WEST JORDAN, Utah-Despite Bank of America's attempt to wave the white flag by rescinding its $5-per-month debit card fee, consumers poured into Mountain America CU here.
Jason Rogers, SVP of branch administration for $2.9-billion Mountain America, said the activity on Nov. 5 exceeded projections. MACU set a goal of 80 new accounts opened at its 20 branches, and it ended up with a total of 226, which included 20 from the call center.
"We did really well; it was a pretty successful day," Rogers told Credit Union Journal. "There was coverage of Bank Transfer Day in the local media, which helped. The Salt Lake City Tribune visited one of our branches on Saturday and ran a story in Sunday's paper."
Rogers said he underestimated how much the national media would cover Bank Transfer Day, "and those stories brought in a number of people." Although Bank of America does not operate in MACU's primary market, he said a number of customers of Wells Fargo and Chase switched from their banks to the credit union.
Mountain America ran an ad in its local newspaper offering a bounty of $125 for opening a checking account that included direct deposit, including the slogan, "The grass is greener here."
"We wanted people to look at us and at our services and we felt we were pretty successful," he assessed. "On Saturday we processed more than 70 loan applications that I am aware of. There were some people that just wanted to take a look at us, but other people told us they brought over everything, including checking and car loans. It was a great opportunity for us to show off our products and our services."
