Credit Union Member Cashes in on Visa Contest

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A credit union member has won $25,000 in a nationwide Visa contest. Jared Twing, a member of the $1.6 billion Redstone FCU, won the nationwide Visa Extras contest by using his Redstone FCU debit card and using his signature to authenticate the transaction. Twing won the contest with a purchase of a table runner for $8.18. The contest ran from May 1 to July 1, 2004. Twing, of Huntsville, registered his Redstone Freedom Check Card for Visa Extras last October. During the contest, each signature-based transaction was automatically entered into the drawing. Mr. Twing was randomly drawn from a nationwide pool of all people registered with Visa Extras who had used signature-based transactions. “Anytime we have an opportunity to celebrate and congratulate one of our members it is a great time for us here at Redstone Federal Credit Union. Today, we have the opportunity to join Mr. Twing for his incredible win,” said Gerald Toland, president of the credit union. “We are very happy that this has happened to us and it could not have come at a better time,” Twing said. “We’re going to have a baby in March.” Twing said he and his wife, Christina, went to do some shopping at a department store in Huntsville and spent only $8.18 on their Freedom Check Card to purchase a table runner. “When we received the envelope in the mail announcing that we could be the winner of the sweepstakes, we first thought it was a scam,” Twing said. “After doing some research, we realized it was for real.”