ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — PSCU Financial Services is driving home the point that rewards programs are not just for credit cards.

The payments CUSO for more than 500 credit unions that use the First Data Corp. card platform pointed to the recent success of one of its member CUs.

The $454 million Y-12 Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Oak Ridge, Tenn., using a PSCU rewards program on its cards, boosted its percentage of active debit accounts from 60% in March 2007 to 74% in March 2008. The average number of debit transactions per account per month also rose, advancing from 22.9 average transactions per card per month to 24.4.

The change has had a marked impact on the debit program. The CU reported that posted 566,000 debit transaction in March 2008, 12,000 debit transactions more than its previous record from December 2007.

“We have been extremely pleased with the results of the debit promotions. In the fall campaign, we had more than 450 accounts go from completely inactive to an average of 24 transactions a month. We have found that once cardholders make your debit card their primary choice, activity and transaction volumes remain high,” said John Stegner, vice president and chief financial officer at Y-12.

The CU's fall campaign offered rewards points or cash to qualified cardholders making 10 debit purchase transactions during the tracking period. Y-12 Federal Credit Union is also participating in a spring debit promotion that targets accounts that post less than 10 transactions a month. Cardholders with at least 15 transactions receive a $10 prepaid gas card.

Other credit unions that are promoting their debit cards are also seeing excellent results. PSCU Financial Services topped 500 million transactions in 2007 due to its member-owners' activation campaigns, a 117% increase over 2003 transaction volume, the CUSO reported.

PSCU Financial Services has a dedicated debit product and marketing team that focuses on helping member-owners stimulate growth within the debit portfolio. “Credit unions need to remain actively engaged in marketing their debit portfolios in order to participate fully in the expansion of debit card use. Our cooperative's debit campaigns help credit unions achieve best-in-class benchmarks for penetration, activation and usage,” said Gina Pask, manager of debit program development for PSCU.

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