“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays, ‘cause no matter how away you roam, when you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze, for the holidays you can’t beat home, sweet home,” sang Perry Como in 1954, and to which we’ve listened every holiday season for lo these many years.
If it’s true for mind and body, credit unions also pine for members to stay with their home institution’s debit and credit cards, keeping it top of wallet for the holidays.
CO-OP Financial Services is helping credit unions do just that, starting at the checkout counter. A report on holiday shopping prospects in 2016 on pwc.com found that “frictionless checkout (is the) #1 priority” of consumers. Do you know that retail fraud amounts to about $11 billion per year, but transaction declines total about $120 billion per year? CO-OP has the answer to this critical issue with its Card Member Security Fraud Services, which keeps “false positives” to a minimum. This service maintains a very good 5:1 false positive ratio for participating credit unions, compared to the industry average ranging between 9:1 and 12:1.
The pwc.com study also found that “thumbs a tapping in a mobile wonderland,” with “digital, mobile shopping up almost 25% each.” Consumers want a seamless shopping experience, perhaps especially in the “mobile wonderland” where expectations for convenience are high. But, they also want security – reticence about secure transactions may be the final consumer huddle for mobile.
The CardNav by CO-OP mobile app can protect members by empowering them to decide when, where and how their cards are used – in advance and in real-time. CardNav by CO-OP provides transaction level alerts and controls via members’ smartphones, adding another layer of security to in-house card programs and at the same time inspiring consumer confidence in mobile payments.
To further facilitate digital payments, CO-OP is abreast of the next wave of payment technology, fully supporting the “Pays,” Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Android Pay; along with MasterPass and Visa Checkout.
Finally, pwc.com additionally found that “Hipsters – upwardly mobile, college-educated millennials in enclaves such as Austin, Brooklyn, Oakland, and Portland – will spend $500 more this season than consumers overall. And they will spend a hefty third of their holiday budget on themselves.” Surely, then, a robust cardholder rewards program must be on every credit union’s shopping list for their members (hipsters and otherwise).
CO-OP offers Member Rewards by CO-OP, a merchant funded program with multiple versions to provide greater customization to credit unions. Member Rewards by CO-OP is offered in three ways – as a Member Rewards-branded version; a white-labeled, credit union-branded version; and as a standalone merchant-funded rewards program, known as ShopSPOT. Member Rewards by CO-OP provides more than 30,000 standard card-linked (in-store) offers, the ability to add custom local merchants and more than 3,000 online merchants are available via the ShopSPOT site.
To paraphrase Mr. Como, then, for your credit union this holiday season, CO-OP offers help so that: “From Atlantic to Pacific, gee, the (transaction) traffic is terrific.”
The original article Keeping Your Credit Union’s Cards on Top for the Holidays can be found on Insight Vault.
