Having knowledgeable and educated members who understand the importance of a good FICO^® Score is immensely beneficial to the overall financial health and well being of both your members and your credit union as a whole. Many members mistakenly assume a "good enough" credit score will ensure that they can get a credit card or approved for a mortgage or auto loan, and that's "okay enough." Especially younger adults, who are just getting used to the burdens of adulthood, won't think twice about being late on a payment, as they don't understand the impact this has on both their short and long term financial health. Your credit union's role in the matter of credit scores is teaching your members that just okay is not okay. Here are some points to hit home with members on why they should pay attention to their credit scores, as well as benefits these bring to your credit union.

If you have used a travel website lately to book a flight, you may have noticed a reliability score or rating for flights. This is expressed as a percentage of the time that the flight will actually arrive on schedule to its destination. Advanced sites will use a sophisticated algorithm that will factor in weather and airport delays, the length of delays, cancellations of flights altogether, and much more. Basically telling you that while the flights you book will get you from Point A to Point B, some airlines will be more reliable to get you there on time. The difference between a standard credit score versus a FICO^® Score can be viewed in much the same manner. While they both will help determine the credit worthiness of an individual, a FICO^® Score will provide a much more reliable view of your member's credit risk. 

A credit union executive is always looking for ways to strengthen member relationships, through extending product and service offerings, ensuring the best talent is on staff, and providing members special benefits and events.  One service  that is becoming more common with credit unions is to offer members free access to their FICO^® Score.  By doing so, it establishes trust, loyalty and growth with its members, while at the same time increasing profitability.  It’s a win-win!

It's assumed that most members know why their credit score is important: It gets them access to loans, better rates on loans, credit cards, cell phone plans, even apartment rentals. But you know what they say happens when you assume! In November of 2019, a survey indicated that nearly 40% of Americans don't know their credit score. The number of younger respondents (ages 18-24) who didn't know their score jumped to 60%. Without knowing their credit score, or at least generally where they fall in the point total, they probably don't fully grasp the significance of the number... and your credit union has learned another tough lesson about making assumptions.

A recent study shows that 1 in 5 Americans ages 20-29, don’t know their credit score. Knowing your credit score is an important, personal, financial matter that can have a huge impact on a person’s life. But to be honest, most people don’t think to look it up until they need a loan. They are also (mistakenly) afraid to look it up because they’re worried that by doing so, it will hurt their score. And then, some just don’t want to pay the costs associated with looking it up. However, today it is increasingly common for many different types of locations and products to offer people a look at their score for free. Is your credit union one of them?

"The future isn't what it used to be!" This according to an anonymous IBM executive concerning predicted future trends in personal computing around 1992... clearly, a person in touch with both insight and sarcasm. Now, apply the same quote to mobile banking. It's predicted that the rapidly growing trend in mobile banking, at its current pace, will surpass in-branch banking, with 2021 being the tipping point. And with predictions of 71% of customers using mobile banking by 2024, the trend is not likely to slow down. Security concerns are also growing right alongside the demand for mobility. Finserv companies were already on high alert, having experienced a 147% increase in phishing attacks between January and September 2019 from scammers imitating financial organizations. Yet members are still prioritizing convenience while expecting their credit unions to do their due diligence to ensure member data is safe. With the rapid adoption of mobile banking apps, as well as the overwhelming presence of cyber-crime, credit unions must shift their focus to not only improving the mobile banking experience for members, but also to ensuring member data stays secure.

Technology Evolution is a theory that looks at the radical transformation of society due to technological developments, and is broken into 3 stages: It began with humans' use of tools, slowly evolving to their use of machines, and then rapidly progressing to automation and Artificial Intelligence. The evolution of the mobile banking app has undergone a similar, albeit on a much less grand scale, transformation. What started as a tool for early adopters to check balances and perhaps transfer funds from their cellular devices, mobile banking apps in their infancy still required members to perform the majority of their banking functions either online or in-branch. As the technology advanced, more and more features became available to members, where the app was put to work to perform banking tasks members used to have to do on a more manual basis. In the past couple of years, however, mobile apps have rapidly evolved to automate many parts of the banking experience for members. Integration of product features and a better user experience have become the expectation, not the exception, for members using your credit union's app.

Mobile Banking is expected to hit 3 billion users by 2021. For members, this increases convenience and efficiency. For credit unions, a larger amount of market share is available to gain a younger generation of members and to serve the under-banked. For hackers, the opportunities to steal confidential financial information are abundant! Hackers are targeting mobile phones and banking apps using malware and phishing schemes, and while security measures on smartphones are becoming more and more sophisticated, the criminals are relentless. Here are 10 reminders for members (and you) to help protect their data when using mobile banking apps:

It's seemingly an everyday occurrence: You want to access your Outlook email, you have to wait for a passcode to be sent via text message. You want to check the status of a dental claim on your insurance website, you have to verify it's you after entering the password with an email confirmation. You want to place an order for a Chipotle burrito on the mobile app, you are challenged with holding your phone at a 60 degree angle while performing a preset dance routine that symbolizes your love for burrito bowls while the app scans your retina for verification that nobody else is hacking your lunch order. While the process of two-factor authentication may irritate you when in a hurry, it is quickly becoming more commonplace, accepted and part of our daily routine. But... is it really necessary?