If your financial institution is looking for a way to get involved in these activities, prepaid Health Savings Account (HSA) cards may be just the thing to get you in the door.

Loaded primarily through direct deposit with pre-tax dollars, prepaid HSA cards are designed to provide a safe and convenient way to fund medical expenses typically associated with high-deductible health insurance plans.

These cards are fantastic tools not only for improving your relationships with business but for introducing entirely new audiences to your financial institution.

The HSA card offers quite a few chances to introduce new audiences to your FI. For starters, the card is branded with your institution’s logo, such that each time an employee presents her plastic at the doctor’s office or pharmacy, she sees you.

Second, all customer service related to the card comes from your FI, giving you the opportunity to prove your ability to solve problems, help out in tough situations and respond with smart solutions.

Third, you gain access to an entirely new set of consumers to whom you can cross-sell additional financial products and services.

There are also benefits to the employer in working with you. HSAs are a fairly new concept, and while beneficial for many different demographic groups, they can be viewed with skepticism. By linking its HSA plans with a local financial institution, the employer can increase employees’ comfort level with a new or recently changed health care plan.

In addition, the sponsoring business can sleep soundly knowing that its funds and those of their employees are secure with a local institution with its community’s best interests at heart.

Click here to learn more about Visa HSA cards.

Not surprisingly, the way to a Millennials heart appears to be through the Internet. And thanks to a recent survey sponsored by Microsoft, we now have a bit more detail on just what these future cardholders are looking for from their FI communicators.

According to the survey, nearly 70 percent would like FIs to take their blogs to the next level of personalization, allowing readers to ask questions and receive answers online. Almost the same percentage viewed online chat with a live agent as useful, as well.

Sixty percent of the Millennials surveyed say social networking, two-way blogs and Twitter are either at least “somewhat” if not “very important” to improving communication with their age group.

Email updates, while considered by many to be bothersome, are actually welcomed by this age group, as 75 percent are in favor of that mode of communication. Just over half are also looking for updates via text message.

Streaming Webcasts from financial experts, podcasts and real-time Twitter feeds and responses from staff are three other popular ways Millennials are interested in talking with their financial institution.

From this survey and others, it appears Generation Y is not so charmed by technology that they’re willing to give up all personal communication. Finding a way to blend high-tech with high-touch appears to be the key toward enamoring the next generation.

As it stands today, Canadian cardholders have developed well-traveled behavior paths as they’ve learned how to navigate around the limitations of their existing payment system – namely the inability to use their Interac-powered cards for online purchases due to the cards’ PIN entry requirement.

With Visa and Mastercard’s promise to soon deliver a debit card well-suited to both e-commerce and ATM use, Canadians will soon have choices. But will they take advantage of them? Learned behavior, habit, status quo – these are powerful forces that may prove quite challenging for Visa and Mastercard to overcome.

Add to the introduction of a debit option the migration the country is making to chip-and-PIN plastic – another disruption for Canadian cardholders – and you have what could be the makings of a perfect frustration storm – the kind that encourages overwhelmed cardholders to turn to good old-fashioned cash.

Alas, cardholder behavior is only one of the many challenges facing Visa and Mastercard in Canada. There’s merchant support (or lack thereof), issuer acceptance, Interac’s response, and of course, government regulation.

I liken the transformation of the Canadian payments system to a puzzle. We’re sure the pieces will all fit together in the end. It’s the picture the puzzle will ultimately reveal that’s up in the air.

Credit unions have been the benefactor of some major WOM efforts so far in 2009.

Even as the financial services industry struggled with economic and regulatory challenges galore, credit unions shined as a trusted and fair alternative for consumers – and cardholding consumers in particular.

In June, CUs captured the attention of Harvard doctoral candidates with their “gentler” card programs. The scholars in turn shared their opinions with the readers of the New York Times, giving credit unions a matchless PR win.

Glory reigned (literally) one month later as the Pope praised the work of credit unions in a letter to bishops throughout the world.

And in September, financial pundit Suze Orman spoke on her television show about the benefits of using credit union-issued credit cards as opposed to those offered by the major banks.

While it’s true that WOM marketing often involves an element of right-place-right-time, there are certain things you can do to inspire the influencers in your community to speak highly of their credit union experience.

Begin by digging through your member list. Who are the major influencers? Are there media representatives (reporters, producers, personalities), business leaders, philanthropists or civic leaders among your members?

Now, talk to them. Learn how they are using your credit union and what they are happiest with. Are they willing to serve as a speaker at your next event, share your service offerings with their employees, get you involved in their next charity function?

While you may not be able to count the New York Times, the Pope or Suze Orman among your members, chances are excellent that you have powerful leaders who are already on your side. Get them talking!

For more on WOM marketing, visit the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

One way to protect them is to share what your financial institution knows about protecting customer information.

Below are a couple of best-practice methods to keep at the forefront of your communication with businesses interested in maintaining the security of customer data.

Shred It: Create a policy whereby all documents and papers containing cardholder proprietary information is shredded on a daily – if not more frequent – basis.

