CLEARWATER, Fla. - Card Services For Credit Unions, theassociation of credit unions that process their card transactionswith Certegy, has released new data which point to the strengths incredit union card programs as well as where they need improvement,according to CSCU President, Robert Hackney. Hackney pointed to thedata which showed credit union issued cards outperformed the VISAcard averages on a number of fronts, including the number of timescards are used per month (4.9 for CU cards, versus 4.3 for VISAcards generally); the percentage of active accounts as indicated byactive monthly bills (61% to 55%); and the percentage of cardaccounts with finance charges (65% versus 60%). Credit union cardslagged VISA averages in the average outstandings ($1,908 for CUsversus $2,616 generally); the size of the average sale ($65 versus$78); and the average cash disbursements ($355 versus $955). Thelatter statistic Hackney attributed in particular to the relativepopularity among non-CU-issued cards of balance transfer offerssince balance transfers, from a processing perspective, are mostoften treated as cash advances. He attributed the lagging figuresin outstandings and average sales volume to credit unions delayingstarting Platinum card programs. Platinum cards have higher creditlimits which help increase both average sales and the averageoutstandings, Hackney said. In statistics collected from just CSCUmember credit unions, Platinum cards have an average monthly usagealmost three points higher than Classic cards (6.8 times per monthversus four times for Classic cards). Average outstandings forPlatinum cards were more than double that of Classic cards ($3,465versus $1,378.) "It is clear that credit unions can compete withother credit card issuers if they want to," Hackney observed. -

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