Here comes “that look” from my wife again

My job primarily is to fight for credit unions; to be an advocate for credit unions; to tell the credit union story. And I do this happily because I believe in credit unions. I believe it is the right place for just about everyone as their financial institutions. I even tell people about credit unions in the grocery store lines, at parties (not that I go to many) and at my kids sporting events. And I do this despite often getting “that look” from my wife. You know the one that says “please don’t, but I know you are going to anyways.” I got “that look” recently.

About a month ago I was sitting around at a campfire at a cabin of some friends from out of state, when one friend told me she just brought her newly employed teenage son to a large national bank to open an account. I could feel “that look” come from my wife as soon as she heard my friend say this, so I didn’t turn to look at my wife. She knew what was coming. And, I knew she knew what was coming. She knew I was going to launch into my “you should’ve gone to a credit union” conversation again. I’d been on this friend for years about switching. And, here was my opportunity. This friend told me that the national bank refused to open an account for her son, or claimed that if they did she would have to pay a monthly fee. My wife knew I was ready to pounce, and pounce I did. I again told this friend about how great credit unions were. I then pulled out my phone and found her a credit union she could join, and because I worked in that state previously I told her some good things about the specific credit union I referred her too. She said she would go in on Monday to the credit union. Look or no look I won. I thought one more down, two-hundred million or so to go.  I even think I seen “that look” soften and hint of a smile snuck out. Or that could have been the wine that made me think that – we never really will know.

On Tuesday of the next week this friend called me and told me she went to the credit union. Great I said. But, hold on she said let me tell you what happened. She went on to tell me that the credit union told her that to set up the account there would be a five dollar monthly fee and that they don’t think they could open the account anyways even if Mom signed on the account.  Plus, she told me that the person she worked with at the credit unions was not very helpful and didn’t provide very good service. My shoulders dropped. Years of convincing went up in smoke in an instant. I thought I finally had her. Here she was, ready to open an account for her son and possibly move her family’s account to the credit union, and in a split second due to some obscure policy, some inadequate service, and what felt like an excessive fee, she took her son and all her future business somewhere else. This is a family that regularly buys cars, moves every few years, had a boat and two kids soon to be in college. They likely would have borrowed more than a $1,000,000 in loans over the next 10, 20, 30 years, held good-sized deposits deposits, got all three of their kids accounts at that credit union who might then have become lifelong members, and used numerous other services of the credit union like debit cards and wire transfers. But just like that, without probably anyone else at the credit union knowing, poof, all that future opportunity was gone.

I was hot. I mean here I am for years urging this friend to go to a credit union finally they go and this happens. No way. Unacceptable. I picked up and put down the phone to call this credit union a number of times. But, eventually I decided to just let this sink in for a few days before reacting. And, after settling down it hit me – this case is exactly why we need to embrace CUNA’s Unite for Good effort. The effort to remove barriers, create awareness and foster service excellence in credit unions so that Americans choose credit unions as their financial partner. Let me explain.

We need to Remove Barriers: I suspect that in part because of the many of regulations piled on over the last few years that the credit union employee opening this account in part wasn’t so sure of the regulation on youth accounts or had fear of non-compliance of one of the many regulations surrounding deposit accounts.  Also, because the credit union has probably had to double its cost for compliance and had seen many of the ways in which they make income at risk of going away, they felt they had to implement this youth account fee.  Over regulation and over legislation I believe played some part in how this account opening was handled. While I certainly don’t make excuses for bad service, I feel confident that the growing compliance burden played at least some role. And, this is why it is so important that we work together to Remove Barriers.  For credit unions, associations and industry partners to fight united to reduce regulations, to stop harmful legislation, and to enhance the credit union charter.

We Need to Create Awareness: This one instance although isn’t going to deter me. Although, unfortunate I will continue to fight to promote credit unions. My wife will continue to give me “that look” and I will continue to ignore it. We will continue our grassroots advocacy campaign of CUontheRoad.org and continue to go out and tell the credit union story. I know that so many other great things happen in credit unions –like the things you can find on CUsocialGood.com. I know for a fact that for everyone one of these negative instances, thousands of other members has positive experiences at credit unions every day. But, while we need to continue our efforts to tell this story and create awareness, we also must not let opportunities like these slip through our hands. We fight so hard to get members, especially younger members, and to get loans, and spend lots of money on advertising and awareness, that we cannot let golden opportunities like this to slip through our fingers.

We Need to Foster Service Excellence: With absolute service excellent my friends’ son would be a credit union member today. The credit union would have found a way to make it work. They would have seen the advantages in gaining a young member and potentially a family, and maybe even future families and millions of dollars of loans and deposits that could have flowed from this one account. With everyone working toward finding ways to develop and provide service excellence in the credit union, the industry, and this family would be better off.

So, while I promise to keep getting “that look” from my wife, I urge you to embrace this effort and learn more about how we can all Unite for Good.