Inactivity Fee Frequently Asked Questions.

Questions answered

Overview

First Tech may assess up to a $10 monthly fee for membership savings accounts where the member’s relationship has been inactive for 6 months or more.

It’s easy to avoid this fee. You can keep your membership active by performing transactions on your existing accounts.

Please note the inactivity fee will not be charged if any of the following conditions are met:

You have initiated transactional activity in the past 6 months on any account in which you are an owner
You currently have any open product other than checking or savings
Your relationship deposit balances exceed $1,000
You are currently a minor (under the age of 18)

Definitions

Relationship refers to any account where you are an owner. All open product accounts are considered in addition to your checking and savings accounts.

Transactional activity is defined as any transaction you initiate on your accounts. This includes all deposits, withdrawals, transfers, payments, and advances.

Transactional activity that does not count would be maintenance activity including, but not limited to, dividends and service fee charges. Additionally, contact outside of transactional activity, such as logging into online banking, updating contact information, or visiting or calling an Experience Center, does not count as transactional activity for the purposes of the Inactivity Fee.

Examples of open products that are considered are Share Certificates, Individual Retirement Accounts, Health Savings Accounts, Loans (mortgage, personal, automobile, line of credit, credit card, purchased loan), and insurance or investment accounts.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is an Inactivity Fee?

The Inactivity Fee is up to $10 per month. If the current balance in your membership savings is $10 or more, the Inactivity Fee for that month will not exceed $10. If the current balance in your membership savings is less than $10, the Inactivity Fee for that month will not exceed your current balance and will not overdraw the account.

Will I be notified about an Inactivity Fee before being charged?

Yes! We will attempt to notify you before charging an Inactivity Fee.

Description	Timing	Method	Details
Official Notice	1 month prior to first anticipated fee charge date	Email or Mail	Method depends on member's statement delivery preference. Notice will be available to member in eDocs of Online Banking.

When is an Inactivity Fee charged?

Inactivity Fees are charged to your membership savings on the 15th of the month. This charge will occur the month after you no longer meet any of the Inactivity Fee exclusion criteria. For example, if your relationship has been inactive for 6 months or more, and you do not meet any of the exclusion criteria beginning any date in February, we may charge an Inactivity Fee starting in March.

For example:

Inactivity Fee Eligible Date	Inactivity Fee Charge Date
February 7	March 15

If you perform transactional activity or meet any of the additional exclusion criteria at any time prior to the date we indicate we will charge the fee, we will not assess a fee to your account on that date.

Will I be notified after receiving the fee?

If your accounts continue to remain inactive, you will continue to receive a monthly Inactivity charge and no further mail notifications will be sent. Any monthly fees that continue to be charged will be communicated to you on your periodic statement in the transaction history as a service charge.

If at any point you re-activate your accounts and become eligible again at a future date, we will begin the notification process again at that time.

What happens if my membership savings account falls below the required $5 balance?

It is possible that the Inactivity Fee can cause your membership savings account to fall below the required par value balance ($5). If this happens, you will be notified and given an opportunity to bring your membership savings account back to par value balance ($5). If the below par value balance is not remedied in a timely manner, it is possible for your membership to be closed. Refer to the Termination for Nonparticipation section of our Limitations and Terminations of Services Corporate Policy for additional details.

How do I avoid an Inactivity Fee?

It’s easy to avoid this fee!

You can avoid this fee by performing transactional activity on any account in which you are an owner.
You can also avoid this fee by opening another applicable product or by increasing your relationship balance.
Lastly, if you do not wish to perform any of the actions above, you may also request to close your membership in order to avoid this fee.

Please contact your local experience center for information if you have questions on how to accomplish any of the actions above.

I have not performed any transactions on my accounts – why are they still considered active?

Activity dates are based on shared owned account activity. It is possible for you and your accounts to have a more recent than expected activity date if you, or another owner on your account, share ownership on accounts with members who are considered active.

Why is First Tech charging an Inactivity Fee?

First Tech is a financial cooperative. All members share in the benefits and costs of the cooperative. Members who fully utilize a wider range of First Tech products and services ultimately receive greater benefit and help reduce costs across our membership pool. To be successful and fair to our membership as a whole, all members must contribute to the cooperative on some level.

While all members employ different services at various stages throughout their financial lives, there should be a minimum expectation of all members regarding their level of engagement.