April 2002
Published Exclusively for Members of Card Services for Credit Unions, Inc.
news
Two Powerful Players. One Powerful Partnership
CSCU & Certegy Announce Contract Extension
Certegy Inc., (NYSE:CEY), the leading provider of card processing services to credit unions in the U.S., and Card Services for Credit Unions, Inc. (CSCU), the nation's largest credit union card processing association, jointly announced a threeyear extension, through 2007, of Certegy's contract to provide payment services processing. unions and 1.3 million cardholder accounts, together the two companies have become the major player in the credit union card services business processing for over 1,800 credit unions serving over 7.6 million cardholder accounts.
Latest Technology
CSCU and Certegy, through Web-based applications such as eZCardInfosm (24/7 cardholder access to account information) and E-Reportssm (electronic delivery of card program operating results), John Fiore, Chairman are keeping credit CSCU and CEO union offerings competitive. CSCU's Motorola Employees membership also Credit Union benefits from the industry's first suite of online portfolio analysis tools, with the Virtual Card Consultantsm (VCC). VCC offers CSCU members 24/7 access to 24 months of comprehensive portfolio reports and graphs, to track and compare key performance indicators with peer group and industry averages and to identify program growth and profit opportunities.
Continuing the Partnership
Through its contract with Certegy, CSCU processes for more than 1,800 credit unions across the United States. This three-year contract Vince Pavese, extension, added to the two and oneSenior Vice President, Certegy half years remaining on the current term, ensures continuity and critical services support to the nation's credit unions by the two organizations.
CSCU’s Continuing Support of its Credit Unions
"The contract extension with Certegy assures that the CSCU membership will continue to receive state-of-the-art card and merchant processing services, cutting edge products and various related card services for many years to come," said John Fiore, chairman of CSCU and CEO of Motorola Employees Credit Union in Schaumburg, Illinois. "Our longterm relationship with Certegy is a testament to CSCU's commitment to support our membership's card processing needs. We are staying current with the new technologies and systems to allow credit unions to compete head-to-head on a level playing field with the largest financial institutions," concluded Fiore.
Contract Terms
The contract terms provide for the continuation of Certegy's full array of card products including debit and credit card processing, merchant processing, and various support services. "Once again, we are extremely pleased to extend this long-standing partnership with CSCU," stated Vince Pavese, senior vice president, Certegy Inc. "We are committed to providing quality card and merchant processing services to CSCU's membership, delivered with the same high standards that we've provided over the past 12 years," said Pavese. CSCU and Certegy's partnership began in 1989. From just under 500 card-issuing credit
ATTENTION VISA ISSUERS!
VERIFIED BY VISA...
ERIFIED
by ISA
Effective March 31, 2002, Certegy will implement Verified by Visa on your behalf and your credit union will automatically receive the benefits of this service. Processing fees for Verified by Visa will appear on your monthly statement of service. Please see the Certegy Document ID: u53 for details or call your Certegy representative with any questions you may have. For more information on the Verified by Visa product, please see the February and March issue of CSCU News or go to our web site at www.cscu.net
CSCU Proudly Announces the Creative Marketing Award Winners
Chosen from CSCU’s 1,800+ Credit Unions, these are the “Best of Show!”
