Not long ago I was presenting at CU Conferences InfoTech in San Diego. I've mentioned that conference in a prior blog post. In any case, during a break at the conference I had a short but interesting conversation with Craig McLaughlin of Extractable. He mentioned this new company called Mint.com. Mint, he explained, offered an online service that brings together all of your accounts for viewing - in one place. I thought, "great - account aggregation. Here we are in 1999 yet again." He went on to say that, unlike previous account aggregators (he must have sensed my jump to a conclusion), this was really more like an online Quicken with a twist. The twist? Mint can analyze all of your accounts and then present to you better deals than the ones you are currently getting at your primary institutions.
I was intrigued - but then I forgot about the conversation until I read an article in FastCompany magazine on Mint this weekend. I decided to try it out, particularly after recalling Craig's comments. It was rather simple to set up; within about five minutes I had one of my accounts online in Mint and it had tagged my spending by category and even set up a preliminary budget for me. Easy, straightforward, seamless. Then, it started telling me how much money - specific dollar figures - I could save with other providers. So far, based on their figures, I would save about $900 annually if I move one of my credit card accounts to another provider. I haven't even finished setting up my other accounts. I would imagine the savings opportunity will be greater when I am done with the full set-up.
I thought to browse the user forums just to see what kinds of questions people had about Mint. I was momentarily taken aback by what I found. You see, the point of this post isn't to shill for Mint (although I do suggest you check it out just for fun). Rather, it is to let our readers know that many credit union members are already happy users of Mint. Names like Golden One, Stanford, SECU, Pentagon, Austin Telco, Houston Federal, EDS, etc. popped up all over the user forums.
If Mint.com were a simple aggregation tool, then this wouldn't be such a big deal. Throw in the recommendations for new account relationships, however, and you have something that could be a real threat to credit unions and banks. What it does is remove the financial institution itself from the member's direct consideration. PayPal and uncoupled debit cards also pose similar threats.
The first strategic question for us to consider is whether such advances will have any impact on us at all. It would seem that credit union members are embracing these services - but who knows how many of the more than 90 million credit union members are testing out these company's offerings. Perhaps the real number is insignificant. But what if the real number is more than we can imagine?
The second question to answer is "how is this different than our push to offer better service?" A number of credit unions for whom I have facilitated planing sessions have targeted "service" as their differentiator. Service, if it had to be defined, would be something along the lines of a personal banker; that is a service that actively pursues moving members into accounts and programs that over all saves them money and time. Mint.com seems to offer the online equivalent of the service dream; a program that takes the guesswork and time commitment out of personal financial management.
I certainly don't know based on five to ten minutes of analysis whether their recommendations are really right for me, but at first glance they make a compelling argument just by flashing such a large amount of savings on the screen. Of course, if I need help I have to post my question on a forum, and it is not possible to talk through the account offers with a human just to make sure moving an account is the right decision. These are substantial drawbacks. I would imagine, however, that as their success grows the option to reach a human for discussion and support will be introduced. Perhaps for a fee.
In the meantime, our challenge as an industry is to keep working on making who we are, what we offer, and how we offer it meaningful and relevant to both current and future credit union members.
To read an interesting debate on the impact of Mint and other such services, take a look at the Open Source CU blog. A September post breaks down commenter's thoughts on how much of an impact these types of programs will have on the industry. Here is the link:
http://www.opensourcecu.com/articles/2007/9/19/mint-i-heart-you
