Whether Nov. 5 will go down as a day everyone will rememberremains to be seen.

What has been certain from the day Bank of America and severalother big bankers announced exploring debit fee options, creditunions have been riding a wave of free publicity and making themost of their time in the media spotlight.

For example, Miramar, Fla.-based Tropical Financial Credit Unionlaunched a “Swipe Where it Counts” campaign where members can earnup to $5 a month just for paying for purchases with their debitcard through April 2012. The stark contrast of a financialinstitution paying members for debit card use seems to haveresonated with local consumers.

According to Amy McGraw, vice president of marketing, TropicalFinancial has seen a 70% increase in new accounts in October oversame time last October. In addition, she said it has helped the$578 million credit union get a foot in the door for additional SEGopportunities.

“As soon as I heard that Bank of America pulled back, I sent newtalking points and new scripts to our radio partners. Our angle isthat we have always had our members’ best interests at heart, wealways have put people first because that’s what credit unions do,”said McGraw. “I have taken the approach that every day should beBank Transfer Day.

The negativity didn’t go away right after the TARP funds weredistributed. The media has been very helpful in getting the creditunion message out while sensationalizing and fueling the antibankmovements, so as long as they can get mileage out of it we shouldcontinue leverage it for the benefit of all credit unions.”

“Even when this particular swell disappears we all need to bediligent for the next big wave to appear and be ready to ride itfor as long as possible.”

Tropical Financial turned Bank Transfer Day into a memberappreciation day with staffers decked out in CU*SWAG’s “Join theCredit Union Revolution” T-shirts.

“I used my live radio reads on one radio station to ask localsto stop in and check us out that day, and there was a lot of hooplaand fun at the branches that day, but I wasn’t putting all my eggsinto that one-day basket,” said McGraw.

Over in the Winston-Salem, N.C., area, Bank Transfer Day mayhave gotten off to a slow start, but local television newsreporters stopped by or called to cover the festivities.

In addition, some of the new credit union members transferringfunds have in fact been big bank employees, who themselves werelooking for a better way to bank.

Allegacy Federal Credit Union strategically opened four of itsbusiest branches on Bank Transfer Day. In addition to walk-ins,locals made appointments to meet with the many switch serviceagents on hand to make moving their money easier.

Members Credit Union also opted to open its main headquarters onNov. 5, and while there weren’t lines out the door, those whowalked in opened accounts and were pleased the branch was open.

Both credit unions reported record number of new accountopenings throughout the month of October and November has startedout strong as well. 

Online Momentum

Online account activity that picked up during October’s advancetoward Bank Transfer Day continued on into November and past BankTransfer Day, one vendor said.

Sam Kilmer, vice president of market development for HarlandFinancial Solutions in Lake Mary, Fla., said application andtransfer activity at the 106 clients for which it hosts thoseservices was up 40% in October from September and then 13% again sofar in November

“When you normalize it based on a daily rate, that has Novemberbeing 57% up from the September benchmark,” Kilmer said. “To me,the data suggest that the push of application and transfer activitycontinues in November and may actually be gathering moresteam.”

He added, “Looking at the data beyond the averages, we areseeing CUs out there who are individually picking up significantlymore steam than average, for example, growing their activity 54% inOctober and then 110% already in November.”

Kilmer said he saw a couple of contributing factors, includingexpanding use of the mobile channel for account openings andtransfers and sharing of best practices among his company and itscredit union clients.

“Credit unions are making this very easy to do on mobile, whichcan attract particularly the GenYs and millennials where big bankshave significant inroads and who, demographically, might be mostimpacted by fees,” Kilmer said.

“Credit unions are known to share best practices so, learningfrom one another, they could all improve,” he said. HFS earlierthis year bought the Memphis-based uMonitor operation and its uOpenand uSwitch solutions.