For most people, the debit card is the primary connection with the financial world. It fits in a jeans pocket, wallet or even the sleeve on a mobile phone case. It’s the conduit for accessing account balances, monitoring transactions, withdrawing cash and exercising full freedom as a consumer.
For all that, there was still something a debit card couldn’t do – pay a loan, either online or in-branch. And there are other limitations, such as recurring transfers and the ability to give collectors flexibility regarding payments and fees.
Those limitations are especially striking when you consider that debit cards were the most used form of bill payments overall at 29%, and accounted for 34% of online payments, based on results of 2009–20 Surveys of Consumer Payment Choice.
As consumers, the idea of not being able to use your primary payments tool for something as basic as a loan payment feels limiting – especially as the recent pandemic fueled a more expansive digital environment. VisiFI seeks to continue the move toward flexibility with Digital Pay.
This product allows credit union members to pay on loans with their debit cards. It even allows members to set up recurring payments and transfers on their debit cards – and manage these payments through the convenience of their credit union’s website using VisiFI Digital Banking.
The advantage of personal connections is key to the relationships between credit unions and their members. Supporting that ability means leaving certain decisions up to collectors when they are collecting a debt. For instance, the Collections Console feature allows collectors to waive a fee simply by clicking “Waive Fee” and adding a comment.
Even better, they’re able to work with the member to schedule payments in the future, if necessary.
The level of flexibility and capability of credit unions is sometimes limited by whether they operate on traditional core platforms or digital systems. Spectrum core integration means VisiFI Digital Pay works regardless of the platform or place of payment. Even if a member comes into the branch and wants to make a loan payment with a debit card, payment can be collected without a problem.
As employers continue to drive the trend toward debit card payroll, even over electronic deposits, members expect their credit unions to keep pace with the ability to use their payroll funds to pay loans, make transfers to existing accounts and even fund new accounts through the convenience of their debit cards. Now they can. VisiFI offers a full-service Digital Pay platform that is seamlessly integrated across all platforms including: Digital Banking, Digital Account Opening, Collections Console, Website and Core Integrations.
