Switch Kits

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Updated: May 4th 2011

You’ve seen the ads touting a “kit” to help a consumer move their business to a particular financial institution. Sounds great, too: a way to simplify the intimidating task of transitioning from one bank or credit union to a new one—so debit and ATM cards keep working, your paycheck gets deposited, and you don’t run out of checks or miss a bill payment. In this day of electronic everything, most financial institutions actually count on the stickiness of things like direct deposit, automated bill payment, debit cards, and recurring automated transfers to make it difficult for a consumer to leave them.

If you believe the marketing campaigns, Switch Kits are magical, automated doo-dads where you click a button and voila! Everything is done! In reality, our research showed that in most cases, the “kit” turned out to be nothing more than a series of forms to be filled out and given to a real person to do the rest. Not that that’s a bad thing – if you need to move your accounts, it’s extremely helpful to have a form that asks you all of the right questions so you can dig around your files and get the details needed to make it happen. There’s often a lot more to moving than just transferring some money from another bank.

Switch Kits via the Online Membership Application

So while we might not be able to automate the process completely, what can we do to get started, to begin making it easier for members to say “yes!” to moving to your credit union? We can start by offering a Switch Kit of our own: a simple set of forms a member can download and fill in, either on their computer or by hand, then bring to your credit union staff to begin the necessary tasks. The Kit will be available as part of the existing Online Membership Application, and will also be available via links on the Online Banking Community and It’s Me 247 login page.

View the Switch Kit forms

Enhancements to the Membership Application

The first phase is already on its way. With the CU*BASE 9.6 Release we are expanding the details on the final page of the online membership application so that by submitting the app the new member authorizes you to run a credit report and even initiate account-to-account transfers to fund the new account. After they submit the application, they will be presented with links to fill out or print the Switch Kit forms, with instructions on how to bring the completed forms to your lobby to make the transition happen.

Are you even using the Online Membership Application? Apps are delivered directly to CU*BASE for approval and account creation with no rekeying. Even if you have your own form on your website, this will provide yet another convenient way to bring more new members into the fold. After all, that’s the whole point! Learn more about the Online Membership App

Credit Card Switch Kits Are Also Available!

Beyond a kit to bring in a new member, another area ripe for the picking is a simplified way for existing members to transfer their credit card balances to you. If you want to increase the penetration of your CU*BASE online credit card program, this is a tool for you. We’re looking for champions and beta sites now, so contact sales@lendervp.com to learn more.

Future Ideas

Down the road after we establish a track record with this basic framework we have other ideas for expanding on this concept, including additional tools to help you encourage existing members to do even more with your credit union. Think about how we could help a person move their checking account to you, or refinance a car loan, or even promote your existing A2A transfer capabilities to members who never realized they had this option. We are open to ideas so let us know what you think! Contact dmoore@cuanswers.com Dawn Moore.

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