Mark your calendar. Late June is when Marquette Brewing in Michigan is slated to open, making it one of around 10 cooperative breweries in the US.
That number isn’t big but just about all these co-ops have formed in recent years. It’s a growing sector.
Understand, Marquette is a small town, population maybe 25,000, in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula. There’s not a lot of population to draw upon in forming a new co-op but over 200 have joined Marquette Brewing, ponying up $99 apiece.
All in the co-op has raised over $200,000.
An important takeaway from this podcast is how much help other co-operatives have given Marquette Brewing. The co-operative principles really work.
Another takeaway: the rich information board president David Gill shares about this co-op’s journey to opening. He gives what amounts to a how to blueprint.
Like what you are hearing? The Cooperators Podcast seeks sponsors and supporters to help us spread the word about cooperatives and how they often are the better way. Contact Robert McGarvey to find out what you can do to sustain this podcast.
And know that many, many credit union execs do ignore fitechs.
They wrap themselves in a security blanket where they believe they are safe because their deposit accounts come with NCUA insurance and smart consumers always go for insured accounts.
Or maybe not. Fintechs are making a big move that just may put many credit unions in the crosshairs.
In 2018 Quicken Loans overtook Wells Fargo as the biggest home mortgage originator and there is a classic for instance of a non bank triumphing.
Meantime, at Venmo over 40 million of us have used it to move money and that’s a prime example of a fintech gobbling up what would have been checks in decades past. Now it’s bits and bytes and a mobile app. A growing number of consumers simply do not make use of a traditional FI account except as a parking spot for deposits and a landing place for a Venmo account. Millennials tell me they are paying their rent and many of them are continually hunting for still more places that accept Venmo. That has to scare a traditional banker.
Apple meantime has circled back into the fintech arena with Apple Card and know you will lose some members’ patronage of your credit card as they shift their loyalties to Apple’s. They may continue to carry your card in their wallets but if it goes unused, what good is that?
Fintechs increasingly are biting off parts of the traditional FI pie that they deem especially tasty and lucrative.
And they may be leaving behind the tasks they deem labor intensive and low profit for traditional FIs to do.
What good is that kind of future especially when it is a future written for credit unions, not by them?
New Pymnts research enters to slap us in our faces: “just 6.5 percent of FIs in the study said they considered FinTech firms to be their competitors, far fewer than in 2017 (19.7 percent).”
How can that be? Financial institutions are losing the mortgage market – a traditional backbone of many community banks and credit unions – and they are losing it to non banks, which, incidentally, offer substantially better and faster technology and decision making. Why wait a week for a credit union’s yea or nay on a mortgage app when a fintech will give its verdict in a matter of minutes.
There are more puzzlements in the Pymnts research. For instance: “In 2018, it took longer to bring new features to market than in prior years. For 46.7 percent of those surveyed, it took seven to 12 months to launch innovations in 2018, compared to 33.3 percent only taking one month in 2017.”
We – clearly – are in a culture of now. That is why in the Apple Apps store there are continuous improvements in apps. It’s ongoing. Except at financial institutions where “not broken” seems to equate to “good enough.”
FIs point to infrastructure issues as the culprit behind the delays: “In 2018, IT infrastructure was cited as the biggest barrier to innovation (37.8 percent). Community banks (45.6 percent) were far likelier to claim IT infrastructure as a hindrance than credit unions (CUs) at 35.1 percent or commercial banks at 32.4 percent.”
But that honestly is not good enough. Fintechs aren’t burdened by infrastructure barriers and neither – in many cases – are money center banks with huge IT budgets. Shrugging off infrastructure as an acceptable excuse for delays just may be pushing consumers to more fleet footed competitors.
A still more worrying observation about the future is here: “A report from Capgemini has found satisfaction is low in customers and banks need to up their levels of personalisation if they want to keep customers from turning to tech giants and fintechs.”
It gets worse: “According to Capgemini, 32.3 percent of customers would consider turning to large technology firms for financial products and services, especially as younger, more tech-savvy customers are looking for options that suit them most.”
So, how’s that ignoring fintechs working for you now?
Want to pick a fight you should win? Everytime? Even when battling the biggest banks?
That’s a real probability for credit unions that pounce on an opportunity that could bring them notice of their generally lower fees by consumers hunting for a financial institution that clicks exactly that box.
Surf over to TrueFees and ponder the possibilities. Founder Ben Premo is building out a consumer facing search site where consumers in many cases would find their better deal will be a credit union and that is because Premo lets the consumer search for a financial institution by any of 10 different fees, from monthly service fees to overdraft fees, even foreign wire transfers.
Premo said that when he’s looked for that info on financial institution websites, maybe half of the banks he’s investigated did not post that info or if they did, it wasn’t readily visible.
