Bay City will be home to our newest branch of the TDECU family. This new 5,100 square-foot building will feature a convenient drive-thru as well as an ATM and friendly staff to help serve all of your banking needs.

Take a look at the ceremony that was held this past Tuesday, August 17th. It was quite the event!

In the photo (L to R): Darline Guerra (TDECU Bay City Branch Manager), Steph Sherrodd (TDECU Sr. Vice President, Member Services), Ed Zingleman (TDECU Board), Peggy Miltenberger (TDECU Board), Mitch Thames (Bay City Chamber of Commerce President/CEO), Mark Bricker (Bay City Mayor), David Ozuna (TDECU Board), and Marcus Stephenson (TDECU Board Chairman).

We look forward to being able to serve you at another convenient branch!

Clear your calendar for next weekend for a show you won't want to miss: FOX 19's Crossroads Idol!

Our Young & Free Texas spokesperson Josh Garrett will be emceeing the event at the Victoria Mall in Victoria, TX, August 7th & 8th. How do you get in on the action? Just stop by any of the following branch locations to pick up your registration form for the competition or to enter FOX 19’s American Idol Gear Giveaway:

• Cuero
• Edna
• Hallettsville
• Port Lavaca
• Victoria Mockingbird
• Victoria Mall
• Victoria Rio Grande
• Yoakum  

Also, we'll have a special VIP Lounge for our Go2 Account holders where you can mingle with Josh and contestants! If you don’t have a Go2 Account, click here to find out how you can get one. For official rules about FOX 19's Crossroads Idol and to find out more information, visit myvictoriaonline.com and click the FOX 19 Crossroads Idol link.

Here are some excerpts from a story about our plans for expansion from CUTimes.com

In a press statement, Ed Speed, president/CEO, acknowledged it has been a “tumultuous year for the financial industry” but TDECU has managed to weather “the uncertain climate and solidified its position.”

“More importantly, TDECU plans to expand its presence in the competitive market of Houston with the opening of a new branch in Pearland, slated for late spring 2010,” said TDECU noting other openings include branches in Wharton and Bay City.

Read the full article here

Josh Garrett, of Victoria, Texas beat out three other finalists to be our new YoungFreeTexas.com Spokesperson for 2010. You can read about his surprise in the Victoria Advocate, and keep track of his year as spokesperson over here.

Also, a heads up. Our Annual Meeting will be held at the The Civic Center in Lake Jackson, Texas on January 28th. Registration begins at 6 P.M. and the meeting begins promptly at 7 P.M.

Below is a schedule of when our branches will be closed for holidays in the coming weeks.

Christmas

Thursday December 24 Christmas Eve

Victoria Mall Branch
8 am to 6 pm

All other branches
Open Regular hours
Lobbies to close at noon
Drive Thru's to close at 4 pm

Friday December 25 Christmas Day
All Branches Closed

Saturday, December 26
Normal Hours

New Years

Thursday, December 31 - New Year's Eve
Normal Hours

Friday, January 1- New Year's Day
All Branches Closed

We will be having a grand opening ceremony at our newest branch this saturday, December 12th, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be plenty to do, and the highlights include:

From The Victoria Advocate yesterday. We are excited to be able to better serve our members in Victoria:

Texas Dow Employee Credit Union broke ground Tuesday on a new bank at 1514 E. Rio Grande St.

The 4,900-square-foot branch will be a full-service site with tellers, a drive-through, ATM machine and lending services, said Luke Billeri, regional vice president of branch operations for TDECU's west market.

The site will bring 10 to 15 new jobs to the city, according to a TDECU news release.

There are a couple of reasons the credit union chose to expand in Victoria, Billeri said, explaining its positive response by the community tops the list.

TDECU receives about 300 new members a month from the region, he said. With that type of increase, the company had to grow to keep up its service levels.

It chose the site on Rio Grande Street to better serve South Victoria, he said.

The bank currently operates locations at the Victoria Mall and Mockingbird Lane and has a new site for mortgage, insurance and direct-lending services going in on North Navarro Street.

Construction on the new site is slated to begin Sept. 21, according to the release.

The project will cost about $2 million, Billeri said.

That location is slated to open during the first quarter of 2010.

The company is looking forward to the expansion, Billeri said.

"We're just really happy to be in Victoria," he said. "It's really a great community."

TDECU was founded in 1955. It operates 19 service locations and maintains more than 125,000 members, according to the release.

Today is the one year anniversary of the the launch of YoungFreeTexas.com! Our spokester DeAndre' Upshaw has been on the job for 283 days and has written 216 blogs! To celebrate today I thought I would highlight 5 of our favorite blog posts from our Spokester. Without further ado and in no particular order:

1. DeAndre Demystifies Your Credit Score
2. Should I Lease of Buy?
3. Starting To Save
4. The Time DeAndre' Had an Intervention With His Friend Justin
5. Baking Cookies in The Frius!?!?
   

We are looking forward to what DeAndre' comes up with during the rest of his term as spokester, and know that year two of Young & Free Texas will blow year one out of the water! Let us know what some of your favorite Y&F Texas moments from the last year have been!

TDECU Investments recently hosted one of their quarterly seminars. The event focused on the importance of women saving for their retirement, and received a good writeup in The Facts.

You can read the full article here.

Saturday, May 9:
8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Free up some storage space and help out our local food banks! Come to either our Victoria Mockingbird or Lake Jackson branches for our Third Annual Shred Day.

If you donate two cans of food to the local food bank, you can shred any confidential documents you don’t need any more.