Blog March 23, 2020 by Laurel Sykes

Today, we wanted to share tips on remote work strategies as well as resources for food and services during this difficult time.  In a second post this afternoon, we also wanted to share some thoughts from one of our Board members on what is developing in the area of income tax relief.  We’ve put a…

Blog March 23, 2020 by Renee Howard

We are here to help.As a preferred SBA lender, American Riviera Bank has small business loan experts on hand to walk you through the process. Before you dive into the application process though, let’s talk about the difference between the Small Business Administration loan types.There are two basi…

Blog March 9, 2020 by Laurel Sykes

March is National Credit Education Month so we’ll be spending the next several weeks providing you with information about the importance of maintaining good credit.  Check back throughout the month on how banks make decisions on loans, and common mistakes to avoid to ensure you get the best po…

Blog January 27, 2020 by Rechelle Ringer

You’ve budgeted, saved, gotten (or stayed) out of debt and are starting to see results. And then the unthinkable happens: Someone gains access to your accounts and starts taking your money.How does it happen and what can you do about it?There are a lot of ways that fraudsters can gain access to you…

Blog January 20, 2020 by Rechelle Ringer

“Credit or debit?”We hear these words all the time when making purchases. What’s the difference and why does it matter?We have so many ways to spend money today – with the flick of our wrist, our watches can be used at grocery stores and elsewhere to make speedy purchases. But how do these transact…

Blog January 13, 2020 by Rechelle Ringer

APY or APR? Compound or Simple?Understanding banking terms that describe interest can be confusing, but interest plays an important role in determining which products will help you reach your financial goals, so it worth looking at more closely.What is Interest?Interest is “the interest percent tha…

Blog January 6, 2020 by Rechelle Ringer

What are you saving for?A vacation?A house?A car?College?Retirement?As we discussed last week, 78% of us live paycheck-to-paycheck and 26% of us have fewer than $1,000 saved, which means many of us aren’t saving at all (at least not regularly) and most of us have more in debt than we have savings.1…

Blog December 30, 2019 by Rechelle Ringer

What’s your New Year’s resolution?Exercise more?Eat healthier?Learn something new?How about…take control of your finances?Saving money is a leading New Year’s Resolutions each year – it’s clearly important to us! So, over the course of the next few weeks, we will be exploring key elements of fin…

Blog October 14, 2019 by Laurel Sykes

Suspicious email exampleThis week we are going to shine the light on email account compromise (EAC) and resulting fraud losses. It’s also been called the “business email compromise (BEC)” or the “CEO wire scam”, but it happens just as frequently to personal email accounts. Non-profit organizations…

Blog October 7, 2019 by Laurel Sykes

Welcome to our new blog series, The Idea Vault, where you’ll hear from ARB subject matter experts on a variety of topics to educate you on all things banking! We thought we’d launch the series with a few weekly posts on cybersecurity in honor of National Cybersecurity Awareness month.This week, we…