Congratulations to the winners of the 2001 CSCU Creative Marketing Awards! CSCU appreciates the hard work, dedication and creative ideas that helped to make these promotions a success. That’s why we’ve sent a special invitation to the winners to attend the 2002 CSCU Annual Meeting "Spotlight on Performance," May 2 - 5 in St. Petersburg, Florida. During the three-day conference, CSCU will prominently display the winning campaign materials to give other credit unions from across the country the chance to learn from these successes. In addition, we'll recognize the winning credit unions during a special awards ceremony on Saturday evening, May 4. Other highlights of the conference include handson demonstrations of the state-of-the-art portfolio analysis software, the Virtual Card Consultant, and exclusive insights from Certegy, VISA and MasterCard representatives...all the resources you’ll need to work on a campaign for the next year’s Marketing Awards! The credit union’s campaigns featured in this month’s CSCU News represent only two of our Marketing Award winners. We’ll feature others in upcoming editions of the newsletter - or you can come on down to the annual meeting to view all of the entries in person! credit cards and loans, while at the same time, help these young adults learn how to manage their money and use their credit card wisely.” One highlight of the“Come To The Light” campaign was the design of its own special web site. The web site contained campaign information, as well as links to other sites with helpful information, pertinent to the college-age audience. “We designed this web site with their financial needs in mind, then we sent out a postcard advertising the site,” Gilliard said. “In addition, we used a frisbee as a promotion item that was given out at a community-sponsored event called Project Graduation.” (Project Graduation is an annual event that promotes a drug and alcohol-free evening for local graduates.) “We’ve had over 4,000 hits per month on our web site, issued 21 new credit cards, 129 new debit cards, approved approximately 50 loans, opened almost 80 checking accounts and have over 120 new members,” Gilliard stated. “It only took us one and a half months to break even on this campaign.” Gilliard must have a special knack for getting the best “bang for the buck” because his other campaign - “The Tribe Has Spoken” - succeeded with a mere $78 investment. That’s right, for $78 MembersFirst enjoyed a 58% credit card portfolio growth in the first month and a 14% portfolio growth in the next. “There are so many low introductory-rate card offers from competitors, that our management felt that our 8.9% APR rate would not evoke a great response. So we had to rely on our creative concept and try to communicate the true benefits of the offer,” Gilliard said. “We came up with three phrases for our theme: The Tribe Has Spoken, Vote those other cards off the island, and A rate that survives the life of the balance.” Gilliard continued, “We had no way of knowing what a significant part this promotion would play in weathering hard times. The promotion allowed MembersFirst to stabilize its credit card portfolio even through the devastation of September 11th.” All the campaign items, including the web site were designed, produced and distributed in house.
Randolph-Brooks Overall Campaign Over 15,000 Accounts - First Place
Congratulations to Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union for producing a comprehensive, profitable and fun campaign! Their campaign “We’re Making Waves With A Sun-sational Rate,” used multiple elements including statement inserts, posters, print advertisements, and newsletter stories. They also created a direct mail piece, posters, in-branch signage, brochures, and a special promotional shirt that was given to employees! Randolph-Brooks FCU began with several
objectives in mind. First, they wanted to issue credit cards to pre-approved members who did not have a Randolph-Brooks MasterCard. Then, they wanted to increase usage of the credit union card and finally hoped to transfer existing credit card balances on other cards to the lower rate credit union card. “Our CashBack MasterCard featured an 11.76% APR rate, with a 9.6% APR Secure Rate, no annual fee, no cash advance fees, a 25-day grace period and up to 1% cash back on all purchases,” stated Randolph-Brooks’ Marketing Officer, Elizabeth Thompson. “We began by introducing a special promotional rate of 3.9% APR to our members. This special rate applied to purchases, transfers and cash advances made from August 1, 2001 to September 20, 2001,” Thompson commented. “As part of our marketing strategy, a direct mail piece was sent to approximately 18,000 members who did not have a MasterCard.” After that, the campaign included the branch merchandising, statement inserts, newsletter articles, web site banners, promotional shirts, and print advertising. In order to save on production costs and to create a unified and recognizable look, the printed pieces all had the same elements, including copy, color and graphics. “The best sales tool was our employees,” Thompson said. “When they wore the promotional shirts, members would ask about them and then our employees would get a chance to talk to them about the promotion. That made a huge difference!” For a total investment of $46,450, RandolphBrooks gained 3,205 new MasterCard accounts with a total credit line of $12,185,500! That’s a remarkably low $14.49 per account acquisition cost!
NIH FCU
Michigan State University FCU
Congratulations to the winners!!
