Dear Valued Members:

I hope you had a wonderful summer and had a fun time with your families and loved ones.

As we prepare for the season change, we’re looking forward to what autumn brings – the colors of fall foliage, the cooler temps and of course, pumpkin-spice latte.

At Greater Alliance, we are busy preparing for a new location to serve you better.  As I mentioned in our previous newsletter, our lease at our 359 Main Street (Hackensack) location is coming to an end and we are fortunate to be in a financial position to build a better branch at what we believe is a better location to continue to serve you.

We are excited about this and have prepared an FAQ on our website.  The most important factor that we consider is that we remain in our hometown, our birthplace – Hackensack.  The city officials were more than welcoming and supportive that we are staying in Hackensack, where we have been since our inception more than 80 years ago.  We are proud to be the longest-tenured, local financial institution in the city.  We will not be far from our existing location and we can’t wait to share with you the details when the time comes.

Another excitement in the fall is the International Credit Union Day on October 17, 2019.  This is a yearly celebration dedicated to our industry.  This year, we are highlighting our local roots, but with global reaches.  With the help of technology and modern-day banking, we are able to compete with commercial banking institutions several times our size, and we do it all with a volunteer board of directors and super passionate employees that are eager to have you experience the credit union difference.  To honor this day, we will have an online sweepstakes and celebrations at each one of our branches. Please follow us on our social media channels for more details.

Speaking of online, our website will also see some overhauling this fall.  As we grow, our website had become a vital part of our communication to our members.  As such, we need to continue to refine it and make it more functional and even easier to use.  Our website is the gateway to our online resources and we will make every effort to continue to make it better for you.

We are proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far and I hope you guys are too. Your credit union has been seeing steady growth through the years, while remains financially sound and positioned for future growth.  This is all thanks to the guidance from our volunteer Board of Directors and amazing staff who, day-in, day-out, have your best interests at heart and truly are passionate about delivering exceptional member service that you have come to love by being a member at Greater Alliance.  Please do not keep us a secret, tell the people in your circles about what Greater Alliance can provide – we will be more than happy to serve them as well.

In closing, I really hope you are getting the most out of your credit union membership.  We are always happy to hear from you.  Please do not hesitate to contact us through our social media channels if there’s anything at all that you’d like for us to hear.  On behalf of my entire team at Greater Alliance, I remain grateful for your membership and support.

Sincerely,

Glenn Guinto
President/CEO

Come celebrate International Credit Union (ICU) Day®  with us. ICU day celebrates the spirit of the global credit union movement. The day is recognized to reflect upon the credit union movement’s history, promote its achievements, recognize the hard work and share member experiences. International Credit Union (ICU) Day® has been celebrated on the third Thursday of October since 1948.

The ultimate goal is to raise awareness about the tremendous work that credit unions and other financial cooperatives are doing around the world and give members the opportunity to get more engaged.

BRANCH FESTIVITIES:
Starting Monday, October 14th, we will have goodies at each of our branches and on October 17th all the branches will have a special celebration along with some FREE Giveaways.

ONLINE CONTEST:
We will also be having an online contest for those on social media. Every day from October 7th – October 17th, we will be posting credit union trivia questions. Every correct answer will get you 1 point. The person with the most points will win an ECHO SPOT!!

You will also see another post encouraging you to share your favorite part of being a Greater Alliance Credit Union member or a gif that representS how you feel about Credit Union’s. Commenting with your experience or a gif and using the hashtag #ICUDAY will earn you another 3 points to win the ECHO SPOT. Be sure to visit our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages for more details.

Be sure to stop by any of our branches between October 14th – October 17th to enjoy the International Credit Union Week festivities and check us out online for our ECHO SPOT giveaway.

We will be participating in your community this summer, stop by our table to learn more about what’s happening at the Credit Union.

Hackensack Summer Events

• Thursday, 25^th July @8:00 pm – 10:30 pm – Incredibles 2 – Movies Under the Stars
• Wednesday, 31st July @7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – Coriolanus – Shakespeare in the Park
• Thursday, 29^th August @8:00 pm – 10:30 pm – Avengers: Infinity War – Movies Under the Stars

All Hackensack Movie events will take place at : 102 State Street, (Atlantic Street Park) Hackensack, NJ 07601 (Off Main Street, and Atlantic Street. Behind the new Hackensack Performing Arts Center.)

