2008 Annual General Meeting


Additional questions from the AGM

Please CLICK on the questions to view the answers.

Q. Could staff at Meridian put the semi-annual statements for many accounts into one envelope? This would save mailing costs/paper and trees.
A. Meridian provides our Members with consolidated statements on a monthly basis for each Membership account. Therefore, Members may receive more than one consolidated statement if they have more than one Membership. Consolidating multiple Memberships under one Membership account could result in Privacy concerns if one Membership is single and one is joint, and is therefore a practise we do not consider appropriate. Please contact your branch representative or our Quality Contact Centre for more information regarding your specific situation.

Q. Do you think it is a good idea to refinance your mortgage to payout your line of credit and purchase a car or it is better to keep them separate?
A. There are several things to consider surrounding your question. Firstly, if cash flow is a consideration, it may be beneficial to refinance your mortgage to include the line of credit as well as a car purchase. This provides ease of one payment stretched over a longer period of time. Also, generally interest rates for mortgages are lower than vehicle loans and lines of credit that are unsecured. A second consideration, however, is the interest cost when you do stretch the payment over a longer period of time. You may be able to repay your car loan in 5 years or less, or repay your Line of Credit in a shorter time, whereas through the mortgage, you could be stretching that repayment up to 25 years, paying a lot of interest over that time frame. A third and final consideration is the Line of Credit. When it is fully used and you are paying interest only, it is always in your best interest to term that out, as it can go on indefinitely if ignored. This may be accomplished via a mortgage, or if it is a smaller, unsecured line, it may just mean putting the Line of Credit on repayment to get that debt paid off.  As you can see there are several options, to ensure that your specific need is met. A Financial Services Advisor will have the conversation with you to make sure you get the best advice for you.

Q. It is hard for fixed income seniors to manage transferring back and forth between the advantage savings and the maximizer accounts, especially if you have don't have or use the internet. Why can't Meridian pay some interest to the maximizer accounts? It would avoid having to worrying about transferring to cover cheques/pre-authorized payments etc and we would at least earn some interest. (I realize it wouldn't be as high as the advantage account but some interest would be good). Thank you.
A. Thank you very much for your question. We always appreciate knowing our Member's concerns so we can help to provide better service to you!

We have services available that can help you achieve your goal of earning as much interest on your day to day savings. To ensure you are equipped with a general understanding – We'll outline the services in brief so that you can discuss them with your advisor as to which option is best suited to your needs.
  1. CoverDraft – is a service that will automatically pull funds from one of your other designated accounts (such as the Advantage High Interest Savings Account) to cover a withdrawal from your Maximiser. $2 per item fee applies.
  1. Creditline – covers your withdrawals up to $3,000 with a temporary loan (@21.5%) and a $1 service access fee per month applies.
  1. Automatic Transfers (weekly, biweekly, monthly) can be set up to transfer funds from one account to another. This is perhaps the best solution for you because you’ll be able to leave as much money as you wish in the Advantage high interest Savings Account earning interest and only transfer out what may be needed to cover your (weekly, biweekly or monthly) withdrawals made on the Maximiser.

Q. What are your thoughts on companies that eliminate debt; for example: debt freedom.com?
A. Debt elimination companies can take two different forms. One example are firms that operate as “for-profit” credit counselling, they will attempt to negotiate with your creditors to lower payments or to forgive interest on your outstanding debts. If they are successful they will either take an upfront fee or a percentage of the payments that they have arranged as compensation for their efforts. The drawback in some of these arrangements is that the creditor may not accept their terms and therefore you are required to continue with full payments to that creditor, thereby not achieving the cash flow or debt reduction objectives you may have.

The other form that debt elimination companies might take is to offer what they call debt elimination programs, which (contrary to their product positioning) are really debt consolidation programs with a savings or reduction component. The overall concept is sound, you consolidate your debts and are required by contract to take a percentage of the reduction in payments and apply that back onto the debt each month, using the remaining amount to build savings or put towards other worthwhile purposes. This has the effect of reducing the length of time it takes to pay this new debt off and if you follow the guidelines of not using any further debt you will at the end of the revised term – be debt free.

There are qualifying requirements to be eligible for this type of program, the most important of which are equity in a home and an acceptable credit rating. There will also be a one time fee that you will have to pay for this service and typically your refinanced mortgage is not with the debt elimination firm, it is arranged through a partner lender.

It is important to know that your Meridian advisor can, under these same conditions, assist you in setting up such a program and it can be done without the consulting fee associated with the debt elimination companies.

