Most credit union members don’t think their CUs provide enough information to help reach personal financial goals, and about one in five say they aren’t familiar with everything their CUs offer, according to new data from marketing technology firm Segmint.
The survey of over 2,000 U.S. adults, released on May 9, suggests there’s still a wide gap in some areas between what people want and what credit unions and other financial institutions actually deliver.
In particular, 81% of credit union members in the survey expect CUs to offer information that helps them make better financial decisions, but just 28% said local credit unions actually give them information that helps them meet goals such as paying for college, buying an engagement ring, saving for a down payment on a house, planning for retirement or saving for vacation. The survey also found that 22% of members felt they did not have a good understanding of the products and services their local credit unions offer.
“Americans expect their bank to actively help them make better financial decisions, and most feel their bank is failing to provide it,” Akron, Ohio-based Segmint said in a press release.
The findings also suggest few people prefer the branch experience to online tools. Two-thirds (66%) of the CU members in the survey said they would rather take care of their banking needs online or through a mobile app rather than go to a branch. Across all types of financial institution account holders, millennials and parents with kids under 18 felt even more strongly about this: 80% and 77% agreed, respectively.
Millennials — a demographic that encompasses people age 18 to 34 — also seem to know less about what their financial institutions provide. About a third (32%) said they did not have a good understanding of the various products and services their FIs offer, compared to 24% of all respondents.
Almost two-thirds (62%) of millennials also said they’d rather have their financial institutions proactively share relevant information and offers rather than do the research themselves. Just 52% of all respondents and 50% of credit union members said the same.
Members have faith in their credit unions when it comes to data security, according to the findings: 93% of credit union members in the survey said they trust that their local credit union protects their personal information. This was the highest percentage among all financial institution customers: customers of local community banks and online-only banks each agreed 92% of the time, customers of regional banks agreed 91% of the time and customers of big national banks agreed 85% of the time, according to the data.
Other findings in the survey include:
- A little more than a third of members (37%) said they never see online ads from their credit unions outside of the CU website and mobile app.
- Almost half (45%) of credit union members said they wouldn’t mind seeing relevant online ads from their credit unions on websites outside of the CU website and mobile app.
- Only 8% of members said they receive too much communication from local credit unions trying to sell different products and services.
