It’s one thing to teach the basic principles of how to wisely manage your money, but it’s drastically different to show people exactly which financial decisions will improve – or harm – their credit scores. That’s why Q2 customer NavyArmy Community Credit Union (NavyArmy CCU) - located in South Texas, a region where credit scores often behind the national average, chose to add SavvyMoney to its Q2 digital banking platform solutions.
In September 2020, NavyArmy CCU – the largest community credit union in South Texas – launched SavvyMoney’s smarter credit score solution through the Q2 digital banking platform. The feature provides users with daily access to their credit report and score, real-time monitoring alerts, actionable advice, and saving opportunities from pre-qualified NavyArmy CCU loan offers. “It’s front and center when the user logs in,” said senior vice president of operations technology Clare Fowler. “It has been a high-value feature for our users.”
Members are now able to receive credit scores and real-time alerts, while also adding an extra layer of fraud protection. Investing in financial literacy for its members had been a priority for NavyArmy CCU for years, but it had not found the right solution until discovering SavvyMoney.
“You can find videos, articles, and then feature them on your website, but we needed that sticky driver to encourage members to engage with their credit scores,” said Fowler. “We know our target market well and felt that providing real-time access to their personal credit profiles and showing the impact of certain financial decisions on their credit scores, was the right strategy.”
The decision proved to be the right one. Within 30 days of introducing SavvyMoney to its members, 7,000 users enrolled without NavyArmy CCU doing any marketing. They signed up for alerts, to get real-time data about increased or decreased credit scores, and more importantly, what caused any changes. They started engaging with the features, reviewing their credit reports, and keeping a closer eye on how NavyArmy CCU can save them money on new and existing loans.
They also refinanced some of their higher-interest loans, ultimately moving them to NavyArmy CCU – a win/win for both parties. After one year of featuring SavvyMoney’s credit solutions, nearly 30,000 of NavyArmy CCU’s online users were enrolled and became more aware of how to improve their credit score, one transaction at a time.
NavyArmy CCU couldn’t imagine that awareness about financial wellness would create such meaningful results. “We had 100% of our members with credit ranges between 600 – 639 increase their credit scores over the last 12 months. All credit ranges saw improvement, but this was noteworthy,” said Fowler.
Today, NavyArmy CCU’s education program has a huge and measurable impact. Its leadership and board of directors are proud to be more than a just financial institution serving solely as a clearinghouse to process transactions. Instead, NavyArmy CCU is directly impacting its members and their families. With the right financial know-how, members are seeing they can steadily improve their financial well-being and quality of life and pass that financial knowledge to future generations.
Fowler said she was surprised by the positive feedback from their board of directors and internal staff. “They have that sense of being true to the credit union mission. Our ROI is really helping members find their right financial journey. That will eventually drive new loans, and loans will drive profitability.”
Fowler believes SavvyMoney’s ROI is all about making a meaningful and lasting impact on its members. “I can’t tell you how many loans SavvyMoney has generated because that’s not the driver for us. It’s really about our connection with members. Yes, we get loans, but our focus is to actively engage with members and help them save money.”
NavyArmy CCU has become a financial literacy resource for its members without having to re-invent an entire system to teach them about financial health. Its leadership team is pleased at the high adoption rate for its members, and the ease of use by its employees.
“The platform is very granular and compartmentalized,” Fowler said. “We can create custom groups that offer certain products to different segments of our membership. They give us that ability to manage risk in a secure environment. We can organize members by certain categories and then expand financial limits by tiers. We really like the flexibility, and don’t have to solely rely on Q2 professional services to do it for us. We now have that ability in house, and the platform allows us to do it very quickly.”
The power of SavvyMoney is growing beyond existing members, driving engagement with potential new members that are looking to open new accounts with NavyArmy CCU and are interested in establishing new credit or improve their existing credit score.
“We’re having meaningful one-on-one conversations with our members. We help them access SavvyMoney in real-time. Members can use their phones and ask us what each item means,” Fowler said. “This behind-the-curtain view had been a big secret for them. Now, it’s a regular part of our account-opening conversations, as we show members how to pull high interest loans, refinance their debt, and save money.”
