Community charter says Web especially important

THORNDALE, Pa. - One way to build scale with tech services is to give them away. Citadel FCU is using a relationship pricing model to give its members who have either high balances or utilize a lot of CU services free bill payment. It's working. In just one month of offering bill payment, Citadel has already signed up 1,000 members for the service. At press time, the credit union had processed over 1,300 bills via the system. While Citadel isn't seeing any revenue from its bill pay component, it thinks it will help build and save assets over the long haul. "If you lose that online market, their allegiance is going to go somewhere else. We want to take care of those members that are online," said Maria Steffy, vice president of finance for Citadel FCU. Citadel is utilizing credit union data processor's USERS Internet BillPayer. While there are debates in the industry about the percentages of members actually using their credit union's home banking system, Steffy said any members that are Net oriented should be taken care of because they often turn out to be the credit union's best members. About 10,000 of Citadel's 80,000 members are using its USERS' home banking system, that's about 13% of its membership. Steffel said community charters are probably more in need of a full suite of Web services. "The Web is important to us because we're community based and serve all types of people. To the west of us we have a lot of blue collar workers, and to the east the more Silicon Valley-like professionals," said Steffel. "I just think many more people have access to PCs, whether at home or work. Access is so fast now, it all dovetails together with what were doing on the Web." The CU recently started a CUSO focused on insurance and investment products. She said down the line she'd like to give members the "360 degree" view by displaying members' stock purchases in their Net banking accounts. "That's next, along with a portal product." She said she was given a sneak preview of a portal product Fiserv is developing and it had the "360 degree" capability she's looking for. -pgentile@cutimes.com