Credit Union Financial Education Goes Beyond Sales

Credit Union Magazine Online
February 19, 2010 | COMMENTS

Gerri Detweiler is an expert in consumer affairs based in Florida. She's an author, consumer adviser, and radio personality working for the Web site credit.com as well as advising companies about consumer affairs.

Detweiler has taken a strong advocacy position for credit unions, speaking at CUNA's America's Credit Union Conference & Expo last year. As an independent consumer analyst, Detweiler tries to answer the question, “Is financial information from a credit union anything more than a sales pitch?”

Her conclusion is that while other financial service providers are selling their services when they're supposedly providing objective advice, not all of those sales pitches have consumers' best interests in mind. "I'm comfortable that credit unions will not put their members in harm's way," she says.

What kinds of financial help do consumers want? Recently, Detweiler did an informal keyword analysis and came up with debt-related terms most searched on Google. No surprise, common topics included credit card debt, debt consolidation, and debt loans.

Detweiler's mini-survey suggests consumers know they need help managing their finances in today's bleak economic environment. But are they taking advantage of the many resources available?

How to create demand?

The biggest concern Bob Schumacher has about financial education is how to create demand. Schumacher, president/CEO of $84.5 million asset MountainCrest Credit Union, Arlington, Wash., is a staunch advocate of the credit union-sponsored Biz Kid$, an award-winning TV program that teaches money management concepts and business development skills to youth. His challenge has been trying to find out what works for all age groups.

“With young people you have to clear a huge communications channel link,” Schumacher says. “High-school students want the right person to talk to them in the right voice and in their language”—in other words, a peer-to-peer message.

Schumacher has tried his share of financial education programs—evening seminars, lunch-and-learn sessions at work, online tools, classroom education, and partnerships with educators and community groups. He's convinced you need more than one delivery venue, more than one offering, and more than one target market.

Financial education must be segmented, just as you segment your marketing offers. Most important: Financial education must be timely, culturally relevant, and age appropriate.

Of course, Schumacher also wants to see financial education help his bottom line. “As a CEO I'd like to see financial education help my members manage their money and increase their use of MountainCrest's products and services.”

Given the wealth of financial literacy material available, delivery remains a problem. The 2,700 credit unions subscribing to CUNA's Web products have millions of readers. But some providers get more traffic than others because they actively promote their Web site or put the information on valuable front page real estate. Others post the information less prominently and wonder why there's little traffic.

Detweiler and Schumacher agree—in a stubborn recession, there has never been more need for financial education. And forget demographic boundaries. Young people, new immigrants, each ethnic group, and workers in every line of work need financial information and assistance. Poor money management doesn't discriminate by occupation or income level.

Even though demand has been sporadic, the increased attention financial education is getting from the government, businesses, and consumer groups suggests we may be at a turning point.

Today's sad economy is forcing people to save, to identify needs rather than wants, and to recognize that the bill is finally due. Over 15 million people are unemployed or underemployed. The personal savings rate has moved from negative numbers to more than 5% of disposable income. If demand for financial education isn't strong now, it never will be.

Reprinted with permission from Credit Union Magazine Online. CUNA offers a range of financial planning and education products for credit unions including MoneyMix, Googolplex, Plan It, and Home & Family Finance Resource Center.