January 16, 2025
To assist in digitally transforming your credit union, you can automate the savings process by implementing various technologies that will help make your members’ savings strategies easier and more consistent. How? Here are just a few ways that your credit union can automate savings:
Encourage your members to set up regular transfers from their checking accounts into their savings. Depending on their financial position, they could schedule these transfers weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. This “set-it-and-forget-it” automation will ensure that members consistently add money to their savings accounts.
Round-up programs are one of the most pain-free savings strategies, as round-ups are small and passive, and members rarely feel their impact. Offer a round-up program, like the Sharetec Debit Card Round Up, where members’ debit or credit purchases are rounded to the nearest dollar. The extra change from each transition will be automatically added to their savings account.
Suppose your credit union does not offer a round-up program. In that case, there are a multitude of third-party round-up apps that you can suggest to your members, some of which even invest the rounded-up change into stocks, bonds, and other investment vehicles. With tools like ASA Vault, which is integrated with Sharetec On-the-Go, you and your members will have access to an array of powerful personal finance apps that can assist with automating savings and round-ups.
In your credit union’s digital banking platform, enable your members to set specific savings goals, such as an emergency or vacation fund. The platform automatically moves money into these different “goal funds” based on a member’s preference or budget. If members have a specific, tangible, and achievable savings goal, they’re more apt to put funds towards it.
The University of Stirling found that people need to set regular goals if they want the best chance of saving a more significant sum of money. Some of their tips? People (aka your members) must set regular savings goals with an end date and a target figure. They must also name their savings funds, such as “house fund.”
Account interest and dividends do not necessarily need to be cashed out. Instead, members can reinvest their earned interest into their accounts, continuing to earn money on the money they’ve already earned. It’s also been found to be beneficial not to withdraw your CD interest payouts. Your members can take advantage of compounding interest (plus, their annual percentage yield (APY) will not be reduced).
Your members, like you, are busy and may not always have savings at the forefront of their minds. Your credit union can send push notifications to your digital banking users, encouraging them to deposit money into their savings accounts. Your marketing team can also set up push notification campaigns with general saving tips, ways to use your digital banking app better to automate savings, and more.
With automation, your members can build their savings effortlessly and ensure long-term financial stability. As a credit union, you’re committed to “people helping people” and can do so by creating a savings culture with your membership.
