HARRISBURG, Penn.-It doesn't take an act of Congress for Pennsylvania State Employees CU to treat its members fairly - and PSECU will be emphasizing that point to its membership this year.
That saying might even make its way into the CU's advertising, said CEO Greg Smith, who believes that communication is a linchpin in any member retention strategy, especially this year. "We have always had open communication with members, and that only increased when we went into the recession," Smith said.
Because PSECU members rely almost 100% on remote banking, Smith said he can reach more than 200,000 of the CU's 370,000 members via e-mail. He's stepped up that avenue of communication and will rely on it again this year, sending e-mails about the credit union's strength and advantages over banks directly to members from his desk.
As Smith stated, the message that the $3.5-billion PSECU did not need the government to tell it to play fair will become louder. "All of those practices deemed unfair by the CARD Act we do not do. We are educating members on the fact we didn't have to make any of these changes, except one small one related to how balances are paid down if members have two different rates on an account."
What PSECU also wants to make clear to members is that the banks are not going to willingly sacrifice the $10 billion in revenue the CARD Act is expected to cost them. "These are serial abusers and they will not let that revenue go."
Last summer PSECU experienced a growth boon when it offered state workers a no-interest, $1,000 biweekly loan to tide them over during a month-long budget impasse. Smith said that during the summer PSECU normally processes about 2,500 new members per month. Last summer as the budget impasse approached in late June, PSECU had almost 5,000 member applications backed up.
Smith is confident that the credit union's overall business practices, member service, and pricing will keep new members that have joined as a result of the no-interest loan or due to dissatisfaction with banks, citing PSECU's 95% retention rate. "I don't mean to seem overconfident or arrogant, but I don't know why any member would go back to being overcharged and paying all those fees," Smith said.
