Top 15 Post: Zac King
Be Competitive and Lead.
The overall purpose of our projects is to enrich the member experience. Taking a few steps further, we have the underlying purpose to not only become competitive with other financial institutions in the market (namely, big-box banks) but also use our internal talent to lead innovation and efficiencies – resulting in higher member satisfaction scores and improved financial statements.
We can break down our projects in the same way:
Competitive Products and Services-
Home Equity Line of Credit Card. This product is very common in the marketplace but we, like many other credit unions, are still relying on internal transfers, draws, or convenience checks for Home Equity Line activity. Adding a Credit Card as the purchase access point adds convenience to the member and interchange income to the credit union, a win-win. We are nearing kick-off for this project, with a pro forma completed and submitted for final statement of work approval.
Debit Card Rewards/Education. Being only $3.4B in assets, RFCU is exempt from Durbin rules, which cap the amount of interchange earned on Debit Card purchases. Also, signature-based purchases have tremendous benefits for members with protections such as Visa® Zero Liability. Given both benefits, we are moving towards a combined offer of merchant-funded rewards and cash-back for signature-based purchases. This will also be set up with a multi-tactic communication plan by which our members can understand the choices (and how to actually opt in/out) of PIN prompting at the sales terminal.
Reloadable Debit Card. In a post-Durbin environment, General Purpose Reloadable Debit Cards have gained a lot of momentum in the marketplace, especially in the underbanked and second-chance-checking segment. We are following suit, with a Reloadable Debit Card set to pilot on September 9. Within the second phase of this product development, we intend to create added propositions to solve for Payroll and Student needs, as well.
Credit Card Portfolio Expansion. With our new no-frills, low APR MasterCard Gold product, we will now segment our portfolio into three offerings: Visa Platinum w/cash bank (transactional), MasterCard Gold (lending) and Visa Classic/Share Secured (help). The MasterCard Gold product will be ready by mid-September, collaborating with our Lending and Marketing departments.
Leading Innovation-
Credit Card Widget. The progression of our Credit Card widget is single-handedly mapping the future of member service levels and satisfaction. With phase one complete (bringing detailed transactions, rates and ownership information into our core and online banking), phase two will be exponentially more exciting. Within the next 60 days, we will allow members to conduct 24/7 advances to their deposit accounts, deactivate their account in seconds if a card is lost or stolen and point-and-click the transactions they would like to dispute, plus more. Having a strong relationship with our Software Development team is both vital and greatly appreciated in this process.
ATM Kiosk Modeling. This proposed project is a “phase two” to the recent completion of our ATM Surcharge-free network expansion. We are working with our network vendor to create a kiosk model to our ATM, allowing for internal payments…and external merchant payments (utilities, tickets, etc.). This will be packaged and proposed by 4th quarter, 2013. Our key driver: Can ATMs break the cost-center mold?
Reciprocal Messaging on Statements. Beginning in September, our Credit Card statement redesign will be complete. With this new design, we will be able to place Redstone Discounts! Offers (merchant funded rewards from business members, driven to consumer members) on each of our statements in a “coupon” format on page one, instead of in an insert, potentially missed by the member. This can be seasonalized in cases of business members who own/manage health clubs, with a November – January run, etc. This will be used for both print and electronic monthly statements.
We are very excited about the future of products and services at Redstone Federal Credit Union and look forward to sharing and learning with others within the movement. With a combined effort, we as credit unions have the opportunity to change the traditional banking culture and set the standard for the future.
Zac King
