Affinity Federal Credit Union

Every credit union is faced with the arduous task of sending out notices to their members on a daily basis. Members must be kept continually informed of their account activities, which entails mailing out an extensive assortment of notices such as certificate maturity, insufficient funds, courtesy pay, and past due payment, just to name a few of the more common types of notices. For larger credit unions such as New Jersey-based Affinity Federal Credit Union (AFCU) which has more than 115,000 members, the notice treadmill can be challenging for their operations and Information Technology departments. That is why AFCU turned to Xpress Data Inc.'s industry-leading, outsourced XpressNotice service to handle all of their notice requirements.

Affinity's Computer Operations Manager Bob Reavey knows a thing or two about working with notices - he has worked with them for more than 13 years and is intimately familiar with the ins and outs of working with notices. According to Bob, "When we outsourced our notices to XDI, our employees were really glad to be relieved of the setup, printing, bursting and handling issues. It was like a big burden was lifted from our shoulders." 

Under the old in-house system, Bob and his staff had to deal with large dot matrix printers that used perforated paper that was designed to be "self mailing," which means that there is no envelope. Bob explains that "even using the highest quality perforated paper that we could find; the quality just wasn't there for us." Plus, the inherently limited design features of the self mailers meant that occasionally there would be "overprints." This is a situation where transactions could appear in member's address window. Now with XDI's state-of-the-art printing facilities at their disposal, these issues completely disappear. Every notice is laser printed on plain paper and securely placed in an envelope. Bob enthuses that "the laser printed notices from XDI look really sharp and professional."

Not only is AFCU's staff thrilled with the new notice process and end products, but Affinity's members are impressed as well. The overprint issue had caused some member concern before, but with the new system the member response has been very positive. "We have received terrific feedback from our members regarding the new notices," says Bob. The certificate maturity notices are now personalized with the member's name thanks to XDI's ability and willingness to customize the notices. Xpress Data can even include targeted marketing messages on the notices and for just a few cents more; a custom marketing insert can be printed and mailed along with any notice.

It is this flexibility and attention to detail on XDI's part that Bob really appreciates: "they are very quick to respond to our requests for changes and we have an excellent contact person who handles our account for us." For example, the turnaround times are so fast, that oftentimes AFCU's requests are ready by the next business day! Bob explains that "they have had no problems handling any of our requests. I feel confident that XDI can do just about anything that we request them to do."

XDI's attentive and experienced staff, coupled with their high tech equipment and data center, provide "a definite advantage over in-house notice printing" in Bob's words. With tedious and time consuming labor and production costs eliminated, Affinity employees are now free to work on other projects that can improve their productivity and member satisfaction levels. In addition to the labor savings, the icing on the cake is the postage cost savings that AFCU now enjoys. Because Bob describes Xpress Data's business philosophy as one where "they work to earn your business everyday," there should be a long and growing relationship between Affinity Federal Credit Union and Xpress Data.