined limit, for a fee if there are insufficient available funds in your Savings Account and you either don’t have available credit on your PLOC or you have not selected the PLOC option to cover overdrafts. When a transaction item is paid through the COD program, it causes your Checking Account to have a negative balance, which must then be repaid.

The following types of COD overdraft transactions will incur a $18.00 fee:

• Checks, including Bill Pay checks
• ACH debits to your Checking Account

Everyday debit card transactions will incur a $7.00 fee.

We do not pay everyday debit card transactions that would exceed your available balance unless you authorize us to do so by enrolling in this service. To enroll, log in to Online/Mobile Banking, click/tap the Services tab, then select Courtesy Overdraft Opt-In, and follow the steps.

If you are not enrolled in Online/Mobile Banking, call Member Service at 215.931.0300 or 800.228.8801, visit a Branch, or write to us at 901 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107.

If you would like to opt out, that is, if you would prefer we not pay everyday debit card transactions that would overdraw your account, you may opt out by writing to us at 901 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, calling 215.931.0300 or 800.228.8801, stopping by a Branch, or by logging in to Online/Mobile Banking through PFFCU.org or our Mobile App and informing us of your intention to opt out.

Your Checking Account has two kinds of balances: the “actual” balance and the “available” balance. It is important to understand how these balances differ so that you know when a given transaction may cause you to incur a fee under the COD Program.

In addition to free overdraft protection from your Savings or a Personal Line of Credit, PFFCU offers a Courtesy Overdraft (COD) program where we will pay overdrafts on your Checking Account, up to a predetermined limit, for a fee if there are insufficient available funds in your Savings Account and you either don’t have available credit on your PLOC or you have not selected the PLOC option to cover overdrafts. When a transaction item is paid through the COD Program, it causes your checking account to have a negative balance, which must then be repaid.

If we pay for an overdraft under the COD Program, the amount of the fee we will charge depends upon the type of transaction:

• We charge a fee of $18.00 for overdrafts caused by checks, including Bill Payer checks and ACH debits to your Checking Account.
• We charge a fee of $7.00 for overdrafts caused by everyday debit card transactions.

These fees are set forth in our Fee Schedule, which we update periodically.

Your Checking Account Balance
Your checking account has two kinds of balances: the “actual” balance and the “available” balance. It is important to understand how these balances differ so that you know when a given transaction may cause you to incur a fee under the COD Program.

The actual balance is the amount of money that is actually in your account. It reflects all transactions that have “posted” to the account (i.e., completed transactions for which payment has been deducted from your account). It is important to note that your actual balance may not reflect the money that is available for you to spend at any given time, as it does not reflect transactions that have occurred, such as purchases or deposits, but have not yet posted.

The available balance, on the other hand, is the amount of the actual balance that is available for you to use at any given time. This balance often differs from the actual balance, as it reflects not only the completed and posted transactions, but also any transactions for which payment is authorized but still pending. It also reflects restrictions on the funds in your account such as deposit holds and authorization holds for pending debit card transactions.

A common transaction that can cause your available balance to differ from your actual balance is an everyday signature-based (non-PIN) debit card transaction. When you present your debit card to a merchant to purchase an item, the merchant electronically contacts us to authorize the transaction. When that happens, we place an “authorization hold” on the available funds in your account. This reduces the available balance of your account, usually in the amount of the transaction (the hold can be for less than the full transaction amount when the amount is not known at the time of authorization; e.g., when you are purchasing gas or add a tip at a restaurant). Your actual balance remains unchanged, however, because the transaction has not yet posted and the funds are still in the account. When the merchant processes the transaction and submits it to us for payment, the transaction is posted to your account and the payment amount is deducted from your actual balance to reflect the completion of the transaction. This can happen hours or up to several days after you made the purchase and we authorized the transaction.

How We Apply COD Fees to Your Account
We apply COD Program fees based upon the available balance in your account. Here is an example of how this works. Suppose you have an actual balance and available balance of $500, and you make a signature based debit card purchase for $300. We would put an authorization hold on your account for $300, which would reduce your available balance to $200. Your actual balance would still be $500 because the transaction has not yet posted. Before the merchant sends the transaction to us for completion, you have a $350 check clear your account. Although the actual balance of the account appears sufficient to cover the check, there would not be sufficient “available” funds to cover the check (the available balance is $200 due to the authorized but still pending debit card transaction), so we would honor the check via the COD Program and assess the $18 fee.

