ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Credit unions looking to step up theircredit card programs should be sure to include their front linestaff in their card promotion efforts, according to two creditunions which have found strong card success.

The 48,000-member, $244 million American 1 Federal Credit Unionin Jackson, Mich., and the 65,000-member, $845 million FoxCommunities Credit Union in Appleton, Wis., each made presentationsabout their card program success to payment executives attendingthe Card Services for Credit Unions annual meeting that concludedthis past weekend in St. Petersburg.

American 1 had a card portfolio of roughly 14,000 card accountsworth roughly $31 million as of Sept. 31, 2011, according to NCUArecords. Fox Communities reported roughly 7,000 card accountsworth $10 million in outstanding balances as of March 31, 2012.

Kristi Latoszewski, vice president of marketing for American 1, recounted how the research the credit union didinto how their members used credit cards and how they acquiredthem, combined with research done on competing cards, helped hercredit union empower front line staff to actively promote thecard.

“The research helped move the card from being just a pieceof plastic to being something that our staff understood wouldreally serve our members' needs and help them avoid some of thehigher interest rate cards out there,” Latoszewski explained.

Likewise David Thone, vice president of internal operations atFox Communities, explained how working with a consultant fromCSCU convinced his credit union to actively back the card programwhich had been neglected for some time and also helped FoxCommunities decide to use staff to actively promote the cardoffering.

This meant in some cases having to retrain staff in how toeffectively cross sell the card by listening more closely to memberneeds, Thone said.