National Night Out

• Tuesday, 6^th August @6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Paramus Summer Events:

July 4th Parade

• July 4^th Parade Farview Avenue  @8:00 AM to 12:00 PM

National Night Out

• Tuesday, 6^th August @5:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Contact: Ana Suarez at gro.ecnaillaretaergnull@zerausa for more information.

Greater Alliance will be participating in Tuesdays at the Plaza! Starting June 11th through October 1st from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM, come join us for live music, farmer’s market, and special events.

These events are open to the public and will be held at the William J. Bate Memorial Court House Plaza.

Presented by the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the Department of Cultural & Historic Affairs, and Friends of Passaic County Park Inc.

Make sure to stop by and say “hi to the Greater Alliance folks.” We will be at every Tuesday at the Plaza event  unless it rains. If it RAINS the event will be cancelled.  For any cancellations, please check for updates on our social media site and website. 

Below are the dates for each of the Tuesdays at the Plaza events. 

Cool off in the summer heat. Stop by to enjoy some ice cream on us. Our branches will be giving our members free ice cream if you stop by the dates below.

We will start handing out the the Ice creams at 11:00 AM and will last until supplies last. Below are the details for the event.

• Hackensack/Paterson: Friday June 21st starting at 11:00 AM until supplies last
• Paramus: Friday, June 28th starting at 11:00 AM until supplies last

We look forward to seeing you, stop by and get your FREE ice cream! It’s a great way to kick off the summer!

Join us on Saturday June 29th 2019 @ 12:00 pm for the Bergenfest event. High School “Humanitarians” of Bergen County, NJ presents a music and arts festival to raise awareness and funds for TEEEM.

Students from Ridgewood, Northern Highlands, Pascack Valley, Westwood, Bergenfield, Waldwick, Hackensack, and many other Bergen County high schools and middle schools are working together to raise awareness and funds for TEEEM.

Join us in making a difference!

Please visit www.TEEEM.org to learn more.

No chairs and no pets.

EVENT DETAILS:

We have been alerted to malicious phishing emails that may have been directed to our members. While the name and emails look remarkably like Greater Alliance Federal Credit Union, they do not originate from Greater Alliance and upon closer review you will notice subtle differences in these communications. We would like to warn you of this attempt to access member credentials and advise you not to access these emails and you should NOT enter any personal information or your Greater Alliance log in credentials.

What is Phishing?
Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames and passwords by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

What is Website Spoofing?
Website spoofing is the act of creating a website with the intention of misleading readers that the website has been created by a different person or organization. Normally, the spoof website will adopt the design of the target website and sometimes has a similar URL.

Be on the Lookout for the Suspicious Emails.
Official Greater Alliance emails will always come from –  gro.ecnaillaretaergnull@ofni
If you’ve opened an email that you suspect to be spam, and the email links to an unfamiliar web URL address, delete the email immediately.

Take Precautions when Logging in to Online or Mobile Banking.
When logging in to Online and Mobile Banking, double check the URL in your address box to make sure it is a Greater Alliance Federal Credit Union owned domain. Enter your log in information ONLY when you see the following URL –  https://www.greateralliance.org/

If you suspect something unusual, contact our Service Support Department at 888.554.2328 or email gro.ecnaillaretaergnull@ofni

You are cordially invited to attend our 82nd Annual Meeting. This event is a great time for all of our members to come together. You are encouraged to come, and learn about the credit union’s plans for 2019 and the coming year.

Please join us:

When:    Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Where:  Board Room – 40 W. Century Road, Paramus, NJ 07652

Time:     4 PM – 5 PM

RSVP Today – gro.ecnaillaretaergnull@gnitekram or call 201-599-5500 Ex: 272

Light Refreshments will be provided

You are invited to stop by our Branches on April 11th and 12th to talk with representatives from our local Sprint Stores in partnership with Love My Credit Union about how Greater Alliance members get amazing discount benefits when they switch to Sprint.