Over 15,000 Accounts - Overall CampaignFirst Place
Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union San Antonio, Texas
Honorable Mentions
Communicators FCU Houston, TX Florida Telco CU Jacksonville, FL United Teletech FCU Tinton Falls, NJ Franklin-Mint FCU - Broomall, PA Motorola Employees CU - Schaumburg, IL NorthCountry FCU - S. Burlington, VT Workers’ CU - Fitchburg, MA Cannon Electric FCU - Santa Ana, CA Dexter CU - Central Falls, RI First Community CU - Houston, TX CME FCU - Columbus, OH Technology Groups FCU - Watertown, CT Natrona County School Employees FCU Casper, WY University FCU - Austin, TX
MembersFirst Overall Campaign Under 15,000 Accounts - First Place
Commonwealth FCU
Congratulations to MembersFirst Credit Union of Florida for producing two wonderfully successful campaigns on shoestring budgets. For their first campaign, “Come To The Light,” the total budget was $3,700. To help round out the budget, MembersFirst designed the campaign in house, used existing channels of distribution and worked with the community to help promote the campaign. “This campaign targeted graduating seniors and beginning college students,” said MembersFirst Marketing Manager, Robert Gilliard. “Our objective was to increase student membership and to increase student
Under 15,000 Accounts - Overall Campaign First Place
MembersFirst Credit Union of Florida Pensacola, Florida
First Place Credit Series
Team One Credit Union Saginaw, Michigan
Second Place Credit Series
NIH Federal Credit Union Rockville, Maryland
First Place Debit Series
Commonwealth Credit Union Frankfort, Kentucky
Second Place Debit Series
Michigan State University FCU East Lansing, Michigan
Team One Credit Union
mark your calendar
2002 Certegy Course Schedule: Fraud Awareness & Merchant Batch Processing
If you’re responsible for the daily operations of an issuer card or acquirer merchant program, then be sure to check out Certegy’s 2002 Course Schedule. This column features information on two different courses offered to CSCU member credit unions by Certegy. This month, we’re highlighting Issuer Fraud Awareness & Strategies and Merchant Batch Processing. If you are interested in attending any of these classes, please be sure to register early. Class sizes are limited. Although each individual is responsible for his/her own travel arrangements, please do not make non-refundable arrangements until you receive a confirmation letter. Hotel information and directions to the class are included in the confirmation letter. Additional questions? Contact the Certegy Education Department at 800-215 6280 ext. 72104. Card Security Features and Industry Fraud Statistics and finish up the morning with Current Fraud Schemes & Trends. In the afternoon, you’ll discuss Report Monitoring, Investigative Techniques, Fraud Case Organization, Law Enforcement Relationships and the Laws Related to Card Fraud. the daily operation of their merchant program. Credit unions implementing a Merchant program for the first time will also find this class informative.
Agenda. On the first day, you’ll start with an
Overview of Processing, then continue with Program Options, Developing a Merchant Program, Merchant Implementation, EDC Procedures, Network Provider Options, Discount Pricing, and Merchant Set-up Forms and Procedures. Day two brings Merchant Modeling & Chain Location Set-up, Line-Item Billing, Variable Pricing Options, Account File Maintenance, Accounting/Settlement Procedure, Month-End Billing and Reports.
Dates and Locations.
St. Petersburg, Florida May 23 Nov 7 Madison, Wisconsin Apr 26 July 12 Brea, California Aug 1
Issuer Fraud Awareness & Strategies
Audience. Experienced credit union staff
who wish to gain an understanding of fraud, its domestic and global impact, the credit & debit card fraud criminal, and the role of the credit union and Certegy in fraud prevention and monitoring.
Prices. This is a one day class and the course
fee is $250.
Dates and Locations.
St. Petersburg, Florida Apr 18-19 May 23-24 Aug 8-9 Sept 26-27 Oct 31-Nov 1 Dec 12-13 Brea, California June 6-7 Aug 22-23 fee is $20. June 13-14 Oct 24-25 Nov 21-22
Merchant Batch Processing
Audience. Credit unions that have an
acquirer program with participating merchants and administer their program via paper forms. This class will provide a basic understanding of an acquiring program. This course is designed for those with less than six months of experience and are responsible for
Agenda. You’ll start with an Overview of
Card Fraud and Card Fraud Types move on to
Prices. This is a two-day class and the class
The Gift That Gets More Valuable Each Time You Use It.
Introducing another valuable portfolio analysis tool from CSCU!
Ever notice how some credit union professionals have a gift for getting more out of their debit programs? Now you can be one of them! CSCU is proud to announce the launch of another valuable tool to help support your card portfolio -- the Virtual Card Consultantsm(VCC) for Debit. VCC for Debit is the newest module of the industry's first online portfolio analysis software and gives you the information you need to keep your debit portfolio moving forward. It’s available at no additional cost, exclusively for CSCU members!
We Want to Hear From You!
The CSCU News is published monthly exclusively for CSCU members. Please forward all correspondence to:
Sue Chrzan - Editor C/O CSCU 15950 Bay Vista Drive, Suite 390 Clearwater, FL 33760 (727) 536-6800 FAX (727) 536-0777 schrzan@cscu.net
www.cscu.net www.cscu.net