PHOENIX-Arizona Central CU here is making a renewed push to grow its health savings account business.
Janet Moodie, vice president of operations at the $404-million credit union, explained that the program is similar to an IRA account, and Arizona Central offers a number of products based around health savings accounts-a trend that began when many of its SEGs switched to high-deductible medical insurance plans.
"We have a checking account that's paying a whopping two basis points, so we are paying interest on it," said Moodie.
About 430 of the credit union's 58,000 members utilize the health savings offerings, with $370,000 on deposit.
The program has also been expanded to include a money manager product with balance-dependant dividends that can go as high as 15 basis points. The 56,000-member credit union also offers a one-year certificate that pays 0.4%.
"This could be our foot in the door" with some members, said Moodie. "If we do a great job with service on that side of the business, they may say 'Arizona Central is a great place; I'm going to move my PFI over to them.'"
Cracking the Nut
For those members who have only HSAs, the credit union is working to cross-sell them into other products as well.
"We try to crack that nut as best we can, through statement messages, newsletters, electronic communication with them and just staying in touch with their employer, which is how they were able to join the credit union," said Moodie.
Arizona Central has "thousands of SEGs" in its FOM, said Moodie, but is "starting to focus more on community involvement and getting out there, rather than just knocking on people's doors so much. Because sometimes HR people are more than willing to sit down and talk; other times they're not."
Moodie was blunt in that HSAs will not be a strategic priority for 2012, and that the CU's loan-to-share is below its peers at 56%. Nonetheless, said Moodie, "we want to be our members' PFI, meaning we can offer them anything they need from a financial product or service in one place. It is an important product in our suite of products, but we're not getting billboards saying we offer HSAs, because we don't want to just offer that to people who want to bring their whole book of business to us."
