SEWICKLEY, Penn. - The number eight symbolizes wealth and prosperity to the Chinese-and to residents of this community recently, as well.
PA HealthCare Credit Union gave its members a chance to cash in on that luck starting at 8:08 am on Aug. 8 (08/08/08) with a "Crazy 8s" promotion offering discounted loans and very high yield CDs.
After last year's hype surrounding marriages and "lucky" promotions with 7/7/07, CEO Paul Fero decided to plan far ahead for this year's calendar anomaly-but changing the promotional image from one heavily involved with slots to the card game "Crazy 8s."
"Crazy 8s sort of just seemed to come together," he said.
The most sought-after savings product was the 8% 6-month CD, that was only available for the first 8 hours, 8 minutes and 8 seconds of the promotion. More than 10% of the credit union's members pre-registered for the 8% CD over the phone or on the Internet.
"That was the bulk of activity," Fero said. "We tried to do that so people didn't feel the need to stand in line. That obviously helped to boost the numbers and participation."
PA HealthCare announced the promotion about a month ago, and in that time the $22-million credit union has seen a 1% bump in its membership directly attributed to the deal, Fero said.
On the lending side, the credit union is promoting a five-year auto loan for 2008 or 2009 models at 3.88% and a five-year home equity loan also at 3.88%. Those offers run for the next 88 days.
Also for the next 88 days, PA HealthCare is offering a 2.88% rate for a three-month CD and a 3.88% for 12 months. All of the promotions show decent bumps in its usual rate of return as the 12-month CDs are usually 3.5% and the three-month CDs are at 2.75%.
In fact, the mammoth rate of return on the 6-month CD raised the credit union's NCUA examiner. Though members can only put $1,000 into the 8% CD, it still took a bit of convincing on Fero's part to make the examiner back off.
He said that the promotion's cost would not be an issue as it will likely be only about $8,000 and he spent about $20,000 in advertising. Fero noted that PA HealthCare recently expanded its charter to include all of the Pittsburgh area and said that this promotion is the strongest effort to grab new members.
"This is one way we were looking to expand beyond our original core group, and that's where we expanded our advertising." (c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