Stop by and learn about…

• Sprint discounts for Greater Alliance Members
• If switching to Sprint makes sense for you and your family
• Test out the latest smartphones
• How to switch to Sprint
• And more…

When and Where:  Branch Locations

• Paterson – Thursday, April 11th – 66 Hamilton Street, Paterson NJ 07505
• Paramus – Friday, April 12th – 40 West Century Road Paramus, N J 07652
• Hackensack – Friday, April 12th – 359 Main Street, Hackensack NJ 07601

Time:     12pm – 4pm

No registration required, just stop by our branches during the dates above. 

Dear Valued Member:

Happy Spring!

Now that winter is finally behind us, we couldn’t wait to get going with our spring projects.  Like your typical household, your credit union team takes advantage of this season to look at our products and services and make the necessary tweaks to make sure they are still relevant and meeting your financial needs.

Part of our success is knowing our members, and since we’ve been around for over 80 years,  we have built a very solid relationship.  I have personally witnessed these solid relationships form and grow.  Seeing our members utilize us, from way back when I started 25 years ago, and now seeing their children and/or grandchildren utilize our products and services the way generations before them did, is very satisfying and fulfilling – it fuels us.  It gives us a sense of purpose that we are carrying forth our Mission, Vision and Core Values set by our founders 82 years ago.

Through the constant evolution of financial services, we’ve managed to remain relevant and continue to effectively provide products that serve and meet our members’ financial needs in the 21^st century.  One thing that remains consistent is our passion to serve you.

Speaking of evolution, an opportunity has come  to us to provide you with a better facility at our Hackensack location.  As our lease at our existing Main St. location is coming to an end in a little over a year, we are looking to move to a location within Hackensack that offers you the high-level member experience you’ve come to expect from us, paired with a newer, state of the art and environmentally conscious facility.

We were founded in 1937 in Hackensack and would like to remain there for the next 80 years and beyond.  The officials of the City of Hackensack have been tremendously helpful and we are grateful for their continued support.  We have setup a page on our site www.greateralliance.org/betterbranch as a single source for the latest information regarding this project. We will also utilize our various social media channels to keep you well informed.  We will be having our Annual Meeting on Wednesday, May 29^th, and if we can answer any additional questions regarding this move, we will be more than happy to discuss them at this year’s meeting. Please do not forget to RSVP and  stay tuned for more information through the year

On behalf of the Board of Directors, Senior Management and the entire credit union team, I wish you a happy and productive spring season.

Sincerely,
Glenn Guinto

We will be providing the most recent updates regarding our Hackensack branch relocation below. Please check back frequently or follow us on Facebook or Twitter for all the updates with the trending #BetterBranch.

Q1.  Why is the Hackensack branch relocating?
A. Our lease will be expiring in May 2020 and a collective decision was made by the management and the board of directors to explore new locations and possibilities that will help provide a better in branch experience for our members. 

Q2. When will the relocation occur?
A. As of now we don’t have a formal move date but will communicate to you once the date has been confirmed.

Q3. How much is this new facility going to cost?
A.  We have looked at the cost of the new facility and made a decision that was in the best interest of our members’ and the credit union.

Q4. Is it cheaper to move or to stay here?
A. It is cheaper for us to move than lease the current location after the lease has expired and that is one of the main reason of why we are looking to move to a new location.

Q5. Are you going out of business?
A. We are definitely not going out of business, our financials are sound as you can see from our 2018 Annual Report. We are looking to move as our lease will expire in May 2020 for the Hackensack branch.

Q6. Where are you going to be moving?
A. We are going to be moving to a location within Hackensack as we were founded in Hackensack 82 years ago and would like to remain there for the next foreseeable future. We are considering a few locations in Hackensack and as soon as one is finalized, we will post it on the website

Q7. When will we have the next update regarding the move?
A. We will have a dedicated page on our website – greateralliance.org/betterbranch and you can check to see the most recent updates. We will be updating our social media sites as well with any updates about the move.

Q8. What is the physical address of the location and will it have parking?A. Once everything has been finalized we will provide you with the actual address and YES parking will be available for our members.

If you have any additional questions please email us at gro.ecnaillaretaergnull@ofni or call 888-554-2328.