Credit Unions ‘Go Green’ With Online Bill Payment Service

PSCU Financial Services Partners With Langley FCU, Other Credit Unions to Boost Enrollment Among Environmentally Conscious

St. Petersburg, FL, January 14, 2008 – For credit unions, ‘going green’ can be as easy as offering online bill payment services free to members. According to a 2007 Consumer Bill Payment Survey sponsored by CheckFree, 52 percent of e-bill users said that one of the top reasons they chose to receive e-bills was that "receiving bills in electronic form saves paper and energy, helping our nation's environment."

Langley Federal Credit Union (Newport News, Va.) partnered with PSCU Financial Services in August to promote the ecological advantages of the PayLynx™ online bill payment service, which it now offers free to its members. In the first three months with the new service, online subscribers grew more than 100 percent, from 2,998 to 6,802 subscribers. Total payments at the end of October were 30,849, or an average of more than 4.54 payments per month per subscriber. In addition the credit union has a high activation rate of 75 percent.

“We were able to sign up more users in the first week than we had during the entire year with our previous provider by effectively promoting the favorable environmental impact of converting to online bill payment and offering the service at no charge,” said Brett Noll, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Langley Federal Credit Union. “We are extremely pleased to offer a product that simplifies members’ lives and also helps reduce fuel consumption and pollutants. Members clearly value and appreciate the product and its positive impact on the environment.” The credit union has over 160,000 members and $1.2 billion in assets.

The credit union conducted extensive promotional efforts that highlighted both environmental advantages and outstanding features through: newsletter and web articles, online videos, teller handouts, posters, statement messages and inserts and newspaper advertising. Langley FCU also created excitement among both members and staff through contests where winners’ names were drawn from the pool of bill pay enrollees each month for three months. Member winners had up to $1,000 of their previous month’s online bills paid and staff winners received up to $250 in reimbursements.

PSCU Financial Services, the nation’s largest credit union service organization (CUSO), encourages credit unions to promote online bill payment and is developing a turnkey Going Green Marketing Toolkit to help credit unions promote the environmental impact of this service.
“Household billpayers, most of whom are women, support efforts to help the environment and appreciate credit unions who offer ‘green’ options,” according to David J. Serlo, President and CEO, PSCU Financial Services. “Credit unions are offering a valuable service to both their local community and the nation by publicizing the environmental benefits of online bill payment.”

Paying bills online can have a positive impact on the environment by reducing the need for checks, envelopes and stamps, and the need to transport paper bills to complete transactions. Many consumers are choosing not only to pay bills online, but receive statements and bills electronically and opt out of mailed paper bills altogether. Combined
with electronic bill payment, this can eliminate paper entirely from the consumer billing process.

About PSCU Financial Services

Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, PSCU Financial Services is the nation's largest credit union service organization (CUSO) and serves more than 1,100 financial institutions nationwide. As a non-profit cooperative, the company is owned by more than 500 member credit unions representing over 11 million cardholder accounts and more than 470,000 online bill payment subscribers. Its Contact Center handles more than 12 million inquiries a year. PSCU Financial Services maintains an Eastern operations center in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a Western operations center based in Phoenix, Arizona. The cooperative’s wholly owned subsidiary, Digital Dialogue, operates two 24/7 call centers in Detroit, Mich., that specialize in member services, new member acquisition, cross-selling and automated lending solutions.

Established in 1977, the company provides a broad array of cost-effective, high quality financial services that include credit, debit, ATM, prepaid bill payment and contact center solutions. PSCU Financial Services uniquely offers its members a full range of processing options, any combination from full service to in-house pass through processing for credit, debit and ATM transactions. As the leader in the credit union industry, the company offers gateway access to national and regional networks. It also provides full function ATM terminal driving services. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.pscufs.com.

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