12/11/08
Credit unions can ease personal and business problems
By KEN MOSIER
For Cox Ohio Marketing Publications
‘They didn’t even want a meeting’
Mike and Elizabeth Riley had built Insignia Signs from scratch and the company was doing well. “We started out with (a commercial bank) and my husband handled everything,” said Elizabeth.
“I was looking over our finances and realized that we would probably need to take out a loan so I went to our bank and they wouldn’t give me the time of day.” She said that the bank offered to fax an application and she could fill it out and fax it back. “They didn’t even want a meeting with me in the beginning.
“Probably on paper we didn’t look great at all.”
River Valley had a branch in West Carrollton and Riley was familiar with Marketing Director Sue Montesano.
“I had known Sue from a previous job,” she explained “So I called and said, ‘I am interested in what you can do. It was pretty much night and day difference — you go from being a large digit to everyone knowing your name in the office. To me that was a big deal.
“We were really young and they probably had no reason to trust us at all but they did and we have never forgotten that. Six years later we are still with them and we have our personal accounts with them — savings, checking and we just financed a boat through them,” she said.
Riley also said that Insignia was using a debit card from River Valley to pay its debts. But the card had a $2,000 daily limit which can be low for some business transactions.
“I called the lady who deals with debit cards and said, ‘I need the flexibility,’” she said. “She went to the president and, within 24 hours, we had a larger limit. That kind of personal service is a big deal for me.
“We have outgrown this space and are looking for another space to move and grow again,” she continued. “The first place I called was River Valley for financing again.”
This story appeared in the Oct.12, 2008 edition of the Dayton Daily News.