CUNA Strategic Services, Fintech Piloting Card-Update App

The app, CardUpdatr, could help credit unions keep their cards top of wallet among members.

CUs strive to keep their cards top of wallet for online shoppers.

CUNA Strategic Services and the Seattle, Wash.-based fintech firm Switch, Inc. have launched a pilot program to test the market feasibility among credit unions for an app that helps members automatically update the card-on-file information they store with various merchants.

The app, called CardUpdatr, could help credit unions keep their cards top of wallet among members by ensuring that working cards are always attached to members’ shopping accounts. That in turn could increase card circulation, transaction volumes and brand loyalty for credit unions, according to the companies.

“Significant transaction volume attrition stems from daily reissuance, moreover, newly issued cards may never see a return on investment because cardholders do not update the online accounts where these cards are used the most,” Switch, Inc. co-founder and CEO Chris Hopen said in a press release.

CardUpdatr is a white label app, meaning it is designed to carry the credit union’s logo and branding, the companies noted.

The app asks members to enter their card and billing information, select the merchant websites on which they would like to update their cards and provide login information for the selected sites. The app then updates the member’s card-on-file information on the merchant sites when the member gets a new card. Credit unions can get information about where their members are storing their credit union card data.

“The CardUpdatr solution is uniquely positioned to propel credit unions to the front line of innovation to increase cardholder satisfaction and differentiate themselves from other financial institutions,” CUNA Strategic Services President Eric Gelly said.

“The app is an innovative antidote to the damaging reissuance problem that other financial groups are ignoring or hiding. CardUpdatr will allow credit unions to offer an instant and flexible fix to the card updating problem before it starts,” Gelly added.

The pilot test highlights the growing impact that members’ digital shopping habits may have on credit union operations.

Recent research from the University of Illinois, for example, found that paying for things with a smartphone increased how much consumers spent and how often they shopped, underscoring the growing connection between interchange revenue and members’ card preferences for online accounts.