Ahhhh … Portland: Powell’s City of Books. The Willamette River. Microbrews.
What do you get when you put eight academics, 50 innovators, and 30 credit union CEOs in the same in the same Beaver State ballroom? Well, besides lav mikes and PowerPoint, a lot of good ideas.
Read on for some juicy tidbits …
i3 ideas
CU Pay
Imagine a payment mechanism divorced from from the the big networks. The CU Pay group proposes a direct ACH link to retailers. Retailers win because they pay a flat fee instead of a percentage. Credit unions win by offering members a next-gen payment via smart phones.
Interest Refund Loan
Too bad a lot of members trade in their auto loans as often as they do their dry cleaning. An interest refund loan offers a refund to members who keep their loan open for a full term. Good opportunity for C and D members who can ill afford to turn around upside-down loans every other year.
Save a Little, Spend a Little
Piggybacking on the Visa Buxx card, imagine a reloadable card that lets parents reload an allowance card and reward their kids for setting aside savings. Parents see the spending, rewarding good behavior and watching out for bad.
StickK
Departing from the build-it-from-scratch model, the StickK group proposes a credit union partnership with an existing Internet service that lets users “contract” with themselves and an observer to keep a goal. For credit union members, it’s saving to a certain goal. If you don’t save enough, you send a small donation to a cause you hate. How’s that for motivation.
Airport Oasis Lounge
What if membership meant a little more? Credit union members may soon have a place to lay their heads (or at least prop their feet) at the Baltimore-Washington Airport before too long. Participating credit unions would pay into an operating fund and offer loyal members a little something more.
Collaboration in the Classroom
Credit unions have been counseling kids on finance for as long as there have been teachers’ credit unions. A cooperative effort in Washington State has seven credit unions expanding on the program by hiring one professional educator with existing connections. No more cold calls to school districts … Yea! The goal: Every graduating senior has a credit union share account. Next up: a comic book and a new program in Utah.
Choice Endings
A death in the family is hard enough. Why not a credit union program to make planning easier. Choice Endings combines education material, a payable on death account for funeral arrangements, and affordable life insurance. Innovator Thomas Bowen says members are “dying for this” (his words, not mine).
Savings Revolution
So many good things come out of Texas. GECU in El Paso has been finding local families and giving them savings tips on local television and getting them to change their lives. Nearly a dozen credit unions around the country are following the lead, and could this go national? Maybe … stay tuned.
Unite
A friends and family program for credit unions. A credit union rewards not just individuals, but their network of friends and family for loyalty and wallet penetration. The more you use credit union products, the more you get. At a low level the rewards include free checks; at the highest level benefits like $100 off closing costs, free gift cards, and a free safe deposit box. Are they loyal because you pay them or do you pay them because they’re loyal? Either way, they’re loyal … and that’s awfully nice.
What’s the Big Idea?
It’s part competition, part venture capital for retiree business ideas. Members submit small business ideas and fill out a questionnaire. The best idea wins a start-up package which could include advice, small business software, and printing and service costs from other local partners.
Comments
1
Portland, Oregon is the best town for innovation and collaboration.
Love the Interest Refund Loan idea. I think the time has come for that one – and not just C and D paper!
Cheers! D.
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