College students and teens are the number one target for credit card companies. Rightly so, since they represent a large part of the consumer market eager to build credit (or just consume), while many parents are willing to bail them out of a jam. Studies have found that over 80% of graduating college seniors have credit card debt before they even land their first job, with one in four leaving college having more than $5,000 in debt and one in 10 with over $10,000 in debt.¹ It can be a high-risk business for card issuers, and it would be wise as a credit union to pay particular attention to your credit card management policies and programs, especially when it involves younger members.

In  the months leading up to October 2015, there were many questions in the payment card industry, from issuing banks and credit unions, to processors, to merchants and all the way to consumers.  The main question on everyone's mind was "How will EMV and the chargeback liability shift impact me?" While the U.S. transition to EMV or chip card technology, has not always been smooth sailing, a year later one thing is certain: EMV has made a lasting impact on credit card fraud, but it is not enough to take on the task alone.

When many people hear the term dormant they think of once active, but now quiet volcanoes. For those scientists that have the difficult job of classifying a volcano as dormant versus extinct, the process can take years. Luckily for credit unions, they don’t need to turn to volcanologists for assistance when analyzing inactive accounts. Finding a means to erupt inactive credit card accounts is a bit easier.  Who's your cardologist? So what is the key in both scenarios - volcano classification and credit card history?  

As  teachers and students wrap up an "always-too-short" summer and return to their familiar routine at school, one credit union decided to think out-of-the-box and deliver more than an apple to their school district's teachers. The Utah State Legislature annually issues grants to school districts for commonly needed classroom supplies. Teachers are allocated hundreds of dollars each year so as to meet the unique educational requirements of their respective course curriculums. With district oversight, teachers may spend funds on a variety of supplies benefiting their students. Historically, teachers would purchase supplies from their personal account followed by a reimbursement request submitted to the district. 

The power of plastic. It has advantages to both the members that swipe for purchases, and also for credit unions that issue and control processing in-house. Federal Reserve data released in 2014, found that 72 percent of consumers had at least one credit card.¹  So, what’s the best option for your credit union when it comes time to deciding whether to outsource or process cards in-house?

Last year at this time, news feeds for credit unions featured information about the Chargeback Liability that was taking place in October of 2015. Among the highlights were the importance of educating your members on chip technology and deciding when to issue chip enabled credit cards. Not to disappoint, new deadlines were set for October of this year that have received similar attention. The new deadline for ATMs to accept EMV chip cards from MasterCard is set for October 2016. Before the details, here's a look back on how EMV has impacted credit unions in the past 10 months.

EMV acceptance at ATMs is not the only looming deadline for October 2016. Effective October 14, 2016, Visa Rules will require all U.S. issuers of consumer class Visa credit, debit and reloadable prepaid cards to provide an option to enroll in transaction alerts to their consumers. These alerts will enable cardholders to quickly identify suspicious purchases on their accounts when the chosen method of notification is received (text message, email, or in some cases, in-app push notifications on smartphones). The motivating factor behind this rule is Visa concluded that alerts are a proven method to mitigate fraud after conducting an internal study that found transaction alerts can reduce fraud by up to 40%.¹

Have you ever felt like 'big brother' is watching you? Have you visited a website and seen an advertisement for a product you were shopping for on Amazon earlier that week? How is it that the website you visit knows you were shopping for that item? Did Google tell them?

We were featured on CUInsight last week for our article Iron Man’s idea of a debit card: One with remote controls. If you happened to miss it in their news feed, here is the article: