The Green Account is about managing your personal finances - it's about money, cash flow, and transactions, interest income and interest expense, savings and debt, earnings and costs, equity and net worth - "it's all about the Green".
More than just another loan, the Green Account is a financial tool to help you manage all aspects of your finances more efficiently and to build your wealth faster.
The Green Account can:
- Save you thousands in interest expense.
- Increase the effective rate of return on your savings.
- Help you to pay off your mortgage years earlier.
- Give you instant access to your home’s equity for your expenses, whenever you need it.
Why do you have separate mortgage, line of credit, checking and savings accounts? Because, until now you needed them.
How It Works
Instead of depositing your paycheck, bonus checks and other funds into a non-earning checking account or low rate savings account, deposit your funds into your Green Account. You can always access these funds later for any expenses by writing a check or using an ATM/debit card.
Every Green Account deposit goes directly to reduce your loan balance until funds are needed. And, the lower your loan balance – the lower your interest expense, so you start saving immediately.
You can pay all of your expenses out of your Green Account, instead of a standard checking account. But, until you need the money, it stays in the mortgage – keeping your balance lower. Meanwhile, you’re effectively “saving” the difference between your mortgage rate and what it would otherwise earn in a checking account (if anything).
Because less of your money is consumed by interest, more can go toward paying down the loan’s principal balance. You can pay off your mortgage faster, but you always have full access to your funds for any purpose (up to your credit limit).
Click here to view a sample illustration of how the Green Account can work to save you thousands of dollars in reduced finance charges, build equity and pay off your mortgage faster.
The First Fully Transactional Mortgage
With your Green Account, you can withdraw funds at Pacific Trust Bank offices, by check, PIN or signature based debit or credit card, HomeAccess Online Banking transfer or bill payment request, at ATMs, and even through ACH (Automated Clearing House) transactions.
Similarly, you can make deposits to your Green Account at our offices, by Direct Deposit of your payroll or other funds, at over 5,000 select deposit-taking ATMs, at teller windows in hundreds of shared-branch office locations throughout the US, and by HomeAccess Online Banking account transfer, mailed deposits, etc.
Pacific Trust Bank can offer these transactional services by linking your Green Account to its associated Clearing Account (an FDIC-insured demand deposit account).
Because of various federal banking regulations and transaction processing rules, all Green Account deposit and withdrawal transactions first “clear” through its linked Clearing Account. Then all of the transactions are “swept” at the end of each day to your loan account. The Clearing Account balance at the end of each day will be $0, unless your deposits exceed your outstanding loan balance.
The Green Account Difference
In addition to transaction convenience, the Green Account’s primary advantage is to minimize your finance charges by keeping your loan balance as low as possible. It allows you to effectively earn your Green Account’s interest rate on those funds you would otherwise keep in your checking or savings account.
The Green Account lets your cash work harder while you’re not using it. Maximum advantage is gained by using it to replace your current personal checking account. Advantages are further amplified when savings balances are transferred to your Green Account.
All deposits to your Green Account are treated as principal only loan payments. By depositing your paycheck, savings and other funds into your Green Account, instead of a low-interest rate checking or savings account, you immediately reduce your loan principal balance by the amount of your deposit.
Each deposit frees up additional available credit (up to your full Credit Limit), that can be accessed whenever you wish during the loan’s 15-year term. Each withdrawal by check, ATM, debit card or whatever means, will increase your loan balance and reduce your remaining available credit.
Green Account Financial Advantages
Because every deposit to your Green Account immediately reduces your loan principal balance, your finance charges are kept to a minimum. For example, in an interest rate environment where your mortgage rate is 6%, in effect it’s like earning 6% on your checking account’s daily balance.
If you would otherwise keep $2,000 on average in your checking account, you have effectively reduced your loan balance by that amount and also reduced your related interest expense. And, you also avoid the cost of separate checking account fees and the headaches of maintaining minimum account balance requirements.
If you would otherwise put $500 per month into a savings account, by putting it instead into your Green Account you are not only reducing your mortgage balance faster (by another $500 per month), but also effectively earning your Green Account interest rate on your savings.
Build Equity In Your Home Faster
Instead of making payments on a traditional mortgage, and keeping separate checking and savings accounts, you can build equity in your home and payoff your loan faster with a Green Account.
Just by depositing your income and savings into the same account as your mortgage, you're reducing your mortgage balance, so you only pay interest on the lower amount. This could save you a fortune over time and help cut years off your mortgage.
And remember, unlike making extra principal payments to a traditional mortgage, you can always access those funds again (up to your credit limit), whenever you want.
Use our online Green Account Financial Calculators to demonstrate how this could work for you.
Save Money On your Other Borrowings
There's no need to pay sky-high rates on consumer loans and credit cards. Take full advantage of your lower-rate Green Account credit limit to payoff your credit card, auto loan or other higher-rate debts.
You could cut your monthly interest bill by hundreds of dollars each month, eliminate the need for making separate monthly loan payments, and further improve your personal finances towards being debt-free sooner.
Green Account Flexibility – To Meet Your Changing Needs
Upon our mutual agreement, your Green Account can be changed to meet your current needs. For example, you can request your credit limit be increased based on your home value’s appreciation.
