COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Some CUs may have no choice but to boost the APRs and fees on their credit card programs.
Rich Jones, VP, marketing with the $921-million Elevations CU here, and vice-chair of the CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council, said the decision for some is inevitable. "I think each credit union needs to decide that individually," he said. "They need to understand if they have a problem or not. If they don't have a problem, then there's no business case to raise their rates."
Steve Salzer, chief strategic, compliance and legal officer for St. Petersburg, Fla.-based PSCU Financial Services, agrees. "There's no general answer. Each individual credit union needs to make an overall decision about any portfolio changes," he said.
For those CUs needing to raise their rates, they may be exposed to "a little bit of a reputation risk," Jones pointed out. "Help the consumer understand why this is, and show some kind of comparisons to other financial institutions. I think there is a way you can message this. They need to understand this wasn't arbitrary. This was a tough business decision."
