This release is the first part of a long term focus on member rewards, including the expanded presence of the Tiered Service programs on It’s Me 247.

“Reward” Points with Expiration Features

“Lifetime Points” are now renamed ” Reward Points” with an option to configure an expiration feature (so that Lifetime points are no longer ‘for a lifetime’). This change gives credit unions more flexibility and contol over how points accumulate and how to set the point values in your Rewards Points Catalog.  This feature allows a credit union and the member to track points ‘used’ and points ‘expired’

It is now possible to assign a dollar value to the points. This sets the stage to allow for a future development for web based rewards fulfillment services so that members can redeem points for a wide range of goods and services!

Contact Barb Cooper at bcooper@cuanswers.com for more information.

11.3 Release 09/2011

The Gividends EFT Team has recently seen clients take losses for fraudulent transaction approvals by their card processor where ATM/DEBIT online limit values were not in place at their network vendor. We were able to activate the ‘Check Limits’ feature in the CU*BASE EFT Platform to offer protection against future losses for these clients.

This feature is in your EFT BIN configuration and can be updated to add this next level of protection - even if your card processor already uses Limit Checking as part of their transaction approval processing. This is one more way for you to optimize the standard features provided with the CU*BASE EFT Platform.

For more details contact gividendseftgroup@cuanswers.com

 09/22/11

Bump Rate Certificates will be an automated feature where the rate can be increased for a specified number of times during the certificate term. The number of times a rate can be bumped is monitored as well as a tracking history of the rates during the term. This option can be made available directly to your members in It’s Me 247 – online banking!

*These products were released in April 2011.

Visit OneBridge for more details.

You now have a choice between Fiserv (formerly known as ‘CheckFree’) and iPay offering a great set of bill payment solutions for your members.

Contact us at eftsolutions@cuanswers.com for more information.

Effective October 1, 2011, we are reducing the price for online ATM and Debit Card transaction processing once again.  (Check out the Leadership Conference page http://www.cuanswers.com/lc2011 on our website for this price change announcement.)

Last year CU*Answers announced that batch processing would become more expensive in the future, and that we will not be investing a lot of resources in improving the process as time goes on.  We also combined ATM and debit card processing volumes and capped them so that credit unions could get discounts based on the two being combined. 

To encourage credit unions to move to online processing for both their ATM and Debit Cards, in 2011 we waived our conversion project fees for anyone moving a program from batch to online with one of our existing networks.  This discount will continue for one more year!  Take advantage of this savings.  (For a list of existing networks eligible for this program, visit this page on our website:  http://www.cuanswers.com/client_pm_online.php.)

We recognize there may be a very valid reason you wish to continue processing member transactions in a batch mode, and you are certainly welcome to continue to do so well into the future if you wish.  However batch processing will continue to become more expensive from the CU*Answers point of view. 

Contact Barb Cooper, VP of Professional Services and the director of our Gividends initiative (bcooper@cuanswers.com, or 800-327-3478 ext. 205) to get your upgrade started in 2012.

 09/2011

A. Today, Batch processing will not work with the new software.  Batch interfaces will continue to use the associated batch programs.  If you are interested in taking advantage of all the exciting features the new platform  has to offer, you will first need to consider moving from batch to online.

Q.  A member needs a rush order credit card, can we order an overnight plastic through CU*BASE?

A. You will need to handle this order via your processor software to complete the request as an overnight order.  Also, this may be a perfect time to look into  the new Instant Issue product.  Contact a Gividends team member for details.

Q. What is involved in getting setup for a new ATM or Debit program?

A. If you are considering setting up a new ATM, Debit or Credit Card program, or even modifying an existing one, your first step is to contact a Gividends team member to get the project scheduled.

Q. My credit union has received a list of compromised cards and would like to know if there is a way to block all those cards without having to enter them manually on CU*BASE?

A. Yes, the process can very easily be automated on the CU*BASE side if your vendor can provide the listing in an electronic format.

Q.  Can a credit card be moved from one loan suffix to another one?

A.  No, a new loan with a new card link will have to be created.  CU*BASE does not allow for an existing credit card to be moved from one suffix to another  one.

Q.  When a member is being denied at a merchant location, what steps can be taken to find out the reason why?

A.  If you are processing on the current software platform, review the credit unions exception report first, if the transaction in question is not on that report, CU*BASE did not deny it.  At this point you will need to utilize your vendors documentation.

A2 - If you are processing on the new software platform, simply go to MNATMD and choose option 1.  Go into the members account to view the history /activity.  If CU*BASE denied the transaction the reason will be listed on the screen.   If not, you will need to utilize your vendors documentation.

Q.  Why is it that sometimes authorizations falls off the system before the actual transaction even comes in to post?

A.  Authorization holds are automatically purged after a specified timeframe if a match has not come in.  Current ATM/Debit software uses  2 end of day cycles.  The New ATM/Debit and Credit platform allows for Credit Union defined timeframes.

Q.  We need to calculate the finance charge on a credit card manually to add that amount to a payoff quote.  How would we accomplish this?

A.  Interest Rate divided by Days in Year = DailyRate   Daily Rate x Accumulated Daily Balance or Average Daily Balance x Number of Days in month = Finance Charge