CHARLESTON, W.V.-Members use Square to make and receive payments at WV United FCU, and they "Skype" with employees, part of a history of technological innovation and playfulness at the $25-million CU.
"We're a little creative here," said Linda Bodie, "head honcho" at WV United. "We're using the technologies now that are going to be adopted by others in a year or two."
In 2009, WV United was the first credit union to offer mobile deposit to members. Now, staff is promoting Square to business members who want to accept debit and credit card payments from customers. Square is a San Francisco-based payments company that offers free Square card-readers in exchange for 2.75% of each swipe transaction.
"We've had businesses sign up for our accounts just because they thought Square was so cool," Bodie said. The 1"x1" Square card reader plugs into the headphone jack of Apple iPhone, iPad, iTouch or Android phone. Customers can pay the business by swiping their card through the reader. Payments are processed through Square's free, downloadable application on the mobile device.
Since the reader is free, WV United member businesses can ditch the clunky card readers of yore, saving about $30 per month, Bodie said. Members save another $50 per month in traditional merchant contracts and fees, she said.
"A lot of our member businesses are run from an iPhone or iPad," Bodie added. "Square is mobile, so it goes where the business goes." About 10% of WV United's member businesses are using Square.
WV United itself has accepted loan payments and deposits for one year using Square on iPads and iPhones. Though the channel processes only three or four transactions per month, "we had people asking to pay with their debit cards over the years. Square is not difficult or expensive to offer, and it's fun for people the first time when they sign the transaction using their finger on the touchscreen."
Skype is another household technology that WV United has brought to the business. "We wanted a way for members to talk to us without the credit union paying for live web chat software," Bodie explained. Skype is software that enables free chats over the Internet from a computer, TV or mobile device. Members can click on a Skype link under any team member's photograph at the Web site to initiate a Skype video, voice or text chat.
Text-chat topics are limited to general questions because the member representative can't see the member and reliably verify identity, Bodie said. But "we feel comfortable discussing secure information with members during two-way video chats on our new iPad 2." About 2% of all calls come through Skype, said Bodie.
WV United is testing Skype as a tool for remote account openings, she continued. "The potential member can flash their ID or any document at the camera, and you can take a picture of it. They've just verified their identity without having to mail anything."
Fax technology experienced a renaissance at WV United after a "duh" moment, Bodie added. "A year ago, we looked at our fax and thought, 'Why not use it for remote deposit capture?'" Now, about 5% of the membership faxes about 10 checks per day to the CU, which immediately makes the deposit and credits the account.
CEO Logs On From Ballgame
CHARLESTON, W.V.-While enjoying an evening ball game, Linda Bodie recently logged in from her iPhone to her credit union's core system to close a member's debit account."A member we know well had lost her debit card and was freaking out," Bodie explained. The "head honcho" at WV United FCU here used an iPhone application called Remoter VNC (virtual networking client) to establish a virtual private network connection to the core over the 3G network. "The entire process took about five minutes, and I was able to continue my conversation with the person next to me and watch the game while I closed the account," Bodie said.
