PSCU Teams with HAPO Community Credit Union to Grow Credit Card Balances by Over 20%

St. Petersburg, Fla. – (March 15, 2016) – HAPO Community Credit Union (Richland, WA; $1.3 billion assets), in collaboration with PSCU’s Advisors Plus marketing consultants, grew its credit card outstandings by a whopping $18 million over the course of several balance transfer campaigns in 2015. The growth in their portfolio represented a year-over-year 20.69% increase in the credit union’s credit card outstanding balances.

To optimize the growth of their credit card business, HAPO worked with Advisors Plus, PSCU’s independent strategic consulting unit, to develop balance transfer campaigns that would steadily elevate their credit card business and motivate members to choose their HAPO credit card above any others.

The campaigns, offering reduced interest rates on balance transfers for 9-12 months, resulted in over 3,400 balance transfers totaling more than $13 million. While a large portion of that total (about $4 million) was attributed to direct mail campaigns, the majority of the transfers were driven through other sales channels, including outbound calls and emails from HAPO employees.

“We have built an amazing sales culture and we incentivize the staff,” said Jenifer Gateley, Vice President of Card Services for HAPO Community Credit Union. “We are provided call lists from Advisors Plus and we use them to inform our members of our great balance transfer rate and to encourage them to utilize their current availability. I like the fact that we have a relationship with Advisors Plus,” said Gateley. “The three campaigns we conduct a year are very beneficial to us.”

Advisors Plus is an independent business unit within PSCU. Using the expertise that comes from hundreds of marketing campaigns for credit unions of all sizes, Advisors Plus provides data-driven, measurable marketing campaign materials that have been proven to generate results consistently above industry averages.

“Every year at Advisors Plus, we work with hundreds of PSCU Owner credit unions to help them grow their card portfolios into top-of-wallet businesses. This creates powerful sources of value and loyalty for their members and contributes significantly to annual earnings, often as much as 30 percent,” said Tom Chandler, Managing Partner at Advisors Plus.

Although the focus of the credit union’s campaigns was to grow credit card balances through balance transfers, a significant secondary benefit was the generation of hundreds of new accounts. “Our goal last year was on increasing balance transfers, and growing our portfolio.  The fact that we were able to bring in so many new accounts was a fantastic bonus. In 2016, we will focus more on new account acquisition.”

About PSCU

Established in 1977, PSCU (St. Petersburg, Fla.) is the nation's leading credit union service organization (CUSO). The company is owned by 800 member credit unions representing over 18.2 million credit, debit, prepaid, online bill payment and mobile accounts. Comprehensive 24/7/365 member support is delivered through contact centers located throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.pscu.com.