DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Members Group, a leading CUSO in the CU card arena, has reported very strong performance for its ATIRA gift card program in 2007.
The Members Group is a CUSO owned jointly by the Iowa Credit Union League and Iowa Corporate Credit Union. The CUSO's ATIRA line of prepaid cards has offerings suitable for gifts, bonuses and reloadable payroll cards.
According to Jeff Falk, director of product development for TMG, the organization saw gift cards sales almost double in 2007 over 2006.
"Credit union members are truly embracing Visa branded prepaid debit cards," he said. "The evidence is clearly in the total number of gift cards sold throughout the country during the past seven years. So, it's not surprising to see the numbers of our total cards sold double and the penetration per branch increase 20% over the 2006 holiday figures."
Falk made mention of the more than $4 million loaded on almost 50,000 ATIRA gift cards, which averaged a $6 per card increase over last year.
"With these types of numbers, it's amazing there are a large number of credit unions who aren't implementing gift cards into their existing product offering," Falk said. "Our clients continue to talk about the importance of member satisfaction. They are encouraged by their trusted financial partner having a good gift card program in place and the multiple uses for gift cards--like travel and teaching teens how to budget."
TMG credited marketing efforts for moving the cards this year, noting that the more exposure the gift cards received, the better the program did. Partially in response to marketing, the firm saw a number of its client CUs partner with local companies to provide year-end incentives and bonuses.
"Employers like the versatility of gift cards. They aren't tied to a specific restaurant or store, and employees can immediately use the card," Falk said.
As an example, he cited the United Service Credit Union in Des Moines, which has been working with Iowa Health Systems to provide more than 5,400 cards for year-end bonuses. Each card was branded with the United Service logo and distributed in mid-December.
"The United Service Credit Union and Iowa Health Systems example demonstrates how any credit union has the opportunity to succeed with gift cards," Falk said. "United Service is one of our smaller reseller clients with $22 million in assets and one branch, but they have marketed the card well to their members," he said.
--dmorrison@cutimes.com
