Marie Williamson

FRFCU - Marie Williamson, 616-982-4744 or williamm@frfcu.org

Atlanta, GA - December 11, 2002 - First Resource Federal Credit Union (FRFCU) today launched its enhanced Card Perks reward program.Operated by Enhancement Services Corporation (ESC) the program allows both credit and check card cardholders to earn and pool points toward round-trip airline tickets, cruises, hotel packages, and gift certificates.

Card Perks is one of the first programs in the country that pools points from both credit and check cards into one cardholder points total.

"Our members already know the benefits and convenience of using credit and check cards over writing checks or carrying cash," said Marie Williamson at FRFCU.

Marie Williamson, the credit union's vice president of operations, says business has recently begun to pick up steam.

"Credit unions pride themselves on the personalized service we give to our members," she says."We also have financial service advisors to help [members] understand all of the features and how to access their accounts," she says.

"We are in a big campaign right now to move from ATM to checkcard and we're doing that successfully at a rate of 100 percent," says Marie Williamson, vp of operations at the Atlanta-based firm.The reward points are only given on credit transactions (signature-based), not debit (PIN-based).

First Resource is encouraging members to sign rather than punch a PIN, so they can get points.It's easier on customers and less controversial than tacking on fees for punching PINs-the store, of course, pays up in the signature system; it passes on costs to the bank when a PIN is involved.The program launched December 6 and after the first month, credit transactions were up five percent, Williamson says.First Resource doesn't charge fees for the service, which is an advantage over larger issuers that do.

...
Williamson says her firm's new debit card program will have a big impact on bringing in new accounts.While credit unions typically lag in debit card penetration, First Resource has 83 percent going on its 20,258 checking accounts.That's considerably higher than Visa's calculated national debit card penetration of 63.4 percent.

2003-03-13

John Hodgson introduced Marie Williamson, Vice President of First Resource Federal Credit Union, and Noe Najera, Regional Manager of First Resource Federal Credit Union.
...
Marie Williamson noted that they have held these sales in the past and didn't think City Commission approval was needed.

Marie Williamson,Vice President of OperationsFirst Resource Federal Credit Union