Credit unions – most of which still offer free checking – are much more transparent about their fees or lack thereof. But even credit unions may be less than forthcoming about fees for wire transfers, cashier’s checks, and similar.
So he set about building TrueFees where a consumer can input a zipcode and be shown the institutions with the best deals.
He also said he is looking for credit unions that want to partner with him, paying a fee only when a consumer actually opens an account. There’s no charge to get entered into the database. “Truefees will bring exposure to financial institutions with low charges,” says Premo.
Right now, digital only banks are the primary players at TrueFees but Premo is insistent he wants to change that by adding info about more credit unions.
That is a possible way to change today’s playing field which is one where the big institutions generally win.
Most new checking accounts open at the predictable, mammoth institutions, the ones with big marketing budgets and lots of TV advertising. Are they the best deal for an average consumer?
At Chase, Total Checking costs $12 monthly. It can be free if the consumer maintains a checking balance that never dips below $1500, or $5000 in linked accounts (such as savings). That sounds good until you remember that four in five of us say they live paycheck to paycheck. You might as well tell them the minimum balance for free checking is $1 million. They can’t manage $1500 any better than that million.
The consumer’s best chance at free checking with Chase is to arrange a recurring automatic deposit of at least $500 monthly. That will do it. But not everybody has an employer or similar willing to play along.
So get ready to pony up $12 monthly.
At Affinity Federal Credit Union in New Jersey – where I do most of my checking – a checking account is free. No minimum balance required.
At Chase the overdraft fee is $34. Affinity charges $33.
But a growing number of digital banks and some credit unions, said Premo, charge nothing or a nominal fee for overdrafts. If overdrafts are a personal problem, look for a provider with small or no fees and that’s where the TrueFees search tool will prove valuable.
Don’t be shy, either. In 2017, overdraft fees paid by Americans hit $34.3 billion – that’s billions. It’s money that does not need to be spent. (Grain Technology, by the way, has a tool that could absolutely end overdrafts. Hear the podcast here.)
Fee specificity, by the way, is an obvious hook for TrueFees: the consumer can drill down to exactly what fees interest him/her. Personally I have never wired money abroad so fees for that are inconsequential to me but for those who regularly wire money abroad – and I know people who do that to India, the Philippines, Mexico, and in years past, Ireland – it’s potentially easy to hunt for nearby institutions with attractive charges for foreign wires.
A plus for the consumer who uses TrueFees to find and open a new account is that TrueFees will put a $25 bonus in the consumer’s pocket.
Check out TrueFees. It just may be a smart way to find a game where credit unions are destined to win because most truly offer the better deal.
A CU2.0 podcast with Ben Premo where he talks at length about TrueFees posts in mid May 2019. Find it here.
Quick now, what country has the highest participation in credit unions? Say the US and you are wong. According to Mike Edwards, senior vice president for advocacy at the World Council of Credit Unions, it’s Ireland, north and south, where 70% belong.
In this podcast he tells why that participation is so high.
He also tells why many regulatory matters in the US in fact originate overseas – risk based capital, Bank Secrecy Act requirements, AML, and more got their start overseas and that is why Edwards spends much of his time monitoring and attempting to influence regulations overseas.
What happens in Basel does not stay in Basel. It may and probably will wind up in the US.
New research via hotel CRM company Revinate makes multiple points about us and hotel reviews and the big takeaway is that there’s a new sheriff in town and you probably can guess who.
First, however, know that Revinate says there’s evidence our mania for filing reviews is diminishing. Noted Revinate: “The number of reviews published on review sites and OTAs continues to grow year-over-year, but there is some indication that the popularity of writing reviews may be waning. In 2018, travelers wrote nearly 95 million hotel reviews. While this number is staggering, the number of new reviews only grew by 8% in 2018, compared to 27% in 2017.”
The growth in the numbers of reviews may be slowing but the numbers remain staggering.
Revinate continued: “While the average number of reviews per month per hotel increased 6% in 2018, from 53 to 56, growth has slowed significantly. In 2017, we noted a 34% increase in reviews per month per hotel. This suggests that review growth is slowing across the industry.”
I choked on that. The average number of reviews per hotel per month now is 56!
Where the data get really interesting is in the counting up of where reviews appear. Big changes are afoot.
Regular readers will recall that I long was a fan of Tripadvisor – until I stopped in 2017 amid a flurry of accusations that Tripadvisor had deleted reviews claiming rapes and other major crimes and problems at hotels.
Tripadvisor also has had issues with fake reviews.
And the service still has problems with reviews claiming rapes.
Frankly I did not have a suitable replacement for Tripadvisor. But now there is one: Google.
Google, by Revinate’s accounting, is now the 900 pound gorilla, garnering an industry leading 30.1 million reviews in 2018.
In second place is Booking.com with 28.3 million.
