Amy Baker was a little alarmed recently when she logged onto herfamiliar online banking website, and it didn't look so familiaranymore.

“I panicked for a moment, actually,” the Atlanta attorney said.But the panic turned to pleasure when she realized her recenttransactions weren't missing but instead were now on the new siteshe was directed to by Associated Credit Union.

“I really like it,” Baker said. “Everything's together now. Theyused to have separate websites, for instance, for banking andanother for my mortgage, and I used to have trouble updating fromplaces like Mint where all my consolidated information was.

“Now I have everything on one page, all my loan information,checking and savings accounts, and you don't have to click througha bunch of pages to get your information,” said Baker, whoprimarily practices commercial real estate law for credit unionsand banks. “I also only have to log in once.”

The $1.2 billion suburban Norcross CU is an early adopter of therevamped online presence just rolled out by Intuit Financial Services, which has been providing Internetbanking services to Associated beginning in 2000 as DigitalInsight.

Both IFS and Associate have seen a lot of change since then andthe new Web functionality is a particular kick for Glenn Anderson,the 153,000-member CU's veteran senior vice president ofmarketing.

“Our members have just embraced this new page phenomenally,”Anderson said. The site combines the FinanceWorks personalfinancial management tools with standard functionality such asbalances and transactions history, and added in bill pay and arewards program that Anderson said already has returned more than$11,000 to debit card users who bought from targeted online andphysical merchants.

“It's a pretty good deal,” Anderson said. “The other day I got94 cents back from my lunch for $5.50 at Burger King.”

He said he also finds the integrated budgeting functionsparticularly useful.

“I'm looking at my landing page right now, and I can see thatI've already spent $656 on groceries this month,” he said. “That'sgood information. I also have an expensive little dog who has to goto the vet a lot. I was able to code all the various bills andspecial food and this and that in there and see exactly what he'scost me this year.”

Anderson said he's also heard from Gen Yers who told him theyfound the budgeting and goal- setting functions a good way to keeptheir spending on track, though it did hear from one member whoasked that the FinanceWorks part of the site be turned off so itdidn't automatically display.

“She told me she didn't want her husband to see it every time helogged in,” Anderson said.

That family aside, IFS said its stats showthat 110% more members have used FinanceWorks for the first time atAssociated since the launch of the new integrated platform lastSeptember, that 13.2% more actively use it to aggregate and managetheir finances and that the credit union's online banking adoptionhas gone up 5%.

California-based IFS said nearly 3 million consumers are nowusing the new platform at client banks and credit unions and saidthat bodes well for those businesses, citing its recent annualOnline Financial Management Survey that found that 52% of bankingcustomers said they would leave their current financial institutionfor one that offers better money management capabilities.

Another study commissioned by Intuit found that PFM users aremore profitable for financial institutions, they have a 98%retention rate, they log in more and they use bill pay more.

At Associated, Anderson said about 17,000 members are using billpay, a number he said is increasing 2% to 4% month.

“Of course, we're trying to get that number up because it's sucha sticky product,” he said.

Attorney Baker is exhibit A. “I'll more likely to use it nowthat the bill pay seems more user friendly,” she said. “It's nevereasy to change who you've been using for bill pay for a longtime.”

She also said she's looking forward to doing more business withAssociated. “I'm very happy with them,” she said. “And I reallythink people are looking to credit unions and community banks more,especially now that they can get the same technology and bill payand things that you can from larger banks.

“I know this feels like a big bank website to me,” shesaid.