The West-Michigan based cooperative CUSO, CU*Answers, is pleased to announce that clients are not only saving money by converting their credit card portfolio in-house with CU*Answers, but members are also benefiting from the ease of access to their accounts. As of January 2015, 72 credit unions have moved their credit cards online for a combined 148,591 active credit cards.

“Our in-house credit card platform gives members the ability to view their credit card balances, history and make payments through our home banking product,” states Laura Welch-Vilker, VP of Client Services and Education. “It also provides credit unions with the ability to easily manage their card portfolio, set up promotions, manage rates and have access to the member’s accounts at their fingertips to assist in answering questions.”

“Typically, clients that move their credit cards online with us are seeing a 40–45% decrease in their overall credit card cost,” added Welch-Vilker.

Jarod N. Bach, Vice President of Bridge Credit Union said, “Timing is a little off for comparison purposes on this due to the fact that we converted middle of the year, but if you take 2012 expenses (full year of full service) vs 2014 expenses (full year of pass through) we have seen a 43% cost savings. This is a tangible real dollar reduction to the expense line item. Obviously worth every penny.”

Gary Altman, COO of Calcite Credit Union added, “In the six months prior to the conversion we were averaging over $11,000 in monthly expenses for VISA. In the last six months of 2014 we averaged roughly $6,500. So we are saving about 44%.”

Laura oversees the SettleMINT team who is responsible for credit card and ATM/debit card conversions, as well as daily support for client and vendor inquiries. CU*Answers SettleMINT team is the one stop location for all EFT related products including ATM/debit & credit cards, instant issue cards, bill pay, compromised card support and shared branching. SettleMINT also offers consulting to help their Credit Union Clients maximize their investment in EFT products and features.