Tripadvisor is in third with 11.3 million.
Noted Revinate: “In 2017, the top 4 sites contributed 74% of the review volume Revinate analyzed. This year, a greater percentage came from just the top 3 sites. In other words, a few aggregators at the top are contributing the lion’s share of reviews—and those reviews are continuing to concentrate in fewer places.”
With review sites there’s an inevitability about the big getting bigger because the volume of reviews increases utility and validity.
But the story is Google which, out of nowhere, has vaulted into a leadership position. It makes sense. Many of us use Google multiple times every day. The last time I looked at Booking.com is, well, I don’t remember because I rarely use it.
Ditto Tripadvisor nowadays.
To get to either service I have to make a special trip.
Whereas Google is in the fabric of my every day.
I’m looking up San Francisco hotels where do I start the search anyway? Google of course. Up pops the Phoenix Hotel in the Tenderloin, a personal favorite neighborhood and an appealing price ($209).
Then there are the reviews which Google gathers up from multiple services and calculates an average score. The Phoenix is 4.3 out of a possible five.
Even better I don’t actually have to read any reviews because Google has read them for me.
If I want to read them, however, they are a click away on Google.
Meantime, Google also is winning over more of us who want to book rooms on Google – and why not? We’re on the site researching the hotels so why not make it one stop shopping and book there too?
As for Google and reviews, Revinate numbers show it is on a tear. In 2017 its reviews increased by 207%. In 2018 that dropped to 75%. Booking.com saw just a 10% bump up in 2018.
The bottom fell out at Facebook, incidentally. Per Revinate, “Facebook, which was #4 in 2017 and contributed 8.3% of reviews, dropped to the 6th spot and saw a 51% decrease in reviews.”
My bet: Google will solidify its lead in reviews in 2019. And it just may become our go to place for booking rooms too.
Is that good? Bad? What I can say is that it definitely is convenient and that is why Google is winning. It’s hard to see who can come along and offer more convenience. That’s why I say Google is undisputed champ. With no contenders in view.
From the Ukraine to Ireland and Dominica, this podcast travels the globe with Mike Reuter, executive director of the Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions, as he shares stories of the challenges faced by credit unions and also the generous willingness of other credit unions executives to help. Exhibit one may be the rebuilding of the Dominica credit union sector after that island’s economy was flattened in a 2017 hurricane. Credit union execs want to help and they do.
You may think credit unions don’t know that they are in fact cooperatives. I know I think exactly that often and it is frustrating because the nation’s 5000 credit unions could do a lot to advance the whole cooperative movement.
It turns out however that, per Reuter, credit unions in fact do a lot of cooperating. He tells that story in this podcast.
Like what you are hearing? The Cooperators Podcast seeks sponsors and supporters to help us spread the word about cooperatives and how they often are the better way. Contact Robert McGarvey to find out what you can do to sustain this podcast.
No country produces the agricultural bounty that the US does. We eat better, at lower costs, than anywhere else – and most of that food is produced through farmer owned cooperatives. That’s why you want to meet Chuck Conner, CEO of NCFC, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.
Ask Conner what the number one issue facing his members is and the answer is blunt: immigration. The estimate is that the nation’s farms are worked on by over one million workers lacking proper documentation to work legally in the United States. Take them away and, poof, there goes the agricultural bounty because those workers comprise over half of the workforce on farms.
“Congress can’t seem to grapple with this,” said Conner and he chose his words carefully. But also honestly.
Conner also tells in this podcast why a generation ago it was not common to proudly wave the flag of a farmers cooperative – and today that fact is proudly pronounced as more consumers want to know what where their food comes from.
Want to know how to keep eating right? Listen to this podcast as Conner takes us on a tour of agri-business for the past century.
Like what you are hearing? The Cooperators Podcast seeks sponsors and supporters to help us spread the word about cooperatives and how they often are the better way. Contact Robert McGarvey to find out what you can do to sustain this podcast.
From the Ukraine to Ireland and Dominica, this podcast travels the globe with Mike Reuter, executive director of the Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions, as he shares stories of the challenges faced by credit unions and also the generous willingness of other credit unions executives to help. Exhibit one may be the rebuilding of the Dominica credit union sector after that island’s economy was flattened in a 2017 hurricane. Credit union execs want to help and they do. It’s an inspiring podcast that shines a light on what’s special about credit unions.
Stay tuned. In a week or two a second podcast will post with another WOCCU executive as we travel around the world to see the challenges internationally and how the US fits in.
The sign smacked me in the face in Montreal’s airport: Crossing international borders with cannabis is illegal.
You won’t miss that sign. It’s big and there are many for instances. I also saw similar in the Halifax cruise port.
Pot is legal in Canada but what you buy there you smoke there.
