There are two primary reasons we charge this fee:
- Our belief that we should do our best to keep our fees down when credit unions do not earn. This is why, for example, It's Me 247 mobile web is offered free to our credit unions. It's also behind our constant pressure to reduce fees where CUs have no basis or belief they can charge for a defensive, relationship service. Charging for these services in this manner fund other areas where the direct expenses cannot easily be identified with revenue opportunities. Walking the talk on “earn when the CU earns” and do not earn when they do not. This is a tough goal for any vendor model.
- To offset the ongoing development of our standard, parameter-driven fee and service charge programs. This revenue is part of the foundation for building what used to be custom capabilities into the standard, flexible, CU configurable, and low- or no-maintenance custom fees for both fee and rebate programs. This lets CUs get creative without large up-front risk or extra cost for making minor changes like updating the amount of the service charge. It also lets CU share their ideas and experiences by making it part of the collective’s capabilities. In addition, it helps a credit union CEO judge the income earned from enacting a service charge program by considering a small monthly fee, rather than an expensive up-front, risk-based fee. If the service charge is not successful for the CU, they can simply turn it off and be done with both the income and the expense for having it active.
Reason #1 is part of our drive to be a cooperative solution where a customer-owner "win-win" is built into the solution. You earn; we earn. Reason #2 is a practical and tactical solution to allow us to build up a library of capabilities - like Lego building blocks to enhance the standing software’s solution with a balanced risk-to-reward model for the buyer of the capability.
CU*BASE’s number one advantage for credit unions is the constant ready state of configurable/parameter driven solutions that CUs can activate almost as quickly as they can creatively apply themselves.