Vantage Credit Union is living up to its tagline “Go Bankless.Change your view of banking.” With one tweet on Twitter, the St.Louis, Mo.-based credit union launched its mobile bankingservice-TweetMyMoney-that's got everyone texting.
With members clamoring for mobile access, TweetMyMoney, provides aquick and inexpensive way for Vantage CU to deliver. Members cannow monitor account balances, deposits and withdrawals, holds andcleared checks with simple commands via Twitter. In addition, theycan transfer funds within their accounts to avoid overdraft fees.With an eye on convenience, the service is available anytime onTwitter and simply requires members to have MyVantage onlinebanking, a Twitter account and a cell phone with text messagingcapability.
“This is the first and only service we know of to offer suchcapability, so we're proud of it. It's not every day we get tocreate something unique and exciting in an industry that can belet's face it a bit dull. But, TweetMyMoney is not about our ego,our pride or even jumping on the latest Web 2.0 technologybandwagon. It's about offering members a convenient way to accesstheir account information in a manner that no other financialprovider can,” said Vantage CU Executive Vice President OperationsEric Acree.
Positioned as an optional extension of the credit union's onlinebanking service MyVantage, TweetMyMoney is only the first of mobilebanking solutions Vantage CU plans to offer that can be used toaccess account information via cell phone or computer. In additionto Twitter, Vantage CU's mobile banking strategy, slated to rollout in 2010, will include Facebook access, an iPhone app and textmessaging.
Recognizing that social media platforms such as Twitter andFacebook are too important not to be a part of, Acree said it onlymade sense to find a way to offer members access to their money viathose platforms. He credited Executive Vice President of TechnologyCam Minges with making the new service a reality.
TweetMyMoney uses Twitter's direct message feature to return theaccount information requested. Given security concerns, theinformation contained in tweets are generic from Twitter hash tagcommands, dollar amounts and dates to suffix codes, which thecredit union says is essentially useless to anyone but the memberrequesting information.
The credit union has also incorporated new correspondenceauthentication codes into its MyVantage online banking service.Every outbound Vantage CU electronic communication now contains aunique code for each day of the week. Members can view these codesinside their user profile section of MyVantage. The codes willappear at the end of every e-mail and text communication returnedor originated by Vantage to help reassure members that thesemessages are indeed from Vantage and not an untrusted source. Whilethe system automatically generates the codes, members can changethem anytime.
“We are proud of the fact that we brought it to market first.History has proven that whenever a company or person implements aradically new idea, that idea is usually met with a fair amount ofskepticism and even ridicule. Some thought the Wright brothers werenuts, but now people fly everyday. Many people were horrified withthe notion of giving access to information online, but today thereare numerous ways to safely access and send informationelectronically. TweetMyMoney is an example,” said Acree.
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