ST. PAUL, Minn. - Members of the $1 billion Affinity Plus FCU have reacted well to a fairly comprehensive rewards program that the CU has put into place. In addition to offering a standard rewards program on its card products, Affinity has started offering points for interest payments on loans, as well as interest received on deposit accounts and other transactions.
"We offer rewards for a pretty wide variety of things," explained Katie Incatalupo, communications manager for the CU. "We even offer points for our members opening investment accounts through a CUSO."
Since the introduction of the Member Loyalty Program, Affinity Plus has experienced an overwhelming response, with members using their loyalty points for purposes such as increasing a certificate rate, reducing a consumer loan rate, or reducing real estate closing costs. The closing cost option was added several months after the program launched to provide greater value to credit union membership.
In April, Affinity Plus experienced 613 members using more than 1.9 million loyalty points. As such, this brought the credit union a total of $3.9 million in new deposit dollars, and $1.7 million in new loan dollars. As of July, the program has generated $10 million new deposit dollars and $5 million new loan dollars for the credit union.
"This program is a demonstration of a member-centric model that focuses first on our members by rewarding them for the business they do with Affinity Plus. It is also great for our organization as it helps us build upon our goal of building trusting relationships and, brings new money into the credit union," stated Kyle Markland, Affinity CEO.
