Open Source CU Podcast: Episode 4
Posted by Trey Reeme on December 7th, 2006
powered by ODEO
We were all over the road with this episode (that rhymed, and I’m leaving it in here). But doggone it, it’s my favorite thusfar.
We know we’d promised to publish this one for a while, but we kept getting distracted. Anyway, here it is, and Brent is already apologizing for the “janky” editing. We had to cut big chunks out of the conversation because we tended to go off on tangents about everything from Oprah to Second Life.
The plan going forward is to record shorter episodes and to release them more frequently. (I really thought it’d only been a month since our last one.)
In this issue we cover:
- Conference month (0:00)
- ad:tech and the problem with “going viral” (1:50)
- Relationships & research (8:20)
- Engagement (10:30)
- Filene’s ethnographic study on credit union member behavior (12:48)
- Wesabe (17:03)
- Bye-bye middleman, hello ING Electric Orange Checking (20:55)
- Reflections from CUES CEO Network (24:18)
- Credit unions as sales operations (25:28)
- Bad jokes (26:33)
You can subscribe in iTunes here, download the podcast here, and leave an audio comment or a listener question by calling (206) 350-OSCU (6728).
Great Podcast,
We have been looking into to doing some financial checkups for sometime. The problem we keep getting hit with is the credit report.
Experian told us that it is against the law to pull the report and give financial advice. They tell some story about a CEO who is in jail for doing it.
But I have heard of a number of credit unions that are doing it. Are you using just the free credit report or are you actually pulling one with your system? How much credit damage does this cost to pull it?
These are the questions we are juggling before we jump in.
Thanks for the podcast.
BenJoe,
I’m not sure what it is that Experian was talking about. Our credit union, like many financial institutions, requires that you pull a credit report when you open a new account, as well as when applying for loans and such. It is an actual credit report, not the free one that they can get on their own. We are not pulling credit just for the sake of giving financial advice, but when we do pull one, then we use that information to inform the member of ways that they could improve their credit. Sometimes we have products that can help them, an sometimes we don’t. But if we don’t, then we try to point them in the right direction so that when they come back next time, maybe we can do it for them then. We feel that it is good member service to educate the member and help lead them to a greater financial stability. The credit report, that we have already pulled for another purpose, is an excellent tool to use for this. Instead of simply turning someone down for a loan, we will explain to them why we have turned them down and what they can do so that next time they come in and apply they might be approved. We’re trying to help our members reach their goals.
Good show as usual. You guys should expand it to an hour.
Re: the comment above, the member can always give you written permission to pull a credit report. I was thinking that perhaps a jurisdiction might require someone to be a certified financial planner before giving advice. I know a lot of CUs use vendors to give financial advice to their members. In years past, CRA contracts would prohibit data furnishers from sharing reports with the consumer. Now, in certain instances, sharing the report is required by law.
You can get free reports (but not free scores, you have to pay for your credit score) at www.annualcreditreport.com.
Rob, Thanks for answering this. I was thinking also of vendors like MEMBERS Financial Services who can give financial advice.
I listened to episode 8 of CIiCU yesterday actually, and I was thinking about asking you to cover this on the next issue. You beat me to it!
Listen for more in CIiCU Episode 9. www.ciicu.com. Doug True is going to be our guest. We’re recording on the 18th. (shameless plug)
Thanks,
We too are pulling credit for about everything. I guess I would like to develop a product where tellers could refer people to a loan officer to have their credit report checked for ID fraud and ways to save money. This way tellers could essentially cross sell loans without having to know everything about loans.
Then the member could sit down, they sign a release for their credit report to be pulled and then we look for ID problems and cross sell opportunities.
But what experian told us kind of shut down my idea. As I have started to talk to other people, they have told me Experian tells everyone that so we will send ID theft problems to them instead, etc. Further more experian couldn’t give me exact data on how a credit pull will affect the report if done for this purpose. We would need the score to really make a true sale, so the free credit report won’t work. Plus we want to offer this for free.
Anyone had any thoughts on this.