Posted by Lisa Hochgraf
These words in an ad for ACTON Marketing in the upcoming April 2008 issue of Credit Union Management magazine caught my attention:
Every sort of retail business is gearing up promotions to convince eager consumers to spend the incentive money and tax refunds with them. So are banks.
Oh yeah, I thought, I'm so glad Mary Arnold pointed this out to me. Many people are getting extra money back from the feds this tax season; in addition to any refund they might be due, lots of households will also see a stimulus rebate of $600 or $1,200. And that begs the question: Are credit unions poised to help their members save or spend that money ... with their credit union?
Speaking with ACTON SVP/Financial Serivces Patrick Grosserode underscored for me that we're not talking about chump change: Figuring that all your member households get $600, and that there are about 1,000 households per branch, we're talking about an influx of $3.5 million for a six-branch credit union.
"Some people are going to save at least some of it," notes Grosserode. "There's also a market for spending it," and that could including using it as a downpayment on a loan for a boat, RV, car or house.
"Conceptually, every credit union has a lot of money coming in," Grosserode says, "so what are you going to do with it?"
Indeed, what are you going to do with it? Anybody got any plans?
