TAMPA, Fla – The $204 million Florida Central Credit Union has seen its credit card balances increase by 40% in just a year by using balance transfer and pre-approval promotions, according to PSCU Financial Services, the card services cooperative that provided the services the credit union used. "Credit cards are an important part of our effort to deepen relationships with members. We focused on promoting our credit card portfolio a little over a year ago and the results have been very impressive. Cross selling and additional training for our employees also played an important role in our success," said Laida Garcia, executive vice president of the credit union. Florida Central CU emphasized training its staff for cross selling credit card products and then followed up with the pre-approval letters and a 5.9% APR balance transfer offer. From March 2003 to March 2004, the combination of approaches led the credit union to see its balances increase from $3.69 million to $5.13 million. The credit union also initiated a rewards program for its Gold and Platinum cards to both help draw cardholders and drive purchases.