If you sell your home and buy another, you can keep your Green Account. We can make needed adjustments to your credit limit, loan term, margin or rate to best meet your changed financial needs, and substitute your new home as the collateral for your
Green Account.
Got Cash - Park It Here
You can deposit funds into your Green Account and reduce or even pay off your loan balance entirely.
Any excess deposit (after your loan balance is paid off) will stay in the linked Clearing Account, and the funds in the Clearing Account are FDIC insured (up to $100,000 per account holder).
Then, whenever you write a check, use your Debit/ATM card or otherwise access your money, the funds are withdrawn first from the Clearing Account balance (if any) and then from your Green Account available credit limit.
Minimum Payments and Finance Charges
The minimum monthly payment on your Green Account is interest-only, plus any loan balance amount that is in excess of your Credit Limit.
Finance charges are computed daily based on each day’s ending account balance.
At the end of each monthly billing period, you get a statement showing the month's account activity and the interest-only minimum payment amount. On the first day of the following month, the minimum interest-only payment transaction is automatically posted to your Clearing Account. No separate monthly loan payment is required from you, unless you have reached your Credit Limit.
Because the Green Account is so flexible, you can deposit more than your interest only payment amount to reduce your mortgage quicker, or pay less and even take a break from your payments if you need to – without having to juggle your finances or leave yourself short.
At the end of the loan’s 15 year term, a balloon payment will be due and payable for the remaining balance plus accrued finance charges, unless your Green Account has been terminated, extended or otherwise or modified by mutual agreement.
Rates and Fees
Your Green Account interest rate is adjustable, based on an Index plus a margin (as determined for your specific credit situation and specified in your loan agreement). But, we're flexible on your Green Account interest rates too!
You can pick among seven different adjustable-rate programs, and select:
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Your choice of Index, (COFI, MTA or 1-Year CMT); and
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Your initial rate and rate change frequency (monthly, semi-annual or annual adjustments, or fixed for 36 months then monthly adjustable thereafter - see our Program Disclosures for details).
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"COFI" is the monthly weighted average Cost Of Funds Index for 11th District Savings Institutions. Index values are published by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco.
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"MTA" is the 12-Month Treasury Average, an average of the annual yields on actively traded United States Treasury Securities adjusted to a constant maturity of one year as published by the Federal Reserve Board in the Federal Reserve Statistical Release entitled "Selected Interest Rates (H.15)". The 12-month average is determined by adding together the Monthly Yields for the most recently available twelve months and dividing by 12.
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"1-Year CMT" is the monthly average yield on U.S. Treasury Securities adjusted to a constant maturity of one year (the “1-Year CMT”).
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You may chose either COFI or MTA as your index for the monthly, semi-annual and 3-year fixed/monthly adjustable programs. The 1-Year CMT index is only applicable with the annual rate adjustment program.
We even offer options for you to lower your initial interest rate and/or margin. Please call us at (877) 441-BANK for current offering rates and terms.
Due to the cost to setup and administer the account and its related transactional services, an Early Termination Fee will be imposed if the account is closed during its first year, and an Annual Fee (waived the first year) will be charged if the account’s loan balance is less than 50% of your Credit Limit.
Get More Information
Please see our “Important Terms Of Our Green Account” disclosures for complete details regarding each of our loan program fees and finance charges.
For general information about Home Equity Loans and Lines of Credit, please read the Federal Reserve Board's brochure "When Your Home Is On the Line".
Pacific Trust Bank Customer Services
With your Green Account, you will get a free supply of personalized checks and an ATM/debit card for accessing your funds and performing account transactions. But more than that, you benefit from being a Pacific Trust Bank customer.
Pacific Trust Bank is known as “the place to stash your cash”, with “service so good, it’s guaranteed". You benefit from the Bank’s ATM/debit card features and other high-quality services (which may change over time, and most of which are either free or at lower cost than most other financial institutions).
For example, as of December 2005, the Green Account’s ATM/debit card can be used at ATMs all over the world, with access to over 25,000 surcharge-free CO-OP Network ATMs, including more than 5,000 deposit-taking ATMs. And the card can be used worldwide, either with a PIN or your signature, anywhere that debit MasterCard is accepted.
You also currently have Pacific Trust Bank’s free “HomeAccess” Online Banking service to view your account history, see images of your cleared checks, transfer funds among your Pacific Trust Bank accounts or perform other transactions, including free unlimited online bill payment transactions.
Pacific Trust Bank is also currently a member of the CU Service Centers share-branch network, with over 2,000 office locations across the nation where you can make a deposit to your Green Account or perform other account transactions.
Pacific Trust Bank is constantly striving to enhance its online banking system and all of its products and services.
The Next Step
Visit the Green Account Calculators section of our web site for illustrations of how a Green Account can work for you.
To see if a Green Account is right for you, or to find out more information, talk over your home financing needs with a Pacific Trust Bank loan officer. We're here to help. Call us toll-free at (877) 441-BANK.
To request via e-mail additional information about Pacific Trust Bank's loan programs, please Click Here.
Pacific Trust Bank is an equal housing lender.
