I want to thank the almost 900 members who completed this year’s annual member survey. Your feedback is so important to us, and we wanted to share the results of the survey, and some steps we are taking to help provide the best possible service to our members.
Credit Union Love
Much of the feedback from the member survey was positive. With much of the love revolving around the staff and customer service, accessibility, competitive rates, and a connection to Alaska Air Group. The weighted word cloud below reflects the responses to the question “What do you love about your credit union?” in the 2023 survey.
What the Credit Union Can Do Better
The top responses on what we can do better focused on Locations and Shared Banking, Rates, External Transfers, Debit Cards, ATMs, and Credit Cards. Please see our responses below.
More Branch Locations
CU Response: The credit union currently does not have any plans to add a third AAGCU branch, however we are constantly surveying traffic at our current branches and monitoring our membership concentration to evaluate if additional locations can provide benefit to our membership.
Alaska Air Group Credit Union is a member of the CO-OP Shared Branch network to provide our members access to over 5,000 branches nation-wide. Please note that it is unfortunately out of our control if other credit unions exit the network. We continue to advocate for the value of this network, and hope this continues to be a solution for our entire membership.
We do apologize for the difficulties accessing our new SEA branch. We understand that the approach hill is steep, we encourage all members to be safe, and please give us a call if you need directions.
Better Rates
CU Response: We constantly survey the market rates and try, to the best of our ability, to have incredibly competitive rates. As a member-owned, not-for-profit financial institution, we strive to be good stewards of our members’ money, and turn any profits we make back to our members in the form of better rates. We hope that we continue to be a leader in both dividend rates on savings and loan rates.
We don’t at this time have plans to offer a high yield savings account, however we do have Share Certificates that offer a higher dividend rate than our standard savings.
Recently, our board of directors approved an increase on our Youth Savings Accounts rates, which now offer 6.14% Annual Percentage Yield on the first $500*. We hope this demonstrates that we continuously evaluate our products and services, and work to improve according to the feedback we receive from membership.
*membership required. Restrictions apply.
External Transfer from Online Banking and Mobile App
CU Response: Providing a real time payment solution for person-to-person transfers has been a huge priority of the credit union. We are actively evaluating a solution called FedNow, and hope to have a timeline to share soon of when this will be available for members.
You can make external payments to individuals through Bill Pay in Online and Mobile Banking, and you can easily transfer money between other AAGCU accounts through Transfers in Online and Mobile Banking.
Debit Cards
CU Response: We have a number of things in the works regarding our debit cards. We just launched the ability to change and set your pin in Online and Mobile Banking, and coming soon will be the ability to turn your card on and off in Online and Mobile Banking.
We also are working on digital issuance, which will allow us to instantly issue digital debit card numbers to members, for immediate usage in mobile wallet or online transactions.
We are also working diligently with our card suppliers on the issues that have been arising with peeling plastic, and thank you for your patience as we solve this issue. Please call us if your card is in need of reissuing due to peeling plastic.
Currently, due to workload of other debit card projects, we do not have a timeline on when we will offer a tap-to-pay card. However, this is a project we are looking to add as we wrap up other priorities.
ATM Access
CU Response: We are a part of the surcharge-free Allpoint and CULIANCE ATM networks. Together, these offer our members access to over 55,000 ATMs world-wide. Offering convenient account access to our members is very important to us. Please refer to these ATM locators to find convenient access near you. Allpoint locator. CULIANCE locator.
Though we currently do not have any specific plans to expand our ATM access, we are evaluating potential benefits to members such as ATM networks and fee reversal. Your feedback regarding ATM access is incredibly important in our decision-making process as we look into these options.
Credit Cards
CU Response: Alaska Air Group Credit Union does not offer a credit card because Alaska Air Group has a competitive and well-loved credit card through Bank of America. Being a trusted partner of Alaska Air Group employees, retirees, and families is one of our core values here at the credit union, and we feel that offering a credit card in competition to the existing Alaska Airlines Visa Credit Card would contradict this value.
Your feedback is critical in guiding us to provide the highest quality of service and products to our membership today and in the future. Thank you again for your participation. We are committed to turning our member survey results into action.
Thank you for your continued membership with Alaska Air Group Credit Union. Let’s keep flying and saving together!
Regards,
Mikah Loomis
Marketing Specialist
Alaska Air Group Credit Union
