CHARLOTTE, N.C. -
"We were looking for what would help us stand out in the marketplace," said Deb McLean, vice president of marketing and business development for CPCU. "It was just a matter of thinking out-of-the-box."
Here's how Priority Payday Checking works:
CPCU posts the payroll early and makes it available to its USPS members by 9 a.m. on Wednesdays. This is an advantage for USPS members, especially the letter carriers, since their busiest and most stressful delivery day is Friday, also the standard payday, McLean said.
Joy Watts, CEO of CPCU, said that at the credit union they are always looking for ways to help the members.
"Fridays are just so stressful for our members, being postal employees," McLean said. "We had heard of this being done before. What we did was take this concept and branded it."
CPCU beta-tested its Priority Payday Checking concept in mid-May to its members taking advantage of direct deposit, by making their payday funds available on a Wednesday, instead of the usual Friday.
"We didn't tell them," McLean said. "So members called saying 'I think there's been a mistake. There's more money in my account.' We told people what we were testing."
After that, members not already using direct deposit started to become direct-deposit members, as Priority Payday Checking will only be available as a direct-deposit benefit.
In the meantime, CPCU continued to test the concept throughout the remainder of May.
"We wanted to see, potentially if there were any issues we didn't expect," McLean said. "There weren't, so we officially announced it June 1."
And since then, members have been "thrilled," McLean said. "They love it. We haven't heard a single negative comment."
"And it's much easier on the branch staff," McLean continued. "It has really eased up our volume on Friday. Wednesday was our slowest day. It's definitely picked up now but not that we have to rethink things or add another person. It's really just spread things out over a couple of days."
Not only has Priority Payday Checking benefited current members, it has also driven in new USPS members and increased checking accounts at Carolina Postal CU, McLean said.
In fact, after just the first month, CPCU saw an increase of $1.1 million in core deposits.
"We are using our membership as the initial campaign piece," McLean said in a written statement. "Promoting Priority Payday Checking via word-of-mouth is the most powerful and successful and least expensive advertising we can use."
Additional campaign plans include direct mail, branch merchandising, and gift items targeting current users.
"If you refer a co-worker, you win $100," McLean said.
Priority Payday Checking impacts 85 to 90% of the CU's members, McLean said.
Carolina Postal CU has followed up the June 1 announcement to its USPS membership with a referral campaign for the USPS checking-account members.
CPCU has three branches and 26 branches for its members. Carolina Postal CU has $61 million in assets and more than 8,000 members. It serves USPS and federal employees living in North Carolina and six counties in South Carolina.
For info: www.cpcuonline.com
