A new report from Experian about address verification practicesanalyzed findings from a survey of 50 of the top 100 credit unions,as ranked by Callahan & Associates, and found that the higherthe overall performance ranking of a credit union, the more likelyit was to be checking addresses to the most thorough degree.

While 68% of the credit unions surveyed used some form ofverification, the report found, only 30% checked every level of anaddress down to apartment or suite number.

The survey also found that 30% of the top credit unions checkedup to a house or building number but not to a potential apartmentor suite number, while another 6% only verified an address’s city,state and zip code.

Of the credit unions that did not use any form of addressverification, a smaller percentage said they considered it apriority for the year than did non-users from last year’s survey,according to the report.

The higher-ranked credit unions also reported more confidence intheir data than non-users did last year–a change that the Experianpaper suggested could be due to increased use of back-officedata-cleansing tools.

The report recommended using such tools, along with membertraining and point-of-capture address verification, to cut down onreturned mail costs and to improve member satisfaction.