HARRISBURG, Penn.-Pennsylvania State Employees CU is now offering its free FICO score service via mobile banking channels.
The highly popular service, provided to members who have a checking or credit relationship, can now be accessed by iPhone, iPad and Android devices. The move, said CEO Greg Smith, will simply place one of the credit union's most popular home banking services into the fast-growing mobile space, and will also increase PSECU's attention to youth.
"Mobile is where the future is," said Smith. "I have seen data that indicates more people are accessing the Internet from mobile devices than desktops. We are just going where the members are."
Smith said PSECU has been providing the FICO score for a couple years over its home banking platform and it has become "wildly popular. When we send out e-mail alerts that the FICO is available we watch the home banking server activity spike. It's the busiest day we have, bigger than paydays. We release the FICO once a month and do it during the middle of the week to avoid any server traffic problems."
The FICO score is part of PSECU's ongoing financial education efforts. The FICO score page includes the member's latest score from Experian, explains why the score has gone up or down, and offers advice on how to improve the number.
Why Service Appeals To Youth
The $4-billion PSECU has 41,000 mobile banking users and while Smith believes the score appeals to a wide age segment, it can be particularly beneficial to young adults starting out in the workforce. "We have a group of members through 15 universities, about 40,000 students. They are working toward a degree and they can start tracking their credit score as a junior and senior before they hit the job market. Credit scores are looked at by employers during the hiring process."
The mobile FICO score is included in the credit union's mobile banking app that is in the Android and Apple stores. Smith said there are weeks when the mobile app is the most downloaded financial services application in the Apple store. The FICO app was developed in house.
