COLUMBUS, Ga. – TIC FCU is one of the first credit unions to implement Deluxe Corp’s SwitchAgent, a new solution the company said allows consumers to easily switch from one financial institution to another.
The launch of SwitchAgent comes amid this fall’s “Occupy Wall Street” protests, which are fomenting the public’s displeasure with big banks and encouraging consumers to switch their accounts to credit unions and community banks.
SwitchAgent features a proprietary biller database and patent pending technology, which the company said addresses both the scheduling and distribution of billing notifications on the customer’s behalf. The customer is kept informed through e-mails and a Switch calendar so they stay aware of their account status.
“SwitchAgent helps provide a superior consumer experience in the early days of the new account relationship,” said Susan Eick, vice president of program innovation, research and development from Deluxe Financial Services. “A SwitchAgent concierge works directly with the consumer alleviating the most labor-intensive activity – migrating the difficult-to-move transactions. This eases the process for both the consumer and the financial institutions.”
TIC is one of eight financial institutions to pilot the new solution. Deluxe charges financial institutions $60 per switch and is encouraging them to not pass the charge on to customers. TIC is absorbing the cost because it believes it opens the way to more of a new account holder’s business, such as consumer loans and mortgages.
