With everything that is happening in financial markets, it might be easy to forget about payments. At most financial institutions, payments are likely the most profitable product.  Specifically credit, debit, prepaid and even in some cases ATMs.

Examine Your Existing Cardholders to Target Growth

Today is a great day to look at how your credit union can increase the profitability of payments. Here are some great areas to look at that are easy to impact:

1. Cardholders that have a card but are not using it
2. Cardholders that only use their card a couple of times per month
3. Cardholders that use their card, but only for small dollar transactions

Creating activity in your existing card base is the easiest way to impact your profitability. A little bit of extra marketing (awareness) around the benefits of your card versus others and a small incentive for changing behavior will work wonders.

Develop Simple Campaigns to Promote Card Usage

Here’s a quick idea: Give away credit union branded merchandise to any cardholder who uses their card (remember we are not just talking about credit cards) more than 12 times this month. Give this promotion to anyone who has a card but uses it less than two times per month. Twelve transactions per month is easily attainable for nearly any cardholder, it just takes a change in their habits.

Find Ways to Foster Cardholder Loyalty

Personally, I use my debit card for everything and can easily have 30 transactions per month or more. Gas, grocery, lunch, dinner, snacks and before you ask, I am the person who uses my card to buy $0.59 fountain pop (or soda depending on which side of the country you live in). I use it for everything…why not you? Why not your members?

By the way, it doesn’t hurt that I have a picture of my dog on my debit card thanks to Community Choice Credit Union! Increasing usage does not have to be hard, just look at their website. What is the first thing you see?