It is therefore important that you keep track of your transactions (checks, automatic bill payments, etc.) and the “available” funds in your account at any given time. You can be assessed a COD fee on an insufficient available balance even if your actual balance appears to indicate that there are sufficient funds to cover a transaction. In doing so, you should keep in mind the following:

• Funds that you deposit into your account may not be immediately available. The availability of deposits is governed by our “Funds Availability Policy Disclosure,” which is set forth in our General Agreements and Disclosures.
• Because checks and ACH transactions are processed through the Federal Reserve system, there can be a delay of several days from when you present a check or authorize an ACH payment and when the check or ACH is presented to us for payment from your account.
• Checks or ACH payments that were previously returned or rejected ( and charged a NSF fee) due to an insufficient available balance can be re-presented or re-submitted by a merchant or other third party resulting in an additional fee(s), which could be an additional NSF fee if returned or rejected again or a COD fee if paid.
• In a PIN-based debit card transaction, the funds are typically deducted from your account immediately (e.g., at the time of the sale).
• In a signature-based debit card transaction, as discussed above, the merchant usually seeks authorization for the transaction at the time of sale, at which time we place an authorization hold against the available funds in your account, which reduces your available balance (but not your actual balance) by the amount of the hold.

Your acceptance into the COD Program does not obligate PFFCU to pay an overdraft on your account. Even if you are in the COD Program, the decision to pay an overdraft is made on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of PFFCU. We will decide to pay overdrafts on a case-by-case basis, in our sole and absolute discretion. We have no obligation to notify you before we pay or return any check, item, or other transaction, and may refuse to pay any overdrafts without first notifying you even if your account is in good standing and we have paid previous overdrafts. PFFCU is not liable if we do not pay an overdraft.

Courtesy Overdraft email and text notices are sent the next day to members who have supplied PFFCU with a primary email address or mobile phone number. If you have not provided us with that information or need to update your email address or mobile phone number, you should log in to Online/Mobile Banking, click/tap Settings, and choose Manage Contact Info. You may also provide us with your primary email address or mobile phone number by calling 215.931.0300 or 800.228.8801. After we have that information, we will send email or text notifications to you beginning the first of the following month. Members with no primary email address or mobile phone number on file will receive notification by U.S. mail.

In most instances, if an item is presented for payment, or you authorize payment from your account, and the available balance is insufficient to pay it, PFFCU will consider paying the item as long as it does not result in a negative balance in your account (exclusive of fees), greater than your limit. If paying any item will cause you to exceed your limit, the item will be returned unpaid, or the Debit Card authorization will be denied.

PFFCU expects that you will deposit funds to cover any overdrafts immediately. If you do not deposit funds to cover your overdraft, we will send you additional letters and contact you to discuss clearing the negative balance in your account. If a negative balance continues, we will close your account and report the overdraft balance to ChexSystems, a national reporting agency.

Yes. Your account may be charged a non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee (either a Returned Share Draft (NSF) or an ACH (NSF)) when PFFCU returns or rejects a transaction presented or submitted against your account that would exceed your available balance. Importantly, a transaction that you have authorized (for example, a check or an ACH debit) may be re-presented or submitted to PFFCU multiple times. After the initial fee, no additional fee (either NSF or COD) will be charged for that item if the item is re-presented for payment within 25 days of the initial presentment and the account does not have sufficient available funds. Additional fees may be charged if an item is re-presented for payment after 25 days and the account does not have sufficient available funds. Please note that PFFCU does not determine whether or when an item transaction will be presented or submitted for payment. Rather, PFFCU determines whether or not the available balance is sufficient to pay a presented or submitted item or transaction.

As indicated above, PFFCU does not determine or control whether or when an item or transaction that you authorized will be presented or submitted for payment. This means that a merchant or other third party may, ultimately, re-present or submit for payment an item or transaction you authorized multiple times. PFFCU will not charge additional NSF fees if the item is re-presented multiple times within 25 days of the initial presentment. Additional fees may be charged, however, if an item is re-presented for payment after 25 days and the account does not have sufficient available funds.

As an example, if you wrote a check to a merchant (or other third party) who submitted the check to PFFCU for payment and we returned the check, you would be charged a Returned Share Draft (NSF) fee. If the merchant re-presented the check for payment again (or converted the check into an ACH and submitted the item for payment), PFFCU would make an additional determination of whether the available balance was sufficient. If it is not sufficient and 25 days have passed from the initial presentment you would be charged a Returned Share Draft (NSF) fee for this additional rejected transaction.

