With several back-to-back years of auto lending growth, creditunions have much more room to be creative in their efforts woo carshoppers away from their direct competitors, namelydealerships.

Even though the $420 million FirstFinancial Credit Union in West Covina, Calif., launchedits in-house Auto Buying program four years ago, the cooperativehad record growth in 2013, said Torri Scott, vice president ofmarketing and core product manager.

With an average savings of $2,500 of each car sold, memberssaved more than $1 million through the service last year, Scottsaid. On average, 40% of First Financial's monthly production camefrom members using the auto buying service.

“We celebrating 80 years of service to the Californiaeducational community,” Scott noted. “We know members turn to usand trust us and we're going to save them money.”

The way the auto buying program works is members will call intoFirst Financial's call center or visit the branch where thefrontline team will ask about their needs, said Vivian Vega, vicepresident and core product manager at the credit union. If a memberis shopping for a vehicle, they are introduced to the auto buyingservice.

Here, they go through the pre-approval process to see how muchthey would qualify for. The numbers are forwarded to the autobuying unit and the member is contacted within 24 hours to get moredetails such as the type of car they're looking for and what theywant to pay. First Financial can even arrange to have the cardelivered to the member's home or business. Vega said members arealso armed with knowledge before they go to the dealer to ensurethat they aren't being sold add-ons they don't want. There are alsono broker-dealer fees to contend with, Scott said.

Prior to having the auto buying service, members would getpre-approved for an auto loan with the credit union. However, whenthey went to the dealer to test drive vehicles, First Financialrecognized some members were accepting dealer financing notrealizing the inflated vehicle sale prices or compromises takingplace for what seemed to be a good deal, according to CarltonMusmann, First Financial president/CEO. The auto buying service hasdrastically decreased this trend, he added.

“The increased production has been done without reducing ourauto loan rates or price matching. Members save thousands ofdollars on the price of the vehicle,” Musmann said. “Additionally,our GAP and MBI production has increased (and) in some cases, wedoubled production in 2013.”

As for the types of vehicles members are securing financing for,it's nearly a split between new and used, Vega said. In 2013, FirstFinancial approved $52.3 million in used car loans and $18.4million in new car loans for a total of nearly $71 million in itsauto loan portfolio, according to data provided by Scott.

Much of the success of the credit union's auto buying servicehas come from word of mouth. In 2013, on average, 87% of theprogram's use came through referrals, Scott said.

Read more: Members Private Sale …

Members of the $64 million Space City Credit Union in Houstonrecently witnessed another way to buy and sell their vehiclesthrough the cooperative's Members Private Sale site. The freechannel furnishes a guaranteed offer for sellers through athird-party partner that provides members with an option to selltheir car quickly at a fair price, according to Space City.

Members now have access to a vehicle listing with a free AutoCheck report, Kelly Bluebook data, showcase photos, conditionreport and social media integration for sales optimization.

The MPS is a software as a service product designed as a leadgeneration system to provide credit unions with increaseddirect autoloan volume, leases and ancillary products such asextended warranties, GAP insurance and credit life and disabilityinsurance for credit unions, according to the company.

As an early adopter of MPS, Space City has been instrumental inproviding feedback for product enhancements through the betarelease to help make MPS 2.0 a valuable tool for both credit unionsand their members, MPS said.

“We've been excited about the opportunities this tool offers forboth the credit union and our members,” said Craig Rohden,president/CEO of Space City. “Ultimately, this is a terrificlead-gen tool for our loan officers, and provides us with anopportunity to engage our members directly.”

He added, “The social media integration provides us with adialog and relevant content to drive member-to-member engagementthat was missing before. We look forward to the launch and thepositive response from both our members and our bottom line.”

Members Private Sale CEO Steven Keys said plans are in place toroll out MPS 2.0 to credit unions in the greater Texas region in2014 and gradually expand nationally based on market response.

For Valentine's Day, the $136 million Halliburton EmployeesFederal Credit Union in Duncan, Okla., held its Sweetheart loanpromotion that offered a .99% annual percentage rate to the first500,000 in auto loans and then 1.49% to all other approved loansfor the remainder of the day, according to Jackie Haines, marketingand business development associate.

“We had a very successful turnout completing $523,016 at the.99% rate and $1.3 million at (the) 1.49 rate for a total of 22loans at .99% and 71 total loans, Haines said. “All members couldcome in and get preapproved beginning on February 7 to give thembargaining power for new purchases.”