If you have a PCCU Visa Debit Card that's attached to your Ultimate Checking account, it's about to get an upgrade! Late this month we'll replace all outstanding and active PCCU Visa Debit Cards with EMV Chip Cards. These new cards will hit your wallet just in time for extra protection while you're doing your holiday shopping!

For more information about what EMV Chip Cards are, how they work, and why we're switching over to them  our website here.

With the holidays just around the corner many people are looking at their budgets and figuring out how much they have to spend. If you need to stretch your budget and you have an auto or personal loan with PCCU you may want to consider skipping a payment.

If you qualify for the Skip-A-Pay program, you can sign a form, pay a $25 fee, and then you can skip one month's payment on your loan. Your loan must be up to date, you may not use the program more than six times per loan (no more than 2 skipped payments are allowed in any 12 month period), and the interest rate on the loan may not exceed 18%.

If you qualify you can fill out a form in a branch, or online through PCCU All Ways - Online Banking (under "Services") and be able to pay the $25 fee at the time of application. If you have questions about whether you qualify, call or email your loan officer, they can walk you through it.

Criminals have been at it again, copying and committing fraud against PCCU members' debit cards out of state. In order to prevent more fraud from striking member cards and accounts we've put a temporary PIN requirement for all transactions done outside of Indiana and Ohio. So if you go to a merchant that doesn't have the option of entering your PIN as part of the transaction, the system will decline it regardless of it's size.

So what does this mean for you? If you're in Indiana or Ohio, you shouldn't have any issues using your debit card. If you're in one of the other forty-eight states you'll need to know your PIN and either use your card at a point of sale where the PIN can be entered, or you can use your card and PIN at an ATM to get cash. Alternately, you may also consider adding a PCCU Visa Platinum Credit Card or a Blackbird Pre-paid Visa Debit Card that you can use at places like hotels and other places that don't generally offer PIN-based transactions. We apologize for the inconvenience of the restriction, but it will help protect your card and account from fraud.

Also this restriction should be temporary, and when we roll out our new EMV cards in late October we should be able to roll this restriction back. With the new cards you'll have several protections in place, including a new card number and the EMV chip itself.

You can always visit us online at PCCU All Ways: Home Banking or from the browser on your mobile device at  www.pccu.mobi, or via our Android and iOS apps. They're all available 24/7 to make PCCU available to  you on  YOUR  schedule!