There's more to a loan than just the rate!

Just about every day of the week, we get calls that go something like this:

Customer: I just got a better rate at the bank than what you offered me on my farm loan.

Us: What fees and costs do you have to pay?

Customer: I didn’t ask.

Us: Please ask them what the fees and closing costs are, then we can compare the two deals.

This customer—like a lot of customers—just assumed that the rate was the only item to consider when shopping around for a loan. Actually, there are many things to consider in choosing a lender and some of these may be even more important than the loan rate.

For example: if a lender has a rate that is one percent cheaper than another—but the loan fees and closing costs are one percent of the loan—then you really wouldn’t save much. The total deal must be evaluated to compare one to another. It is important when comparing loan information from competing lenders to take all of these items into consideration.

At MidAtlantic Farm Credit we offer competitive rates, costs and fees. We strive to give above average service—as we want satisfied customers. But we don’t just stop there. As a cooperative lender, MAFC has returned millions of dollars to our borrowers through patronage refunds!

If you didn't already know, we just distributed over $26.5 million to our borrowers in April. The lawyers won’t let us tell you that you’ll get a guaranteed patronage payment every year. But our history speaks pretty loudly: since 1990, MidAtlantic has declared $371 million in Patronage and has distributed Cash of $249 million!!

If you have loans through other banks, and their not putting their profits in your profits, you might just want to give us a call. Because it pays to do business with Farm Credit.

MidAtlantic Farm Credit awards borrowers $19.6 million to close a financially successful 2010

Westminster, Md. (January 24, 2011) – MidAtlantic Farm Credit is celebrating a financially robust 2010 by distributing $11.6 million in profit-sharing checks to its member-borrowers. In addition to $8 million distributed earlier, this results in $19.6 million in cash being returned to our members for 2010.

MidAtlantic Farm Credit serves borrowers in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

“Last year’s performance shows a strong improvement over 2009,” said MidAtlantic Farm Credit President and CEO Bob Frazee. “MidAtlantic Farm Credit has certainly experienced some upward momentum over the past year.”

As a co-op, MidAtlantic Farm Credit shares a portion of its annual profits with borrowers each year. In the past 10 years, MidAtlantic Farm Credit has distributed more than $200 million in dividends. Historically, at least 70 percent of annual profits are returned to member-borrowers.

About MidAtlantic Farm Credit
MidAtlantic Farm Credit is an agricultural lending cooperative owned by its member-borrowers. It provides farm loans for land, equipment, livestock and production; crop insurance; and rural home mortgages. The co-op has 10,200 members and $2.3 billion in loans outstanding. MidAtlantic Farm Credit is part of the national Farm Credit System, a network of financial cooperatives established in 1916 to provide a dependable source of credit to farmers and rural America. For more information, visit www.mafc.com.


Media contact:
Sandy Wieber
Vice President of Marketing
MidAtlantic Farm Credit
410.259.2625
SWieber@MAFC.com