Layer It: One level of protection is not enough. Use a combination of security measures, such as encryption paired with firewalls.

Delete It: Never retain or store full magnetic stripe or CVV2 data from card transactions.

Scan It: Consult with IT specialists to perform regular scans for software vulnerabilities and abnormal activity.

Minimize It: Keep only the least amount of cardholder data necessary for as limited a time as possible, and always encrypt stored information.

Imagine if that same cardholder had the ability to stop fraud before it even started.

That is precisely one of the many aims of card-holder self service – the ability of cardholders to someday soon set their own card parameters.

By configuring their cards to work only at certain merchants, to only make transactions under a specific dollar amount or to be accepted only during certain times of the day, month or year, cardholders can effectively stop fraudsters in their tracks.

Couple self-service with email and text alerts and the card becomes its own booby-trap security device, setting off alarm bells the instant someone attempts to use the card in a way the account owner has not intended.

Help a cardholder protect himself from becoming a victim and your financial institution becomes an invaluable ally in his financial battles.

To report phishing activity and work with authorities to disable fraudulent Websites, email the Federal Trade Commission at phishing-report@us-cert.gov.

Visit the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center at www.ifccfbi.gov to learn more about how to spot a fraud incident and how to report it to authorities.

More tips, resources and suggestions for putting a stop to phishing attacks can be found at www.antiphishing.com.

Of course, TMG’s fraud experts are always on hand to take your questions and help you prevent fraud within your card programs. Get us a shout at risk@themembersgroup.com.

Chances are it was something like, “I’m sorry, Mom. Life gets busy.”

We’ve all been there before – sacrificing our personal relationships to maintain our competitive edge at work or to keep our families running smoothly (both in many cases).

But can’t the same be said for our business relationships? How many members are we losing touch with every day?

Technology may be to blame for much of this. After all, it’s largely the reason behind our society’s “available 24 x 7” expectations.

But it can also be a tremendous help to us in our quest to “keep in touch.”

Take Google Alerts, for example. By signing up for a Google account, anyone can track news headlines, blog posts, forum notes and other new and traditional media outlets for anything – and anyone – they want.

By setting up an alert for your most valued members, you will receive an email anytime anything even remotely newsworthy occurs in your “keyword’s” selection – giving you the perfect excuse to get in touch with a congratulations, a “hey, saw you in the news,” or even better – a solution to their problem.

Give it a try. There are several options for searching, including how often you want to be notified. Here’s a great article on how to get started.

Life gets busy. But with technology like Google Alerts, we might be able to slow it down just enough to keep our relationships in tact.

Tell us a bit about your background and expertise in card services.

I have 29 years of experience in the banking industry. I began as a teller and have worked my way through the ranks over the years. I joined Honda FCU as a card services representative in 1994, and I’ve supervised the department for the past ten years.

What are your top three tips for managing a successful card program?

1. Provide exceptional customer service
2. Minimize fraud
3. Market member needs

What is your favorite card services tool from TMG?

The TMG Support Group has most definitely been our favorite and most important card services asset.

What do you predict will be your biggest challenge in 2010?

An uncertain economy will more than likely be the biggest challenge for most.

How do you see the card industry changing over the next five years?

I believe the card industry will remain competitive and that plastic cards will still be the No. 1 form of payment. Financial institutions will continue to evaluate their card portfolios and may eliminate products that are less profitable. High interest rates will continue to force consumers to look for exceptional value.

How the marketplace will look following the full integration of the Credit CARD Act of 2009 is one of the many unknowns plaguing today’s card issuers.

Several likely scenarios will challenge credit unions to be creative, strategic and balanced when planning changes to their credit card programs.

1) Major issuer leaves the business

If one of the major credit card issuers decides to leave the business altogether, the ramifications will likely be far-reaching, as abandoned cardholders scramble to reinstate credit. If this occurs, credit unions will need to position themselves not only as attractive replacements but as smart alternatives to the remaining issuers.

At the same time, credit unions must be careful about who they are attracting, exercising caution when targeting abandoned or dropped cardholders.

2) Annual fees become the norm

Annual fees are already becoming more popular. Credit unions should be starting discussions of how they will respond, should the market become saturated with annual-fee products. Will CUs determine a fee is necessary to maintain a sustainable portfolio or will they choose to stand apart by offering a no-fee option?

3) Rewards change their nature

Since the beginning of the year, U.S. cardholders have watched as their credit card perks have been trimmed or even removed entirely. Credit unions need to weigh the cost of such programs with their card base’s collective redemption behavior.

If cardholders are redeeming earned points for rewards and the credit union has seen an increase in interchange since the introduction of the perks, it may be smart to maintain the program. But credit unions must also pay attention to trends, such as the increased reliance on rewards for financing of necessitities vs. luxuries, before they determine whether their current rewards program is relevant and attractive in the changing marketplace.

Taking the time to strategize for these “what if” scenarios now gives a credit union time to weigh the pros and cons of its decisions, as well as to prepare members for what could be dramatic changes ahead.

To read the original blog post, click here.