Ad-Tech Company Prizeout Forms CUSO With 9 Credit Unions

There’s a new CUSO on the block: Prizeout Partners, which will give credit unions access to ad-tech company Prizeout’s merchant gift card withdrawal platform.

According to Tuesday’s announcement from the New York, N.Y.-based Prizeout, nine credit unions teamed up to form the CUSO. Another partner joining the initiative is the Washington, D.C.-based credit union company Callahan & Associates, which will manage the new CUSO.

Members of credit unions utilizing Prizeout’s technology receive access to gift card deals from merchants when they make account withdrawals. When making a withdrawal, members are given the option of receiving their money in the form of a gift card from a participating merchant – often at a higher value than the withdrawal amount – with instant electronic delivery and no transaction fees. The transactions also enable credit unions to earn noninterest income.

The creation of the CUSO marked Prizeout’s official entry into the credit union space, the company said. The nine credit unions that formed the CUSO were: Suncoast Credit Union ($16.2 billion, Tampa, Fla.), Interra Credit Union ($1.7 billion, Goshen, Ind.), MSU Federal Credit Union ($7.2 billion, East Lansing, Mich.), Patelco Credit Union ($9 billion, Dublin, Calif.), Stanford Federal Credit Union ($4 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.), Credit Human ($3.6 billion, San Antonio, Texas), Langley Federal Credit Union ($5 billion, Newport News, Va.), Collins Community Credit Union ($1.6 billion, Cedar Rapids, Iowa) and University Credit Union ($1.2 billion, Los Angeles).

“When we learned about Prizeout’s technology and what it could do for our members and community, we were so excited,” Suncoast EVP/Chief Growth Officer Darlene Johnson said. “We wanted to implement it as quickly as possible and were very excited to join the CUSO as we believe it will truly help our local merchant community grow, and our members save more money.”

“In a period of economic uncertainty and inflation, the partnership gives credit union members more purchasing power,” Prizeout CEO David Metz said. “Credit unions are all about their community. This offering ties into their larger ethos of supporting their members and taking care of them. Additionally, it’s a model where everyone wins – the members, the community and the institution.”

Prizeout emphasized that its solution allows credit union members to save money during a time of economic turbulence, with members receiving an average bonus of 12% when purchasing a gift card via Prizeout. What’s more, the technology can help credit unions attract new business members, as it gives businesses the opportunity to create a gift card program and be featured on the Prizeout marketplace when they open an account with the credit union.

“We immediately saw the value in creating the CUSO for Prizeout,” Interra CEO Amy Sink stated. “We believe in Prizeout’s technology and see it as a huge value-add for financial institutions in helping them grow, scale and provide more benefits for their members and communities. From an innovation perspective, it’s even more exciting because credit unions don’t typically don’t see a lot of the same innovation that bigger banks do – and this is built just for them.”