And as for cruising and pot, it’s a line by line thing but the country’s biggest, Carnival, has issued a definitive ban:
“What happens if a guest gets caught smoking marijuana?
Any illegal substances will be confiscated and the guest will be reported to the appropriate authorities. Additionally, the guest may be subject to a $500 charge, risks being disembarked from the ship and may not be allowed to sail with Carnival in the future.”
Welcome to the smoke gets in your eyes weirdness of today’s laws and rules where it may seem this all has become a Cheech and Chong movie. In my other role as a credit union commentator I have created a two part podcast on Cannabis Banking where the problem is that in some states – California, Vermont, Maine and a number of others – marijuana is legal for adult use, no questions asked. In most other states it is legal for medical uses and generally that requires a prescription from a physician. A state by state map is here.
But and it’s a huge but cannabis is illegal under federal law and assets can be seized from those engaged in cannabis businesses. Ouch. Yes, there are indications that the law won’t be enforced but this is a fickle Washington DC where things can and do change. So the biggest financial services players are holding back from pot accounts.
Those uncertainties don’t directly apply to consumers – you and me – but they highlight exactly how confusing the legal realities around cannabis are.
For instance: question – is it legal to transport marijuana across state lines? Say you legally score in Blythe CA and you drive onto I-10 and head into Arizona. The purchase was legal but Arizona allows only medical marijuana, so are you ok? In a word, no. Here’s the legal reasoning.
Cautious experts even advise against crossing from one all legal state – California, say – into another – Nevada, say.
It’s not just leaf that’s involved. The Canadian government for instance warns against transporting cannabis oil cross border.
At least some experts insist it is legal to fly in the US with cannabis oil however.
But the TSA says nope, don’t fly with pot or with CBD oil.
Matters get murkier when international travel is involved. The CDC has a useful sheet about travel with prescription medicine and, really, the same issues arise with Oxycontin, Vicodin, methedrine, and a bunch of sleeping pills as with marijuana and related products. Just because you have a US prescription does not mean the drug is legal in your destination country.
Notes the CDC: “Medicines that are commonly prescribed or available over the counter in the United States could be considered unlicensed or controlled substances in other countries. For example, in Japan, some inhalers and certain allergy and sinus medications are illegal.”
The CDC advice is to contact the embassy of the countries you plan to visit and specifically inquire into bringing prescription drugs in. Be persistent and specific. Some countries are more helpful than others.
Might it be simpler to travel with no drugs and to get a prescription from a local doctor on arrival (a hotel doc for instance)? Maybe yes. But before counting on this ask your hotel about availability of a local physician and also find out if the drug you want is in fact sold in China, Russia, or wherever. And bring a note from your physician that explains why you need the medicine.
All this also applies to CBD oil where matters get murkier still because some oil has essentially zero THC content (the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) and other samples have measurable THC which could make the oil illegal. The zero THC oils *should* be legal just about everywhere but, remember, this is all the stuff of Cheech and Chong weirdness where nothing is really certain.
And the stakes get higher when international borders are crossed.
In much of the world marijuana and related products are illegal – or at the very least not legal.
About now you need a big toke because all this vagary is driving you off the edge? Understandable.
Question: you want to use CBD oil when you are in county X – should you bring it with you or buy it there? Consistent advice is don’t bring it with you. It very likely is legal where you are heading – here’s a list. Everything from China to Ireland and Slovenia makes the list.
But crossing the international border makes this a different, iffier matter.
Again, ask at the embassy – be persistent. And don’t be shy about asking for help at the hotel where you will be registered.
And if you say you remain confused, join the club. It is confusing. But by asking lots of questions you very probably will stay on the safe side of the law.
Want to control what you eat? Of course you do. Join a food co-op and become a member-owner.
Across the country there are maybe 350 to 400 food co-ops and, said Stuart Reid, executive director of the Food Co-op Initiative, many more are attempting to form. That’s his turf. The organization has helped some 140 food co-ops form in the past 11 years. Reid knows what a co-op needs to do to actually open and he tells how in this podcast.
A lot has to do with money but Reid tells how many would-be food co-ops are finding support from governments at various levels. That’s encouraging.
He also tells why food co-ops matter. It comes down to really serving the community and that’s what food co-ops do.
This podcast is everything you always wanted to know about grocery co-ops but didn’t know whom to ask. Ask Stuart Reid – that’s what I did and he gives the details.
In spots the audio quality is scratchy. It’s audible but it may sound like an old vinyl record on a wobbly turntable. Sorry. Just the vagaries of Voip.
Try and you’ll hear it all fine.
Listen up.
Like what you are hearing? The Cooperators Podcast seeks sponsors and supporters to help us spread the word about cooperatives and how they often are the better way. Contact Robert McGarvey to find out what you can do to sustain this podcast.
