If your credit union has activated multi-factor authentication (MFA) for It’s Me 247 online banking and/or BizLink 247 business banking, please read the update below regarding billing charges.
Since multi-factor authentication features were first introduced, CU*Answers has not been charging credit unions for the fees we are charged by our vendor to relay text messages for MFA. (This is for the one-time passcodes sent to members when they log in, update personal info, and/or access P2P.)
Starting with your April invoice (sent at the beginning of May), we will begin passing through vendor charges for MFA text messages, just like we currently do for text messages due to eAlerts and Text Banking. The cost will be 2.5 cents ($0.025) per text* and will include both login MFA text messages, as well as for P2P and personal info updates requiring MFA. Note that passcodes sent via email for MFA will not impart any cost on your credit union, only those sent via text.
*Subject to change quarterly based on carrier costs.
Recommendations
- Ahead of this change, we recommend that your credit union review the typical volume of daily logins for your members. You can look at the ARU/Online Banking Stats dashboard (Tool #141) to review average logins per day and total logins per month.
- When it comes to MFA for logins, the number of days you configure for the “remember my device” interval is important, as your costs will depend on how often members receive MFA text messages. Analyzing your typical activity can assist in making decisions about the number of days your credit union plans to use for the configuration.
- Based on some changes we are making to the tracking data we will use for billing, if you are using MFA the soonest your credit union will be able to access actual data for MFA text messages would be for March activity. So at the beginning of April, you can review March data to help inform what your April bill might look like.
In March you’ll receive another email with additional details on this new tracking data and instructions on how to get a better look at your March activity.
