LAKE BLUFF, Ill.- Do credit unions that sell their card portfolios to banks do their members a disservice? Ondine Irving, a former card executive and consultant who has branched out to start her own firm suggests that in some cases they have.

Irving, who has worked with credit union card programs for over 20 years, including as an employee with the $1 billion Baxter Credit Union and as an analyst for Raddon Financial Group and consultant for Fidelity National Information Services (formerly Certegy), argues that in many cases credit unions which sell their credit card portfolios to banks wind up exposing their members to a fee structure which can be punishing and to which consumer groups have objected.

Irving explained that she had been doing research for a couple of client credit unions when she stumbled across the disclosure documents for two credit unions who had sold their card programs, one to MBNA (now part of Bank of America) and one to InfiCorp.