As an example, if you authorize a merchant (or other third party) to electronically debit your account, such as an ACH debit, the merchant submits the electronic debit to PFFCU for payment. If the transaction exceeds your available balance, the debit will be rejected and you will be charged an ACH (NSF) fee. If the merchant re-submits the electronic debit to PFFCU for payment, PFFCU would make an additional determination of whether the available balance was sufficient. If it is not sufficient and 25 days have passed from the initial presentment, you would be charged an ACH (NSF) fee for this additional rejected transaction.

Traditional IRAs (individual retirement accounts) allow for pre-tax contributions with tax-deferred growth, but withdrawals in retirement are taxed.

Roth IRAs are funded with post-tax dollars, offer tax-free growth, and permit tax-free withdrawals in retirement.

SEP-IRAs (Simplified Employee Pension individual retirement accounts) are designed for self-employed individuals and small business owners, permitting larger pre-tax contributions than Traditional IRAs but taxing withdrawals in retirement.

With a Coverdell ESA (Education Savings Account), post-tax contributions can grow tax-free until they are withdrawn for qualified education expenses.

PFFCU offers all four IRA options.

A transfer is when IRA funds are moved directly from one institution or account to another.

A rollover involves withdrawing funds from an eligible retirement plan and depositing them into a new account. In the case of a rollover, it’s essential to deposit the funds within the IRS timeframe (generally 60 days) to avoid incurring taxes and penalties.

The actual balance is the amount of money that is actually in your account. It reflects all transactions that have “posted” to the account (i.e., completed transactions for which payment has been deducted from your account). It is important to note that your actual balance may not reflect the money that is available for you to spend at any given time, as it does not reflect transactions that have occurred, such as purchases or deposits, but have not yet posted.

The available balance, on the other hand, is the amount of the actual balance that is available for you to use at any given time. This balance often differs from the actual balance, as it reflects not only the completed and posted transactions, but also any transactions for which payment is authorized but still pending. It also reflects restrictions on the funds in your account such as deposit holds and authorization holds for pending debit card transactions.

PFFCU is a member-owned credit union, and your $5 deposit equals your share of the credit union. $5 must remain in your account at all times.

There is no fee for members to use the coin-counting machine. Non-members will be charged $20 to use this service.

One of PFFCU’s core values is Trust. To secure all of our member accounts, transactions on behalf of other members can only be completed if a Power of Attorney is active on the account and the member looking to complete the transaction has been appointed the Power of Attorney.

Additional security questions are required based on the type of transaction requested. We use additional verification questions to reduce the risks of fraud and identity theft.

At many banks, you will get a higher Certificate rate if you complain to the branch manager rather than just let your Certificate roll over at maturity. At most auto dealers, the interest rate you receive is a function of your negotiating skill and the mood of the finance person at the dealer. During the real estate boom, most mortgage loan brokers were paid on commission and earned more income if you were charged a higher loan rate.

PFFCU’s philosophy with regard to loan and deposit rates is to offer members the best rate possible, period. We don’t think it is fair to make special deals for some members and not others. We don’t think a member’s Certificate rate or loan rate should be a function of their negotiating skill or the mood of the particular person with whom the member is negotiating. We believe strongly in treating all members fairly.

Our fair rate philosophy with regard to Certificate rates means that we only have one set of Certificate rates and the rates are available to everyone in the branch, over the phone, or through the website. We have different Certificate rates as a function of term. We sometimes have higher Certificate rates for IRAs or large balance Certificates. These rates are also available to everyone based upon the term or product they choose. We know of one financial institution that had three Certificate rate tables. The lowest rate is for people who just let their Certificates roll over. A higher advertised rate is available but the customer needs to ask for it. Finally, the highest Certificate rate is available only to certain customers if they complain to the manager.

Our fair rate philosophy also applies to auto loan rates. If you get an auto loan from an auto dealer, the rate you receive is a function of your ability to negotiate. The dealer typically earns more money if you pay a higher interest rate. You can’t just walk in and ask to see a list of their auto loan rates. At PFFCU, you have access to our interest rates. We give all members the best rate we can based upon whether or not they get a new or used car, what term they select for their loan, and their credit score. Rates are typically lower for shorter term auto loans because these loans have less interest rate risk and less risk of default. New auto loans typically have lower rates than used auto loans because historically, our loan losses are lower on new auto loans compared with used auto loans.

Unlike some banks and mortgage brokers, we don’t cut secret deals where people get a better rate if they know someone or they complain. PFFCU doesn’t believe it is fair to give some members a special mortgage rate that is not available to all members with the same credit score and loan-to-value ratio. Our loan rates are available to members and our Mortgage Advisors work with members to help them get the best product to meet their needs. Our Mortgage Advisors don’t work on commission.