KC Unidos Federal Credit Union celebrated a milestone of 85 years of credit union service with its membership and staff. Also, celebrating a new future headquarters and a second location in Kansas in the coming months.
“People are stretching their dollars, trying to see how they can make ends meet. A lot of them need to borrow money to purchase a car or need to do some home repairs. We want to help our members with obtaining that loan,” said Cris Medina. Stacey Calderon gave Hispanic News a tour of the future home on the Boulevard just across the street from their current location.
Stacey Calderon appreciates the credit union’s longevity to forward-thinking leadership, the wisdom and experience of longtime employees. Plus, Stacey Calderon and Bernardo Ramirez are visiting with city leaders like KCK Mayor Crystal Watson (center).
BY JOE ARCE AND COREY CRABLE
The Missouri-based KC Unidos Federal Credit Union is celebrating its 85th anniversary of serving the community by embracing even more growth, from its mobile app to opening a branch on the Kansas side of the State Avenue.
At the Unidos’ annual meeting in late August, some of the credit union’s employees and a portion of its more than 1,600 members heard presentations on the credit union’s finances and discussed its bright future. KC Unidos Federal Credit Union was founded in 1941 as KC Terminal Way Credit Union. The credit union’s membership is mostly Latino, and as the fastest growing minority demographic in the metro area, it only makes sense to extend the credit union’s reach into the Kansas side, says consultant Bernardo Ramirez.
“The members tell us, ‘Hey, half of our members are in Kansas.’ They’re saying, ‘Hey, it would be great if you had a branch in Kansas.’ A few months ago last year, they were asking about an upgrade to the mobile app for the credit union members. So (President and CEO Stacey Calderon), she did what she does and did some upgrades to the mobile app,” Ramirez says. “A lot of us take for granted our big banks. The credit union is moving in that direction. I’m not necessarily saying we’re going to compete with Bank of America any day soon, but we want to provide some of the simple activities and tasks that people are looking for from their financial institution.”
In addition to its new branch on the Kansas side and a move to Southwest Boulevard for its Westside branch, Calderon also opened up membership to any states that border Missouri – a sign of more growth to come.
Ramirez says credit unions exist for marginalized communities made up of people who might not trust large banks.
“If you’re talking about the unbanked, the underbanked, those hard-to-serve communities, communities of color that tend to shy away from the big banks and financial institutions, credit unions are a big deal,” he says. “The other thing that people fail to realize is credit unions are legally a non-for-profit entity. They are considered a 501c1, which is a designation only for credit unions established by the Internal Revenue Service.”
Ramirez also told Hispanic News, they often gets the question, “How can a credit union be a nonprofit?”
“The profits, if you will, go back to the members in terms of dividends or shares, or they go back into the lending, which is what you look for a lot in the financial institutions. So board members don’t get compensation. There’s no money to the big CEO or those kind of folks,” Ramirez says. “It’s truly a community financial institution, which is the whole purpose of when it was started back in 1941. So those are the kind of things that really, really make a difference.”
Another question he often receives – “Why should I choose to do business with a credit union instead of a traditional bank?”
“The simple things are, for one thing, credit unions are more about the members. … If you go to a bank and say, ‘Hey, I need a $2,000 loan,’ I don’t even know if they’ll even talk to you. I mean, they’ll just turn you over. ‘Yeah, we don’t deal with that,’” Ramirez says. “Most banks, especially the national ones, their lending structures start at $50,000, $100,000. They’re looking for hundreds of thousands
in mortgages.”
He continues, “Those are the kind of things that members of credit unions can also apply for, but they can also apply for these simple, smaller loans. We have one, I think it’s called a fixture loan. Where you need a new water heater or your AC unit went out -- those are a few thousand bucks,” Ramirez says. “A bank isn’t going to necessarily lend you for that. Credit unions more than likely will. In addition, they might even provide it at a lower interest rate than the bank would. So there’s those little things that really make a difference for a member.”
One of the features of Unidos that makes it even more special is the requirement for all staff members to be bilingual – 97 percent of its members are Spanish-speaking Hispanics. Not only does that help members and employees communicate more effectively it also helps establish meaningful relationships.
“A couple of our staffers have been with us for many years, and so when it comes to establishing relationships and memberships and extending it to members of your family, the bilingual aspect of it, it’s a circle that feeds itself,” Ramirez says. “As one person gets a service, then they’ll tell their friend. And we’ve been increasing membership every month when we see the reports. Every month there’s a few more members. We lose some mainly because they just move. They want to close their account or unfortunately have passed away,” said Ramirez.
He adds, “We just keep seeing this continuous growth. And by opening this branch in Kansas, the idea is that some of these members are going to have access to a branch, hopefully closer to them than they are now. And then that’s also going to generate more interest and excitement.”
Cris Medina, the credit union’s chairman of the board, says the new branch is located at 75th and State Avenue in the western part of Wyandotte County. Medina adds that the Westside branch will be relocating just off Southwest Boulevard in the coming months. Those two developments are just a couple of examples that show credit unions are needed now more than ever.
“People are stretching their dollars, trying to see how they can make ends meet. A lot of them need to borrow money. Well, if you don’t get your credit, it’s hard to borrow money,” Medina says. “So we’re doing the financial education, recommending ways that they can maybe refinance loans a lot of them get, because they don’t have any credit, so they get hosed on these loans. They’re paying extremely high interest rates. Well, if we can refinance some of those loans, that’s going to cut their payments, give them a little extra money, and help them out in the process.”
Calderon, too, praised the credit union’s growth and expansion over just the
past year.
“We realized when I first came on that 52 percent of our membership is on the Kansas City, Kansas, side. So we decided we need to expand there, where our membership is, to be able to help them with their needs there. We are also moving our current location to a newer, bigger location all at the same time,” she says.
Calderon credits the credit union’s longevity to forward-thinking leadership, the wisdom and experience of longtime employees, and members who use word of mouth to spread the ways the credit union has transformed their finances – and, there’s also the trust that the members place in those who work for Unidos. – especially the majority non-English speakers.
“Trust is a very big factor, especially in the Hispanic community. If they trust you, they’ll have their brothers, sisters, their entire family become a member of the credit union,” Calderon says.
For more information, visit https://www.kcunidosfcu.com/. Or visit them at 2130 Jefferson Kansas City, Missouri or call
816-842-6473.
