Here For Life: Compassionate Relief When You Need It Most
At Copper Basin Federal Credit Union, we believe community means standing by each other through life’s hardest seasons. A cancer diagnosis brings emotional, physical, and financial weight all at once. During treatment, your focus belongs on your health and your family, not on a loan payment.
That is why we created Here For Life, a program built to offer real financial relief, personal support, and room to breathe for members facing cancer treatment.
How The Program Helps
If you, or anyone else on your loan, is in active cancer treatment, Copper Basin FCU can pause your payments and stop your interest on eligible loans.
Payments to $0, interest to $0
For six months, you make no payments on the loans in your program, and no interest builds up. If treatment is still ongoing, the relief can be renewed once, for a total of twelve months.
All loan types can qualify
Mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, auto loans, personal loans, lines of credit, and credit cards.
No fees or penalties
No late fees and no skip-a-pay fees during the relief period.
Your maturity date moves
The paused payments are added to the end of your loan. You are not building up a lump sum that comes due later.
Your accounts stay open
Credit cards and lines of credit included in the program stay open, with the limit set to $500 while you participate. We do not close them, because closing an account can hurt your credit.
To be clear about what this is: Here For Life is not debt forgiveness, and it is not a new loan. Your balance stays the same; what stops is the interest and the payments while you are in the program. It covers loans you hold with Copper Basin FCU and cannot be applied to debts owed elsewhere, though our team may know resources that can help with those.
Personal Support, Not a Call Center
You will not navigate a phone tree or an automated system. One person at the credit union handles your program from start to finish.
Guidence through the process
Your financial counselor explains the program, answers your questions, and handles the paperwork with you.
Regular check-ins
You will meet with your counselor at months 3, 6, 9, and 12 to look at your budget, plan ahead, and work through whatever has come up.
No surprises at the end
At least 30 days before your first payment is due, we sit down with you and walk through exactly what your payments will look like, in writing.
Help beyond our walls
If what you need goes past what a credit union can do, your counselor can connect you with local and national resources.
Who Qualifies
Membership
You have been a member of Copper Basin FCU for at least one year and your accounts are in good standing.
The diagnosis
You, or someone else on your loan such as a joint owner, co-borrower, or co-signer, has a cancer diagnosis confirmed by the treating physician, and is in active treatment such as chemotherapy, radiation, surgery recovery, or immunotherapy.
The loans
Each loan must have been open at least six months, opened before the diagnosis, and be no more than 60 days past due.
Financial hardship
The diagnosis has affected your household financially. Your counselor will walk through this with you.
Participation is subject to approval and to the funds the credit union has set aside for the program.
What We Ask While You Are in the Program
So the relief actually works, participants agree to a few things:
- Talk with your counselor before taking on any new debt, here or anywhere else. If an emergency comes up, call first. That call is the whole point.
- Keep required insurance current on anything securing a loan, and pay property taxes if you are able.
- Come to your check-in meetings, or call to reschedule if a treatment week gets hard.
- Let us know if your contact information, income, or treatment status changes.
About Your Medical Information
We keep no medical records. None. We confirm the diagnosis one of two ways, whichever you prefer: we call the treating physician with your permission, or you show us a letter, which we review and hand right back. The only things written down are the type of diagnosis, whether treatment is active, and how long it is expected to last.
About Your Credit
While you are in the program, your due dates are adjusted to reflect the paused payments, and the loans included will continue to be reported to the credit bureaus as current accounts. When the program ends and your regular payments resume, the accounts continue to report under their regular terms.
How to Apply
Taking the first step is simple and entirely confidential:
Ask about the program
Call or visit your nearest Copper Basin FCU branch and ask about Here For Life. You can also email [email protected].
Talk with a counselor
We will sit down with you, in person, by phone, or by video, whichever is easiest. You will fill out a short confidential application together and talk through which of your loans qualify.
Focus on healing
Once you are approved and your documents are signed, your payments and interest stop.
Here for Life – Frequently Asked Questions
Does this mean I owe less?
No. Your balance stays the same. What stops is the interest and the payments during the relief period.
What happens to the payments I am not making?
Your maturity date moves out to account for them. Nothing piles up into a lump sum.
Can I make a payment if I want to?
Yes. If you have a month where you can pay something, you may. It is not required, and choosing not to pay does not count against you.
What if my treatment lasts longer than six months?
The program can be renewed once, for a total of twelve months, as long as treatment is ongoing and your physician confirms it. Your counselor starts preparing that well before your first six months end.
What if the person with cancer is my spouse or my child?
If they are on the loan with you, as a joint owner, co-borrower, or co-signer, the loan can qualify. If you are caring for someone who is not on any of your loans, call us anyway. We may still be able to point you toward help.
Do I have to tell the credit union about my treatment?
Only enough to confirm that treatment is active and roughly how long it is expected to last. You never owe us details about your health.
What happens when the program ends?
Your original rate and payment resume. We meet with you at least 30 days beforehand and give you a written payment schedule so nothing catches you off guard. If you are still struggling, call us before you miss a payment. Options exist, and they work better early.
What if the cancer comes back?
You can apply again, through a faster process, even if you are behind on payments at the time.
Is someone going to ask me to tell my story?
Only if you want to. Sharing your story is completely optional, handled separately, and has no effect on your participation or the help you receive. You can say no at any point.
Is there a cost?
No. There is no fee to apply or to participate.
We’re Here for Your Health. We’re Here for Your Family. We’re Here For Life.
Ready to Talk? Reach out to your local branch today to lean more:
Blue Ridge
(706) 632-4888
Copperhill