Q. In our account statements, is it possible to give details of cheques, while checking details on the internet (website) banking?
A. Meridian is currently researching options to provide Members with additional transaction details, including the ability to provide images of cheques, through online banking. Please contact your branch representative or our Quality Contact Centre if you require details regarding your cheques.

Q. Why do power savings statements come out every quarter? It means I must hold chits for this time. I print the statements every month so I do not to have a mountain of paper.
A. Quarterly statements is a feature of the Power Savings account. Meridian also offers Advantage Savings and Maximiser accounts, both of which have monthly statements. You may wish to review these two products to determine if one of them better meets your needs. Please contact your branch representative or our Quality Contact Centre for more information.

Q. If Meridian wants to truly be a neighborhood bank to serve Members, could Meridian extend the hours of banking during weekdays and on weekends? Thank you.
A. At Meridian Credit Union we absolutely believe we need to be available for our Members at their convenience. We have recently reviewed our hours of operation to ensure they are consistent or exceed service levels of most other financial institutions. Our online banking is available 24/7 and our virtual branch, TeleOntario and our Quality Contact Centre are available with extended evening and weekend hours. That said we value Member feedback, so if you have specific suggestions regarding branch hours, we encourage you to discuss them with your local Branch Manager.

Q. Could the auditor report financial statements be provided to all Members in a simplified format prior to the AGM? I own a condo in downtown Toronto and I have the auditor’s financial report prior to AGM every year.
A. Our audited financial statements were posted to Meridian's web site on March 28 which was 26 days prior to our AGM allowing review by Members. In addition, our full annual report which contains the audited financial statements was posted to our website 12 days prior to our AGM.  Our regulations require that the annual report be posted 10 days in advance of our AGM so you can always count on these statements being available for your review in advance.  We can appreciate your desire for a more simplified financial report and for that reason, we have issued a financial highlights document which was also available on line as well as through our branch network in advance of the AGM.  This document provides a simplified high level overview of Meridian's growth results and overall profitability, enabling our Members to see at a glance how we are doing.

Q. What is the average fee a Financial Planner charges?
A. It is difficult to quote an average fee charged by a financial planner because of the variety of compensation structures and employment arrangements that financial planners operate under.

Here at Meridian Credit Union there is no charge for or obligation to, in connection with the preparation of a financial plan.

Q. In 1967 I took out life insurance with London Life. I spent a number of years in the hospital. I now have equity built up in my home. Should I invest it outside of London Life or keep it in London Life.
A. Based on the information provided, it is difficult to provide a clear answer. There may be a number of considerations such as taxation, loss of life insurance, altered estate plans, etc. that would affect our answer.

As there is no real stock answer to your question, we suggest you discuss your situation with our Insurance Specialist Partner at Credential Financial Strategies, who can provide you with advice tailored to your personal situation. Our Credential Financial Strategies Partner can be reached by calling our Quality Contact Centre at: 1-866-592-2226.

Staff at either our Quality Contact Centre (open 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and Saturdays 8 to 4pm) or the staff at your local branch can help you with making the right choice to suit your financial needs!

Q. Will there by any minutes / Q&A available to Members so they can access this information at a later date?
A. Minutes from Meridian’s AGM are first required to be approved by the board before being put to the Membership for acceptance which occurs at the following year’s meeting – so for example the minutes from our most recent AGM on April 22nd, 2008 will be approved at our AGM in April, 2009.We also post to our website any questions along with their answers where there was not time to address them during the meeting. Questions that were asked and answered during the event are currently available as part of the webcast posted on our website. This is available for anyone to watch for 60 days after the event.

Thanks for your support

Meridian Credit Union’s 2008 Annual General Meeting was a great success – and we could not have done it without you, our Members.

Your participation is part of what makes our credit union a unique place to do business. Our Members are at the heart of everything we do – from the products we offer to the hours at our branches, you are who we are in business for. Being able to share with you in person our successes and accomplishments is what being a Member of a credit union is all about.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the dedicated Meridian staff who worked so hard to make this year’s AGM such a success. Every Department, Branch and Commercial Business Centre had a part in making last week’s event possible – we couldn’t have done it without them!

Once again thank you all very much for your participation and attendance. Whether you were at our main event in Niagara Falls or attended one of our six webcast branch locations, we were glad to have you take part.

We will also be posting all the questions we were unable to address at the AGM to our website – along with the answers – within the next two weeks.

Thank you all again for a very successful year!

Kevin Sherwood
Board Chair		 Sean Jackson
President and CEO