TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The $191 million Envision Credit Union has introduced a credit card that members can decorate with their own photos.
Members can design their own cards by submitting pictures of family, friends, or pets, Envision said. The so-called "picture cards" are regular credit cards and will be accepted wherever Visa credit cards are accepted.
"We're excited to offer our members this unique new service," said Ray E. Cromer Jr., CEO of Envision Credit Union. "We're always looking for innovative new ways to add value and interest to our products and services, and this is a fun, upbeat way to bring a little personality to our members' wallets."
Credit union members who already carry the CU's Classic of Platinum Visa cards can upgrade their current cards to a photo card for free and members who do not carry the CU's card can apply for one, the CU explained.
Leslie Smith, marketing director for Envision, said the program had been relatively easy to put into place because the CU does its own card issuing–an idea the CU got from reading about another credit union that was doing something similar across the country, although it had been outsourcing.
"We thought, we can do this and we won't have to outsource it," Smith said.
But Envision found the idea did have some challenges that needed to be overcome. First, if the CU wanted to do it all in house, it needed to get itself out of the middle of the process by which the CU member chose and cropped whatever picture they wanted to put on the card.
"There are other financial institutions doing this," Smith said. "But ours is different in that our members will be able to use a flash program on our Web site to really see how their card is going to look and to crop it to size and make edits," Smith explained.
Envision has 33,000 members and a Visa Classic and Platinum portfolio of 6,000 accounts worth roughly $15 million. This gives Envision a healthy 18% penetration for its credit card, a figure which Smith expected would likely increase due to the photo cards.
"We rolled the card out to our staff in early August to start creating buzz," Smith said, "and since then we have already started getting card requests from our members."
Smith explained that setting up the program also alerted her to a few things that she didn't know as well. For example, in addition to not allowing provocative, shocking or explicit photos be put on cards, the CU also could not allow members to use photos taken by professional photographers on cards without explicit permission from the photographer. The CU also does not allow copyrighted images such as the Superman logo or images of famous figures, living or dead, unless the person is in the picture with the celebrity.
"It's a standard disclaimer that we use," Smith said, "but it covers a lot. Mostly the cards are for people to use for their own photographs."
Smith said that the CU might consider offering Visa branded gift cards that members can personalize with photos as well as other things that could be personalized. "So far we have had some very good member reaction from it," she said. –dmorrison@cutimes.com
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