REDMOND, Wash. — With the EMV card conversion deadline next October, opportunities exist for credit unions to benefit from the process. This is the case here for Qualstar Credit Union, as well as others.
"We have started with basic member communication on our website, with a plan to convert credit cards in 2015," said Qualstar CU Marketing and e-Commerce Manager, Kelli Purry. To this end, the CU is working with its existing card processor Jack Henry Payment Solutions and has already submitted the updated card design to its card provider, Oberthur.
Along with the aforementioned due diligence, Qualstar CU is also benefiting from its partnership with Passport Unlimited. "I believe the credit union industry is prepared for EMV conversion," said Roger Blier, the company's CEO. "The real roadblock is the costs associated with reissuing cards."
On average, a new EMV reissued card costs approximately $3.25 per member. For Qualstar CU's 53,000 members, those numbers will add up quickly. In an effort to reduce costs, the credit union will look to the partnership it has maintained with Passport since 2008.
As such, Blier explained that for a period time, his firm will waive conversion fees to certain credit unions to offset reissue costs. "This eliminates all barriers for the CU to offer everyday discounts to members."
Passport, EMV and Rewards
Founded in 1986, Passport Unlimited is a credit card rewards program that connects customers and businesses through an exclusive collection of restaurants, merchants, hotels and entertainment venues.
Over the last 15 years, Blier explained that the company has focused primarily on Fortune 100 companies, such as Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Intel, HP, Yahoo, Sony and Levi. In recent years, however, Passport has turned its focus to the credit union industry. Along with Qualstar CU, the firm has six other CU clients, but is looking to add to this number.
"For CUs, we are relatively new over the last five years providing immediate vendor discounts to CU members at the point-of-sale," said Blier. "CUs utilize Passport to generate signature based transactions generating POS exchange revenues as well as building outstanding card balances." Blier explained that business model works as follows. They charge .50 cents to 1.25 cents per month per active member based on total number of cards issued.
During the summer of 2008, Qualstar CU rolled out the Passport beta solution to its employees. After the short trial was deemed successful, a special mailer was sent to all existing cardholders, which informed them that they would receive a new card.
Purry explained that the re-issued Visa Gold cards came with an insert that explained the benefit and why the Passport logo was on their card. "It's not an easy sell to get members to buy in to the ease of using the benefit as most people want to know what the catch is and don't trust that it really is as simple as we say it is."
Once members began using the card, Purry said they were hooked and the numbers support it. Since adding Passport in December 2008, the credit union's active Visa Gold cards have grown from 3,350 to 5,759 in August 2014.
"Our PR manager uses the card regularly to take business clients to lunch, and that has been a great way to show how simple it is to use the card and save money," said Purry. "We also do a monthly Passport featured merchant video where we highlight a participating business and show how simple it is to save money."
From a systems and technology stance, there were no major expenditures or undertakings. "This was plug-and-play," said Purry. "We didn't need to connect our system to theirs, which made it very simple to implement. All that was involved was re-designing the plastic and then lots of training and education."
